The Witchhunt of Obesity: What is Average?
This blog is strange for me to write about the stigma of being over-weight but I am tired of this witchhunt. It doesn’t matter where I turn there is an advertisement, article, morning show talking about the next fab diet or sometimes randoms giving me ‘advice’ on my weight.
Am I over-weight? Yes, I am but can the same standard measure me as average John Doe?
Going to the doctors, they weigh me with the BMI calculation:
BMI = Weight ÷ Height²
My result without breaking down more information is 43 (which is extremely obese), the healthy range is 18 to 24.
One thing they don’t tell you, that this is based on an average male of 188 cm, weighing 80 kg and I currently weigh 156 kilograms. So based on this I will die of many dire conditions unless I can remove at least 70 kilograms of ‘fat.’
So the doctors send me to a nutritionist, an exercise physio and put me on a health program, where I have to be active and reduce my daily calories intake to 1000 (As an average person needs 2000).
Aforementioned seems simple, as we are all cut from the same cloth.
So I had used a particular scales that analysis of body composition, using bioelectrical impedance produces estimates of total body water (TBW), fat-free mass (FFM), and fat mass by measuring the resistance of the body as a conductor to a minimal alternating electrical current. This is the last recorded result using this machine.
Weight: 156 kg
Fat Percentage: 35.59%
Fat Mass: 54kg
FFM: 100.8 kg
Muscle Mass: 95.5kg
TBW: 72.6 KG
Bone Mass: 4.9KG
BMR (how much Calories you need to consume daily): 3191
Visceral fat rate: 22 (13 is good)
BMI (machine): 43
BMI (Recalculated as my size being the average): 26
So using the same data above with John Doe (as his healthy percentage of fat would be 20%), I would have to lose 35 kg of muscle and 38 kg of fat. I am still overweight, but with most of my mass being muscle, I will never be 80 kg.
So should we be viewing ourselves as John/Jane the average or looking at ourselves as unique and try to understand our own body instead of the average base that society judges us to be?