It’s rare that topics such as obesity get a sensitive and thoughtful write up in mainstream news publications, which is why I appreciated this recent Time article by Jamie Ducharme so much.
In particular, I like how the article mentions how U.S. doctors address BMI — which is an outdated method for measuring health and can often be misleading.
Take it from me: since I started picking up heavy things at the gym a few years ago, I’ve become “overweight” by BMI standards. My clothes from before I started building muscle still fit, and I’m happier and experience less back pain, a constant problem from the before days.
My waist-to-height ratio, a more reliable metric for measuring healthy weight, is now perfect (especially since I also introduced intermittent fasting, which dramatically influenced the horrible bloating I experience when I have PMS, a common problem for women that BMI, which was designed for men, doesn’t even begin to address). My endurance is much higher. I sleep much better. But if you look at me purely through the lens of BMI, then you might conclude that something is “wrong” with me.
Because it was designed with men in mind, BMI doesn’t even account for the issue of breasts and backsides — you could have a slim waist as a woman, and no excess visceral fat, but generous curves can skew your weight on the scale. A friend of mine was on a disastrous diet with far-reaching health effects for over a year before a new doctor gently explained to her that BMI simply doesn’t account for her figure (I’ve been told the same thing). She was risking her health, and ultimately her life, in order to fit a standard that was arbitrary and had nothing to do with her.
My friend and I are just one example of how a cookie-cutter approach to health and weight simply doesn’t work. A male friend who’s much more athletic than I am is technically in the “obese” category when measured purely based on BMI. He looks like he belongs on the cover of Men’s Health, but his deceptively high BMI meant that he was initially denied an important treatment — which wasn’t even weight-related — because someone looked at a chart without seeing the bigger picture.
And looks are the tip of the iceberg here. People who don’t look like standard fitness models are still perfectly capable of having good cholesterol levels, good fitness levels, and good cardiovascular health. It seems bizarre to have to say this in 2023, but OUR BODIES ARE DIFFERENT AND WHAT’S HEALTHY FOR SOMEONE MAY NOT NECESSARILY BE HEALTHY FOR SOMEONE ELSE.
I’m not saying all this to denigrate people’s fitness goals — I have many of those goals myself, and little by little, I am working to achieve them — but what I am saying is that health is an individualized topic. Finding the right trainer and a good doctor who actually runs tests for you is very important. Looking like someone else because you believe you need to look like someone else, on the other hand, can have serious consequences.
Of course, the issue of health in America will always be fraught until our healthcare system is improved. We’ve made some strides on that front, but we still have a long way to go, as anyone who has dealt with an arbitrary insurance claim dispute can attest.
For now, the least we can do is move on from BMI and toward better metrics for how we look at ourselves and see what could be improved, and what needs to simply be left alone.
And having said that, I’m off to the gym to pick up more heavy things.
Images: Antoni Shkraba and Anna Shvets