SHOULD’VE HAPPENED TWO DECADES AGO: Two Weeks Ago, The BMI Was Quietly Wound Back as The ‘Go-To’ Weight Measure in The US.

BMI was never meant to be a health measure for individuals. It got turned into one because it’s easy and seems scientific. As I wrote 20 years ago:

Case in point: me. I’m 6′ 3″ tall. When I first started working out again over ten years ago, I weighed 194, which, according to the Body Mass Index calculator gave me a BMI of 24.2, which is healthy. Now, after many years of aerobic exercise and weight training, I weigh 210. That gives me an unhealthy BMI of 26.2 today. But when I started working out, my bodyfat was, if I recall correctly, 23.7%. Now it’s between 15 & 16%. My resting heart rate, always low, is lower than it was. My cholesterol is 150. I look better. And despite being at the computer a lot, I have fewer aches and pains than I had then. So am I really less healthy as the result of adding a good deal of muscle and losing a good deal of fat? I don’t think so.

Most people who lift heavy have “obese” BMIs, even if they’re ripped. Sure, not reflective of the general population. But on the other hand, BMI also misses people who have too much bodyfat, but carry so little muscle that their BMI is “normal.”

I will say, though, that I’m squatting a lot heavier than I was back then, in my pre-Rippetoe days.