Check This Out – Illustrated BMI Categories

here’s an interesting set of photos on Flickr that I think y’all should see. It’s called Illustrated BMI Categories and it shows photos of people at various BMIs, from underweight to morbidly obese. Some may surprise you.
I think this is trying to make a point that the BMI system is a poor way of determining health. Actually, I disagree. I think the fact that these pictures were posted shows that we have normalized a certain degree of overweightness (I know that’s not a word). I’m assuming each photo is supposed to be ironic because they don’t look big enough to be “morbidly obese,” or that that thin person looks too thin to be normal.
In my opinion, obesity has become such a problem in America that we’ve all been a little desensitized. Some people also don’t grasp that “obese” may not be a 300-pound woman – because obesity is usually portrayed as those extreme examples.
One thing I think these pictures show is that the same weight can look completely different on two different people according to frame size and body fat percentage. In that way, it’s a good illustration.
What did you think when you looked at these pictures? Let me know in the comments!

Claire

(Image from Flickr)