WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
How do you know you are obese? how does your DOCTOR know?
I had the misfortune of going to a young endocrinologist last week who blithely told me without any examination whatsoever, that I was morbidly obese.
Not. How do they come up with this stuff? They use a silly little thing that applies only in some cases, and not in others, known as the "Body Mass Index." As Edward Spurlock has been hammering away at in Geek Your Fitness, he supplied me with the first clue to what my real problem is, and it was NOT "morbid obesity." The pure medical concept of "obesity" is "too fat." Which implies that your body has an excessive amount of adipose tissue. Well what is it that makes us bigger than other people? And what makes us heavier? A little basic chemistry and body-fat analysis after the fold.
BMI is a simple algorithm which is based upon large populations of people of every known background and ethnicity, and that chart just doesn't add up when it comes to exceptions to the rule. And I was one big exception.
Here's a simplecalculator:
Body mass index (BMI) is measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to both adult men and women.
BMI Categories:
* Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
* Overweight = 25-29.9
* Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
In assessing the need for weight loss and/or exercise, it's important to find out what is a normal weight. But what is NORMAL? If BMI is supposed to measure excess fat, how does BMI do that?
Fact is, it doesn't. BMI is useless for all but those people for whom all of the average standards apply. The only accurate way to determine your actual optimal weight, is to weigh your skeleton, your muscles, your organs, and then your fat. But without being dead and having Dr. House put your various parts on the scale down in the morgue, there are only a couple of ways of determining how much fat you need to lose, as well as what calories you are consuming, and that is known as the Calculated Body Fat Percentage.
So let's calculate.
Using the simple BMI method, I am "morbidly obese" with a BMI of 49%. HOLY COW!
But hold your horses!
Using the calculated body fat percentage (a handy spreadsheet with calculators built in HERE)
My actual lean body mass is 212 pounds. Which means my body fat percentage is 25%. So 25% plus 212 means I have 53 pounds of fat. A female needs 14% essential fat if she is athletic. Soooo my "normal" weight should be 241. If I am ATHLETIC. But let's go back to that body-mass index thing again. A woman with 25% body fat - is in the normal range. So if I only have 53 pounds of fat on a frame that should be 241 pounds, then somebody's got some splainin to do! Now I did these calculations about 4 weeks ago and ended up with a 31% body fat percentage on a 220 pound frame. I should have weighed 288, and yet I weighed 321.
Which meant I had excess fluid in my tissues, which was obvious to my doctor upon a full-body examination: 4 gallons worth. I won't know just how many "gallons" I have in me, but I do know that a low-sodium diet is emptying them out. I also don't believe I have 53 pounds of fat: I believe it is less than that. But unless I get out the calipers or get a body-immersion to get an ACCURATE body fat percentage, it will be a mystery up until the day that the fluid retention is finally and fully resolved. I can tell you that I was extremely unstable trying to do exercises in a pool today, and was unable to keep my balance. Just like a big bag a water should!
I am wrapping this up now, I invite everyone who is saddled with the term "morbidly obese" to do their own BODY FAT PERCENTAGE calculation, and go by that far-more accurate measure so that you can set realistic goals. A bit more about me:
I have lost 36 pounds since July 16, most of it in the last 3 weeks since I changed to a low sodium diet. If you are retaining massive amounts of fluid, suffer from edema that may be resulting from hormone imbalances, you may wish to have a doctor look very carefully at your body before glancing at the number on the scale and pronouncing you "morbidly obese."
Please sign up for a block and write a diary about your experiences with health, fitness, and weight !
October 17
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 15)
October 18
Sun AM - louisev (Turtle Diary)
Sun PM - jiffykeen
October 19
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - ???
October 20
Tues AM - ??
Tues PM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 16)
October 21
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock
October 22
Thrs AM - A DC Wonk
Thrs PM - ???
October 23
Fri AM -
Fri PM - Be Your Own Geneticist: Chapter 2: Experimentation and Wrong Diagnosis