BMI is a useful population screening tool but it does have it's limitations at the outer edges of the population. Ronnie Coleman has a BMI of about 42 with a total body fat percentage of about 3%. That being said, when I have someone sitting in my office with a BMI of 42...it doesn't take an experienced bariatric surgeon to determine whether that extra weight is lean muscle mass like Ronnie Coleman, or morbid obesity like Chris Farley. People who complain about the inaccuracies of BMI generally are either a) are morbidly obese and in denial, or b) don't understand how BMI is used by physicians and nutritionists.
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