Obesity

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What is the actual medical definition of obese anyway? I think I remember reading somewhere that there is an "ideal body weight" for each person based upon their height. Everyone who is heavier than that is "overweight", and anyone who exceeds that weight by 30% is considered obese.

Assuming that is correct though, how do they come up with that "ideal weight" for each person? To me into doesn't take into account body types. By their definitions, many athletes who have 40% more muscle mass than the average person, are at a minimum overweight, and many are obese.

I don't even know which category I belong to. At 5'9" tall and 180 pounds, I'm thinking that I'm probably overweight, but not obese.

 

Calculate your BMI. Weight (in kg) divided by height (in metres) squared.

BMI of 30+ is obese.
BMI of 25-30 is overweight.
BMI of 18-25 is normal.
BMI >18 is underweight.

This table changes according to your race/ethnicity. A BMI in the high 20's is probably normal for Polynesians, and low BMIs are probably normal if you're Chinese.

 

BMI of 21 here. No obesity for me.

 

I am 5'10 208 lbs with a body fat % of 8%, so use that BMI at most as a reference. Using skin fold calipers is a more precise way of measuring if you are obese or not. Women usually have more body fat than men so take this into account as well.

 

I don't think a 2m tall, 90kg person would be seriously underweight. 90kg is fairly heavy in my books. I don't know very many people (other than rugby players and Polynesians) who are over 90kg.

 

It's weight (in kg) divided by height squared (in metres) so that's "weight/height^2". People aren't linear (ie - someone twice my height wouldn't necessarily be twice my weight, it'd more likely be 1.5 times or whatever, and they'd start reaching a point where there is less weight per cm of height [did that make sense??]) so I'm guessing the 6'6" person is actually not underweight.

That's right. BMI is old school.

 

Using weight to calculate is not accurate as muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are loosing weight by weight training, you will be dropping dress sizes while increasing weight at the same time!

 

But not many people are made out of muscle, Cesard. Sure, you'll have exceptions but they are few and far between.
I'm 64kg at 170cm (5'7") which puts me at 21.8 BMI which sounds reasonable to me.

 

Muscle weighs about thrice what fat does.

BMI 19.72 by Tassadar's formula: 195 cm (6'5'') height, 75 kg (165 lbs) weight. But my belly still isn't exactly flat.

 

You see, this is exactly my point - people have different body types, which is why I don't particularly like BMI. Using BMI means that most rugby players, and nearly all body builders are fat. Pretty much all American football players too (OK the lineman in many cases ARE fat, but I'm talking about running backs and the like).

I like to think I'm in pretty good shape, and I work out regularly and I have a pretty good physique. I just calculated my BMI, and it's 26.6 - so according to that, I'm overweight.

It also seems that this type of high reading would apply more to men than women, as women cannot build nearly the muscle mass (in most cases) as men. On the other hand, women tend to have a higher % body fat than men, so maybe it balances out.

 

Holy crap, Chev, you're a tall bugger!
I barely threaten 5'6"!

@ Abomination
Well... technically speaking we are made mostly of muscle tissue. Arms, legs, neck, face, abdomen, back, fingers, toes, jaws, between the ribs... and then there is heart, intestines, and other involuntary muscles I've probably neglected to mention. If you can move it, it's muscle.

Congratulations guys, most of you are not obese!

 

In my case it's a little funny. With my height (188cm/6'2'') I weighted 98 kg/216 lbs four or five years ago. Little overweight according to BMI. Then I spent more than 3 years on a very hard martial arts training. Last summer I weighted c.a. 79kg /174 lbs. (still normal - BMI) In the last six months, due to work and lack of time, I had to abandon training. Now I weight 88kg /194 lbs.(nearly over but still normal - BMI). Oh well, when I hit 90kg /200 lbs I'll start again......

 

Oops. My bad. I forgot to put a 'totally' in there

 

Its a very difficult subject really - I know somebody very close to me who has a bmi of 38. That person is 32 has diabetes and high blood pressure. It is also very difficult for that person to do a lot of exercise because of the strain it puts on them.
Aside from this - this person is very successful, has a great job and excels in most areas of their life. I know this person wants to loose weight - and has tried almost every natural method of loosing weight, to no avail.
I'm also sure that if there were a cure that cost £50,000 this person would take up on it immediately. I would personally would not however because I know that in my case loosing weight is in my own hands.
The point I'm trying to make is its not difficult for certain people to stay at an acceptable weight. In fact most people do it without thinking, but for some people it is a constant struggle or nigh on impossible.
Its very easy to dismiss people as fat lazy B*****ds - but I would say more often than not there is a reason for a persons obesity. Probably more often psychological rather than physical. It also suprises me of the ignorance certain people show towards obese people, considering the lengths most people go to remain politcally correct in almost every other area.

 

The leptin protein (which our lab seems to be constantly obsessed with) is produced by adipose (fat) tissue and responsible for a loss of appetite. We know that leptin knockout (ob/ob) mice (ie, the gene is "silenced") become absolutely enormous, and are always hungry compared with control mice. They are also less inclined to move around their cages. Obesity may be related to leptin levels, although there are also many other genes to consider.

 

There's always a reason. It's a question of validity, that's all. Diabetes making life a pain in the ass? That there be a legitimate reason. "It's hard to eat less and exercise more" is not.

Speaking for myself, I assume most obese people are obese because they're lazy for the simple reason that, in my experiences at work, most people are lazy bastards, especially when it comes to doing things they'd rather not. In the case of the obese, the things they'd rather not be doing are changing their diet and exercising.

Note: most "people" are lazy bastards, not most "fat people" are lazy bastards.

Before you assume I'm totally unsympathetic: I had, for a period of some years, a purely psychological addiction to a certain activity. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say I'm quite familiar with the difficulties inherent in overcoming one's own failings.

I go to great lengths to remain politically incorrect, though it may not always show on the boards.

 

That reminds me of that time when I was in the army and had an exercise with US troops on their base. When we then went to eat in the US cantina, we were served buckets of coke and mountains of food. Good stuff. Just a little much of it.

As a rule of thumb, it took actually some two or three of us to finish one portion. Maybe it's just that we Germans are more efficient ... ... we certainly didn't leave hungry.

And after trying the dishes and salads there I wondered: Do Americans add sugar to EVERYTHING?!

However, obesity is rising here in Germany, too. And certainly, it's not healthy. I have no problem with eating fat food, it's a question of quantity and what else you eat.

Generally, healthier, good quality food is more expensive, and obese people statistically are poorer people here in Germany. When I observe what poorer people put in their trolleys when shopping, I shudder. I don't have much money myself, but, hey, vegetables are *not* expensive. No need to eat such a crap - precooked, prepared - yuck. And then, tons of sugar and candy.

The other day I saw a woman still eating when buying new food. She was munching her Döner when pushing her trolley through the supermarket. IMO that's just boundless and undisciplined. Bleh.

Also, Germans have the silly habit to dislike everything german, preventive display of no-i'm-not-a-nazi - see - I-say-my-country-sucks, and so some claim that german food is baaaaad and makes fat - only to then eat two large pizzas.

That claim is, of course, nonsense.

In fact it's a cookery for physically hard working people and for cold weather. With lots of vegetables. Meat was sort of a luxury till well after the war, bacon being the exception. The large portions of meat characterising the German 'Gutbürgerliche Küche' came up during the 'Freßwelle' in the early 1960s, when people were happy that hunger no longer was a concern and ate like harvesting mashines.

That is, for an archair warrior the rule should be: FDH - Friß die Hälfte! If you want to eat fat, no problem - just have smaller portions then, that is ... AND I HAVE SCIENCE ON MY SIDE!

• Smaller Food Portions May Explain The 'French Paradox' Of Rich Foods And A Svelte Population
• The Contribution of Expanding Portion Sizes to the US Obesity Epidemic

Everyone should go and see "Supersize Me"

[ April 10, 2005, 21:43: Message edited by: Ragusa ]

 

Governments should pull health funding for the obese. If you can't manage some sort of self control in life then why should others support you! This from someone who is commonly referred to as a rake or bean poll. Seriously though is there a better example of injustice in the world when members of the 1st world are in the grips of an obesity epidemic will large parts of human society are starving? Pretty sad if you ask me

 

Up front, I'll say it -- I'm fat. I'm 5'9" and around 210#. My porcine figure is a result of laziness and poor self control, and I admit it freely.

That said, I don't see myself as obese -- when I hear that word, I see a person who can barely walk down the hallway, a person who eats 6 meals a day, a person who has about 4 or more prescriptions to help them deal with their high blod pressure, cholesterol levels, bone difficulties, etc.

As many before me have done, I too acknowledge that some people have glandular disorders, but those people are few and far between. The vast majority of these people are simply lazy and undisciplined. I know many of them. For a country that claims to value every citizen and therefore has a Medicaid program of some sort, these people are a drain on the system and thus their stupidity DOES affect the common man, as they are draining said system and in the end I end up paying for their vice.

I also think it's just disgusting that people in the world are starving while these porkers scarf 3 pizzas a day. I don't know exact numbers, so I'll try to do this on a rough percentage basis.

A human being needs "X" calories/day in order to survive (assuming all nutrients are present within those calories). Some people in developing countries only get about 60% of "X", whereas in the wealthier nations, the average is probably around 250%. The porkers (the ones with no medicalcondition to blame) likely ingest 600% of "X" or more. That is despicable. Such an inequality can't last -- the west cannot keep hogging all the resources -- if we don't do something to balance the equation, it will balance itself at our expense . . .