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It's not flawed for 99.5% of people. > “BMI is a somewhat crude metric for determining health risks,” says Susan Yanovski Of course it's crude, it's a single
by antisthenes 3y ago
It's not flawed for 99.5% of people.
> “BMI is a somewhat crude metric for determining health risks,” says Susan Yanovski
Of course it's crude, it's a single number, as opposed to thousands of potential risk factors unrelated to BMI.
> Adult BMI charts don’t reflect this variability. And the cut-offs between BMI categories — which are the same in most countries that use the index to diagnose obesity — are “something between science-based and arbitrary”
Again, not the point of BMI. You can have 40% fat or 42% fat in your body, you're still obese, and that means increased risk and a call to take action.
> And because BMI was developed using measurements from white people, people of colour “don’t quite fit into these narrow parameters”
...Commenting this just means stooping down to their level, so I won't.
I understand that personal weight is an emotional topic for people, but holy crap is this article an awful strawman-fighting pile of garbage.
Nature, you can do better than that.
- jmye 3y agoDo you actually have a counter argument to the fact that a measurement based on one race or sex may not be applicable to all races/sexes? This is common knowledge in health care, so I’m quite interested in hearing your evidence-based reason for discounting it, sorry, calling it a “pile of garbage”. You do have one, right?
- antisthenes 3y agoYes. While variations may be present, the fact is that someone who is race X and position Y on the BMI scale in the obesity category still has the same risk factors from increased weight as someone who is race Z and position Y. You do have hard numbers about what the differences are in terms of percentages for the risk factors. right?
- jmye 3y agoThe same risk factors? Or the same risk? What are you trying to assert? What is your basis for that assertion? Do you think a Caucasian and black person have the same risk of diabetes and hypertension, for instance? Or do you think that asserting they both have a risk is somehow sufficient? I asked a specific question. Saying “yes, lol u” is a pretty lame response.
- brightlancer 3y ago1/3 of Americans are "obese". Not "overweight", _obese_. Sure, there are and will be variations among populations (and individuals), but that variation is less meaningful when 99.999% of obese people are at unhealthy weights. Instead, it appears to be a con to excuse unhealthy behaviors, particularly by playing the trump card of "that's racist!" as the Nature article does.
- jmye 3y agoHow is acknowledging that BMI may be a faulty measurement for some races “excusing unhealthy behaviors”? In the long run, I suppose I support a significantly less stringent definition of obesity, to enable broader access to GLP-1s, but not because, unlike a fair number of posters, I’m desperate to tell people they’re fat.
- confidantlake 3y agoBecause as a rough estimate it is fine. If you are a 40 bmi it doesn't matter what your race or sex is, it is a problem.