An interesting piece on BMI
I heard someone talking about this topic this morning on the radio. I think that there is some truth to it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that a BMI measurement above 25 indicates that a person is overweight and a BMI measurement over 30 indicates that he is obese.
However, is this calculation accurate? The BMI recommendation by WHO was based on studies done largely on Caucasians. Thus the BMI recommendation by WHO may be an accurate indication of obesity on an average Caucasian. There are now findings to suggest that people of Asian and African origins have a significantly higher percentage of body fat compared to Caucasians although they may look slimmer than their Caucasian counterparts. Therein lays the danger. If you are an Asian or an African, you may look slim but may carry extra body fat of which you are oblivious to.
[...]
As commonly known, BMI calculation is not accurate for muscular people (muscles are heavier than fat) and now, it may also not be accurate across the board for all ethnic groups. For a start, Asians and Africans may want to define their BMI results as being overweight if it is above 23 and obese if above 27. (source)
Also worth the read: “The BMI ( Indicator Of Heart Disease Risk ) is Wrong“
