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> You haven't just been the discoverer of the issues with BMI. They're very well known and talked about. Everything I wrote above occurred to me 20 years ago,

> You haven't just been the discoverer of the issues with BMI. They're very well known and talked about. Everything I wrote above occurred to me 20 years ago, when I first learned about BMI as a teenager. It’s not like it happened yesterday. Although I don’t recall the obesity epidemic being a thing back then, probably because we were all preoccupied with 9/11 and the Iraq war. But I digress. I now regret writing this post because the point I was trying to make apparently wasn’t conveyed well. Let me try again: I’m not overweight, but I could be a statistic in the overweight category because I qualify as such. This is a fact, and it’s true for every male with my same height and weight. Furthermore, I’m nowhere near being fat. Like not even close. That means in the neighborhood of similar heights and weights, every male is also nowhere near being overweight. How statistically large of an error is that? If we’re overestimating by 10%, is this still an “epidemic”? Or do we really have a normal distribution with a mean of “kinda pudgy, not unhealthy”, and all the really obese people a standard deviation or more away?

edanm 4y ago
Emphasis added: > Furthermore, I’m nowhere near being fat. Like not even close. That means in the neighborhood of similar heights and weights, every male is also nowhere near being overweight. This is the part I disagree with. In the neighborhood of similar heights and weights, most males are overweight. I believe you are the outlier here. Though obviously I don't know you, so... I might be wrong? As an anecdote, I'm 5'7" and 154 lbs, so I think I'm in your neighborhood of heights/weights. I'm considered just below being overweight... and while I'm certainly not huge or anything, I definitely consider myself to be a bit pudgier than I'd like. I'd say I'm at around 20% body fat right now (This is partially planned in my case since I was doing a bulk.) From what I see in my friend group, I'm definitely on the less-overweight side of things. As you rightly point out, BMI isn't enough to convey all the information, and I'm guessing in your case it's getting it wrong, probably because you're more muscular than average. Again, I don't know you, I could be wrong, but for sure in my case it's closer-to-accurate than you make it seem and we're not that far apart in numbers.

edanm 4y ago

Emphasis added: > Furthermore, I’m nowhere near being fat. Like not even close. That means in the neighborhood of similar heights and weights, every male is also nowhere near being overweight. This is the part I disagree with. In the neighborhood of similar heights and weights, most males are overweight. I believe you are the outlier here. Though obviously I don't know you, so... I might be wrong? As an anecdote, I'm 5'7" and 154 lbs, so I think I'm in your neighborhood of heights/weights. I'm considered just below being overweight... and while I'm certainly not huge or anything, I definitely consider myself to be a bit pudgier than I'd like. I'd say I'm at around 20% body fat right now (This is partially planned in my case since I was doing a bulk.) From what I see in my friend group, I'm definitely on the less-overweight side of things. As you rightly point out, BMI isn't enough to convey all the information, and I'm guessing in your case it's getting it wrong, probably because you're more muscular than average. Again, I don't know you, I could be wrong, but for sure in my case it's closer-to-accurate than you make it seem and we're not that far apart in numbers.