When you were screened at your last checkup, your doctor may have classified you as healthy, overweight or obese based on your body mass index (BMI). Insurance companies consider a person’s BMI when deciding if they’re eligible for coverage for things like dietary counseling, weight-loss meds and bariatric surgery. But you may be surprised to learn that what we know today as BMI was actually invented by a white man nearly 200 years ago.
A Belgian mathematician named Adolphe Quetelet is credited with coming up with the measurement in the 1830s. BMI is determined by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height. And because it’s easy to calculate, everyone from doctors to life insurance companies got with the idea of using BMI as a screening tool to determine whether or not a person is at risk for obesity.
A Belgian mathematician named Adolphe Quetelet is credited with coming up with the measurement in the 1830s. BMI is determined by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height. And because it’s easy to calculate, everyone from doctors to life insurance companies got with the idea of using BMI as a screening tool to determine whether or not a person is at risk for obesity.
No comments:
Post a Comment