Petition · past parliament
Abolish the outdated BMI chart when weighing and measuring school age children.
Closed
568 signatures
What the petition asks
This system doesn't help the UK's obesity problem it just serves to misdiagnose and confuse, often destroying self esteem in the process. It doesn't take into account bone density, muscle mass, water or fat we carry.
We need to be looking at the individual and the whole picture, not just weight.
We need to be looking at the individual and the whole picture, not just weight.
http://www.noo.org.uk/NOO_about_obesity/measurement
The chart diagnosed my healthy 4 year old son as obese. The same chart lead to my anorexia 23 years ago which saw my weight plummet to less than 4 stone. We need to find another method or risk the self esteem of thousands of our children unnecessarily. As an opt out scheme, not all children are even included in the statistics, so those that need the help the most may be excluded anyway. It is a poor, outdated use of government resources.
The chart diagnosed my healthy 4 year old son as obese. The same chart lead to my anorexia 23 years ago which saw my weight plummet to less than 4 stone. We need to find another method or risk the self esteem of thousands of our children unnecessarily. As an opt out scheme, not all children are even included in the statistics, so those that need the help the most may be excluded anyway. It is a poor, outdated use of government resources.
Timeline
| 24 Jan 2016 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 24 Jul 2016 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
568
Status
Closed
Opened
24 Jan 2016
Closed
24 Jul 2016
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.