I've run 4 marathons. Nurses fawn over my resting heart rate. And yet, according to my Body Mass Index (BMI), I'm overweight. Sad trombone. Which is why my interest was peaked at seeing headlines heralding a new way to measure obesity.
"The Body Adiposity Index, or BAI, relies on height and hip measurements to determine whether a person is truly overweight," reports Reuters.
How is this different than BMI? Body Mass Index (BMI) calculates a person's height to weight ratio (specifically it's a person's body weight in kg divided by the square of his height in meters). It's the go-to method for researchers and doctors alike to screen for obesity, but this doesn't always give an accurate health picture. Two people can have the same BMI number and different flab factor. Athletes with more lean muscle mass (which weighs more than fat), could have BMIs that fall in the overweight to obese range, even though they boast good cardiovascular fitness and low risk of chronic disease. Take Matt Stafford, the quarterback for the Detroit Lions. At 6'2" 232 lbs, he sneaks in JUST under obese with a BMI of 29.8. Does this guy look anywhere near obese to you?!! Why don't we ask the two hotties gyrating all up on him. Case closed.
So maybe it's time we update the 200 year old method we currently have for measuring obesity. The research team behind BAI admits their method requires further testing, but thinks their new index has promise as a useful measure of percent body fat, especially in remote areas where reliable scales are scant (fieldwork).
"The Body Adiposity Index, or BAI, relies on height and hip measurements to determine whether a person is truly overweight," reports Reuters.
How is this different than BMI? Body Mass Index (BMI) calculates a person's height to weight ratio (specifically it's a person's body weight in kg divided by the square of his height in meters). It's the go-to method for researchers and doctors alike to screen for obesity, but this doesn't always give an accurate health picture. Two people can have the same BMI number and different flab factor. Athletes with more lean muscle mass (which weighs more than fat), could have BMIs that fall in the overweight to obese range, even though they boast good cardiovascular fitness and low risk of chronic disease. Take Matt Stafford, the quarterback for the Detroit Lions. At 6'2" 232 lbs, he sneaks in JUST under obese with a BMI of 29.8. Does this guy look anywhere near obese to you?!! Why don't we ask the two hotties gyrating all up on him. Case closed.So maybe it's time we update the 200 year old method we currently have for measuring obesity. The research team behind BAI admits their method requires further testing, but thinks their new index has promise as a useful measure of percent body fat, especially in remote areas where reliable scales are scant (fieldwork).
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