[lbo-talk] fat and class

Matt lbo at beyondzero.net
Wed May 14 07:47:31 PDT 2003


On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 01:49:00AM -0400, Michael Pollak wrote:


> > Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30. Being
> > overweight is defined as having a BMI of 25.
>
> [and by this measure]
>
> > more than half the nation's population is overweight or obese
>
> I just ran a BMI calculation and it says I'm overweight. But I have a 32"
> waist. That just seems silly.
>
> Could this whole epidemic just be an artifact of a badly scaled
> index?

BMI is kind of a rough guide to how fat we are. People who are fit and regularly working out are exceptions, and should instead use a Body Fat Index calculation that compares various body part measurements (abdomen, neck, height on males; waist, hips, neck, height on females). Here is a calculator using the navy.mil style:

http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html


> Also has anyone ever measured whether the USA is fatter now than it was 20
> years ago on a body fat percentage basis? It looks to me as if the BMI
> would say we were getting more obese as a nation if our average body fat
> percentage stayed the same but more people had gotten bigger muscles over
> the last 20 years by working out more. The result would be that we
> weighed more per unit height -- which is basically all the BMI measures.

But exercise has been down amongst most Americans.

The best thing I've read recently about America's obesity problem is Fat Land ( http://www.salon.com/books/review/2003/01/09/fat/ ).

Matt

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