Missing BMI, overweight even more problematic than expected

(Image: Edward Franklin)

It is well known that being overweight is not very healthy. Nevertheless, the consequences of being overweight are still often underestimated. An American study has now been carried out into the consequences of overweight and BMI measurements.

The investigation turns things upside down. The most common way in which physical health is measured in relation to weight, BMI, turns out to be not entirely accurate.

Overweight in BMI is underestimated

According to the study, being overweight and obese increases the risk of dying earlier by 22 to 91 percent. The conclusion is therefore that one in six deaths in the United States is related in some way to being overweight or obese.

Ryan Masters of CU Builder says that we are only now uncovering the true toll of the health crisis. In general, it is thought that you will only really have problems with your health with an extremely high (or low) BMI, but this would already be the case with the earlier period of being overweight.

The BMI is only calculated using your height and weight, but does not include any other factors in the calculation. The researchers dug into the research results of 18,000 people (collected between 1988 and 2015).

What have we missed in recent years? (Image: Unsplash/Diana Polekhina)

Overlooked data

About 20 percent of people who have a healthy weight according to their BMI were still in the overweight category 10 years ago. When they studied that group individually, it turned out that health problems occurred much more often than in people who had a more stable BMI.

On the other hand, a high BMI can also be related to muscle mass. This also affects your weight, but is not included in the calculation of your BMI.

Masters hopes that this study will make it clear how serious this health crisis really is and that people will pay more attention to what they eat. Especially since unhealthy foods can be found everywhere.

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Overweight calculated in BMI even less healthy than we thought