Unless your living under a rock or have never had to go to the doctor for a checkup, you’ve probably heard about BMI or Body Mass Index. This wonderful indicator is a measurement that is commonly used by doctors to determine whether you are overweight or obese. While I’m the first one to stand up and call this measurement BS, there are many that swear by this measurement.
Fortunately, over the past few years, this standard has been challenged and we are starting to see progress towards new indicators for obesity.
The following article goes into some further details on why you shouldn’t go by BMI and what you can do to ensure you are healthy. See the article below and be sure to pass this along to your friends who have been blinded by the BMI myth.
In case you haven’t already gotten the memo, BMI, a measurement commonly used to determine whether someone is overweight or obese, is BS. Confirming doubts many experts have already cast, a new study in the International Journal of Obesity shows why BMI is the wrong way to measure health: Nearly half of “overweight” people are healthy by other measures, including glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride levels, and blood pressure — the very indicators BMI is supposed to predict. Not to mention, nearly a third of people with “healthy” BMIs are actually not healthy by these metrics.
According to nutrition therapist Theresa Kinsella, both BMI and weight are poor indicators of health and body composition. Waist size is a better measure of how much fat is in your body, but Kinsella urges forgetting about measurements and focusing on behaviors.
BMI was originally created to be used for studies that look at populations, not individuals. It doesn’t take into consideration body composition or health behaviors. Many people would be better off focusing on self-care behaviors such as adequate and quality sleep, regular exercise, a regular eating schedule, eating in attunement with the body’s hunger and fullness cues, and choosing foods that provide energy and feel good physically.
So, here are some ways to discover whether you’re eating right, exercising right, and at the right weight for you that have nothing to do with your BMI.
1. Can You Maintain Your Weight Without Torturing Yourself?
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If you’re constantly hungry, exhausted from exercise, or eating to the point of discomfort in order to maintain your weight, you’re probably not at a healthy weight for you, no matter what your BMI charts say. “If someone is practicing self-care behaviors around sleep and exercise and eating intuitively and regularly, they will be likely to fall into their genetically predetermined weight over time,” Kinsella said.
2. Do You Eat A Wide Variety Of Foods?
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Different foods have different nutrients, so if you’re on a restrictive diet, you’re likely missing out on a lot of nutrients that could be helpful to you. Nothing is bad in moderation, even dessert. All foods can be part of healthy eating, so work on having lots of different foods, including fruits and vegetables, as well as fun foods like sweets,” said Leon. Kinsella said the Mediterranean Diet has been shown to provide the most health benefits, but personal preferences are also important to consider when choosing your diet.
