Never Consult Your BMI Outside a Doctor’s Office
Do not let clinical numbers demotivate you.
You fight to lose weight and after months of dieting, you found that you are now 20 percent less the person you were the day you began your new menu. You are eating better, cutting down on fats and sugars, while eating more vegetables and lean meat. You feel great.
The weather is getting better and even during the lockdown you begin to ride your bike outside and walk to exercise with your new lighter body. You check your weight and although not at your goal, you are certainly far from where you were months ago. Then you check your Body Mass Index and to your surprise your numbers still indicate that you are obese. All around the neighborhood people hear the words “Are you kidding me?” like an air raid horn, loud and clear.
How can this measurement still indicate you are obese?
The Body Mass Index is a simple mathematical formula devised in 19th century France by Adolphe Quetelet. The calculation is not figures of fat percentage versus muscle tissue but external measurements. So it is a general number giving an indication of what is most likely the percentage of fat tissue versus muscle tissue based on the proportion between your height and your weight. It is not specific to any one case. There are ways of measuring your specific fat to muscle but they are rather complicated including even weighing you in a pool of water.
The BMI was already used for over a century when it became more popular through the work of American physiologist Ancel Keys in the 1970’s. He discovered the nature of accumulated fat versus food intake. Besides promoting the BMI, he is one of the reasons why we throw around such terms as polyunsaturates and monosaturates in occasional conversations.
Keys’ studies and recommendations had a substantial impact on changes in the U.S. diet and the resulting downward trend in cardio vascular disease, reports the CDC.
Although you are disheartened that your BMI measurement says you are still obese, it does contain categories for being less or more based on the index of weight to height. Formally listed as Category 1 for those over the border of being just overweight and category 3 for morbidly obese, the labels are not meant to be used by the general public to describe body shape in the popular world.
The meaning of the scale is that obesity, especially in the extremes as well as being underweight have a greater affect on medical complications, mortality rates and health care costs. So the categories are really to help health care professionals assist their patients in understanding and preventing risks for such issues as chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes.
Clearly, even though the BMI may indicate that you are obese although maybe just over the line, it is not an indicator that when you walk down the aisle on an airplane everyone is praying that you will not be sitting next to them in coach, especially if the middle seat is the only one open.
The point of the chart is to help minimize health care risks and costs through the preventable mechanism of diet and exercise. Of course, when that word obese is thrown around, it can have devastating effects on one’s motivation to lose weight.
Many nutrition professionals advise to stay off the scale, focus on diet, to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle. If they recommend you weigh yourself minimally, then clearly the BMI tables should never be advised unless you are in a doctor’s office. Again, it is designed more as information for the doctor than it is for the average person.
Let me give you an example. In all things, the extremes are what are most dangerous. Therefore, obviously, it can be assumed that the morbidly obese are more in danger of health complications than the simple over the line obese. Both are obese according to the BMI, but in the current days of the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly the morbidly obese are in more danger from complications from the virus than simply the obese. The same can be said for cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and for other conditions where poor nutrition and high body weight compromise one’s health.
This means that for you to continue maintaining good nutrition it is important to avoid demotivators such as the body mass index. Focus more on getting to a healthy weight by eating right and exercising.
Coming from a family where cardiovascular issues are a serious problem, although I have none, I know how insensitive some people can be in throwing around that word. It would make more sense if only doctors used it as part of their clinical counseling. I remember my former cardiologist throwing around the word and then telling me that I was not to eat any more bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. They are all starches.
I did cut something out of my lifestyle: my cardiologist.
Later, I had to go to the high mountains of the Andes, I suffered altitude sickness there and ended up in the ICU in Lima, Peru. Two of the three cardiologists I saw complained about my weight although they admitted it had nothing to do with the breathing problems. I was at 13,000 feet when I could not breathe, that is 3,000 feet above the level oxygen is required if an airplane cabin depressurizes. When I told them my ex-cardiologist’s advice, they taught me to starches in moderation, we cannot just cut them all out.
The contrast in the two positions may appear the same statistically, but the style is the difference between encouragement and demotivation. The New England cardiologist spoke from a numbers perspective. He called me to lose weight and instead of assisting me in a good plan, he just commanded it with no focus on motivation. He rooted his command in the BMI as he threw around the word obese. His style failed miserably. The only weight I lost was his presence in my life, when I vowed never to return to his office.
The Peruvians were maybe more strict but more open to explaining better methods, especially in a country that is one of the Andean Republics where rice is a staple food. They also recommend using avocado as a substitute for butter.
If you are seeking to lose weight, focus on diet and exercise on how your feel and on making your goal weight. Use the scale to help you understand where you stand in your process and leave the BMI to your PPC. You do not need to hear the word obese when you lost twenty-percent of your former self.
