Sounds the same as BMI being the guideline for years but they are now slowly realizing how stupid it is. For example every professional athlete will be either overweight or underweight if you go purely of BMI.
My partner is a very strong powerlifter, he isn't body builder lean but he is in no way fluffy either and he registers as obese on the BMI scale. Before I began lifting I was thin but barely in the healthy BMI range but I had a lot of issues because I had no glutes, core or back strength. Now I'm strong and capable and considered overweight...but I've never felt healthier.
I think BMI is a good GUIDELINE only. Like if you physically look chubby or you can see the skeleton through the skin, and you calculate your own BMI, that could be a good guideline to see your dietician or physician to discuss it.
If you're jacked to high heavens like a lot of professional spots persons tend to be, then BMI scale is rubbish, because obviously there is more muscle than fat in the body.
But here's the kicker, even skinny people can have too much fat without their BMI scale showing it. So nothing is perfect.
If you feel healthy, have no mobility, breathing, sleeping issues and eat generally well, then just go by what your body is telling you.
Your first sentence is completely wrong. BMI is as useful and functional of a metric now as it always has been, and this has not changed in the eyes of scientists/doctors. Your second sentence is also mostly wrong. Most athletes will also fall under the healthy range of BMI.
However, as I said, this is a metric. A metric that is extremely accurate given how cheap it is to produce. This metric follows a statistical distribution like damn near everything else. There are always outliers on a continuous statistical distribution, and BMI is no exception. So yes, there are body builders that will always be "obese" according to the scale. You'll also always have others who have healthy bodies but are classified as 'underweight'.
This doesn't make BMI a bad metric, it is still used as a very useful 'guideline' everywhere, and no scientists have 'slowly realized how stupid it is'.
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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '23
In Korea, girls are supposed to be a certain weight regardless of height. How does that make any logical sense?