BMI & Muscle Verses Fat

Since I started exercising and lifting weights three years ago, I have gained weight.  Yes, gained weight.  After the first six months of exercising, my weight dropped about twenty pounds and hovered for a year.  Then my weight started to climb and has seemed to plateau at an unhappy 300 pounds.  This has concerned me greatly.

I visit my doctor for checkups every three months and a continuing theme of concern is my weight.  He has always told me not to worry about my weight, but to keep doing what I was doing.  His point was that my health was improving even though my weight was increasing.  I pointed out that the BMI (Body Mass Index) puts me in the Obese category.  As shown below, the Average BMI squarely places me into a nasty place showing I should be under 200 pounds.  Not good!

My doctor informed me that the BMI does not take into a number of factors about a person and it is just a swag of the Caucasian section of the US population.  He pointed out that I have a long torso, short legs, and a larger than normal frame.  In addition, it did not take into account all of the measurement.  So I left satisfied with this information.


However, my medical insurance carrier recently started to judge me based upon BMI and gave me a low score.  I'm not sure if it affects my rates, but they must be doing something with it for why would they make me take this test.  As such, I dug further and found a different BMI chart for body builders which is below.

Compared to this new BMI, I am dead-on in all measurements, showing I'm about six pounds over-weight.  My Body Dimensions as of this morning are as follows: Neck 19.5”, Chest 55”, Bicep 21.5”, Forearm 15”, Wrist 8.5” Waist/Belly 48”, Hips 52”, Thigh 31.5”, Knees 17.5”, Calves 18.75”, Ankles 11".  The only areas where I need work is my waist and hips which I have been focusing upon.

In addition, we have to consider that muscle density is 1.06 g/ml and fat density is (about) 0.9 g/ml. Thus, one liter of muscle would weight 1.06 kg and one liter of fat would weight 0.9 kg.  In other words, fat takes up a lot more room than muscle and the BMI does not account for this fact.

So with that all discovered, if you are struggling because your BMI is showing you to be obese, don't worry, keep going and don't stop.   I'm going to contact my medical insurance carrier and set things straight.  And I'm going to continue my exercise and lose that remaining fat.