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What physicians get wrong about the risks of being overweight
(scopeblog.stanford.edu)
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this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Pretty much the only people advocating for this are people who get into weightlifting and I'd say the vast majority of them were already in the overweight category before putting on extra muscle. BMI is by no means perfect, but it's actually extremely good at doing what it was designed to do, which is give a quick and easy metric by which to judge someone's general health. It's meant to be a starting point for a discussion around exercise and other more important factors, when it's clinically relevant to do so.
I would disagree that it’s only weightlifters. I’ve competed at an international level in a completely different sport, and my teammates have the same concerns. And this goes for people who have been selected to represent the national team and those who have not.
I’m in a sport where it’s beneficial to weigh less, and many of us are considered overweight by BMI standards.
My sport is not represented in the Olympics, so we are talking (for the most part) about normal people who like to do sport. My teammates are all teachers, doctors, IT professionals. We aren’t people who are paid to workout all day everyday.
I’d argue that many gym-goers who are dedicated (like HIIT classes, cyclers,etc) would also agree that BMI isn’t great. I don’t have any studies on hand to support my experience/anecdotal evidence. But I’ve been in sport and various gyms for 10+ years and all the trainers, coaches and athletes say the same thing: don’t look at the scale unless you need to weigh in.