Where Does the BMI Come From?

Dollars vs. Fat & Sugar -- How Diabetes, Obesity, and Food Prices are Linked
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The body mass index is a statistical tool that compares height and weight. Dr. Garabed Eknoyan of the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, authored a 2007 study on the inventor of the now called Body Mass Index, the Belgian mathematician Adolphe Queteletan.

Dr. Eknoyan writes that after World War II when interest in mortality of overweight people culminated “it became evident then that the best index was the ratio of the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters, or the Quetelet Index described in 1832”.

Only over a century later, in 1972, it was named the Body Mass Index.

The BMI, however, does not take the percentage of body fat into account and thus does not account for athletes and people who have extreme weights but are muscular. But despite these exception the BMI is clinically the most practical tool to measure obesity according to Dr. Darlene Berryman, associate professor for Food, Nutrition and Hospitality at Ohio University.

BMI calculator – Just type in your height and weight, your BMI is just one click away.


More on the topic on my blog:

Not All Fats Are Equal -- Dr. Darleen Berryman, Ohio University, on the Causes of the Obesity Epidemic and New Research Paths (extended video Interview)

The Greatest Barriers Are Economic -- Dr. Frank Schwartz, Ohio University, on the Struggles of His Diabetes Patients (extended video interview part 1)

Soft Spot Health Care -- A U.S.-European Dialogue with Dr. Frank Schwartz, Ohio University (extended video interview part 2)

Counting Carbs for the First Time – Karen Bailey, OU Dietician, Helps Obese Diabetics Lose Weight (audio slide show with extended interview)

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