I'm ~160, and have not seen a size 8 since high school. I tend to stay in that weird 12/14 zone where nothing fits quite right.

What else besides height/weight ratio is used to determine BMI?

Nothing. Its advantage over traditional charts is that it's not a linear (I think that's the word I mean) relationship between the two factors, but those are still the only factors.

I brought it up with my mother who lists nutritionist among the hats she wears, and she rolls her eyes at me and tells me that the BMI is not to be used in isolation, but that it has a statistical correlation to various...blahdiblahblah. Thing is, it is used in isolation, and not just by uninformed dieters. Doctors throw it around too. I got into a mini-spat with my GP because he wouldn't take my body fat percentage, and I told him I didn't want to hear anything about the BMI.

Waist/hip is a crock, too, but a smaller crock

Really? How so?

Thinking on it, waist/hip seems to be harder to change (it is for me--mine's remained remarkably constant with a variation of about 50lbs) so it might indicate various genetic tendencies to ill health, but if you can't much change it, what's its use?

Do your guys's ratios change much?

Uh oh. I just found a dance studio in my neighborhood.

Something to save up for and treat myself to. Maybe if I do well this semester...

Really? How so?

It's not enough information. You get a more accurate measurement if you also include at least the neck and even more accurate with thigh and bicep added to the mix. The big problem is getting good measurements, especially for hip and waist. Everyone isn't shaped the same so the hip measurement on one person won't be taken at the exact same spot on someone else, same with the waist. It's hard to train someone to take them properly, so you get a lot of slop in the measurements. (Spoken as the Pysical Fitness Coordinator for a couple of different commands I was attached to.)

It's not the crockness of it, so much as the lesser crockness that I'm wondering about.

How do you factor the other measurements you recommend into the equation? My hip/waist is pretty constant, as noted, and I don't think my neck changes size much, but thigh and bicep vary wildly with my weight shifts.

My oven is fixed. Apparently the door was bent, so fix-it guy just bent it back. Then he asked me if I'd been letting my dog play on the oven door while it's open.

Um. No.

I've been tracking my waist/hip ratio (among other things) as my weight has fluctuated the last couple years. My weight fluctuation has been pretty much a matter of how much fat I've got on me, much more so than muscle mass changes, and the ratio definitely goes up and down with my weight/fat %.

Then he asked me if I'd been letting my dog play on the oven door while it's open.

My kids try to climb onto the dishwasher door when I have it open all the time. However, I do not let them within four feet of me when I'm opening the oven door.

I find that an odd question. Who plays around an OVEN?

I find that an odd question. Who plays around an OVEN?

So did I. I think he was joking. He's kind of an odd fellow.