As a five-foot-three weightlifter, I am considered overweight. But when I look in the mirror, I don’t see an unhealthy person. I see a strong and athletic person. So then why am I considered overweight? Well, the BMI chart says so. Only taking my weight and height into consideration, makes me overweight. This math equation created in the 1830s doesn’t take age, sex, race, or activity level into any kind of consideration. So why do millions of doctors worldwide still use this simple equation?

This two-step mathematical “solution” to obesity is simple and very inexpensive. So that is why we are still using this today. But BMI isn’t taking any critical information into thought. Such as age. In my opinion, age is something that we need to take into account when trying to decide if someone is overweight or not. There are many different body types in adults and children. I know that there might be people in this world that look overweight but are active on a daily basis and vice versa. There might be people that look healthy on the outside but on the inside, they are not healthy whatsoever. The BMI chart doesn’t take your gender into consideration either. As a female, I know that men have a higher bone density and muscle mass genetically speaking. So why do men and women use the same chart to decipher their overall obesity level?

If the medical industry is so high-tech now, why can’t we start using a more efficient way to measure obesity? We can start using more accurate measuring tools such as waist-to-hip ratio. Still like the BMI, not taking a lot of critical information into thought. This simple measurement tool takes the circumference of your waist and hips and that equation determines the amount of body fat around your midsection. Another way we can get a more accurate measurement of body fat is by using a smart scale. A smart scale is something that sends a group of sensors throughout your body to get a close estimate of the amount of body fat in your body. In my opinion, using methods such as those would be a lot more accurate and I’m sure a lot of people would agree.

Many people around the world have different body types. Some people may be super strong athletes and weigh a lot more than you would expect even though they are extremely active and healthy. Such as Mattie Rogers. She is an All-American Olympic weightlifter that has placed four times at the World Weightlifting Championships. Mattie Rogers standing at five feet seven inches and weighing about 87 kilograms puts her BMI at 30.1. So that means she is considered obese. “Obese: abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.” says the World Health Organization. When I look at a picture of Mattie Rogers, obese would be nowhere near the category I put her in. She is a strong muscular female athlete and that just goes to show how messed up this chart can be. I don’t think that an American Record Holder weightlifter such as Mattie should be considered at a life-threatening weight.

There are many different body types around the world. People can look healthy but do nothing but sit on the couch and eat potato chips all day. Or you might look bigger and when you step on the scale you might be “bigger” but you have a healthy diet and workout 5 days a week. Each person has a different way to process food, workouts, etc. But letting a simple equation define if we are perfect or at a life-threatening stage is not right. We need a more sophisticated and more accurate way to measure this. So with your help, we can help push our medical professionals to use more accurate measuring devices.