Is the "problem" with obesity only its impact on blood pressure and cholesterol? Or does obesity also increase risk in other ways in addition to worsening those factors?
BMI is archaic and a "one shoe fits all" metric. That doesn't mean that BMI is wrong - just that you should do more detailed diagnoses with your doctor to determine your health.
If BMI is saying you're obese, then get a comprehensive metabolic panel and lipid panel with your PCP, and go from there.
The back-and-forth of this discussion about BMI is entirely predictable, but doesn't it sort of miss the point? Isn't it possible -- and I mean this sincerely, even though it's wildly simplistic -- to just look at a human and determine if they're carrying around excess fat?
A lot of times when I hear people saying that BMI doesn't account for how much they exercise, I'm looking at the person saying it and they appear unfit. On the other hand, do we need BMI to tell us that a fit person is fit? What am I missing here?
Mainly: I'm curious mostly about whether excess body fat on its own impacts cardiovascular health, or whether it does so only indirectly by increasing the risk factors this calculator uses.
Also note that you can appear perfectly thin, but have high blood pressure and cholesterol, and thus be at risk! So know your numbers. A lot of health is only revealed by what's going on within your body.