This blew my mind!

[dustbunny2]

Healthy Redefined Part 1: Measuring the Obesity Crisis | BEAUTY REDEFINED

I hope the linked worked, I'm not super computer savvy. Anywho...

This article blew my mind. I knew BMI isn't the best measurement for health, especially for men, but number 8 was crazy. In one day, you went from normal to overweight.

 

[Trixoo]

I think BM is such a travesty. I had lab testing several years ago (before I started doing Cathe level strength training). It was the kind where you're dunked in a tank of water on a kind of hoist that weighs you under water (I was at a place with a kinesiology lab and some graduate students needed a subject, lucky me!). I breathed into tubes, etc. They also did the more routine stuff like fat caliper testing, etc. Based on their findings, I know how much every component of my body weighs, at least for my body at that time.

If you add up my bones, water and muscle, and then assume I have not gained ANY muscle from STS or any of my other fitness adventures, I am allowed to have 5 whole pounds of fat on my entire body. And yet I am constantly advised by medical professionals to become a "healthy BMI". They do not tell me I am unhealthy or that I appear unfit or overweight, but it's still something for which I should strive. Sadly, if I ever did, I would very likely suffer debilitating side effects, possibly death, since 5 pounds of body fat (possibly no body fat at this point since I'm positive I've gained many pounds of muscle in the intervening years) might not be sufficient to support life in a person of my size.

Boo to BMI!!!

 

[L Sass]

Based on my BMI, my doc told me, looking at NOTHING else, that I am borderline obese. I found a new doc.

 

[jacmar]

My question is why is this test still around???

 

[Trixoo]

Perhaps because it's easy for patients to understsand, for physicians to use for entry level assessments, and, perhaps most cynically and accurately, for insurance companies to use to make insurance/premium decisions. Think how much more they can charge for premiums if they think you're an unhealthy weight. Many more people are considered at an unhealthy weight using BMI than other assessments.

However, in fairness to medical professionals, other forms of measurements, even easy ones like fat calipers, take more time and effort (and it's therefore more expensive, as well, which is something to consider in a medical system with finite resources). The way physicians are being squeezed in terms of time per patient (let alone reimbursement), I can see why some might rely almost exclusively on BMI.

LSass, I'm with you, although I don't have nearly as much muscle as you! No matter what I do, I'm "overweight" according to the BMI. Not if one measures my body fat percentage, though. Sigh.

 

[missyt]

This is crazy.....i work in a medical practice....and last year united healthcare made all state employees do a physical...the physicans had to put bmi/ and weight on the form and fax to them. They want to see if the patients were overweight.....

 

[momof10]

Based on my BMI, my doc told me, looking at NOTHING else, that I am borderline obese. I found a new doc.

Wow, you are one of the leanest women I know. That is unreal!!

 

[RapidBreath]

This is crazy.....i work in a medical practice....and last year united healthcare made all state employees do a physical...the physicans had to put bmi/ and weight on the form and fax to them. They want to see if the patients were overweight.....

Wow, talk about a grievous breach of hipa. Whoa nelly.

 

[lala1]

In addition to the misuse of BMI I heartily agree with the author that this is not an obesity crisis as much as it is about "health of all sorts". The media have convinced so many women to be unhappy with our bodies. "fat-shaming/thin-ideal-promoting media have also flourished, with female body image hitting an all-time low. With lost self-esteem, lost money and time spent fixing “flaws”.

I think it is very telling that as "obesity" rates have climbed so have Eating Disorders. It is hard to fight against what society throws in our faces day in and day out. I appreciate so many people on this forum who have a realistic outlook on health.

 

[Stebby]

My BMI also puts me in the "overweight" category. My doctor mentioned that to me a couple of years ago, as she read a BMI chart, tracing her finger across it. Then she said, kind of absently, "Why would it say that? Do you really weigh that much? Did I read the number wrong?" I said, no, she read it right, that's pretty much what I weigh on every scale, then she said, "Don't worry about it then, you're fine. It isn't accurate for a lot of people, and you're one of them." Then she told me the story about these health measures coming out of the insurance industry! It was a good discussion and very validating for me.

Stebby