On a serious note, some articles made headlines in the news about obesity for some reason. Here’s the source material on the actual “study“. If you’re too lazy obese to check it out, here are some links to some charts.
What shocks me is that the study was performed using BMI, or “Body Mass Index.” According to the BMI scale, this man is obese:
Ronnie Coleman is obese. Yeah, buddy.
Wait, what?
Yeah you read that right. Obese. According to his stats, his BMI fluctuates between 34.4 - 45.2 depending on his lifting schedule.
So wait, what the hell happened? None of this makes sense…
BMI is an arbitrary scale made up by some random dude named Adolphe Quetelet. Oh, and he came up with this scale in the 19th century (You know what else was made up in the 19th century? Phrenology.)
BMI is calculated by this chart (image taken from Wikipedia):
Which yields the units of [force / length²] which is actually a unit of stress or pressure. You know how tire gauges measure psi (pounds per square inch)? That’s what you’re calculating. Except with humans.
am i doing this rite?
So once you take a reading from your obesity gauge, you compare it to this empirical arbitrary chart (image taken from Wikipedia):
And this is supposed to tell you if you’re underweight, normal, overweight, or obese.
So let’s summarize. BMI is:
- A calculated value which doesn’t make sense
- Compared to a chart which has no scientific merit
- Invented during the 1800s
FAIL
Is this the best we can do? Really? Really? Our measurement of health is a number pulled out of the asses of the 1800s?
Seriously.
SERIOUSLY.
Here’s a link to a BMI calculator, so you can use it to shatter your self-esteem.
According to this system, I’m walking the line between overweight and obese. Time to hit the gym.
AH FUCK
7 users commented in " Don’t Nobody Know Nothing ’bout Health "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWell, according to this I am right square in the overweight category.
I love the term “pseudoscience”. Just thought I’d mention that.
I’m also pushing into the Obese category. I’m pretty sure, just from looking at me, that I’m NOT obese. I may be fat as hell, but I am NOT OBESE.
my bmi is 23.4 um. I dun cur.
All this stuff is crap, it’s about eating right, exercising and being in tune with your own body!
BMI shouldn’t be used for individuals. From what I’ve read/heard it’s used to evaluate mass populations. On average, yes if you weigh 200 pounds and you’re 5ft tall you are pretty damn fat. Sure it doesn’t work for everyone, especially people with significant muscle mass, but for sweeping generalizations it gives you a decent idea of how fat a general population is on average.
I can work with Ann’s answer regarding this. Still, we have fat calculators to measure the percentage of body fat on a human. Now if you ask me: if a person can see EXACTLY how much fat they have on them, it would go a lot further than knowing how heavy you are compared to your height. I’m not a barometer goddamnit. They don’t even have to pinch your fat off with the tongs anymore, they have a machine with 2 handlebars that you hold with both hands which measures your fat/mass index. that’s right, no pinching, just hold—-wait… *ding*
I’ve been overweight since around when I had an operation last year, just now dropping back into normal. But people in the ‘overweight’ category tend to live longer, so why call it overweight?
Here’s to hoping Su doesn’t read this comment
I’m making a follow-up post in response to how this should be done.
Stay tuned.
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