[Caipirabob]

Of course the current scale is promoted by the same, one size fits all crowd that stands by in silence while the government promotes food pyramids focusing on high carbohydrate foods that they subsidize production for, permits borderline metabolic poisons in the form of HFCS and other terrible ingredient to be fed to generations of children and then scream "obesity epidemic!" and let self-important incompetents meddle with school lunch programs creating an intolerable environment where school children would rather go hungry.

[momtothree]

The Rock and Vin Diesel fat?!! Absurd. Lots of different body types and they are more “thick” and muscular. I bet a lot of the NFL guys (who can lift a Volvo) are considered “fat”, too. Sheesh....

[Caipirabob]

While there is an absolute need for baselines for assessing personal health, common sense and consideration for individuality must play a very large role as well. We are all different in some way, and while wild aberrations from the norm should be investigated, the individual state of health is as varied as the variety of gene pools, personal history and personal regiment that we each practice.

And yet we'll all be judged by the same measure when government completely takes over healthcare, then denied benefits based on the same assessment of health.

Ridiculous...

[Dusty Road]

I’m fixing to be 65 years old I’m 5-7 and 172, I wonder what they think I should weigh?

[blueunicorn6]

The Democrats want everyone nice and thin so that they can fit more people into the boxcars. Saves on fuel costs for them.

[Paine in the Neck]

I fell afoul of this years ago in the military. I was then fitter and stronger than anyone in my circle of contacts but the military doc, flabby, flacid, and unfit as he was, checked his tables and labeled me as obese.

[jocon307]

Yes, I gave up on paying attention to these standards when I heard that Tom Cruise was fat.

But, I myself am fat now even if Cruise and co. are still slender.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Interestingly enough, back in the 70’s in the USAF, I administered our Base fat-ass program. (a 4 month stint while my discharge was delayed).

Digging through the regs I found a section that provided for measuring biceps(the circumference). We had a body builder that was on the weight program with this exact problem. The bicep waiver got him off the program. I zerox’d the page, gave it to him so he wouldn’t get hassled anymore.

This made him very happy, but word got out, and every fat-ass in the program wanted their biceps measured after that. Their biceps weren’t near big enough.

[Yardstick]

The BMI is an ultra simplified metric that was designed to track health trends in populations. It’s basically a statistical tool. It was never intended to be meaningful when applied to individuals.

[SkiKnee]

I believe this all goes back to the Clinton administration’s HHS changing the Body Mass Index calculations. It was touted as an improved measure of health, but I understood it to be a new and exciting way for genius HHS bureaucrats to grab a little more control over the way we live our lives. Not to mention all the fun they could have creating an “Obesity Crisis!!!”

[PLMerite]

The Rock isn’t “obese,” he’s “a beast.”

[BBell]

If Dwayne Johnson went to Marine Corps boot camp when I did he would have been branded a “diet private” as the Corps used those stupid height/weight charts to determine if you needed to lose weight.