I recently had a health check that yielded what I thought was good results. The results are here:
My LDL is a little high, but I'm not going to worry about that. What bugs me is that the on-line "health coach" will give me bad advice thanks to the use of BMI, which stands for Body Mass Index. It's basically a height/weight ratio that doesn't take anything else into account. According to BMI, at 5'9" and 169 pounds, I'm overweight. According to BMI, this man, Dexter Jackson, is obese.
I don't think so! According to body fat percentage (BF%), at 19%, I'm fine. Honestly, what's more important BMI or BF%? Clearly body fat percentage is MUCH more meaningful than body mass index, which doesn't consider muscle mass. BMI was invented over a century-and-a-half ago during a time when body fat percentage couldn't be calculated by simply holding a device that runs a current through our bodies and computes BF% based on the current.
Now that BF% can be easily calculated, it's time to get rid of BMI. It's not only discouraging, but leads people to focus on the wrong thing. Losing weight isn't the same thing as improving health. For obviously obese people, it can be, but for anyone already in pretty good shape, it's nonsense.
Take care!
Matt
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