It considers a person’s weight and weight, and decides whether the individual is healthy, overweight or obese. Researchers say there are much more accurate measures for determining how healthy a person really is.
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For example, a study published in 2010 in the International Journal of Obesity found that waist size was a better predictor than BMI of kids’ future risk of heart disease.
BMI is using to compare weight to someone’s height, but the problem with this measurement is it doesn’t care where the weight comes from. But it doesn’t distinguish between muscle, bones, fat and water. Furthermore, they estimated that 20.7 million people with a “normal” BMI level were actually unhealthy.
If you depend on BMI to keep a check on your health then you are highly mistaken, finds a new study. Throughout this study, the scientists wanted to understand if there is indeed a correlation between the BMI and our overall health.
These results showed that almost 75 million adults in the U.S. are categorized incorrectly when it related to their health.
Your body mass index is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters.
Lead author Janet Tomiyama, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at UCLA, noted that healthy people with BMIs above 24.99 would be no more likely to incur higher medical expenses than those with lower BMIs, so requiring those individuals to pay out more in health insurance premiums would not be justified. Doctor Tomiyama declared that the data clearly shows there is a high number of people who can be both obese or overweight and who will be perfectly healthy.
On the other hand, skinny does not necessarily mean healthy as 30 percent of those that had a normal BMI were found to have several health issues.
The statistical findings indicate that across the U.S., an estimated 54 million Americans with high BMIs are in fact healthy. On the other side, approximately 2 million Americans who were labeled as “very obese” after considering their BMIs turned out to be healthy.
She said she was surprised at the magnitude of the numbers in the latest study.
“There are healthy people who could be penalized based on a faulty health measure, while the unhealthy people of normal weight will fly under the radar and won’t get charged more for their health insurance”, said Tomiyama.
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In light of this revelation, many companies from around the States are beginning to review their policies regarding health indicators, while other institutions have chose to tax us for those extra kilos. “Our study should be the final nail in the coffin for BMI”. Study’s co-author has suggested that people should do proper exercise and eat well rather than just focusing on weight alone.
