Why obesity is NOT the problem

It’s no secret; Over the last few decades we have been bombarded with many studies indicating that obesity is the biggest health epidemic we face in the United States. We have also been told that obesity greatly increases the risk of degenerative diseases such as heart failure, diabetes and cancer. THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY TRUE! When these studies were published, the only factors they looked at were weight and body mass index (BMI). People easily fall in love with these numbers, but they don’t really tell you much.

Your BMI is calculated by knowing your height and weight; the formula can be easily looked up if you are not familiar with calculus. The BMI calculation does NOT take into account how much of your weight is fat, muscle, bone, water, minerals, etc. It also does not take into account lifestyle choices such as exercise, eating habits, use of diet medications, attempted crash diets, and weight fluctuations. BMI was used by insurance companies as a general way to determine an individual’s health risk. This is a problem because very muscular people and some athletes end up being classified as obese despite being among the healthiest people in the world. The BMI system is relatively useless, but because insurance companies don’t have the time, manpower, or resources to fully screen people like they should, this is the best system they can use.

For those who are sedentary and do not have healthy habits, the BMI scale turns out to be somewhat accurate.

If obesity isn’t the problem, then what is? There are more and more studies beginning to appear that show that lifestyle is a much better indicator of health and assesses the risk of developing degenerative disease. While studying Exercise and Wellness at Arizona State University, I was first exposed to this and was convinced by the overwhelming evidence. Studies show that people who are physically active and practice healthy eating and lifestyle habits, but who are considered overweight or obese by BMI standards, are as healthy, if not healthier, than those who are in “Normal” BMI standards, but they are sedentary and don’t. exercise or practice healthy eating and lifestyle habits! Real health indicators include the following elements:

• Exercise
• Nutrition
• Lifestyle clothing (smoking, recreational drug use, alcohol use, etc.)
• Use of diet drugs
• Weight cycling (gaining and losing weight several times in a short period of time)
• Crash diet attempts

Now, this does NOT mean that all overweight or obese people are healthy. If you lead a poor lifestyle and are considered to be overweight or obese, then you are still at a much higher risk for health problems, but you can change that with some lifestyle changes! If you’re in the Underweight or Normal categories, that doesn’t automatically mean you’re healthy either. If you have poor lifestyle habits and don’t exercise, you still have a higher risk of disease than if you exercised and lived a healthy lifestyle. If you want to be healthy regardless of your weight, you need to exercise, eat right, avoid crash diets, avoid weight loss or diet drugs, and make sure you lose weight the right way. If you lose weight the right way, you should only do it once. If you need to lose weight, you should only lose 1-2 pounds per week to make sure you’re not losing too much muscle mass. I hope this encourages EVERYONE to get up and start taking care of themselves! Your weight does not determine your well-being!