The medical professional encouraged getting regular health checks
People have been encouraged to get regular health checks(Image: Getty)
A dietician has warned people against over-relying on a single metric when assessing your health. Evan Lynch, registered dietitian and director of Nutrition in Europe for global nutrition Brand AG1, encouraged everyone to get regular health check-ups.
This include getting your blood pressure and blood work done “at least annually” while he said it’s also a good idea to “periodically” measures both your weight and your BMI (Body Mass Index). If you know your weight, you can calculate your BMI yourself online. There is a tool on the NHS website you can use to work this out.
If you have a higher BMI, you may be more at risk of developing certain health conditions associated with being overweight or obese, such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes. But Mr Lynch warned that although it is a good metric, you shouldn’t rely on this number alone to get a picture of your overall health.
He said: “Body mass index is a tool widely used in healthcare and research settings to help gauge the level of adiposity (bodyfat) that an individual may have. It is something I use in practice and BMI is central to patient evaluation for obesity risk and malnutrition screening and is used in a threshold manner for some medications and medical procedures.”
‘Every individual is different’
Pointing out some of the drawbacks of the measure, he said: “It is true that BMI is not perfect, it doesn’t account for muscle mass and can be manipulated easily by fluid retention, glycogen levels etc. It also, like all measurements used to assess our physical attributes, is a standalone measure, and cannot alone depict trends in measurement.
“Further to this, BMI cannot assess for visceral fat, and someone with a normal BMI may not have an accurate depiction of their health if they use this metric alone. Every individual is different and the ideal measurement tool (DEXA or Bodpod) is pragmatically replaced with metrics like BMI or weight.”
However, the health expert said BMI remains a useful quick proxy measure for most people. Mr Lynch said: “I would encourage people to keep track of their weight & BMI, not too often, but periodically, and in addition to this, it is equally important to get your annual check ups, to get your blood pressure and blood work done at least annually. Whilst increasing BMI is associated with greater health risk in most cases (and BMI’s that drop increasingly below 18.5), this alone should never solely be used to get a clear clinical picture of someone’s health.
“Relying on BMI alone is like trying to read a book by only looking at just one page: it may be informative, but it is far from complete. I would encourage those seeking to assess their bodyfat levels to invest in a BIA scale and/or conduct waist circumference measurements, these may give you more individual insights about your body composition.”
