Time spent on the internet vs Body Mass Index

[MichaelW]

Hi I'd say the BMI as a 'health' measurement is flawed as it takes 'body weight' rather than lean mass as the variable.

If you've got a 100kg woman whose never set foot in a gym in her life and spends all day on a couch in front of the idiot box with a height of 175cm, feeding herself nothing but fatty nastiness, her BMI will be identical to a body builder of the same height and weight, who hits the gym for 10hrs/wk and eats nothing but salad and steamed chicken breast.

And if you were to look at the 2 side by side - would you use BMI as a measure for fitness / health?

btw my BMI is 27 - I'm 186cm and 96kg, and lift heavy 3hrs per week plus walk for a half hr on the non-lift days

Shaun,

Agree completely. My BMI is 25 and on the way up through a lot of hard work! Just got back to my desk after an hour and a bit at the gym doing my chest and tri's split with abs and shoulders thrown in. Completely flogged now but feeling like Arnie on the inside.

Cheers,
Michael.

 

[Simon]

I had an awful lot of "fat" soldiers being referred to dieticians by the stupid Army health system based on their BMI. Some were high grade rugby players others were just built like oxen. Even the big bloke carrying a bit of weight could outmarch and outcarry any scrawny young fella with a beautiful BMI.

A lot of judgement is required but it is a useful tool.

 

[Lily House]

My opinion is (and I'm sure there are those who disagree) there should be seperate BMI's for men and women. Men can carry more weight than woman of the same height.

Lily

 

[thefirstbruce]

The original link I posted in this thread explaining BMI highlights its limitations.

At this point, the next best measure is waist circumference, where one size fits all of the same sex Males should be under 100cm and women under 90cm.

Then there's waist to hip ratio which should be under 1 for men, and under .85 for women.

There's really no ideal simple measure, but BMI is commonly used.

The better measure would be bodyfat %, but this can't be done easily and reliably.

 

[Xenia]

OK, I've worked it out, my BMI is 17.4 kg/m2.
time on computer is 15 mins to 1 hr (for non related work)
exercise time (none) but have kids

 

[Simon]

OK, I've worked it out, my BMI is 17.4 kg/m2.
time on computer is 15 mins to 1 hr (for non related work)
exercise time (none) but have kids

That appears to be in the very skinny range!

 

[bigfella966]

Well, I beat ya's all,

My BMI is 38 , 195cm x 144Kg,

But I get this nagging feeling that I shouldn't want to be winning this one

BF

 

[Corsa]

no I am not conducting any research. Am just a curious fella, and often feel guilty for the amount of time I spend at a puter, and was wondering what the rest of the world is up to. There was a report on childhood obesity on Friday, and it always gets me stirred up. The Fed Govt are going to throw millions at a national ad campaign to advise people to get up and moving more. I think the money could be better spent.

Hi Bruce

Me to, obesity gets me stirred up as well! Obesity is the second most preventable cause of death, with smoking coming first. Approximately 8000 people die each year from obsesity related illness and is a significant strain on the health system. For anyone who has watched "Supersize me" it is a big worry what is happening in the US and is happening here in Australia as well. I worry about all those kids sitting in front of the TV or playing computer games.

Ultimately we need to encourage everyone to have a balanced diet, regular exercise and get lots of sleep to try and maintain health levels. I would like to see the Government provide tax rebates for gym memberships, Employers and/or Health Insurers subsidising partial/full gym memberships to incentivise people to invest in there health. This should relate in productivity gains for the Governement (with less money needed on health services for obesity related illness, Employers due to less sick days and healthy employees, and Insurers by less claims due to injury or illness.

I work in an office, amongst a number of sedentry overweight people who are effectively heart attacks waiting to happen. An 8 hour day in the office can be exhausting intellectually but not in the least physically (and those walks to the printer definately don't count )

I go to the gym 3 nights a week for 1.5 hours, play basketball and volleyball in my lunch breaks for 2 days and try and get a walk in on the weekend. Doing this exercise releases endorphins which make me feel great and on top of the world. My BMI is 24.7 but I feel healthy which is the main thing. I spend 8 hours for work on the computer and usually 1 hour per night catching up on personal bookwork etc.

 

[Dazz]

I would like to see the Government provide tax rebates for gym memberships, Employers and/or Health Insurers subsidising partial/full gym memberships to incentivise people to invest in there health.

So would my wife. She owns a big showroom where the lessee runs a big gym. He wouldn't mind us putting the rent through the roof if he got a bunch more people into his business....bring it on...great suggestion.

 

[thefirstbruce]

Can feel your passion Corsa. Good on you. Though the insurance companies have done the gym thing before and it wasn't that great a success. People go and join gyms, but then don't get smart enough or motivated enough to use the facilities. Plus, the people that were motivated to join gyms weren't the ones that were the highest draw on the health insurance profits.

The obesity and unhealthy lifestyle thing is a big issue and multifactorial. It involves the design of our urban spaces, the breakdown of social cohesion and communality, the time poorness of single parenthood, longer travel time to work and schools, dual income households, longer working weeks, higher employment uncertainty, higher career aspirations, a sense of needing to withdraw from society and all its noise in one's downtime, 24hr television, cable tv, radio, and internet; and a lack of role models and cohesion about what is common sense.

And as a culture, in attempting to be understanding and tolerant and accepting of everything, we have lost the capacity to discriminate- about food, lifestyle, activity, what we do with our time, our money, our energy, our attention. As a civilization, we don't know how to make hard decisions anymore. We have surrendered hard decisions over to the state. Unfortunately, the state doesn't control what we put in our mouths, or minds, yet.

On that note, it is 5.45am in Qld, and I am off for some exercise.

 

[Simon]

When I was in the Army we started the day with 40 or so minutes of hard PT at 8 each morning with us showered and at our desks or training or whatever was on the schedule by 9.

It really woke us up for the day and makes you feel great. Better than any old cup of coffee!

I think plenty of people know it. Any early riser will know there are heaps of people out walking or on the beach in the early hours getting themselves swithched on and fit.

 

[thefirstbruce]

Well, I beat ya's all,

My BMI is 38 , 195cm x 144Kg,

But I get this nagging feeling that I shouldn't want to be winning this one

BF

Wow bigfella, that's a lotta girth you must be hauling there.

I know I could do with getting my waist circumference at belly button level down from 103cm to under 95cm. You interested in joining me make 2006 the year of losing your gut? And any other males interested?

I am prepared to log in my waist measurement once a week to the forum if you are.

If you want a program to follow, I can provide a basic diet approved by a dietitian, or I would recommend the new program by Dr Gary Egger. He wrote the GutBusters program in 1997, then Weight Watchers bought the idea, and buried it. He was ropable with them. Anyway, he is an excellent researcher and presenter, and even though I haven't looked deeply into his new product, ProfessorTrim, if he is behind it, it gets my endorsement. It is especially for men too.

www.professortrim.com

http://www.sundaytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,9353,17802798-22808,00.html






I hearby declare that I am going to make the changes in what I eat and how much activity I get, in order to lose around .5kg a week. I'll report in

 

[redwing]

Hey Bruce

Here's Lee Preist the 5'4 1/2", 200-pound Mr Australia on the left- just wondering what his BMI would be?

 

[thefirstbruce]

Red, I feel sorry for shorter guys, as most women are incredibly prejudice against them.

See the link in my third post in this thread. It mentions the limitations of BMI we all know about, as well as race differences.

 

[MichaelW]

Red, I feel sorry for shorter guys, as most women are incredibly prejudice against them.

See the link in my third post in this thread. It mentions the limitations of BMI we all know about, as well as race differences.

TFB,

Tell me about it. I'm only 5'6" so am pretty short without being a midget. I also think that there's a bit of heightism in senior appointments in industry too. People expect powerful men to be powerfully-built, and even though I'm quite stocky, 5'6" does not equate to powerfully built... I'm an executive on a comfortable salary but its difficult breaking into the next level of senior management. A bit like MJ Fox only ever getting cast in kiddie roles like back to the future even when he was in his thirties and older. Ah well, you play the cards your dealt I suppose.

Cheers,
Michael.

 

[geoffw]

Hey Bruce

Here's Lee Preist the 5'4 1/2", 200-pound Mr Australia on the left- just wondering what his BMI would be?

Not quite Mr Australia- but the guy I bought my Subway from

from- http://actinba.com/nik.html

 

[thefirstbruce]

Michael, do we christen you Mr Fox now?

Geoff, love his friends. Though a bit heavy on the rub on tan.
http://actinba.com/2004comp/2004INBAACT1 257.jpg

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

Geoff, what happened to his neck? It seems to have shrunk back into his chest like a frightened turtle. Why people think that looks good is beyond me. I'd rather be skinny than look like the Michelin Man.

Mark

 

[bigfella966]

Wow bigfella, that's a lotta girth you must be hauling there.

I know I could do with getting my waist circumference at belly button level down from 103cm to under 95cm. You interested in joining me make 2006 the year of losing your gut? And any other males interested?

I am prepared to log in my waist measurement once a week to the forum if you are.

If you want a program to follow, I can provide a basic diet approved by a dietitian, or I would recommend the new program by Dr Gary Egger. He wrote the GutBusters program in 1997, then Weight Watchers bought the idea, and buried it. He was ropable with them. Anyway, he is an excellent researcher and presenter, and even though I haven't looked deeply into his new product, ProfessorTrim, if he is behind it, it gets my endorsement. It is especially for men too.

I hearby declare that I am going to make the changes in what I eat and how much activity I get, in order to lose around .5kg a week. I'll report in

Hey TFB,

In all honesty I think the BMI is ok for a guide only, but for me, when I was in my prime (many, many moons ago ) my weight averaged between 118kg to 122kg, and after bulking up pre season 125kg, even at 118Kg's I was still classified on the BMI as obese , if I was any lighter than say 115kg I felt like Mr Puniverse, no strength, power or stamina.

Obviously now I don't have the muscle mass I used to have and my chest seems to have dropped and turned my 6 pack into a carton, I reckon I gotta dump 20 to 30kg's. The missus goes for a jog early am but for me thats got knobs on, so I bought a Trampoline (a big mutha) to get back into tramping to drop the beef, and yes, wasn't I a stiff and sorry sight for a week, but I'm gettin into it.

Funny thing, I just recalled, when I got into the job in 1990, I had to be 108Kg (according to the bloody BMI scale I suppose), so I held off on the carbs, trained with ounce weights/high reps, ran my butt off and tramped for 1hr daily until I was down enough to pass. At that weight I not only felt like an Anorexic Ethiopian, I bloody looked like one as well, anyway hence to say, once I was in I built my weight back up to normal, only problem though, it kept creeping up.

A couple of years ago I dropped 20kg on the Atkins but over time put about half that back on, so I reckon I'll give that another crack (FEED THE MAN MEAT), between that and trampolining, I might be a tender for the Olympic gymnastics team soon

BF

 

[Sultan of Swing]

At that weight I not only felt like an Anorexic Ethiopian, I bloody looked like one as well

Welcome to my life...lol.

Well, I beat ya's all,

My BMI is 38 , 195cm x 144Kg,

But I get this nagging feeling that I shouldn't want to be winning this one

BF

I'm at the other end of the scale.

BMI 19.5 190cm 73kg. Never have been able to put much weight on ... sigh.