For further information: BMI and musculature) and the application limits it entails (it should not be used for the evaluation of children and elite athletes), today the simple BMI is partially replaced by more accurate and innovative estimation methods, but certainly less practical.
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The normal range of the BMI (18.5-24.9 kg / m2) is wide precisely as a function of the subjective differences related to the physical structure of the population. As anticipated, the calculation of the BMI does not take into account muscle mass (greater , for example, in men and young people compared to women and the elderly), much less the differences regarding bone mass and the proportion between limb length and height.
To obtain greater accuracy it is however possible to integrate the BMI with the assessment of the constitution and morphological type - see below.
This does not mean that there are women and elderly people with higher muscle volumes and lower fat mass than most men and young people. This is why the BMI assessment should not be used to estimate a subject's weight too precisely and accurately, but simply to identify the risk index associated with overweight and underweight.
of the non-dominant arm with a metric tape; the value is contextualized within a grid, differentiated between males and females, and identifying the condition of: normal, robust, slender.
The morphological type, on the other hand, is calculated by dividing the stature (in centimeters) by the value of the constitution, and this result is also contextualized within a separate table between men and women. The operation allows to identify the condition of: normal, short-limbed, long-limbed.
By associating constitution and morphological type, comparing it to a "further evaluation grid, the desirable physiological BMI is obtained. This obviously does not apply to underweight and overweight, as they allow to identify the abnormal condition regardless of these two variables.
