BMI wrong

[pmassara]

OK folks question?

I am 5' 11" 228lbs and Fitbit is saying that my BMI is 31.8 percent.

Thing is I am an avid avid avid gym rat and very muscular. My BMI rated by my training staff is from 8-12 percent given any time during my weight gaining cycle or cutting cycles.

I lift 5 times a week and do cardio at least 3-5 minimum 45 minutes a week. Doing to both interval and steady state cardio... I am in great shape!

In a nut shell I feel this purchase was a mistake and not aiming toward my demographic of consumer....

Any thoughts and or input would be great as I think this may have been a waste of money...

Thanks

[LZeeW]

BMI is just a relationship between height and weight.  It says NOTHING about body composition. 

I think the number they are giving you is Percent Body Fat.  8-12% is in the range of very athletic men.

You probably don't have a visible fat cell on your body.

Ignore your BMI.  Is doesn't apply to fit, athletic people like you.

[Colinm39]

@pmassaraI agree with @LZeeW . I have to ignore BMI, and I'm not athletic, because I have had my bone structure medically measured and I'm heavy boned. There is plenty on the web if you Google the keywords athletic BMI chart. It is all very vague and the recommendation is caliper measurement for fat.

BMI is a doctors measure for the average person indicating potential health issues.

Congratulations on your fitness level, and the Fitbit is a tool to keep our minds on activity, and the way you are progressing, the Fitbit is not your tool because you are already achieving your levels of fitness.

On a lighter side, at my age I'm taking swimming lessons for my bad back and the instructor had us doing face down star floats, and I could not keep my legs on the surface, my feet kept touching the bottom of the swimming pool. The answer "You legs are too muscly, hardly any fat on your legs and we need fat to float".

Thank you Fitbit.....

[pmassara]

Thank you for the feedback all and will keep this in mind... Take care!!!

[Angelikavcc]

There must be something wrong with the BMI reading on the Fitbit scale.

It was evaluated at my doctors office with a very sophisticated instrument, and it said: 24%

I am lean and weigh 61 kg....work out and have nice muscle definition.

When I started with the scale one week ago it logged 27%  and as I lost a pound and did some haevy training, now it's up to 29, 1/2 %   That just cannot be.

Is there anything else that the scale does beside measuring weight and BMI?

For the price it should do more.

Just a bit disappointed 😞

Angelikavcc

[Marcy]

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@Angelikavcc wrote:

There must be something wrong with the BMI reading on the Fitbit scale.

It was evaluated at my doctors office with a very sophisticated instrument, and it said: 24%

I am lean and weigh 61 kg....work out and have nice muscle definition.

When I started with the scale one week ago it logged 27%  and as I lost a pound and did some haevy training, now it's up to 29, 1/2 %   That just cannot be.

Is there anything else that the scale does beside measuring weight and BMI?

For the price it should do more.

Just a bit disappointed 😞

Angelikavcc

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You are confusing BMI and Body Fat %.  Your doctor and the scale are measuring Body Fat %.  Yes, it's possible for Body Fat % to go up with some weight loss as not all weight loss is fat loss.  

[Dominique]

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@Angelikavcc wrote:

When I started with the scale one week ago it logged 27%  and as I lost a pound and did some haevy training, now it's up to 29, 1/2 %   That just cannot be.

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Short-term fluctuations in weight (whether up or down) are often a gain/loss of water weight. Water is part of your lean mass, so if you experience water weight loss, the relative share of your fat mass will increase, even if you aren't getting any "fatter".

Someone had the same concern as you last June. See his update 10 months later. You should focus on longer-term trends, not short-term fluctuations. Keep doing the right things (eat less, move more) and you will see results, eventually. One week is just too short to make any conclusions.

[marzekiel]

I am 5'3 and weigh 121 so I feel your pain! Fitbit calculated that my BMI is 32.5 which is crazy. 

I found a BMI convertor online, which says my BMI is 121.4

This is how I changed it:

Go to your weight page

Bottom page where you can manually insert weight

Add your weight AND your BMI press enter.

Delete (x out) erroneous BMIS
I didn't test to see if I could have edited them.

[Dominique]

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@marzekiel wrote:

I am 5'3 and weigh 121 so I feel your pain! Fitbit calculated that my BMI is 32.5 which is crazy. 

I found a BMI convertor online, which says my BMI is 121.4.

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Probably a typo: at 5’3/121, your BMI is not 121.4, it is 21.4.