Critique of BMI as a Health Measurement

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a simple calculation used to classify individuals as underweight, healthy weight, or obese, but it has significant limitations. Originally designed for population studies, not for individual health assessments, BMI fails to accurately reflect body composition, particularly in cases where muscle mass is high. For example, elite athletes may have a high BMI due to muscle rather than excess fat, leading to misclassification as unhealthy. The increasing awareness of these issues is pushing the medical community to reconsider the use of BMI and explore alternative methods for evaluating health.