Why Isn't the Body Mass Index (BMI) a Perfectly Reliable

Question

Why isn't the Body Mass Index (BMI) a perfectly reliable way to estimate your health?
A) It considers your height but not your weight.
B) It considers your weight but not your height.
C) It doesn't account for differences in muscle mass between individuals.
D) Body fat estimates are not correlated with the risk of illness and death.

Accepted Answer

The Body Mass Index (BMI) doesn't account for differences in muscle mass between individuals. This means that people with higher amounts of muscle mass may have a higher BMI, even if they have a low body fat percentage and are overall healthy. Therefore, it's not a perfectly reliable way to estimate health.