In a viral TikTok video, American athlete Ilona Maher lately took a stand towards physique shaming, shedding mild on the restrictions of the Physique Mass Index (BMI) as a measure of well being.
The U.S. girls’s rugby participant delivered a strong response to a social media commenter who made a disparaging comment referencing Maher’s BMI. The controversy started when the commenter guessed that Maher’s BMI was “30%.” (It’s value noting that BMI just isn’t measured in percentages.)
It reignited the dialog about whether or not BMI numbers do extra hurt than good.
In her video, Maher acknowledged, “I do have a BMI of 30. Effectively, 29.3 to be precise.” She additionally defined that roughly 170 kilos of her 200-pound physique weight is lean mass.
The video has already been seen 4.3 million instances and favored by greater than 629,000 folks. It resonates so deeply due to the failings in utilizing BMI as a well being metric.
What Dietitians Stated About Ilona Maher’s BMI Video
We requested a number of dietitians for his or her reactions to the video—right here’s what they mentioned:
Joanna Gregg, Registered Dietitian: “I like that Ilona loves and appreciates her physique for what it may accomplish and never for her BMI or weight on the size. It’s typically simple to lose sight of that as BMI is utilized in healthcare as a determinant of well being. An individual at a wholesome BMI can 100% be much less bodily match than an individual with an obese BMI. Love your physique for what it may don’t for what dimension it’s! Athletes have to coach and gasoline at a stage that’s unparalleled within the basic inhabitants and we’d like extra sturdy girls like Ilona to indicate our youthful inhabitants what’s really necessary.”
Katherine Basbaum, Registered Dietitian: “An ideal real-life illustration of how BMI, like weight and like age, is only a quantity and shouldn’t be used as stand-alone information to guage or determine a person’s well being standing or bodily health. BMI is a device, not a analysis, and Ilona Maher is an ideal instance of this truth.”
Stephanie Nelson, MyFitnessPal Lead Vitamin Scientist & Registered Dietitian: “Ilona was spot-on! BMI doesn’t inform a narrative about an individual’s value or what they will do, a lot much less inform a narrative about how wholesome their physique is.”
Brookell White, Registered Dietitian: “Yep, you heard her proper! BMI is calculated utilizing somebody’s top and weight. As a result of it’s solely utilizing these two measures, it doesn’t account for muscle mass or physique fats proportion and due to this fact might not be a very good indicator of weight problems for athletes.”
Daisy Mercer, Registered Dietitian: “I like her a lot. BMI just isn’t the tip all be all and it’s typically a poor illustration of somebody’s total well being. It’s extra necessary to have a look at the massive image and notice we’re all constructed otherwise and have completely different exercise ranges that BMI can’t account for!”
Dietitians are likely to know the information on the subject of the usefulness of BMI. Maher mentioned within the video that she mentioned BMI along with her personal dietitian, together with particulars about what the quantity means and its usefulness.
However in case you aren’t absolutely satisfied, let’s dive slightly deeper into what BMI is basically all about.
What’s BMI?
BMI is only a math formulation that divides an individual’s weight in kilograms by the sq. of their top in meters. It was initially developed within the nineteenth century by a statistician to have a look at weight information on a inhabitants—not particular person—stage.
Whereas it has since been adopted by the World Well being Group (WHO) to categorise people into classes like underweight, wholesome weight, obese, and overweight, its usefulness has been extensively debated.
Athletes like Maher typically fall into the obese or overweight classes of the BMI, because of their spectacular muscle mass. A key downside with BMI is that it fails to distinguish muscle from fats.
“BMI is only a comparability of top to weight, nothing extra,” Nelson says. “It doesn’t bear in mind how a lot muscle an individual has, and by itself, it doesn’t say something about well being, way of life, or particularly value. BMI’s principal usefulness is that it corrects for variations in top when assessing weight.”
So, it’s useful when taking a look at giant populations over time to see if weights are rising or lowering on common, whereas correcting for top. However, that doesn’t imply it needs to be utilized on the person stage
What Ought to You Focus On As a substitute?
Moderately than relying completely on BMI, take note of different indicators of well being and health. For athletes, efficiency metrics particular to their sport and place are essential.
For most individuals, the next components are extra necessary on the subject of getting a full image of your well being, in line with Nelson:
Physique fats proportion (your physician can measure this at your annual check-up!)
Waist-to-hip ratio (you may measure these with a tape measure on a month-to-month foundation to gauge adjustments)
Total weight-reduction plan high quality (you may higher gauge your consuming patterns by monitoring meals with MyFitnessPal)
Way of life habits (you may give attention to enhancing sleep, rising bodily exercise, and lowering stress)
Physiological danger components (like blood glucose, ldl cholesterol, and blood strain)
“In terms of stopping nutrition-related illness, many consultants are likely to care extra about how a lot adipose tissue [or fat] is sitting across the organs for a protracted time period,” says Nelson. “That’s the visceral or belly fats some folks carry round their midsection.”
“Different markers to have a look at embody proportion of physique fats and waist-to-hip ratio,” says Nelson. “Nevertheless it’s additionally necessary to contemplate weight-reduction plan habits as nicely. Are you getting sufficient protein, fiber, fruits, veggies, and complete grains?”
That’s one more reason why monitoring your meals might be very useful. You’ll see the way you stack up when it comes to protein and fiber and have entry to some helpful insights whenever you use an app like MyFitnessPal. (Obtain the app for FREE at the moment!)
Maher concluded her viral video by talking on to her heckler and reminding us all that she is an elite athlete acting on the largest stage.
It’s a strong reminder that your BMI says nothing about what you’re able to. In terms of understanding your well being, it may by no means be lowered to a single quantity, whether or not it’s BMI or the quantity on the size.
“BMI is just one teeny tiny piece of data and we must always pay attention to its limitations,” says Nelson.
