So, not that I think BMI is all that and a bag of chips, but a squared relation DOES actually make sense - when people gain weight they generally do it in two dimensions (they expand sideways and forwards/backwards) so you don't have to consider those dimensions as separate variables. Yes, I know, it's not monotonic and people will gain in different places first - butt, thighs, gut, whatever - but it all averages out to being the same in both horizontal dimensions, both of which are significantly smaller than the vertical dimension until we get to really extreme obesity.
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Re: This is my burning ball of fury
Date: 2008-01-10 06:51 pm (UTC)So, not that I think BMI is all that and a bag of chips, but a squared relation DOES actually make sense - when people gain weight they generally do it in two dimensions (they expand sideways and forwards/backwards) so you don't have to consider those dimensions as separate variables. Yes, I know, it's not monotonic and people will gain in different places first - butt, thighs, gut, whatever - but it all averages out to being the same in both horizontal dimensions, both of which are significantly smaller than the vertical dimension until we get to really extreme obesity.