# Reasons why the BMI is useless

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reasons-why-the-bmi-is-useless/1007307>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Tags:** diet-weight-loss\
**Created:** [September 15, 2024, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reasons-why-the-bmi-is-useless/1007307 "2024-09-15T17:28:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 21

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reasons-why-the-bmi-is-useless/1007307/21 "2024-09-15T20:49:13Z")

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> [@DSeid](#):
>
> FWIW there is some promotion of using a different simple to measure metric: the body roundness index (BRI). NYT recently had an article on it but here is some actual source material.
> 
> [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2819558](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2819558)
> 
> It won’t be perfect either, but it seems a step up?

@puzzlegal has started a dedicted thread on this:

> [@Obesity and body roundness indicator](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-body-roundness-indicator/1007297):
>
> I ran into this today in the New York Times, but this graphic they link is much more eloquent than the article: BMI (a function of weight and height) has been criticized for not distinguishing between fat and muscle, and generally being an unhelpful number. Healthy athletes often have a high BMI, and unhealthy elderly people with wasting muscles often have a “good” BMI. In this 2013 article Diana M Thomas came up with a function of height and waist circumference that better measures “body ro…

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