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deckardcanineAdolphe Quetelet was a mid-19th-century
Belgian in multiple scientist fields.
He made an eponymous index in search of
The average man as a social ideal.
This index was not called the body mass index
Till nearly a century after he died.
By then, it was favored for medical usage,
In essence a rough adiposity guide.
In light of its origin, one may well wonder
Why doctors still use BMI to this day.
Indeed, many people have said it’s a poor
Rule of thumb that should really be fading away.
For starters, dividing your weight by the square of
Your height makes no sense if you’re not fully flat,
So tall and short people aren’t fairly assessed,
And it makes no distinction twixt muscle and fat.
What’s more, Quetelet based his formula mostly
On data from soldiers of Scotland and France.
It ought to be different for others, especially
Black folks. Do they get called healthy? Fat chance.
A bunch of alternatives have been proposed.
Quetelet even offered a change of his own.
The “new BMI” has a 2.5 exponent,
Scaled to be close to the mean that we’ve known.
The corpulence, Rohrer’s, or ponderal index
Just swaps out the square for a cube. Fair enough?
But tall people tend to be narrow in frame
Next to short folk. Determining fairness is tough.
The BMI Prime compares actual stats with
The threshold beyond which one’s deemed overweight.
Some doctors will focus on visceral fat,
So they measure the waistline (an obvious trait).
A Body Shape Index includes many factors,
The Surface-based Body Shape Index still more.
The modified body mass index has serum
Albumin involved, but don’t ask me what for.
In short, if you don’t trust the most common method,
There’s plenty to choose from for gauging your risk
Of health problems stemming from excess of fat
(Tho some claim the connection just doesn’t exist).
Belgian in multiple scientist fields.
He made an eponymous index in search of
The average man as a social ideal.
This index was not called the body mass index
Till nearly a century after he died.
By then, it was favored for medical usage,
In essence a rough adiposity guide.
In light of its origin, one may well wonder
Why doctors still use BMI to this day.
Indeed, many people have said it’s a poor
Rule of thumb that should really be fading away.
For starters, dividing your weight by the square of
Your height makes no sense if you’re not fully flat,
So tall and short people aren’t fairly assessed,
And it makes no distinction twixt muscle and fat.
What’s more, Quetelet based his formula mostly
On data from soldiers of Scotland and France.
It ought to be different for others, especially
Black folks. Do they get called healthy? Fat chance.
A bunch of alternatives have been proposed.
Quetelet even offered a change of his own.
The “new BMI” has a 2.5 exponent,
Scaled to be close to the mean that we’ve known.
The corpulence, Rohrer’s, or ponderal index
Just swaps out the square for a cube. Fair enough?
But tall people tend to be narrow in frame
Next to short folk. Determining fairness is tough.
The BMI Prime compares actual stats with
The threshold beyond which one’s deemed overweight.
Some doctors will focus on visceral fat,
So they measure the waistline (an obvious trait).
A Body Shape Index includes many factors,
The Surface-based Body Shape Index still more.
The modified body mass index has serum
Albumin involved, but don’t ask me what for.
In short, if you don’t trust the most common method,
There’s plenty to choose from for gauging your risk
Of health problems stemming from excess of fat
(Tho some claim the connection just doesn’t exist).