Ethnicities and Weights according to BMI?

Hello all,

I had a trainer once who told me that generally speaking, the BMI scale, is not as trustworthy when it comes to certain women of color as it would be for say Asian or Caucasian women.  While yes, factors such as build/frame, muscle, fat composition etc matter-- Latina/Middle Eastern women for instance are more susceptible to higher body fat percentages than let's say African American women (they have high muscle ratios) and/or Asian/Caucasian women (lower fat ratios).

For me personally, I"m 5'2, now weigh 163 (goal being 130), and I look HOT at this size.  But that's on the high side of my range according to the BMI.  Meanwhile I have an Asian friend who is slightly taller than me but she would be awful at that range (same frame, mind you). 

I don't know if it's because of what my former trainer said, but whenever I see Caucasian/Asian women at their ideal weights, they are a lot lighter than my Black/Latina friends.

How do you all feel about this?

BMI is not a really good indicator in general. It is used because it is easy to calculate. Much better indicator is bf%.

UD

Original Post by sheherizaad:

Latina/Middle Eastern women for instance are more susceptible to higher body fat percentages than let's say African American women (they have high muscle ratios) and/or Asian/Caucasian women (lower fat ratios).

Huh? I'm not really sure about the other races, but I'm pretty sure that Asians generally have a higher body fat percentage.

As for you finding that Caucasian/Asian women at their ideal weights to be a lot lighter than your Black/Latina friends, I think that might be more of a societal thing (ie, Caucasians and Asians are usually expected to be thinner while it's more "acceptable" for Blacks/Latinas to be "curvier").

All in all, I think BMI isn't really a good indicator of health as it doesn't take the different factors of individuals into account (body composition, frame/build). It's good for a general scale, but shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Original Post by gadzooks:

As for you finding that Caucasian/Asian women at their ideal weights to be a lot lighter than your Black/Latina friends, I think that might be more of a societal thing (ie, Caucasians and Asians are usually expected to be thinner while it's more "acceptable" for Blacks/Latinas to be "curvier").

 ^Yeah, that's pretty much came to mind while reading your post.

However, muscle could be what's throwing you off. I'm not sure what the muscle ratios are for different ethnicities,  but if African American women do have a higher muscle ratio, that would make sense.

Yep...Asians tend to have lighter and finer bones...Alot of them would be classed as over-fat at BMI's above 23 (ofcourse this could change if they started to do alot of weight-training). Ofcourse I'm just generalizing here, but having lived around Asians for some time, they do tend to have less muscle and bone mass compared to other races, hence the lighter ideal body weight. 

It's true. For Asians, a BMI above 23 is considered obese as opposed to the Caucasian BMI of 25. I would also like to dispel the rumors that Asians generally have faster metabolism and are ALL skinny. NOT TRUE. Asians suffer from obesity problems too, especially certain races whose diets are rich in saturated fat (coconut oil/palm oil/lard-based). I, for one, know that I'm genetically pre-disposed to be an endomorph, and fats get easily stored in my lower body. If I don't keep an eye on my diet and stop working out, I'll get fat like everybody else.

Probably one of the few reasons Asians (residing in Asia) generally don't easily get as fat as other races despite eating a very high-carb diet (imagine rice, porridge and noodles for EVERY MEAL...including breakfast!) could be food portion size. Most people feel that US portion sizes can feed 3 people. We also get more fiber in our diet and people like to sit down and eat home-cooked dinner with family. Microwaved/tin dinners are generally not very popular. 

The funny thing is that in a skinny-obsessed world, not all Asian races go for the skinny type. If I ask most of my male friends, 70% would prefer women with "meat" and sexy curves. They think "model-types" are unattractively anorexic (even if they're not Kate Moss or Gisele skinny). Aesthetic perception really varies for every culture.