Healthy Weight and Body Mass Index

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I feel like tbe only one, but I'm not a fan of her music. It's over sentimental and sounds like it's been made for an X factor montage.


BMI isn't a load of tit, I worry that a medical professional would say that. It's a measurement that for 99% of people gives a good indication. If you're a pro rugby player it is a bit of a blunt tool

It really doesn't take much to be obese on BMI. Probably half of adults are.
BMI is an arbitrary measure and it is true that medically it has dubious value as indicator of health, or even healthy weight, except at the extreme ends of the scale. It was simply used as a lazy parameter by insurance companies (to deny or increase insurance premiums) and now it is used to deny people hip and knee surgeries in the NHS which arguably leads to much higher morbidity and mortality over time than the actual weight at assessment.

Also, the “normal” range has been decreased many times, leading to what is now referred to as the “obesity epidemic” even though research shows that mean weight of the population hasn’t increased significantly since 1980s. It’s the same tactic to increase revenue within pharmaceutical sector, as arbitrarily lowering values for blood glucose and cholesterol, which has led to huge increase in prescription of blood pressure pills and statins for people who would have been seen as within normal range prior to tinkering with the numbers. Some people with certain medical conditions such as diabetes have been shown to profit from maintiaining lower values, but these tactics have led to sweeping changes across the population and many people are caught up in it, and it’s not necessarily to their benefit.

Anyway, I could go on, as I am medically qualified (and I agree with the doctor mentioned above, most doctors have deeper understanding of these issues than what can be read in newspaper headlines) and I have seen it all change over the past 20+ years. The diet industry is one of the most profitable in the world, and considering that over 90% of dieters across the board fail to keep the weight off for longer than a year or two, means that dieting and weight loss strategies have less than 10% success rate (some research shows that success rate is as low as 3%). Any other medical tretament would be abandoned based on these stats, but dieting is profitable because it locks essentially normal people, who just happen to be larger, or not fitting perfectly into narrow and arbitrary BMI standards, into cycles of dieting, spending on programmes, yo yoing, damaging their metabolisms and eventually gaining vastly more weight due to this damage, than they originally started with, while companies profit.

Media has potentiated this incredibly simplistic narrative, that BMI is be all end all, that weight loss is always good, while perpetuating images of bodies that are realistically present in less that 5% of the population. Plastic surgery, eating disorders, substance abuse and chronic dieting are all health hazards and yet they are completely normalised due to cult of beauty, and good luck dissuading anyone who’s been swallowing this propaganda for years, that it’s not all as it seems.

We can talk about healthy eating and exercise, those are worthwhile topics, as are risk factors (based on statistics) for developing disease. Being overweight, smoking, high cholesterol, family history are some of many risk factors for development of various diseases, and just because someone has a risk factor it doesn’t mean that they will get sick. Two other issues to consider when trying to understand what statistics that are generating these guidelines mean are that correlation doesn’t imply causation, and that funding is extremely selective and can be used to generate huge amounts of data in support of a certain bottom line, while ensuring no balanced research is being done, and this is exactly what‘s happened with research into obesity. I have seen this manipulation through funding first hand, and the fact research is far from impartial and used to generate profit for certain industries is a known issue in medical and science communities. Unfortunately this has gone so far now that nobody knows how to fix it, but damage done to human health is huge, if you only remember rigged research into antidepressants where millions of children ended up unnecesserily medicated.

I’m only sharing what I know, I’m not here for sniping and arguing, so you can take what I’m saying or leave it, but I urge you to research this topic using scholarly references. There’s a reason why we can’t just go and build bridges without an engineering degree, medicine is no different.
 
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BMI is an arbitrary measure and it is true that medically it has dubious value as indicator of health, or even healthy weight, except at the extreme ends of the scale. It was simply used as a lazy parameter by insurance companies (to deny or increase insurance premiums) and now it is used to deny people hip and knee surgeries in the NHS which arguably leads to much higher morbidity and mortality over time than the actual weight at assessment.

Also, the “normal” range has been decreased many times, leading to what is now referred to as the “obesity epidemic” even though research shows that mean weight of the population hasn’t increased significantly since 1980s. It’s the same tactic to increase revenue within pharmaceutical sector, as arbitrarily lowering values for blood glucose and cholesterol, which has led to huge increase in prescription of blood pressure pills and statins for people who would have been seen as within normal range prior to tinkering with the numbers. Some people with certain medical conditions such as diabetes have been shown to profit from maintiaining lower values, but these tactics have led to sweeping changes across the population and many people are caught up in it, and it’s not necessarily to their benefit.

Anyway, I could go on, as I am medically qualified (and I agree with the doctor mentioned above, most doctors have deeper understanding of these issues than what can be read in newspaper headlines) and I have seen it all change over the past 20+ years. The diet industry is one of the most profitable in the world, and considering that over 90% of dieters across the board fail to keep the weight off for longer than a year or two, means that dieting and weight loss strategies have less than 10% success rate (some research shows that success rate is as low as 3%). Any other medical tretament would be abandoned based on these stats, but dieting is profitable because it locks essentially normal people, who just happen to be larger, or not fitting perfectly into narrow and arbitrary BMI standards, into cycles of dieting, spending on programmes, yo yoing, damaging their metabolisms and eventually gaining vastly more weight due to this damage, than they originally started with, while companies profit.

Media has potentiated this incredibly simplistic narrative, that BMI is be all end all, that weight loss is always good, while perpetuating images of bodies that are realistically present in less that 5% of the population. Plastic surgery, eating disorders, substance abuse and chronic dieting are all health hazards and yet they are completely normalised due to cult of beauty, and good luck dissuading anyone who’s been swallowing this propaganda for years, that it’s not all as it seems.

We can talk about healthy eating and exercise, those are worthwhile topics, as are risk factors (based on statistics) for developing disease. Being overweight, smoking, high cholesterol, family history are some of many risk factors for development of various diseases, and just because someone has a risk factor it doesn’t mean that they will get sick. Two other issues to consider when trying to understand what statistics that are generating these guidelines mean are that correlation doesn’t imply causation, and that funding is extremely selective and can be used to generate huge amounts of data in support of a certain bottom line, while ensuring no balanced research is being done, and this is exactly what‘s happened with research into obesity. I have seen this manipulation through funding first hand, and the fact research is far from impartial and used to generate profit for certain industries is a known issue in medical and science communities. Unfortunately this has gone so far now that nobody knows how to fix it, but damage done to human health is huge, if you only remember rigged research into antidepressants where millions of children ended up unnecesserily medicated.

I’m only sharing what I know, I’m not here for sniping and arguing, so you can take what I’m saying or leave it, but I urge you to research this topic using scholarly references, and unless you went to medical school before you can’t authoritatively pass sweeping judgements on medical topics while belittling opinion of actual medical professionals (I’m referring to dismissing a doctor mentioned above - it’s disrespectful). There’s a reason why we can’t just go and build bridges without an engineering degree, medicine is no different.
Well said, I have worked in the NHS in non-clinical roles for years and worked alongside numerous doctors and nurses and picked up a lot of knowledge from working with them. I get angry about a lot of the utter crap about weight that I see published in magazines and papers as it's so misleading and simplistic. Unfortunately I am one of those people who has suffered with yo-yoing weight for years and I am sure my metabolism is f**ked as a result. Many years ago I used amphetamine diet pills and lost 5 stone in 6 months, only to regain the weight later. About 8 years ago I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and put on Metformin, on which I list 6 stone. Unfortunately I can never maintain the weight loss and now, 8 years later, all the weight is back and I'm pre-diabetic again. I feel ashamed that I'm overweight and like life would be much better if only I were slim, but my body seems to think otherwise. ☹
 
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Everyone is a self proclaimed medical expert online 👩‍⚕️

Bmi gives a range of weights for your height. I've never heard anyone say bmi is the be and end all🙄, only ever it's a useful guideline. As the NHS advice says it's suitable for most people unless you're very muscular.

You talk about references but where's yours? Here's one for my post.


Please just give one reference to say that average weight has not changed significantly since the 80?
 
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Well said, I have worked in the NHS in non-clinical roles for years and worked alongside numerous doctors and nurses and picked up a lot of knowledge from working with them. I get angry about a lot of the utter crap about weight that I see published in magazines and papers as it's so misleading and simplistic. Unfortunately I am one of those people who has suffered with yo-yoing weight for years and I am sure my metabolism is f**ked as a result. Many years ago I used amphetamine diet pills and lost 5 stone in 6 months, only to regain the weight later. About 8 years ago I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and put on Metformin, on which I list 6 stone. Unfortunately I can never maintain the weight loss and now, 8 years later, all the weight is back and I'm pre-diabetic again. I feel ashamed that I'm overweight and like life would be much better if only I were slim, but my body seems to think otherwise. ☹
I’m so sorry you have been affected, so many women are. I had a severe eating disorder as a teen and young 20s, and I’ve been through some of the consequences you mentioned and ended up with chronic illness. I think that these societal beliefs about weight are a combination of sexism/misogyny (there’s a whole feminist/historical angle on starving and shaming women in order to control them) and the fact medicine has been incredibly sexist, so women’s health has been historically misunderstood and neglected. For example even today vast majority of medical research is done on men, women comprise less than 20% of research subjects even though this discrepancy has been noted over 30 years ago (there’s an excellent book on this by Caroline Criado Perez, from memory it’s called Invisible Women, well worth a read). So it’s not accidental that mostly women are affected by these beliefs, we have higher body fat percentage naturally, and medical complaints of women who are percieved as unattractive or overweight (and this extends into disability, age and race too) have been dismissed, leading to poor medical care and outcomes, which are then reverse blamed on weight. Another issue is that by definition, whatever is the “average” weight range is the weight range most people fit into, and those who are thinner or heavier are obvious outliers and easy targets. But this picking on the different has gone so far now that girls as young as 8, who get chubby prior to a growth spurt, are freaking out and starving themselves, which sets them up for a lifetime of weight and self-esteem issues. This happened to me, and I wish I didn’t live in a body-fascist culture that attacked women and girls for every bit of spare flesh but it’s too late now. Gosh when I remember the shame and criticism, I feel so powerless...

Try to relax and accept yourself as you are now, What’s done is done, but how you go forward from here is what matters, Being kind to yourself, learning to love the body that has kept you alive for so long is incredibly important. Eating wholesome healthy food, moderate portions, walking in nature, is all vastly more important than harassing yourself with yet another punishing diet. Opinions of others are like assholes, and also just about the most irrelevant thing in the world. You have your life to live, none of the people guving you a side eye at a pool or concern trolling with the BS they read in the papers, matters. I hope you can find an understanding nurse and doctor who will help you manage your health condition and that you can find your way to healthy habits and reconnect with your body without criticism and shame. xx
 
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I'm the same, 5'9, stocky, muscly (just like the rest of my dads side) and have been told I'm obese at a size 12. Because I weigh a lot. I was first told this at 13 years old when i was playing rugby, football and netball. And rollerblading a lot.

The only time in my entire life that I have been in the 'healthy' category was in my 20's when I had a drug problem. And i was skinny, but felt tit and weak.
 
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I'm the same, 5'9, stocky, muscly (just like the rest of my dads side) and have been told I'm obese at a size 12. Because I weigh a lot. I was first told this at 13 years old when i was playing rugby, football and netball. And rollerblading a lot.

The only time in my entire life that I have been in the 'healthy' category was in my 20's when I had a drug problem. And i was skinny, but felt tit and weak.
That’s awful, and even more so because so many girls are being targeted in this way, using the irresponsibly simplistic BMI as a measure. I hope you are feeling good now and that your health hasn’t suffered in the long term.
 
What I find absolutely disgusting is the government actually weigh and measure children at the start and end of primary school ( you have the option to opt out) , in relation to BMI . If you agree to this , your 4/5 year old is weighed , height measured and BMI calculated and recorded . You then get a letter sent home based on your child's BMI .
I know there is so much out there about childhood obesity , but you know what I've been into my son's class to help out and I am yet to see a child that is what I'd call "obese" .
Is it really necessary to do this with 4/5 year old kids , it just makes me so sad .
I can understand if there is a child that clearly needs help, or parents in need of educating ( I've been that child) but to put so much emphasis on weight at that young age doesn't sit right with me
 
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What I find absolutely disgusting is the government actually weigh and measure children at the start and end of primary school ( you have the option to opt out) , in relation to BMI . If you agree to this , your 4/5 year old is weighed , height measured and BMI calculated and recorded . You then get a letter sent home based on your child's BMI .
I know there is so much out there about childhood obesity , but you know what I've been into my son's class to help out and I am yet to see a child that is what I'd call "obese" .
Is it really necessary to do this with 4/5 year old kids , it just makes me so sad .
I can understand if there is a child that clearly needs help, or parents in need of educating ( I've been that child) but to put so much emphasis on weight at that young age doesn't sit right with me
“Childhood obesity epidemic” was a throwaway comment that wasn’t substantiated with any real evidence, made by a Harvard paediatric surgeon who has financial interest in weight loss industry (again, from memory, I can dig up a reference if anyone is interested). It was emotive speech which resonated with the existing opinion on weight and it took off. It is actually quite frightening when you dig deeper and see that the main players driving this have conflict of interest and are using academic institutions to give credibility to their unsubstantiated opinions. Once upon a time, obesity had a medical meaning, it was excess wright that caused real medical symptoms, or was caused by disease itself, it reduced mobility etc. Now with BMI redesigned to fit the financial bottom line, normal, growing children are pathologised and it’s very irresponsible.