General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Samoa Air has become the world's first airline to implement "pay as you weigh" [View all]Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)If we lived in a one dimensional world, it would be science. BMI reduces the comparison of weight to just one dimension, Height. Humans are three dimensional beings and have width and depth in addition to height. I'm not talking about layers of fat, I'm talking skeletal dimensions. Pacific Islanders trend towards shorter and barrel chests. East Africans trend tall and narrow. The notion that the weight per inch of height between the two being even remotely comparable is ridiculous.
In addition, it is based on actuarial data, that is, information on people when they died. If one didn't die a sudden death, one typically wastes away to some extent or another at the end of life. I know very few people who were healthy when they died. Once they come up with a measure of living three dimensional people, rather than one dimensional corpses, then they have something useful.
That said, there are a lot of people carrying around too much weight, but no where near as much as BMI would suggest