2008-01-16

Edmonton's Fat Epidemic

Today the major news was that 50% of Edmontonians were "obese".

You know, they may have a point. Just look at these random Plenty of Fish profiles of Edmonton fat girls:
thatgurl21
smartandsassy75
icyunvme07
simplicity73
StephLea
juliennemostlynice
bubblesprinkles
Rochelle88
PinkyBlueGirl
jennilynn610
Bitttter_Sweeet
student1010
brunette
killer cleavage
manderpander

On the other hand, this entire "BMI" thing is quite frankly a load of crap. Let's look at the results from this BMI Calculator:

  • 5'11" male, 175 pounds: BMI 24.4
  • 5'1" male, 160 pounds: BMI 30.2
  • 6'4" male, 210 pounds: BMI 25.6
  • 6'1" male, 193 pounds: BMI 25.5
  • 5'8" woman, 168 pounds: BMI 25.5
  • 5'10" male, 210 pounds: BMI 30.1
  • 5'2" woman, 131 pounds: BMI 24.0
  • 5'8" male, 165 pounds: BMI 25.1
  • 6'0" male, 139 pounds: BMI 18.8
  • 6'7" male, 239 pounds: BMI 26.9
  • 5'6" woman, 154 pounds: BMI 24.9
  • 5'8" woman, 122 pounds: BMI 18.5
  • 6'3" male, 201 pounds: BMI 25.1
Remember that <18.5 is underweight, between 25 and 30 is overweight, and >30.0 is this "obese" that has our good doctor so worried.

So a 6'3" man is overweight once he crosses 200lbs? A guy who's 6 feet tall can get down below 140 and not be "underweight"? A 6'1" male who is 193 pounds is just as overweight as a 5'8" woman who weights almost 170? 6'7" and you can't hit 240 without being considered overweight? Sorry, but this just doesn't quite work as advertised: its hard to get upset about "obsese" when this includes the 5'10" bodybuilder who weighs 210. While obesity may be a problem, this overstating the matter not only leaves a lot of people needlessly worried about their weight, while the actual obese can shrug it off since Ben down at the plant is "obese" too and he's only 215 pounds.