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Comment by yodsanklai | Hacker News Reader

According to https://dqydj.com/bmi-percentile-calculator-united-states/

67% of American adults are overweight. Only 13% of them have a BMI less than 22 (center of the healthy BMI range).

How does it translate to aesthetic preferences. Is someone with a BMI of 22 so far of the US norm that they would get strange looks, or would be considered unhealthy?

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I thought BMI was pretty debunked as a measure of health?

I'm 5'11" or so, and weigh approximately 180 pounds.

According to that website, I'm overweight with a BMI of 25.10.

I certainly don't look overweight, I definitely don't feel overweight, and if I picked up my exercise regime again, I'd be more likely to gain muscle weight than lose weight. And yet, my BMI would get worse.

I was definitely overweight (by waist and BF%) at 5'11" and 180lbs, and going by the stats I've seen that seems more common than your case of BMI overestimating BF%.

A BMI of 25+ seems to be commonly accepted as overweight in most part of the world, at least in the medical sense. Whether it looks overweight or not is cultural. But you're right, very muscular persons are heavier and BMI isn't a good measure in that case, and it's not necessarily unhealthy if you don't have other risk factors.

> For people who are considered obese (BMI greater than or equal to 30) or those who are overweight (BMI of 25 to 29.9) and have two or more risk factors, it is recommended that you lose weight.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/risk.ht...

I am going to assume you do not live in the USA based on this comment. Most supermodels, which I'm using as a proxy for aesthetic preference, have BMIs under 20.

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