What is the “obesity crisis? and how is it measured?” How do we know what a ‘healthy weight’ is and how on earth can we measure our progress reaching it?
BMI – (Bloomin’ Misleading Indicator! )
Many weight loss websites use a BMI (Body Mass Index) calculator where you key in information about your weight, height etc. You then use the results with the graph to see if you need to take action to reduce your BMI to within “acceptable” results by loosing weight. The graph provides a really narrow view of your weight. For many years, informed health care professionals and those studying weight loss and fitness have been creating a groundswell of opinion against the use of BMI as a health indicator.
Created in the early 1800’s by Adolfe Quetelet, BMI was formerly known as the Quetelet Index. He thought that a person’s weight should be proportionate to their height. Your weight in kilograms is divided by the square of your height in centimetres to give your BMI measurement.
However, BMI was originally developed to compare people with relatively inactive lifestyles with an average body shape and size. In reality we are all quite different. A tall person very often has a different frame than a shorter person. We are not proportionately the same. BMI takes no account of bone density or body type. BMI does not even differentiate between muscle and fat! BMI takes no account of how fit you are. BMI is great for government statisticians who like to study population trends and report to Parliament, (even the World Health Organisation still uses it!) but it was never even intended to be a measure of an individual’s appropriate shape and size. It’s simplicity that has made it so popular all these years.
Hip to Waist Ratio – Scientific and medical evidence is increasingly convinced that the best measure of your health is to measure the ratio of your waist to your hip. Using a tape measure, measure your waist at the narrowest point and your hips at the widest point. Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement to get your ratio figure. A figure greater than 0.8 means you should work on reducing your hip to waist ratio thereby reducing you risk of serious disease such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure.
Excess fat around your middle is known to be linked to a greater risk of serious health problems. This fat is seen as “toxic fat” and is more metabolically active than fat elsewhere on your body. This fat generates hormones which can affect the way your body deals with insulin, raising blood pressure and cholesterol in the body. Modern sedentary lifestyle means that this stored fat is rarely burnt off and consequently increased fats and sugars, the by-product of the breakdown of the stored fat, are channelled into the bloodstream, giving a person greater risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Years of working in the slimming industry has seen me witness tears and tantrums at the scales from people so fed up and frustrated as their disappointing results after years of dieting. Weigh scales are responsible for serious mind games dieters play. I am all for measuring success and using that as a motivator, but like BMI and hip to waist ratio, weigh scales on their own give a distorted view of good health. Some Olympic athletes are technically “overweight” as the scales say that they weigh more than they should do for their height. Using scales which measure body fat percentage and even water composition as well as your weight would give a much more accurate picture of your health and progress.
One of the most satisfying aspects of becoming healthier is that all those bits of your body you used to hide under clothes, look so much better when you have slimmed down. Using a tape measure, measure the bits of your body you don’t like such as upper arms, thighs and waist at the start of your journey to a slimmer body and better health. It is not uncommon to see little change on the weigh scale but enormous encouragement is given when you see the centimetres reducing.
Better fitting clothes are a sure sign that you are on the way to a slimmer body and healthier you. It’s a simple gauge of your success and many people find great pride in themselves when they can do this. People who are successful in losing weight and keeping it off, threw out all the clothes that were too big for them. You won’t need them, so get rid of them!
Whenever I ask people why they want to lose weight and become healthier, they often reply that they want to fit into smaller clothes. Have you ever told yourself in the past that your motivation to lose weight is to “fit into smaller clothes”. Why? I can guarantee that it is not simply the smaller clothes you want, but something deeper that comes from being ABLE to fit into smaller clothes.
Want to find out more about BMI, then visit Clare White’s site on how to choose the best weight loss tool for your needs.