Insights from Gnosis: Why Body Mass Index (BMI) Is Imperfect But Necessary

To understand Body Mass Index (BMI), we have to start with the first human body type standard used by mainstream scientists and medical doctors — the Standard Scientific Human Body Anatomy Book Body Type One (BT1) (AKA genetic scientific Standard Body Type One/BT1) found in any scientifically accepted human body anatomy book (BMI and BMR are Standards #2 and #3).

Visit any mainstream doctor and they will have the same general Standard Body Type One image in their office showing what the standard human body looks like fully developed, including vertebrae (posture) and muscles/muscle mass. That human body image is considered by mainstream doctors and scientists to be the model of perfection. It is the standard that you and all human beings are held to when it comes to overall health, including BMI.

That perfect standard that likely a minority few — probably less than 30% of the entire human population — actually meet and are.

Body Mass Index (BMI) and the Standard Scientific Human Body Anatomy Book Body Type One (BT1)

The Standard BMI directly correlates to the Standard Body Type One (BT1). Unless a licensed medical doctor has diagnosed you with a specific malformation, underdevelopment, abnormality, or the like (such as Poland syndrome or scoliosis), according to mainstream scientists and doctors, when within your safe Standard BMI weight range your human body looks identical to the Standard Body Type One. This includes the full development of vertebrae (posture) and muscles/mass, as per that Standard BT1 image.

For the last 100 years or so, mainstream science and doctors have adamantly based being overweight and obesity solely on the idea that being overweight or obese is an energy imbalance from consuming too many calories while not burning enough. In other words, people are fat because they eat too much relative to their basal metabolic rate (BMR) while not getting enough activity/exercise to burn any excess calories. The clear, indisputable (according to mainstream scientists and doctors) answer to being overweight and the childhood and adult obesity epidemic is to stop eating more calories than your daily Standard BMR allows while increasing your activity/exercise to burn more calories to lose any excess weight.

That is it, period, the end.

Thus, according to mainstream science and medical doctors, once you or any human being reduce calories to at or below Standard BMR while increasing calories burned (as needed to lose weight, if any), you will successfully get within your safe Standard BMI weight range and thus look identical to the Standard Body Type One. Nice and neat and clean, right?

Skinny Fat Including Normal Weight Obesity, Cellulite, Crepey Skin, Loose/Saggy Skin, Thin Fat – Body Mass Index

As a scientist, I have been researching the human body for more than 25 years now. When I am well within my safe BMI weight range, like countless other people in the world, my body looks nothing like the genetic scientific Standard Body Type One (BT1). I experience/deal with skinny fat including normal weight obesity, cellulite, and thin fat where there should be muscle.

I am and have always been missing muscle/mass throughout my entire body, and in its place is skinny fat, which directly affects my posture, physical/athletic ability, and metabolism, no less. Yet, I have never been medically diagnosed with any abnormality, malformation, or underdevelopment like Poland syndrome, scoliosis, etc.; and because I am within my safe BMI weight range I am “normal” and thus a Standard BT1 according to doctors. And that is that.

Obesity is defined as having an excessive amount of body fat/too much fat on your body — NOT as weighing too much — yet most people fail to realize this fact.

The thing is, when I am well within my safe Standard BMI, I do not feel good too often. Like so many other people in the world. I had a battery of different doctors poke and prod me, testing everything they could to figure out why I did not feel good — heartburn, stomach issues, depression, headaches, aches, pains, twitches, etc. — but they could find nothing wrong and sent me home with acid reflux meds. Never mind all the obvious skinny fat all over my body, because I am within my safe BMI, which is the standard.

I was/am totally “normal” and healthy. No diagnosed hormone imbalances or physical abnormalities or the like of any kind. Yet the normal weight obesity including cellulite and thin fat is painfully obvious where there should be muscle everywhere on my body; legs, thighs, stomach, arms, back, etc.

How Mainstream Scientists & Doctors Explain Skinny Fat/Normal Weight Obesity When Within Safe BMI

When I asked the doctors why they shook it off with no real response other than some people just have more skinny fat than others. Well, that simply does not add up. They cannot say in one breath that everyone looks like the Standard Body Type One (BT1) when within their safe Standard BMI weight range and then say in the next breath that not every totally “normal” and healthy person looks identical to the Standard Body Type One (BT1).

The very existence of normal weight obesity (too much/excess fat on your body even when within safe BMI) completely contradicts the definition of the BMI which states that once within safe BMI you no longer have excess fat on your body.

But, alas, that is exactly what they did and still do say to this very day. Which, again, makes zero sense. This is the main reason why the Standard BMI is inaccurate and experiences so much controversy; it fails to calculate skinny fat. Another reason the BMI is inaccurate is it is possible to have excess muscle/mass and be in the overweight or obese column of your BMI, but you are not overweight or obese (like Dwayne Johnson, “The Rock”).

Scientific Standards – Body Mass Index (BMI)

Moreover, I actually physically felt the best in my life when I reached at least 270 pounds, well outside my safe BMI weight range in the obese column. But mentally and emotionally I hated how I looked — obese. And knowing the serious health risks and costs of the disease of obesity, remaining obese was not an option.

As a scientist, science must have proper standards — more specifically, an approved scientific standard to accurately calculate what a safe weight range is for each person. Unfortunately, inaccurate is the best we can do right now. The Standard BMI is imperfect because not all human bodies are identical to the Standard Body Type One (BT1).

Why? Because it is a fact that any part of the human body can be genetically underdeveloped or undeveloped, including muscles/mass and vertebrae/posture (spinal extension). And for so many like myself, in place of that genetically missing muscle/mass is skinny fat.

The Imperfect Body Mass Index (BMI) & Body Type Science/The Four Body Types Research

Yes, BMI is imperfect, but is still a roughly viable scientific standard that we can and will improve and make more accurate. Without the BMI I would have absolutely no sense at all of what my rough, safe weight range is. The Four (4) Body Types (genetic scientific body type) Body Type Science research data offers the means to make the BMI standard more accurate by including skinny fat and excess muscle/mass in the calculation. We have progressed far enough along to shed real, valuable light on why there are so many different body types and shapes, and why there are countless people like me who struggle with skinny fat, no matter how diligent I am with my diet, exercise, and lifestyle nor how hard I work.

Fellow One Research’s Body Type Science Theory also allows for a better understanding of the obesity paradox, which, although rare, indicates that, especially in some older adults, being relatively obese actually can improve their health. It also helps explain normal weight obesity as well as metabolically healthy obese (MHO), which is defined as being obese but having healthy vital signs including blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, and A1C (blood sugar).

The Four Body Types and Scientific Body Type Quiz utilize a diverse array of science-based variables including diet, exercise, lifestyle, metabolism/BMR, BMI, skinny fat, regular fat, hormones, and genetics/DNA, no less, to reckon and scientifically assess and understand your body type shape and overall health.