At 8:56 AM -0800 11/20/03, Jean-Marc Perreault wrote:
Hi Rick,
I went to see what my BMI was, and to my surprise, I am half a point below being overweight. Now, if you saw me, you would know why I am surprised! I am 6'3'', and weight 195 pounds. I am not fat, and am quite in good shape.


I am curious to know if anyone knows "how" the BMI has been "normalized", if it has been. If I am just below being "overweight", what does this say about most people?

This kind of popular scale can have some far reaching consequences, if it is being used widely. Now, I KNOW I am not overweight, so do not really care about what a number says... but what about youger folks who are still developing their self-image?

This topic is of great interest to me right now... I'm in the middle of teaching a Motivation section in Intro, and we touch on Anorexia. The link seems to stick out.

The BMI is not a measure of body mass -- it's an index that indicates an estimate of relative body fat composition.
It's a very broad indicater -- really just a suggestion for a more accurate check such as:
1. Skin fold measures using calipers.
2. A _direct_ measure of body density accomplished by
immersing said body in water and measuring the
volume of water displaced.


I suspect that either of the latter would show that you're far from obesity.

There's a good point here about the virutes of direct measurement.
--
* PAUL K. BRANDON               [EMAIL PROTECTED]  *
* Psychology Dept               Minnesota State University  *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001     ph 507-389-6217  *
*    http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html    *

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