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neonlumberjack t1_iyj7lmo wrote

Reply to comment by Dbol504 in Looking for a doctor who doesn’t use BMI by [deleted]

It doesn’t take into consideration several things that affect weight, such as bone density, muscle mass, sex, age, race. It’s not a good indication of what a healthy weight should be. I don’t necessarily have “beef” with it, but I’d like a doctor who doesn’t solely look at the BMI for an accurate reflection of a healthy weight. I’m also not “looking for diet advice” from my doctor, but you are weighed at check-ups, and that weight is then applied to the BMI.

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Dbol504 t1_iyj8qv6 wrote

Unless you're Wolverine you don't have enough extra bone density to throw off BMI. And your age, race and sex won't matter when you look at a BMI that says you're this tall and weigh this much so you are either over, under or at a healthy weight. As for muscle mass if you're that built to be throwing off BMI your doctor can look at you and tell. My BMI always comes back high but I also compete in bodybuilding. The doctor just shrugs and notes extra muscle and we move on with the physical.

Lastly - you know you're allowed to ignore your doctor when they tell you that you're overweight and need to diet? Most of the US does already.

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neonlumberjack t1_iyj9kf5 wrote

Age, race, and sex definitely play a role in weight. Men, for example, have less fat than women do. One reason for this is because women have breasts. So your doctor doesn’t solely base your weight on the BMI…that’s what I’m looking for lol

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CRMagic t1_iyjadi0 wrote

No one argued otherwise. The BMI is a tool, one that works in most cases, and has some known outliers, like just about any other tool used to determine things in medicine. Wholesale rejection of it because it doesn't work in your case is illogical. And your doc doesn't seem to be basing advice to you on it based on other comments in this thread, which sounds to me like you already have what you want.

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