Question: Do you think BMI is an accurate measure of body fat percentage?

Cyrille Thinnes answered on 20 Nov 2024:

BMI and body fat percentage are two different things. Body fat percentage is the ‘real deal’, and can be measured quite accurately (usually with calipers, or some low electric current in scales). BMI is an approximation for categorising people into weight categories based on height and weight, and is therefore easy to calculate. It somewhat works for average adults. However, muscle is heavier than fat, so anybody who is above-average muscular/athletic may be considered obese, while they are far from it. There are mathematical formulas that try to relate BMI to body fat percentage, which is just an approximation. So long story short: BMI is easy/fast to determine and will work for most people. If you want to make specific health decisions, however, it is better to measure body fat percentage.