Fat, Fit, BMI, Folly, Guesswork, Smoking, Weightloss.

Better than BMI, not nearly as good as not smoking-->



I have long poo pooed BMI ( Body Mass Index) readings as anything more than guesswork. It's a 'guideline' I suppose, but hardly a good one. Most of the bigger dudes in my gym would be classified as having a high BMI, yet none of them are carrying any excess unhealthy weight. A pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat, so you cannot rely on scales to work out fat in a body.
Healthy and weight don't always go hand in hand. Some of the runners I know would be told to eat more if judged on BMI alone, yet their streamlined shapes are exactly what is required for their sport and none of them strike me as unhealthy either.
I know some folk that work in fashion and have delightfully low BMIs, hurrah! Of crouse they only eat cigarettes and only drink coffee and nibble on sushi if they feel faint headed. Healthy, nope, but look look, their BMI is so rosy!
BMI takes nothing into account other than height to weight ratio, and the margins are pretty vague too, there can be as much as twenty pounds or as little as one pound difference between 'frowned upon BMI' or 'Thumbs up BMI'. What a load of hooey.
Short of getting immersed in water and callipered to within an inch of your life, the average person can quite clearly see if they're carrying too much weight by stripping off their clothes and standing in front of a full length mirror in good natural light- I do however like the shape chart as a guide. This looks to me to be far more accurate than BMI, even though it's hardly completely sound either.
I'm wittering on about this because I had to waste twenty minutes this morning talking about BMI with someone obsessed with it( due in no small part to their doctor's rather outdated views)
This person has given up smoking of late and has put on a few pounds ( it's not Gimmie, he's svelte as a greyhound) This has led the doc to witter on about BMI and unhealthiness. I suggested the fact that they no longer smoke thirty fags a day surely had added IMMENSELY to their health, and that pounds gained can be removed as he gets fitter and fitter. I said one can get fitter much easier when one is not fucking up one's lungs with the millions of poisonous chemicals.
But no, all of this fell on deaf ears, it was the sodding BMI that was all important.
BMI, I find I am against it this morning.