Posted on 07/15/2013 9:39:52 AM PDT by fwdude
In my efforts to be prepared for the civil unrest that is undoubtedly coming, I'm on a mission to get into better shape in my early fifties, and have revisited the health measure called Body Mass Index (BMI.) Just needing the input from some of you who agree or disagree with this seemingly arbitrary calculation.
It seems to be absolutely ridiculous to me in one sense. In my healthiest lean days I was still considered "overweight" according to the BMI calculation. Now, I'm considered "obese," when anyone looking at me would never describe me as such. If I got down just to the high end of the acceptable weight range, I would look like a famine-ravished Ethiopian.
The calculation for BMI:
BMI = mass(lbs)/height²(in.) x 703
The interpretation charts follows:
BMI below 18.5 is underweight, from 18.5-24.9 is normal, 25-29.9 is overweight, and 30 and over is "obese."
Are there other qualifying factors I should consider when looking at my raw BMI rating? These raw numbers seem bogus to me.
Thanks, health FReepers.
LOL! I know what you mean.
Try calculating what your weight should be for the middle of “normal” and let me know. I haven’t weighed that since the 6th grade!!!
I wonder if any FReepers would be interested in doing a weight loss group on here. A little mutual support / competition can be helpful.
If you wear anything over a size 0, you’re overweight these days.
Oh, the weapons angle is well covered. But endurance requires a trained, healthy body.
Even expert marksmen work out.
A few years ago, lean and mean and running a lot before my now-68 yr. old knees gave out, and lifting weights (41” chest, 32” waist), with hardly any real fat on me, my BMI was 26.25.
Supposedly, I was overweight.
Yeah. Maybe 1 lb.
Since I'm in the midst of mine, I'm game. I'm trying South Beach, which has really been effective on the weight side. Not as radical as Adkins, and not as boring either.
There’s different situations for not having a firearm in the home. I’m in Brooklyn, NY and have no means of moving to a more freedom-oriented state and town.
Completely unreliable. The basics for it come from the same set of scientists trying to “prove” the same things as phrenology. Why modern scientists picked it up is kind of inexplicable, but it’s a silly idea.
Try calculating what your weight should be for the middle of normal and let me know. I havent weighed that since the 6th grade!!!
I would need to quit lifting, quit eating, and dehydrate myself like a prune in order to make it to median normal. I wrestled 189 and 198 in HS, and I had to cut over 20 lbs to make weight each season - and it wasn't fat! Gym rats unite - the BMI is absurd!
I’m considered to be high normal. I think the BMI does not distinguish fat from muscle and bone.
I wish I was as fat as these guys.
Especially Apollo Creed...
Yes, BMI is seriously flawed as it is used today. The equation to calculate BMI is the work of a man named Ancel Keyes. Keys (ahem) borrowed the work of a 1800s-era Belgian mathemetician, where the formula was to be used in studying large populations. Keys’ graduate studies also involved sizing the total of fishery catches by measuring length and girth of individual fish.
You see where this is going?
We are not fish, and there is considerable variance across the breadth of humanity. Using BMI as a ironclad diagnostic tool when applied to individuals borders on quackery.
Here in MD, the Johns Hopkins group is slavishly devoted to BMI. It’s as if their doctors are required to bow and genuflect at a little shrine to Keyes before they begin their rounds.
This Keyes fellow is certainly a mixed bag. He is purported to be the inventor of the K-Ration, named after him.
Using BMI, most safeties and running backs in the NFL are obese, or close to it. BMI is garbage for people who lift weights.
Something funny about the picture I just noticed.
Arnold while being a big muscular guy is actually kind of short at only 5’7”. The other guys are all likely well over 6’
Look closely, the picture is taken on a hill and Arnold is standing back and up it in order to make himself (the star of movie) appear taller than everyone else.
He’s so far back you can’t see his legs & feet between the other guy in front of him (who no doubt was put there and squatting precisely to hide Arnold’s diminutive statue).
Well, I was at his inauguration for Governor and my recollection was that he was taller than me and I’m 5’-9”.
When you buy a pair of pants, is the waist measurement larger than your inseam? If so, lose weight.
That is a good idea. I was really fat, but started a diet and as of now I have lost exactly 100 pounds, 30 pounds left to go but they are going to be a b#tch.
I don’t know about that. I’m a 32-30 and need to gain weight if anything.
Well done! I have about 30 to lose too. I lost them last year but I “found” them again after I started a new job.
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