Why BMI shouldn't be the measurement of health

Trigger warning: I'm going to talk about weight and data. But I think you'll want to hear this — especially as the holidays approach.

So you know the BMI, aka the Body Mass Index? That system that every doctor and personal trainer uses to assess your body fat and therefore how "in shape" you are? It's completely bogus.

A 19th-century mathematician created the BMI to help the government measure the obesity rate of the general population. Critically, he said the BMI should not be used to gauge how fat an individual person is. What's more, he created the standards for BMI using a pool of 7,000 European men. Do you see the problem here?

It gets more ridiculous, friends. Because bone is denser than muscle and twice as dense as fat, a person with strong bones, good muscle tone, and low fat will have a high BMI. And yet, the CDC continues to use BMI to track obesity rates nationwide.

I bring this all up for two reasons. One, as an innovator, I know that what we create is only as good as our data. If we have the wrong numbers, we'll make bad and, in this case, potentially dangerous decisions. Doctors, trainers, and public health experts shouldn’t be using the BMI as THE indicator to make decisions about people's health.

And two, as a woman who's above what is considered “normal” BMI, I get what it's like to have BMI be a focus of conversations with doctors or to feel like jean size is critical to successful weight. I work hard to eat healthily and move my body, even if my BMI says otherwise. I am proud of what my body has gotten me through, particularly in the last two years. We are living in one of the toughest times in humanity. I am a full-time executive, a mom to two young kids, a wife to a partner who also works full time, and a caregiver to a parent. That I'm still here, strong and with a fighting spirit, is worth celebrating.

That's why, this holiday season, I'm not going to fret about BMI or weight gain. I'm going to savor my cake. And I hope you'll do the same.