Almost half of Brazil's population is now overweight or obese

If it fails (badly) in multiple cases and is only good for a very general snapshot then yes that is hugely inaccurate. I can point a cheap camera at a forest and that is fine for a blurry image of 1000 trees but if someone asked me if it was an accurate tool to examine an individual tree Id say no.

I'm no body builder though I do go to the gym, always been large framed big boned and when I was a healthy BMI I was constantly accused of being anorexic. That would be even worse these days considering I have a bit more muscle mass.

Bodybuilders are normally classified as obese by BMI.

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Originally Posted by Imperial

Yes it is.

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No, its not "is just really innacurate" (sic). It's been said before, previous post, but it's worth repeating: it´s a useful measurement. Obviouly, it has limitations (particularly for individuals in the intermediate BMI ranges) and shortcomings.
Please read attentively,

"While our study of BMI illustrates the significant limitations in using BMI for the diagnosis of obesity, it is important to point out that the use of BMI is not without value. A BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 has an excellent specificity and positive predictive value for diagnosing obesity in both sexes. This particular finding could explain why the risk for total and cardiovascular mortality usually peaks up when BMI is ≥ 30 kg/m2 and suggests that suboptimal diagnostic performance of BMI to detect excess fat could be limited only to intermediate ranges of BMI. Body mass index should continue to be used in clinical practice to identify those at the two extremes of the body weight spectrum, those with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 who most likely have an excess in body fat, and those with a BMI < 20 kg/m2. Furthermore, BMI or plain body weight might still be the best way to evaluate changes in body fatness over time because increments on body weight or BMI most likely represents fat gain, with the exception of body builders, athletes or patients with conditions that increase the volume of third space such as heart failure, ascitis or renal failure. However, we do challenge the use of BMI to detect excess in body fat for those individuals with intermediate levels of BMI, where it fails to distinguish between excess in body fat or preserved lean mass"

Accuracy of Body Mass Index to Diagnose Obesity In the US Adult Population, previous link

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Originally Posted by Claudius Gothicus

BMI is kinda fail for individual cases or ''particular communities'' but it can work pretty effectively for general populations of which we already know their general behaviour regarding diet and exercise.

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Wouldn't it depend on how much manual work the general populations do? Since more manual work => more muscles => higher BMI => still healthy while being classified as "obese" by the BMI. For example, one'd expect a correlation between BMI and prevalence of agriculture in a country.

Hmm, but then again maybe prevalence of certain genes have a bigger impact..

There are very very few jobs that require you have muscles like a body builder to do these days. In countries that require so much manual labor, they won't have cheap access to the protein needed to big that huge.

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Originally Posted by Phier

It's a statement of fact at every international research meeting I've attended, and its been more than a few.

So pppfffft :tongue:

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I thought it was all about the Brazilian butt.

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Originally Posted by Phier

There are very very few jobs that require you have muscles like a body builder to do these days. In countries that require so much manual labor, they won't have cheap access to the protein needed to big that huge.

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It doesn't require Arnie size muscles to exceed BMI at all. It doesn't even require protein supplements.