Omg, I'M Fat!

[Santiago]

If only cholesterol and BP were the only indicators of healthy - but they are not. There are many other adverse health effects of heaviness than what you mention - many of which are seen after years of obesity. Do not make the erroneous assumption that just because you are heavy and your heart, cholesterol and BP are ok that you are healthy. Heavy and healthy are mutually exclusive terms - and you can fool yourself into thinking you are ok - but long term, you won't be.

Oh, I definitely need to loose a considerable amount of weight, I just think it's funny how doctor's won't recognize that you can be heavy and healthy. Cholesterol is fine, heart is fine and even BP is just from eating out too much lately and they salt the foods too much.

Once I even had a doctor suggest an ear infection would be helped by loosing weight... I didn't know gravity had that effect on the ear canal. lol

[KittenAB]

You assume that the BMI is intended for those people - and it is not. BMI was never designed or intended to be used for body builders and certain other athletes - it really was meant to apply to the average joe, and for them, it is valid.

Wow ... and since when does the "average Joe" have the same make up as all the others?

Smartassery aside, it was not created for that at all either, it was created to help a French census taker build a statistical model of France. Look it up. The doctors that use BMI are just plain lazy doctors, and anyone who believes it's accurate is really naive. You do know that the heart is a different size for everyone, as are the lungs, same with the liver ... every single organ, even the skin is a different thickness. Averages can change from one generation to the next without any explanation, and averages are not "optimal" ... they are averages, period. Optimal health is when your body can function without the aid of medications and machines, that's it. If your body is able to do so, no matter if you're a 150 pound skin and bones or 500 pound roly poly, you are optimal health for your specific physiology. Averages are not a measure of optimal, as a matter of fact the averages back when the BMI was designed were different than France's averages now, and could in no way be applied to any other country even in that time.

[KittenAB]

If only cholesterol and BP were the only indicators of healthy - but they are not. There are many other adverse health effects of heaviness than what you mention - many of which are seen after years of obesity. Do not make the erroneous assumption that just because you are heavy and your heart, cholesterol and BP are ok that you are healthy. Heavy and healthy are mutually exclusive terms - and you can fool yourself into thinking you are ok - but long term, you won't be.

Actually, it's not erroneous at all. The wise doctors listen to their patients a lot, spending entire visits just listening to what they say about how they "feel" ... and for good reason. You know your body better than anyone else, even doctors. They listen to what you say, see if they hear any possible problems, then they do tests to see if there are any actual problems. Many "fat" people are healthier than me, most are actually, and I'm "average" for my height actually. Weight is not an indicator, rapid weight changes are, any doctor that tells you to lose weight quickly should be sued and banned from practicing. Even forcibly losing weight when you are already eating right is unhealthy if it's slow. If you are eating healthy and moderately active, you can still weigh three times the average, for many there is simply nothing you can or should do to change it. I now see sticks walking around thinking they're healthy ... but they have to take a ton of medication and supplements to remain so because there is no fat on their bones for energy, much less healing. Fat is the fundamental building block of human life, without it on our bodies we are far from healthy. I know, I don't carry enough in me, haven't my whole life, and suffered because of it.

[Guest Baby-Toa]

Actually, it's not erroneous at all. The wise doctors listen to their patients a lot, spending entire visits just listening to what they say about how they "feel" ... and for good reason. You know your body better than anyone else, even doctors. They listen to what you say, see if they hear any possible problems, then they do tests to see if there are any actual problems. Many "fat" people are healthier than me, most are actually, and I'm "average" for my height actually. Weight is not an indicator, rapid weight changes are, any doctor that tells you to lose weight quickly should be sued and banned from practicing. Even forcibly losing weight when you are already eating right is unhealthy if it's slow. If you are eating healthy and moderately active, you can still weigh three times the average, for many there is simply nothing you can or should do to change it. I now see sticks walking around thinking they're healthy ... but they have to take a ton of medication and supplements to remain so because there is no fat on their bones for energy, much less healing. Fat is the fundamental building block of human life, without it on our bodies we are far from healthy. I know, I don't carry enough in me, haven't my whole life, and suffered because of it.

That is true as i'm am overweight but healthy. I know because my doctor did two hours of tests. Just because you're skinny or large or fat or anything doesn't mean you're unhealthy. I don't eat well but that's my choice and my body is still healthy.