Understanding BMI With an Illustrated Guide to Healthy Weight

Thanks to Claire at Burning the Scale for tipping me off to to this set of 100 photos of real women labeled with their height, weight and body mass index, or BMI, number and category.

I love what she had to say about it in her post, excerpted in part:

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.

What do you think?

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King