Even though the body mass index is a tool widely used nowadays, it has many flows that cannot be ignored. Because of that, researchers are doing their best to come with an improved formula or tool to establish whether a person has weight problems or not. If, 180 years ago, Adolphe Quetelet’s formula was the best one, things changed nowadays. Researchers realized that it has many flows that can turn out to be dangerous for the health of a person.
Being fit and slim is becoming a stringent need nowadays. People are more preoccupied with their health state than ever, in spite of the alarming statistics that revealed the fact that obesity is a horrible disorder many suffer from. Being overweight or obese is almost normal in some cultures, and there are numerous families who suffer from this disorder. The lifestyle, the alimentation choices, the lack of physical exercise are just some factors that, added to the genetic inheritance, contribute to the expansion of this ‘disease of the century’. The alarming number of overweight people raised question marks for governments and society members.
What are the flaws of the Body Mass Index?
Even though the Body Mass Index has many flaws, some of them are quite dangerous and cannot be ignored. Because of that, specialists have tried to find a replacement for the BMI in the BVI (Body Volume Index). Why? Because:
- The gender issue is not taken into account in the case of the Body Mass Index, even if it is crucial when it comes to establishing the perfect weight. It is a well known fact that men in general have a bigger muscular mass than women. It is not correct to say that muscles that weigh as much as fat deposits should account for the same value when the BMI is calculated.
Because of that, many sportspeople are diagnosed with weight problems when the BMI formula is used. Let’s take for example a bodybuilder or a boxer who has well defined muscles and works out on a daily basis for several hours and weighs 190 pounds at a height of 5.9 feet. His over 26 BMI reveals that he is overweight even though his body doesn’t have fat deposits.
On the other hand, a woman who usually doesn’t grow such a big muscular mass even though she is an athlete too, might be overweight. Specialists say that it is anatomically normal for women to have small fat deposits in some areas of the body where men do not need them. Pregnant women who weigh more at the end of their pregnancy are not necessarily overweight. This is another thing that the BMI doesn’t consider as a variable which is why these women should not use this formula to establish whether they are overweight or not.
- Lifestyle is another factor that the Body Mass Index doesn’t take into account. This has to do with how much a person works out and how large his muscle mass is. What few people know is that muscles weigh more than fat, which is why the BMI of a person with large muscles can be bigger than that of a really overweight person. The example above applies here too. Since the BMI has been used to decide whether a person is at a right weight or not, this discrepancy should be taken into account too. Moreover, because of the increased muscular mass, men can burn calories easier. It is a well known fact that the more muscles one grows, the faster he can burn the fat deposits and the calories consumed.
- Body frame is another important criterion that the Body Mass Index totally ignores. There are people who simply have a small frame while others might have a large body frame and very little fat deposits. The small frame body type is more likely to have excess fat, even though he weighs exactly the same as the large frame person. Ignoring this difference can mean including someone in the overweight group for the wrong reasons. This mistake can be done even in the case of children, which is why, in this case, the BMI should be avoided so that the child doesn’t have to suffer the consequences.
- The medical history or active medical conditions are variables that need to be taken into consideration when a physician diagnoses a person with weight problems. The medical background is extremely important to decide the safe weight one should have.
- Race has always been something that determined the genetic predisposition towards becoming obese. For example, it is a well known fact that most Asian people will never be overweight by the BMI criterion. However, most of them have a predisposition towards accumulating visceral fat deposits. Since visceral fat is one of the major causes of heart attacks, and other medical conditions, ignoring the race issue can be a fatal mistake.
All these flaws of the Body Mass Index have led the researchers to find another tool to prevent obesity health related problems. One of the most popular substitutes has always been the hipper measurement formula. The waist to hip ratio should be 0.8 in the case of women and 0.95 in the case of men. Even though this formula is excellent in many cases and can really predict heart attacks or other medical conditions caused by obesity, the generalization is again the main flaw, exactly like in the case of the BMI.
One of the best alternatives to the Body Mass Index nowadays seems to be the Body Volume Index. If the BMI looks at the basic relationship between weigh and height, the BVI takes into account much more than that. Mass and volume distribution is much more important in the case of the BVI that it has ever been in the case of the BMI.
What is the Body Volume Index?
The Body Volume Index is a type of formula that, unlike in the case of the BMI, is not calculated manually. To be able to establish the BVI, the person needs to use a 3D full body scanner together with the BVI. This new formula is a computer based one and takes into account many variables that the BMI ignored completely.
For example, besides the height and weight of the person, the waist-hip ratio, the waist circumference and the volumetric and body composition analysis complete the whole picture.
The distribution of the weight is very important when calculating the BVI and there cannot be any mistakes, because everything is done by a computer. Even though the BVI is not completely adopted by the medical and scientific world, the researchers estimate that the year 2020 is the one when this will most likely take place.
There are obviously downsides to using the BVI nowadays, but these seem minor in comparison to those of the BMI. One of the major flaws is the fact that the index cannot be calculated cost-free and it requires the patient to go to a clinic where the special scanner can be found.
Moreover, some fear that the radiation produced by the scanner can harm them. The creators of the scanner say that this device is radiation free. Moreover, the whole procedure takes only six seconds, so there is no risk at all during this extremely short period of time. Believe it or not, the computer only needs these six seconds to run a complete analysis of the human body and tell with accuracy where the fat deposits are placed.
Is the Body Mass Index Still Viable?
The Body Mass Index has been used a great deal in the last years by physicians and by statistical researchers. Physicians advised their patients to lose or gain weight taking into account the results of the BMI formula, while statisticians established the general trend of the population at a regional level, but also at a global one. If, in the case of the statistics, the BMI is good enough and the exceptions could be ignored, when it came to particular cases, humans suffered due to the flaws of this formula.
The Body Mass Index has also been used on other occasions too. For example, the insurance companies decided whether they offered health insurance policies to people whenever their BMI was within normal limits. If they were overweight, the payments the insured person had to make were usually higher and, in some cases, obese people were not granted the possibility to have a health insurance. Because of the flaws of the BMI, many people lost important sums of money and insurance companies lost good customers while others presented high risks that were ignored.
Overall, the Body Mass Index was a formula that worked great and helped people many years. However, since diversity is more important nowadays than ever, each variable should be taken into account. With the innovations in the medical industry it would be a pity to ignore the flaws of the BMI and not to allow other more performing tools, such as the BVI, to tell us whether we have weight problems or not.