BMI: But More Imagined

BMI: But More Imagined 

By Evelyn Connor

BMI chart By age chart: What your BMI should be 

From the moment you are born a body mass index (BMI) is calculated for you. Within the next eighteen plus years of your life every yearly physical contributes to this calculation. From this, a path is created in a determinant to tell were you are currently and where you're expected to be. The point of which to determine if you're at a healthy weight. The BMI was created amid the 19th century by wait for it not a physician but a mathematician known as Adolphe Quetelet. He created this method as a way to aid the government in measuring obesity population. What the real kicker is Quetelet himself said that this calculation was not meant for individual measurements of weight. For there is no "physiological reason to square a person's height" and divide it by their wait to determine wether they are overweight, healthy, or underweight"(Delvin, Kieth Top 10). So why do we still use the same outdated system nearly 200 years later? 

BMI calculator online 

The BMI has many errors to its calculation. As shown in the image directly above BMI calculates what your healthy weight should be only by dividing your weight by your height. From this you can first question why does it not take into account bone or muscle mass. Quick side note that muscle is denser than fat and bone is twice that so one would sensible think well wouldn't that mean that make it heavier than fat. The answer is yes. For example, as put in the NPR story Top 10 Reasons Why the BMI Is Bogus by Delvin and Keith, athletes by this calculation are said to be more often classified as overweight due to their increase in muscle mass even though they are fit and healthy. So this intern makes no sense to why physicians are using this calculation to determine if someone is overweight. There can be no "dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable" (Burgard 44). For given a person's individual weight there will be more commonly than not someone of the same weight that is healthy and another one that is not. Which brings even more evidence against having a BMI. Subsequently, girls from a young age are brought up to believe the BMI will decide their societal worth.   

Moving forward to pin point specifically on the female persona in how such a classification defines what the ideal body looks like. What is "normal" as society has defined it for women? In part V. Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power, Bartky touched on that when considering a women's weight they are meant to take up less space so in a sense be slender. This projection of the female body is used as a tool of patriarchy in sewing that women should not have a place and to this are not meant to be seen "taking up as little space as possible (Bartky 87). Looking back this is evident from early childhood. Being taught to sit criss- cross applesauce hands in your lap, but also as I got older females were expected to keep your legs together when sitting and positioning yourself to take up minimal space. Going back to size itself through being slender they intern will not stand out to be noticed by others but at the same time set a standard of representation for other women of what they should look like in society. 

BMI Calculator- Personalized and Customized Diet Plan

Another, red flag towards this is why is it that ethnicity and other genetics are not taken into account. Even in this day and age with new information and findings daily about the human body. Much more at least than to what was known about it in the 1900's. Why has the method not changed or been edited in any way. This seems to just be a form of assimilation were everyone is trying to be made the same in size and have no difference in variations. With that, there is also some controversy towards different races to having specific genetic features that effect their weight as such body shape intern separating them from primarily those who are white. But interestingly enough there is no scientific proof behind this statement merely implicit biases and societal stereotypes. Additionally ones environment plays a large role in impacting how their body develops. For example if one lives in a poorer area they are more susceptible to lack of access and healthy resources because many foods that are marketed to be healthy are usually those of produce that are of high market value making them more expensive to purchase. So why is it that those factors are not represented in the BMI algorithm. 

From were I stand I think that the current form of BMI should not be kept. Intern a different algorithm should be adapted in its place. Going back to what I said earlier if bones and muscle density is indeed higher than fat it only makes sense to include it. To that, have it be able to account for different factors such as family background or other factors that might impede a "normal" BMI conduction. Thus, should we really be using the BMI mode of calculation to determine who is considered to be healthy. Especially when the results seem to cause harm in adolescence and create a stigma around those with a larger build that they must be unhealthy. All in all, I truly think that the BMI system should thrown out and start from scratch to find a way to either replace it to include more factors or just abandon it in its entirety.  

References  

Bartky, Sandra Lee. "Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power" in The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance & Behavior edited by Rose, Weitz. Oxford University Press, 2003. 

Burgard, Deb. "What Is 'Health at Every Size'" in The Fat Studies Reader. edited by Esther Rothblum. et al. New York University Press, 2009. 

Devlin, Keith. “Top 10 Reasons Why the BMI Is Bogus.” NPR, NPR, 4 July 2009, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439#:~:text=The%20BMI%20was%20introduced%20in%20the%20early%2019th,In%20other%20words%2C%20it%20is%20a%20200-year-old%20hack. 

Richmond, T K, et al. “Racial/Ethnic Differences in Accuracy of Body Mass Index Reporting in a Diverse Cohort of Young Adults.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 25 July 2014, https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2014147#:~:text=There%20were%20significant%20racial%2Fethnic%20differences%20in%20both%20measured,22%20to%2028%E2%80%89kg%E2%80%89m%20%E2%88%922%20in%20the%20same%20groups.