BMI is known to be a bad measure for outliers (e.g. bodybuilders) and just a ballpark rather than exact but for most people there's a pretty decent correlation between BMI and body fat percentage or whatever you prefer.

BMI is a fairly decent measure for folks who don't work out or otherwise build excess muscle. And since that's _most_ Americans, BMI is a good starting point to use when judging health fitness.

So what is a better measure ?

BFP is the real deal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index#Limitations

(however the statistics on BMI vs mortality as still completely valid)

Great now let's figure out how to measure BFP across the entire population the way we can with BMI. Every guide i've seen either uses expensive displacement equipment or trained professionals with calipers. That doesn't scale nearly as well as a height / weight calculation

> Great now let's figure out how to measure BFP across the entire population the way we can with BMI

I never said that. I said the opposite.

Waistline to height ratio measures unhealthy weight better than BMI.

For anyone who isn't a bodybuilder and is between 5'0 and 6'3 BMI is a pretty damn good estimate.

Use height to the 2.5th power as the denominator rather than height squared.