BMI Info

BMI is deemed inaccurate by many sources, but this site gives the best summary of why it isn't appropriate to judge yourself by this false measurement. As a young teen I used to constantly check my weight on the BMI scale and was so worried that I was fat. I have never been over a size 7 in my life, and according to the BMI I was at risk for obesity. First, BMI does not ask for age, it only requires an input of height and weight. Secondly, it does not take muscle mass into account. So, if an athletic girl who is not unhealthily overweight, she may often appear so to the BMI scale, inaccurately making her self conscious. Why is BMI set as a standard for women to hold themselves to when it is not even accurate? I first learned that I should hold myself to the BMI standard by a health article in Seventeen Magazine as a young teen, and I did not learn to stop thinking of myself outside of these weight standards until a few years later. B-M-I equals a big fat L-I-E!   http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/nov/28/healthandwellbeing.health1