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 (1 children)

I think it’s sort of threefold because both the medical community and the general public both treat being overweight as a discipline issue more than a gut microbiome, hormonal, or genetic issue which is also likely, and people (more the general public, but sometimes the medical professionals) will look at charts and see “this person is overweight, that explains this this and this, they should eat an apple. Okay, bill their insurance”, rather than treating the real health issues as health issues, they use the screening tool to discredit the moral character of the patient and take medical action based on that bias.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

Yup, it's a real issue.

I've had members of my disability support group have to switch doctors after gaining weight from the various barriers disability throws in the way. They go in and all of a sudden, the overweight becomes the focus of care, rather than the thing that has been a problem for years. I've had people be told that the weight is the cause of their problems. Which, that's just shitty doctors more than anything else, but still.

But, you go to an actual bariatric medicine practice, and they're treating holistically. Like you said, addressing all the components rather than starting from dietary exclusively. Not all of them, but it's becoming more the norm.

If discipline was the sole cause, none of the medications would work.