Life insurance
I was, in my misguided boredom, surfing through online health insurance and online life insurance when I realized that pretty much every single one wants to know my height and my weight. I think that's pretty damned ridiculous, as far as ludicrosity goes. And yeah, I just made that word up, so use it a bunch, get it published, and we'll write to Webster. But back to my point, it's obvious that they want to calculate my BMI, or body mass index number.
Now, I want to say that I have ALWAYS thought this was a bs number not related to much of worth that couldn't be better tracked with another number. People with higher BMIs are more likely to develop heart disease, for example, because that sometimes means they are fatter. So why not just measure them with a skinfold caliper and get a body fat percentage? Stupid.
Back to the point, again. My BMI is 27.9. Plug it in if you like. 5'6, 173 pounds. For a short while there, I did make it up to 205, and I wasn't comfortable with myself, but even then, nobody thought of me as fat. Maybe a little soft around the middle, but that was it, and I worked in restaurant. If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you know we don't pull any punches when it comes to making fun of each other. My BMI was 33. That put me squarely in the obese category. Not borderline. Way over the mark.
My current 27.9 is more than halfway from overweight to obese. People I worked with 6 months ago that I run into think I look healthy and fit, but a doctor might not. I can bench my weight, I can leg press 365 pounds, and I can do a half dozen pullups. My body fat percentage is somewhere between 16% and 20% depending on which way I measure it, which is in the average zone for the methods that I used and definately in the healthy range.
My BMI, however, suggests that I should weigh between 115 and 155 to straighten out my BMI stat. That's between 18 and 58 pounds.
Since it wouldn't make sense for me to lose weight by shedding muscle, bone, or other productive tissue, and I don't retain an unusual amount of water, the only place for me to drop that weight would be fat. Losing 18 pounds of fat would put me at about 11.5% body fat. While that's also in the healthy range, most people have to work really hard to get their body fat that low, and it's frankly overkill. I can't think of any kind of doctor that would disagree. The further end of the scale, 58 pounds, would mean that I would have to lose every single ounce of fat that I'm carrying PLUS 22 more pounds of SOMETHING...muscle, bone, water, etc. How f'ing stupid is that number? Rant over.
Now, I want to say that I have ALWAYS thought this was a bs number not related to much of worth that couldn't be better tracked with another number. People with higher BMIs are more likely to develop heart disease, for example, because that sometimes means they are fatter. So why not just measure them with a skinfold caliper and get a body fat percentage? Stupid.
Back to the point, again. My BMI is 27.9. Plug it in if you like. 5'6, 173 pounds. For a short while there, I did make it up to 205, and I wasn't comfortable with myself, but even then, nobody thought of me as fat. Maybe a little soft around the middle, but that was it, and I worked in restaurant. If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you know we don't pull any punches when it comes to making fun of each other. My BMI was 33. That put me squarely in the obese category. Not borderline. Way over the mark.
My current 27.9 is more than halfway from overweight to obese. People I worked with 6 months ago that I run into think I look healthy and fit, but a doctor might not. I can bench my weight, I can leg press 365 pounds, and I can do a half dozen pullups. My body fat percentage is somewhere between 16% and 20% depending on which way I measure it, which is in the average zone for the methods that I used and definately in the healthy range.
My BMI, however, suggests that I should weigh between 115 and 155 to straighten out my BMI stat. That's between 18 and 58 pounds.
Since it wouldn't make sense for me to lose weight by shedding muscle, bone, or other productive tissue, and I don't retain an unusual amount of water, the only place for me to drop that weight would be fat. Losing 18 pounds of fat would put me at about 11.5% body fat. While that's also in the healthy range, most people have to work really hard to get their body fat that low, and it's frankly overkill. I can't think of any kind of doctor that would disagree. The further end of the scale, 58 pounds, would mean that I would have to lose every single ounce of fat that I'm carrying PLUS 22 more pounds of SOMETHING...muscle, bone, water, etc. How f'ing stupid is that number? Rant over.
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