Yeah, I've always found BMI BS as well.
6'4"
209 lbs.
25.4 BMI
Yeah, I'm overweight...right. That's why so many people comment on how thin I am. Granted I have 13% bodyfat which I'd like to get down to 9%, but anyone who works out and gets in shape by adding muscle is going to skew overweight.
Found this on
http://bansheeblog.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_bansheeblog_archive.html
"To test my theory, I decided to put a few world-class athletes' statistics into the BMI calculator and see how they turned out.
Kobe Bryant: Overweight (BMI 25.4) Guard for the LA Lakers
Yao Ming: Overweight (BMI 26.9) Center for the Houston Rockets
Scott Stevens: Overweight (BMI 27.6) Defenseman for the New Jersey Devils
Jaromir Jagr: Overweight (BMI 28) Right Winger for the New York Rangers
John Ruiz: Overweight (BMI 29.0) WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World
Roger Clemens: Overweight (BMI 28.6) Pitcher for the Houston Astros
Ivan Rodriguez: Obese (BMI 32.5) Catcher for the Detroit Tigers
Priest Holmes: Obese (BMI 31.5) Running Back for the Kansas City Chiefs
Ray Lewis: Obese (BMI 32.3) Linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens
So, if you and your friends and neighbors are all falling into the overweight or obese categories, you'll know you're in good company. Too bad we can't all run 4.4 40's like the obese Mr. Lewis.
# posted by Wild Banshee : 7/27/2004 01:00:04 PM 0 comments
Found this interesting, too.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7129586/
Shaq most obese in NBA? So says BMI
Height-weight formula doesn't appear to hold up in assessing basketball players
ANALYSIS
By Malcolm Ritter
Updated: 4:45 p.m. ET March 9, 2005
NEW YORK - Last week it was obese football players. Now its ... overweight basketball players?
Yep. If you apply a widely used criterion to the published heights and weights of NBA players, nearly half qualify as overweight.
Only four players assessed using the body-mass index (BMI) by The Associated Press made it all the way to the obese range, most notably you guessed it Miami Heat star Shaquille ONeal.
But the notion that 200 other NBA players out of 426 are even within a 3-point shot of tubby might make one wonder: Just how good is the BMI at telling if somebody is too fat?
The finding follows a study of football players published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That research concluded that according to BMI standards, more than half of National Football League players are obese, and nearly all are overweight. The studys validity was questioned by an NFL spokesman.
Whats going on here? Obesity experts say the BMI really is a useful guide to identifying individuals who are too fat for their own good, but it shouldnt be used by itself.
The value of the BMI for the (general) population is its a good first step, and I underline first step, says Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.
No one has ever suggested its the only criterion to use, because it clearly is not.
The body-mass index doesnt directly measure fat. It comes from a formula that considers only weight and height. At 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds, ONeal had the NBAs highest BMI, 31.6, in the AP analysis. (He admits to gaining 2 pounds since those numbers were posted.)
That puts him in the obese range, which is 30 and above. A BMI indicates normal weight if it falls between 18.5 and 24.9, and overweight if its between 25 and 29.9.
Ive read that same formula, but as an athlete, Im classified as phenomenal, ONeal told The AP. You can look it up.
ONeal, ranked among the NBAs 50 greatest players, lost 40 pounds after team management asked him to when he joined the team last summer. He says he now has 13 percent body fat.
Studies show that as a group, people who score overweight on the BMI run an elevated risk of developing such problems as diabetes and heart disease, while those in the obese category have even higher risks.
Tim Frank, the NBAs vice president of basketball communications, said BMI studies like the APs analysis are pretty subjective and weight has not been an issue in the league.
Were confident our players are some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world, he said.
Nationally, almost a third of American adults are obese and nearly two-thirds are either obese or overweight under the BMI criteria. Experts are studying how appropriate the standard cutoffs are for non-Caucasians; research suggests that members of many Asian populations may need to keep their weight lower to fend off health risks.
The APs basketball analysis points out a key drawback of the BMI: People who are lean but well muscled, like most basketball players, can have the same elevated BMI as somebody who carries too much fat.
You might think that somebody who gets an overweight BMI from muscle would have a lower health risk than somebody of the same BMI, but carrying more fat. But experts say thats not clear. For one thing, experts noted, athletes tend to keep their high BMIs after they retire only then, their muscle gets replaced by fat.
Thirty-four percent of U.S. adults are considered overweight, and an additional 31 percent are obese.
For non-Asians, BMIs are informative when theyre below 25 or above 30, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel of the University of Colorado, president-elect of the American Heart Association. For example, a BMI of 23 likely indicates an acceptable amount of body fat while one of 33 means youve got too much fat, he said.
But for BMIs between 25 and 30 basically the overweight range the implication is more murky, especially in athletic people, he said.
He and others emphasize that calculating BMI is really just a starting point. A key follow-up is determining waist size with a measuring tape. If its greater than 40 inches in a man or more than 35 inches in a woman, theres an elevated risk of weight-related disease.
Some studies suggest the waist measurement tracks health risks better than BMI, said Dr. Louis Aronne, president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. But like other experts, he thinks the two of them together provide you with the best information.
And, Bray adds, its important to look at other things like a persons age, level of physical activity, rate of weight gain, blood pressure and cholesterol levels to really get a good picture of ones risk.
In any case, Dr. William Dietz of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said BMI alone is a good enough tool that the national estimate of obese adults about 59 million people wont be affected by findings from the specialized world of professional athletes.
And for those who persist in thinking Shaquille ONeal is obese, he has a simple message: You think that, stick to science. Top 50, three rings, lot of money, two mansions.
EDITORS NOTE: Frank Bass, AP director of computer investigations, did the NBA analysis. AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this story from Miami.