I am almost 6 feet tall. I used to be 6 ft tall but I think I am now officially 5' 11.75" but that is another story for another day. I currently weigh 182 pounds but for me, my optimal weight is somewhere between 160 - 165 pounds. I don't feel as good once I start carrying a little extra weight and I don't like the way I look either.
I tell you this in order to tell this story. I told my wife I felt I needed to lose some weight and apparently she was feeling the same. My wife is in a similar position that based on her age and appearance, most individuals would not call her overweight.
But once I communicated this shared feeling, she went into motion and contact a friend who had success with a particular program and was now a health coach for said program.
As part of the evaluation process we had to determine our BMI or Body Mass Index.
BMI was devised in the 1830s by Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, a Belgian mathematician, sociologist, statistician, and astronomer. Since there were no calculators or computers, he opted for a simple system to determine a healthy weight.
But, the problem is BMI exaggerates thinness in short people and fatness in tall people. Nick Trefethen, a professor of numerical analysis at oxford university believes BMI leads to confusion and misinformation.
My BMI registered at 25 which is considered overweight and if I lost just 1 pound I would be at a normal weight. Wrestler Steve Austin was 252 pounds and 6'2" during is wrestling career. His BMI was 32.4 which is considered obese by the BMI scale.
Why people still support BMI is unclear except for its simplicity. But, its simplicity is also its flaw.
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