Contributor: “Dr. J”Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.
The Top Ten
1. They have a high BMI. This is the number one reason people argue against the BMI.
2. They think it’s normal to put on a few pounds. The BMI counteracts peoples flawed thinking.
3. They are in denial. Denial is possibly the strongest of all the defense mechanisms, or psychologically disordered strategies that people use to cope with reality and maintain self-image.
4. They have a food addiction. Given the choice to believe that their high BMI is dangerous, people with an addiction will dismiss their BMI rather than face reality.
5. They use the straw man argument, where you change the topic and argue against that. The BMI is not a beauty contest, yet they argue that people look good with a high BMI. Therefore, it’s a bad measurement.
6. They call the BMI statistical origin nonsensical, yet ignore all the statistical data that supports and shows it works regardless if the measurement design, i.e. height-weight, makes no sense. The bottom line of a high BMI is increased morbidity and mortality in almost every large scale study, except possibly for a very small increased BMI in people over 70 years of age.
7. They can’t get insurance with their high BMI. Of course they will cost the insurance company much more money than they will ever pay for insurance, either immediately or later, thus raising the rates for the rest of us.
8. They think they are an athlete, and since a lot of real athletes have a high BMI, then theirs must be OK. Many athletes do not have a high BMI, especially in sports where significant endurance is important. Did you know that in the average football game, the “athletes” actual playing time is less than 15 minutes total?
9. They saw a report that said according to the BMI charts, both Tom Cruise and LeBron James are obese, and they are fine. In reality, neither Tom Cruise ( BMI 25.1-26) nor LeBron James (BMI 27.5) are obese. They both fall in the overweight category. LeBron is a professional athlete, and Cruise is no longer Maverick from Top Gun.
10. They have a blog on the Internet with a high proportion of the readership having a high BMI and do not want to be honest about the BMI or their BMI because they fear the loss of their followers as both an ego and economic decline.
One Time Correct
Possibly, if you are an athlete or a dedicated weight trainer, your BMI will be higher than the normal range.
If, for example, we look at the Bell shaped curve of statistics, 99.7 percent lie within three standard deviations. Using this data, assuming 3 out of every 1000 individuals is either a significant athlete or a serious weight trainer, both with a high muscle mass and low body fat, then the BMI is valid for the other 997 individuals.
If you feel like disagreeing with this column, please include which number applies to your thinking. Thank you.
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The Top 10 reasons Why People Incorrectly Think the BMI is Wrong, and One Time When They are Correct