Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by a BMI chart; at your doctor’s office, on a medical questionnaire, or in a fitness app?
In my earlier years, I began to dread my annual physical appointment for weeks ahead of time, knowing that despite feeling strong and in good health, that chart would label me overweight or even obese. Much like cleaning the house before the housecleaners come out of shame over the very reason the housecleaners were hired, I would often resort to crash diets or “cleanses” prior to those physicals, in hopes of getting a more favorable one-time annual weigh-in and BMI result. Thank goodness those days are long behind me!
Fortunately, those BMI charts are slowly but surely disappearing from many forward-thinking medical offices, but that’s not to say they’ve been eradicated from society just yet. If you too have a complicated relationship with this chart, it’s important to know its history before giving it any more of your negative energy.
In the early 1830s, Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet was passionate about establishing standard, quantifiable characteristics of the average or “normal man” and came up with the formula of weight divided by height squared (or, the Quetelet Index). It’s important to note that Quetelet was not looking to measure individuals’ health, but rather the simple relation between a man’s height and weight. Additionally, all participants in Quetelet’s study were white, western European males.
These standards went through many additional hands and phases over the next century and the formula was even the precursor for American life insurance agencies’ initial attempts in the late 1800’s to create standardized height and weight charts and provide themselves with the justification for charging heavier policyholders a higher premium. Within Quetelet’s own lifetime, his “average man” formula was already being used for corporate profit.
In the 1970’s, American physiologist and dietician Ancel Keys conducted the “Seven Countries” study, measuring almost 7,500 “healthy men” from various sample groups and based on data from his study, confirmed that Quetelet’s Index from a century earlier was still the “best available” method of quickly screening for obesity. Again, note that Keys’ study was conducted on males alone, and didn’t take gender, age, frame, or physical activity levels into consideration.
Fast forward to 1990’s, and still having not produced better methods for standardizing a universal but quick screening method for physical markers of potential health issues, the World Health Organization adopted the BMI scale for adults and children, as the method of determining whether a body is at risk. Yet still, this chart was never adjusted to consider the differences in body frames, builds, athletic experience, gender, race, etc.
What does this mean for us today, as athletes who are intent on building muscle and increasing bone density and strength for longterm wellness and longevity?
While of course it’s imperative to communicate with your doctor and other medical professionals about your health, it’s also important to note that we don’t necessarily have to give the BMI chart the power to tell us that our health is based on that number alone, and certainly that we don’t give it the power to cause us any shame.
Health is determined by so much more than height divided by weight squared!
Many athletes at Tradewinds have noticed their weight go up (or remain the same) after joining, as a result of the dense muscle they’re building over time, even while losing fat. I so admired the US Olympic Rugby team star Ilona Maher publicly state during recent Olympic media interviews that yes, she has a BMI of 30 (which labels her as obese), in response to an online troll attempting to shame her by guessing her BMI. Have you seen her power and strength?!
One great way to collect more information about how all the parts that make up your body contribute to your overall weight is to complete an In-Body scan at the studio with one of your coaches. This will measure your muscle mass, body fat percentage, water weight, etc, and will give you the information you may need in order to target fat (but not muscle mass) loss.
This conversation is not suggesting that some health issues are not caused by or exacerbated by excessive body weight, nor that it’s not important at all to consider working on fat loss if medically recommended. However, it’s important to look at the entire picture of one’s health and remember where the numbers on this all-too-familiar chart come from before we feel shame over our bodies being compared to that of the “average man” from centuries ago.
What are your thoughts?
Want to learn more? Check out a wonderful podcast episode here and an interesting article here!