The other day I went down a health fair at UT. It was prtty stupid, although one display had a looping video of horrific crashes.
Another had a nice list of body height/weight charts to see if you were fat. Weeelll… Apparently at 5’9 and 165, I am borderline overweight.
Excuse me? This thing claimed I would have to lose 20 pounds to be right in the middle of normal! Since when does this make sense? I ain’t getting any smaller. In fact, people who are smaller than me are considered extremely thin! I’m not that skinny or nothing, but I’m not a huge guy, or even considered a large one. I’m almost perfectly average in all physical ways.
Yeah, I have a friend who went to a gym and got a personal “analysis” of her body type, BMI, et cetera. The trainer told her she needed to lose 20 pounds. At the time, she was 5’5" and around 120 lbs. Her doctor had already told her she was right in the normal/healthy range. She did not purchase a gym membership there.
Me? I clearly need to lose weight. But I don’t need a BMI chart to figure that out.
I’m 6’4, 195lbs and I’d like to lose about 10 to 15lbs, so it’s not surprising that 5’9 (which, come on, means 5’7 when a guy says it), 165lbs is getting up into overweight territory.
Suit yourself. It’s not like digging your heals in and refusing to take your health into your own hands is magically going to make your weight ideal.
No way in hell I could ever weigh as low what they claim that I should weigh.
I mean, at 5’10" and 235 pounds, I know I need to lose about 40 pounds. But I think their charts say that I should weigh something like 165 or 170. Not possible.
My daughter’s noticeably slim - people have commented on it - and her last check-up put her on the 50th-75th centile in height, and the 75th-90th centile in weight. I have no idea where they got those figures from. She’s the third shortest in her class, and about the third skinniest, and only one of the kids even has any excess flab - the rest, including her, are all pretty wiry.
You think 165 pounds is overweight for 5’9? That’s 11 stone 11! Even without taking muscle into account, that’s not overweight.
Depends. At 5’9" and 165, I am on the border of overweight, and I’d like to knock 10 lbs off that amount, which puts me firmly in the “average” range for me. That’s with little exercise, though (so not much muscle build except in the legs), and a medium frame. I’m also female. Your gender, frame size, and amount of muscle will definitely adjust whether that is actually “overweight” for you or not.
Aren’t most of those charts pretty much bullshit, because they’re too generic, and don’t take into account that everyone’s figure and/or frame is different and all that? (And whether it’s muscle or fat-muscle being a hell of a lot denser)
Muscle vs. fat composition is undoubtedly an important factor that doesn’t get considered with a simple height/weight BMI calculation. But I am somewhat more skeptical of the “everyone’s figure and/or frame is different” statement that I hear thrown around a lot. Is there evidence that, besides the difference between men and women, people’s “frames” vary significantly enough to impact their weight with all other factors (height, body fat %, and muscle mass) being equal? That is, is there truth behind the old “I’m not fat, I’m just big boned!” line or is it a heap of BS?
Well, I know that my sister and I are the same height, but I have a broad frame. My shoulders are literally broader than hers, my hips too. I could never fit into the same size of pants that she can (unless she puts on a lot of weight, that is), because my hip measurement couldn’t get much smaller than it is now - push in on the side of my hip with your fingers and that’s muscle over bone, a little padding but not much. But we’re not talking 50, 75 lbs worth of weight difference or anything - some people really do overemphasize the “big boned” thing. She’s unnaturally thin even for her slim frame and I doubt there’s more than 30 lbs or so difference between us. Still, last I remember from checking a weight chart, there’s less than a 30 lb range for most “average” weight measurements.
I reckon that a lot of it’s self-defensive BS but some of t’s grounded in truth. Some people simply have a broader bone structure than others. My GF has broad shoulders and hips and you can easily feel that her upper arm bones and thigh bones are bigger than mine. It’s quite reasonable to assume that different people of the same height can have widely varying bone structures.
Actually, I just remembered that I was always on the upper end of the weight/height charts as a child as was nonetheless one of those extremely skinny kids that grandmothers would try to force pies into. The explanation I heard was that my bones were somehow ‘denser.’ That one doesn’t make any sense to me. Do I have extra bone marrow or something? Nah.
Since adulthood, I’ve usually been either underweight or average weight according to BMI, including times when the BMI said I was skinny and I had extra flab round my belly, and times when it said I was average weight and you could see every bone in me. I now feel a little overweight, and my belly agrees, but according to the charts I’m just right.
The charts are just too inaccurate to be trusted. Shame, since they should be useful.
Better to pinch your belly, arms and thighs, see how much you can grab hold of, and judge by that. Even better to focus on health rather than weight.
I like how in general the Dope is very “science, science, science.” If a scientist said it, we all should accept it. If a study proves it, it’s etched in stone. To criticize science is just to display your ignorance.
Except, apparently, when the science calls us fat. Then the scientists are politically motivated, the tables are inaccurate, and the studies are flawed and the factors aren’t factored in.
Sure there’s a little bit of that happening. But I think part of it is that the science is misapplied. Anything like that will always be talking about averages and ranges of normal. It can sometimes be a mistake to then apply it rigidly to an individual.
The explanation I heard was that my bones were somehow ‘denser.’ That one doesn’t make any sense to me. Do I have extra bone marrow or something? Nah.