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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[–] 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.