Overweight
Overweight – The Other World Epidemic
Are we ‘over’ weight yet?
As we indicated in our introductory page (Weight Disorder), some argue that overweight results from our historical body makeup, i.e., we were designed as hunter-gatherers, needing certain levels of body fat for normal functionality, insulation and energy storage for a lifestyle of mobility, exercise, and labor unaided by machinery. Overweight, it is argued, results from the abundance of food; the availability of meat without personal involvement in the hunt; the availability of vegetables and grain without personal involvement in their cultivation; our consumption of high-fat, high-sugar manufactured and ‘fast’ foods; and our body design tucking away fat for the inevitable famine which never arrives, (in the West, at least).
Americans, Canadians, Australians, Europeans, Britons and others are experiencing not just epidemics of swine and avian influenza, but a longer lasting, insidiously upward-trending, epidemic of the wrong kind of body-building. The adjacent video is from the Australian “Life. Be in it.” campaign of a few years ago which featured a character called “Norm” created by Australian artist, Alex Stitt. It is included here to illustrate that governments have recognized for some years that obesity was a problem whose time was coming.
Currently, the Australians are running the “Measure Up” campaign, shown below.
We generally talk of normal or ideal weight. Normal and ideal arise from statistical analysis of populations. If more than 60% of American adults is above normal weight, then what does this do for our concept of normality? If the remaining 40% of the population is not ‘overweight’, where now is the ‘norm’ line drawn?
In matters of human statistics, insurance companies and their actuaries know what is going on. So too, do manufacturers of clothing and shoes, and transit companies – clothing sizes have been adjusted in recent years as have the widths of seats in buses, trains and planes, even in cinemas, and the furniture we buy for our homes. Insurance companies know that carrying extra weight leads, inter alia, to increased levels of diabetes, fatty liver syndrome, heart disease, stroke and reduced life expectancy, while reduced levels of smoking and ever-improving medical care lead to increased life expectancy.
What do we mean by overweight, notwithstanding the changing averages? The medical profession generally relies on the Body Mass Index (BMI), in describing weight. In order to understand weight as the medical professionals do, it behooves us to understand BMI, which measures an individual’s weight against their height. A BMI is the result of an individual’s weight in kilograms or pounds being divided by the square of his or her height in metres or feet and inches. BMIs are generally used without stating the units. BMIs indicate the percentage of body fat for most adults, (though not pregnant women or body-builders, perhaps).
Now we know what BMI is, we can understand what the medical profession means when describing someone as overweight, pre-obese, or obese. The World Health Organisation (WHO), has published definitions of weight by reference to BMI.
A BMI of 25 or more indicates overweight. A BMI between 25 and 30 indicates pre-obesity. A BMI of 30 or more indicates obesity. It is not uncommon to define weight as indicated by a BMI of 25-30 as abnormal.
It has been observed that Asian people experience adverse consequences of above normal weight at lower BMIs than Americans or Europeans generally. As a result the Japanese officially define obesity by reference to a BMI exceeding 25 and the Chinese by reference to a BMI exceeding 28.
If you search on the internet you will find sites with BMI calculators to save you doing the arithmetic or you can go to our page, BMI Calculator. Then you will know your personal BMI. Will it make you feel any better? Will you still be overweight? or ‘over’ weight!
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