Middle Age Spread

[malvolio]

The researchers should just say that BMI is a tulip measurement, and that if someone has type 2 diabetes they need to lose visceral fat and exercise daily regardless of their weight.

Totally this - BMI is a nonsense measure. Using that as the yardstick, someone like Maro Itoje is grossly obese.

I was under 9 stone at 21, mostly down to not being able to eat properly for a couple of months. I was 13 stone playing county-standard badminton and 16 stone when I could bench press 60 Kgs without straining anything, do three hours kendo without getting out of breath and had a 34 inch waist.

All long gone now, sadly, apart from the 16 stone bit. However my latest set of blood tests put everything, including BP and resting heart rate, well inside normal. OTOH I met someone lately who is a builder in his 50s, 6'3", weighs 13 stone, is a vegetarian and has developed type 2 diabetes...

[d000hg]

BMI isn't a nonsense measurement. As a gross tool to quickly flag people who may have issues, it is easy and quick. Most with high BMI are not semi-pro sportspeople or body builders or suffering dwarfism after all.

Getting an accurate body composition report has to be a couple of orders of magnitude more work than measuring your height and weight which any fule can do

[xoggoth]

Got one of those Weight Watcher body analyser scales, measures BMI, body fat, body water and bone mass. Probably used it about 3 times in 2 years I've had it. Typical.

[malvolio]

BMI isn't a nonsense measurement. As a gross tool to quickly flag people who may have issues, it is easy and quick. Most with high BMI are not semi-pro sportspeople or body builders or suffering dwarfism after all.

Getting an accurate body composition report has to be a couple of orders of magnitude more work than measuring your height and weight which any fule can do

A simple pinch test for subcutaneous fat is more accurate an assessment of obesity. If you want to be a little more scientific, you can buy a set of scales that can measure overall boy fat content, which will catch the visceral adipose tissue that is the real problem.

[Paralytic]

any fule can do

Oh, the irony

(but yes, BPM is a useful indicator for 99+% of the population)

[d000hg]

Oh, the irony

You do realise that was deliberate, right?

A simple pinch test for subcutaneous fat is more accurate an assessment of obesity. If you want to be a little more scientific, you can buy a set of scales that can measure overall boy fat content, which will catch the visceral adipose tissue that is the real problem.

But just measuring your height and weight is simpler still. It only needs to be good enough.

[Paralytic]

You do realise that was deliberate, right?

Yeah, of course it was

I've also found the body measurement data from the electronic scales pretty dodgy. If i do pre and post-run measurements (where i can easily lose 1-2kg in fluids), it can result in fairly significant changes to the body fat and visceral fat results it provides.

[malvolio]

Yeah, of course it was

I've also found the body measurement data from the electronic scales pretty dodgy. If i do pre and post-run measurements (where i can easily lose 1-2kg in fluids), it can result in fairly significant changes to the body far and visceral fat results it provides.

Well yes, it's measuring fluid content, since there is a lot more fluid in adipose tissue than there is in muscle...

[d000hg]

Yeah, of course it was .

The irony being that you don't get what I suppose these days would be called a meme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Any_fule_kno