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Does the standard BMI calculation overestimate obesity in Black people?

Monday, February 1, 2021
By Lisa Freedland
YES

The body mass index—an estimate of body fat derived from a person‘s weight and height—overestimates obesity in Black people.

According to findings by the Endocrine Society, there is a greater disparity between BMI estimates and direct measures of body fat in Blacks than in whites. BMI does not differentiate between weight from fat and weight from muscle, making taller and more muscular individuals more susceptible to misclassifications. Researchers conclude that “muscle mass may be higher in Blacks, which would explain the dissociation.”

The BMI calculation was developed in the 1830s by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian academic who sought to identify the “ideal” traits of “the average man.” In devising the scale, Quetelet used only Western European participants, suggesting a body-type bias.

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