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The point Jeanette D. earlier made about the usefulness of the BMI was that it is useful. It is not useful if people take an interest in their true health and become active. At that point BMI conflates muscle and fat and becomes invalid. One solution is BFP measurements; a much more rough solution is an honest look in a mirror - it's probably okay to be big, but not to jiggle (the female breast excepted).
Reliance on the BMI outside of a select physiological set (those people who are both fat when sedentary and skinny when active) is faith based science. It ignores that muscle is denser than fat, that exercise builds muscle, and that people who are in shape are overweight according to the BMI.
The BMI is simply too unreliable for application to the population as a whole, especially since it doesn't work for people who are healthy. It says people who are skinny fat are of healthy weight, and that those who are muscular are of unhealthy weight.
It is important to take care in being aware of the meanings of measurements, and their limitations of use. Without such care, confusion over real states of affairs is engendered. The fact that BMI is only reliable after it is known how much body fat there is means that BMI is, perforce, a secondary measurement.
