Weight Talk: Fitness, Health and Society

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Discussion community about how weight is socialized, what weights are scientifically healthy, and what fitness really looks like for all genders.

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fjpinns@lemmy.blahaj.zone

People say that the BMI scale is bogus. How true is that, health experts? (www.medicalnewstoday.com)

submitted 3 days ago by fjpinns@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/weighttalk@lemmy.blahaj.zone

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As I understand it, the current medical consensus is that fat protects muscle, and has health benefits when it is in moderation, but increases risks for bad outcomes when in excess. And muscle weighs more than fat, and aside from heart disease, generally protects against death of all causes. If muscle is generally good, and fat is good in moderation, why do we still popularly conflate skinniness as healthiness?

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[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You dramatically overestimate the number of people who can bench their bodyweight, forget about 2 plates. Your highschool were people in their prime, I bet those 7 did not maintain their fitness through the following 3 decades. And as I said that's a starting point for considering whether BMI breaks down for an individual, it's not a definitive statement.

BMI is just a tool for assessing whether there is cause for concern. Like a screening when a physician asks how many drinks you have a week. An answer of 10 doesn't make you an alcoholic, but they'll ask some follow up questions.

Similarly a BMI of 30 doesn't produce an OMG reaction and pressure to get bariatric surgery. But it will drive a lifestyle conversation. And I can guarantee any physician who sees that result and and sees you're built like a brick shit house will not be recommending food restriction.

The BMI standards were established in a healthier baseline population than currently exists. The 1940s and 1950s had a higher proportion of manual labor than we have now. So those arguments fall apart.

[–] fjpinns@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago

Similarly a BMI of 30 doesn’t produce an OMG reaction and pressure to get bariatric surgery. But it will drive a lifestyle conversation. Culturally, non-doctors act like this about an even pushing overweight BMI (25-30), especially if the person is a woman. The thing about BMI being overrated is the effect it has had on the popular health discourse, not on what a doctor tells you. I completely rescind the stuff about muscle, most of the world is not that muscular. But still, the overall cultural effect of the weight-watching culture is a lot more toxic than what the doctor says. Regular people think that skinniness is like the paragon of health, when sometimes the skinny people are getting sick twice a season, got low iron, and nap for a sum total of 12 hours of sleep a day. Maybe the post should have lead with that.