Is this woman fat?
In Monday’s ‘Hormone Diet’ blog we mentioned how we often get tagged on stuff on Facey – we got loads of people pointing out last weeks ‘news’ about the lady who was told, by a nurse, that she was overweight and needed to eat less and do more exercise.
Here she is, if you haven’t seen this already: https://metro.co.uk/2014/03/26/a-picture-of-obesity-nhs-tells-bodybuilder-she-must-lose-weight-and-exercise-more-4679903/
Now, this isn’t going to be, in any way, a rip on nurses (or doctors).
They do a great job under very difficult circumstances.
But it seems an opportune moment to have a look at BMI.
If you don’t already know, BMI stands for Body Mass Index.
It’s calculated by dividing someone’s weight in kilos by the height in metres squared.
Eg: I am just over 6’2” and about 14 ½ stone – 1.89m and 93kg.
So my BMI is 93 / 1.89 / 1.89.
Or just over 26.
Which puts me in the overweight category.
At 9% body fat.
12 years in the fitness industry have led me to believe that BMI isn’t a great predictor of ‘fat levels’, or health, for anyone.
Many people find when they start with us that their actual weight (and therefore BMI) doesn’t drop as much as they expected.
As they had low muscle and bone density before.
As most people do.
But as they get slimmer, more toned, stronger and healthier.
Their muscle and bone density goes up.
Not big muscles, like body builders, like.
But denser ones.
BMI rarely tells someone something they don’t already know.
If someone does have too much body fat, they’ve noticed.
Whatever their BMI is or isn’t, they are aware that they are fatter then they’d like to / should be.
And if their body fat isn’t too high (as in this case) but the BMI says otherwise, what does that achieve?
Most modern research shows BMI isn’t an accurate predictor of any health issues, either.
Heart disease, cancer, etc.
Infact most research says you’re better, from a health perspective, being overweight (25-30 – not obese, 30+) than the lower end of ‘Normal’ (18.5 – 25).
There is an assessment I always used to like, which seems to have gone out of fashion.
‘Pinch an inch’.
If you can pinch an area of body fat over one inch (25mm) then you have more body fat than is ideal.
And you’d benefit from getting it down to an inch or less.
Simples!
Or looking in the mirror.
Or photos.
If you don’t like what you see, then change it.
It’s not that simple, of course, but just giving you a couple of methods that are both simpler and more effective than BMI is a good start.
Much love,
Jon ‘BAMF’ Hall and Matt ‘BAGGKYKO’ Nicholson
