this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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BMI isn't really flawed, it's misused.
It wasn't created to be used with individuals. It was created as a statistical tool to compare populations.
It doesn't really work at that either.
You can't use it tell if soccer players are fatter on average than rugby players or if Japanese people are fatter than Samoans. Or even if men are fatter on average than women.
But these are population questions.
I think that's just more examples of it being misused. BMI may be useful to compare populations in certain instances. It has value in being easily calculated based off data that is often easy to obtain. But, there are many situations where it would be inappropriate to use BMI for statistical comparison. That doesn't mean it's entirely useless.
I mean BMI is also useful for comparing individuals in certain instances. That's why doctor's use it.
It's a crappy measure, but it's good enough for a range of use. You just have to be thoughtful enough to say, yeah it's not going to work for this person.
I'm not anti BMI, I'm just opposed to people repeating statements like "BMI is useful to compare populations" which don't really mean anything.