Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Hi,
How to get automatically BMI calculated in the Health app?
It knows my current weight from another app. It knows my height.
How can I get Health app to calculate my actual BMI.
iPhone 4S, iOS 8
You cannot.
Health app is designed as a repository/storage for other apps to share/exchange data.
So...
Which app does exactly that?
Take weight/length out of the Health app.
Put BMI back.
Seems like a very simple thing to do. In a complicated way.
Lots of things are simple to do. But if Apple competed with 3rd party apps people would stop creating them. Most built-in apps perform basic functions, to provide room for developers to provide enhanced services.
Radix__ wrote:
So...
Which app does exactly that?
MyFitnessPal.
But you don’t need the Health app for it to do the math.
It will do it in the app itself then write this data to the Health app.
If an app that use HealthKit needs info, it will look in Health app.
This keep from having to enter the same data in different apps.
Seems like a very simple thing to do. In a complicated way.
Why won’t my car get groceries?
I have to get in, drive to the store, get groceries, get back into car and drive home.
Sounds very complicated.
No, MyFitnessPal does not do that.
For the most part that makes fully sense, but now I need to start up a separate BMI app, to read length/weight from Health, and then write back BMI.
Seems like a simple thing to do, in a complicated way.
Radix__ wrote:
No, MyFitnessPal does not do that.
I stand corrected.
However, again, keep in mind the Health app is a repository of data for apps to store/share data.
There are a lot of very simple things it could do such as measure heart rate using the flash with your finger covering it or figure your estimated blood glucose (eAG) from you A1C but it doesn’t.
That’s it. Regardless of how simple is is to do BMI (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_BMI/index.html) , the Health app does not do it because it is not supposed to.
It is standard industry practice to not store data points that are simple calculations based on other data points. BMI is, by definition, a function of an individual's mass and height. In order to know BMI, you NEED to know weight and height, and by knowing weight and height, you can calculate BMI. There really doesn't seem to be any rational reason for BMI to be stored seperately from height and weight.
Along with not including menstrual cycles for women, it seems that Apple simply did not bother to put much thought into it.
That is perhaps a fair point.
Unless you want to track BMI in the Dashboard in the app!
Health app is not simply a repository of data, but has a display element as well. Albeit small.
For example. MyFitnessPal is great to generate nutrient data into the Health App based on foods eaten. It also tracks weight. All this data goes into Health App. Lenght is a simple manual input into Health App. BMI is just a function of those two as you rightly say. In the Health dashboard, BMI can be tracked.
The only option now is to have a separate app that reads weight/length, calculates and inputs BMI back into Health App. This BMI app would then have to be started everytime to update the BMI, after Health App has received an updated weight from MyFitnessPal. You see, a complicated way to do a simple thing.
What else is the point of BMI in Health App? Perhaps you are right and it shouldn't have been there in the first place.
I also would be interested, which app would calculate BMI and write it into healtkit taking the necessary data from healthkit if available.
I'm looking for something like that, but have been unsuccessful. Doing it manually at the moment.
Radix__ wrote:
What else is the point of BMI in Health App? Perhaps you are right and it shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Along with this, many people seem to think that Health app is far more (or should be far more) than it really is.
I don't know about other people. I just want to use the health app as a central port of holding health date and share it with different apps. I believe that's its initial intention. Let's put the possibility to use it as a dashboard for your data to the side for a moment.
If I were to use a motivational weight losing app which purpose is to send me notifications, funny facts, puts recipes into my calendar and God knows what not in order to motivate me not to eat a whole chocolate bar. This app would not track data but use the available one in health-app. If it wants to show me my bmi for some reason, why should it calculate it based on weight and height? I mean that's ok but not very clever if many apps want to use this bmi value. Why calculating it every time decentralized in each app if you can just have it once be calculated?
But I agree that health should not calculate the bmi itself. Once you start implementing logic into a database you will have a hard time finding the right point where to stop. Over time it becomes a complicated mess of a mix of purposes.
I believe the app that one would use to enter weight and height should cslculate the bmi and write it into health app. if anybody were to know such an app, please let me know. Would be interested to check it out for a dollar.
Healthkit calculate BMI automatically?
