Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Bye bye for BMI?
My dance major friend who was once classified as obese by a school nurse would appreciate this new article on Slate. After reviewing the the history of the body-mass index (did you know it was developed in 1832?), the author makes a case for giving it up as a measure of individual patients' health. A doctor's eyeballing is often a better judge of whether a person should lose weight than the BMI, the article argues.
It may be worthwhile to also have a more objective measure. (After all, we wouldn't want weight assessment to slide into the common standard I once heard an expert describe for alcohol abuse: "Anything more than mine.") So why not a tape measure around the waist? It's cheap, quick, and an evidence-based predictor of disease, notes the Slate article.
Will the tape measure be replacing the scale in an office near you? Probably not, but it's another reason to start doing those sit-ups. Better be ready to suck it in when the time comes.
Labels: BMI, weight loss
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
3:35 PM
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