[Misty0732]

Who's kidding who? I checked out their bmi chart. It says a 6' adult is fine at a weight of less than 140 lbs. That's absurd. Unless you are skin and bone, you will weigh more than that. What's more, if you have muscle instead of fat, bmi says you are even fatter for the same weight. Bmi is a good example of oversimplifying something to make it easier for the great unwashed to grasp at the expense of its validity.

It's true that the BMI charts are simplified (especially that they use the same scale for men and women). I've found that the lower end is especially suspect. For genetic men, at least, the upper levels are pretty reasonable (if you're below 25 you're definitely not overweight).

It's also true that BMI measurements are essentially useless for bodybuilders. The services used a form of the BMI at one time to ensure men and women were in reasonable shape, but had to offer a modification (measuring body fat) to account for body builders.

Misty

[bryony]

I imagine that the wide range of bmi is to accommodate different bone densities and morphologies. If the object is to be healthy, take the higher value, but if the object is to look as female as possible, I would have thought the lower value would be more appropriate. Hard to achieve without some level of fasting though....

B.