What Is The “Cinderella Challenge”?

I weighed in on the Cinderella Challenge and BMI in this article for Bustle:

We’ve long known that BMI numbers can be misleading. “BMI is not a terrific measure of health specifically because it does not take body composition into consideration,” says Feller. “For example, when someone is muscular, the calculations can be overestimated. Age, gender, ethnicity, [and] physical activity are also not generally considered when someone plugs their data into a BMI calculator.”

Perhaps most importantly, however, is this: “Every body is different,” stresses Feller. “We cannot all be measured against the same standard. Young women in particular are at risk for engaging in unhealthy and restrictive food related behaviors based on BMI outcome. Popular culture tends to promote unrealistic images of beauty and health. And BMI should never be the only clinical tool used as a measure of one’s health.” Indeed, according to a study of 40,420 adults in the United States published by researchers working out of the University of California, Los Angeles in 2016, if BMI is used as the only measure of health, it would misclassify nearly 75 million adults. That’s nearly a quarter of the entire U.S. population.

Read the full article here.