I see the BBC News site has another piece on BMI today. This time in reference to children, who I thought everyone accepted it didn’t work for anyhow. But as ever it all kicks off into a discussion of BMI and who (as adults) it does and doesn’t work for. Many people say BMI is not appropriate for “athletes” without defining what “athlete” actually means. Someone who is a professional sportsperson, perhaps? Or a keen amateur? Or someone who turns up for their local club mostly because they’re into the social side?
And the NHS glibly suggest that BMI isn’t appropriate for some people without actually giving any information about how to decide if you’re one of those people or not. Very helpful. Not.
I’d guess that an awful lot of people would suggest that BMI would apply to a man in his mid/late fifties who isn’t a professional sportsman and never has been (and in fact has a sedentary office job). But here’s the thing…
That’s me. And whilst I know I’m carrying a small amount of baggage on my sides that I could do without, to achieve the maximum “healthy” BMI I would have to lose around 30kg (70lb, or five stones). Even when I left university, when I really was quite skinny, I’d have had to lose 5kg (11lb) to make the grade. Yet I have no obvious fat on my arms, legs or upper torso and I have visible abs and external intercostals(?). Only in the aforementioned areas above the iliac crest would it even be possible to come close to being able to “pinch an inch” as the saying used to go. Most other places you’d be down to millimetres.
I do, or at least did, until the local swimming pool closed for refurbishment last November, swim three times a week. I can’t wait to get back. It used to be more often, but my body just couldn’t recover fast enough any more. I swim hard. Rarely was I not the fastest person through the water in the fast lane. It’s just for fun though. I don’t compete and never have. I just like to be good at it. Swimming has significantly changed my body shape over the eight years I’ve been doing it and I did initially lose a fair bit off my waist as a result. I also saw a definite increase in my chest size, which is now around 125cm or 49″.
Diet-wise I eat reasonably healthily though I drink more alcohol than is recommended. As a family we eat vegetarian more often than not. And I often reach the stage where I get symptoms similar to those that might point to low blood sugar (poor motor control, loss of concentration, poor balance, occasionally blurred vision), which perhaps suggests that I’m not over-eating carbs and my liver is struggling to find more glycogen to provide to my muscles. Eating and giving my digestion time to work always seems to fix it.
So where am I? I’m at an age where all sorts of health issues can occur that are usually at least in part associated with “being overweight”. But am I actually overweight? Several GPs have told me that BMI isn’t a consistent or reliable indicator of being overweight, but seem to be able to offer no alternative that will provide an answer to what seems to me to be the obvious question:
“How much excess body fat do I have, if any?”
I surely can’t be the only one in this position. There must be many more like me. But until someone steps up and can provide a method for “normal” people to answer that question definitively, those who share my position seem to be stuck between the rock of being accused of being obese and the hard place of having no way to find the answers to the questions that we need answering.
