GatewayRedbirds.com

I had my annual physical yesterday. Normal doc is out, so it was with her PA - from all appearances a young, rail-thin Boulder vegan-hippie triathlete.

She asks me about a bunch of stuff, then looks at my charts and says "let's see what we have here....you're 190 pounds and have a BMI of 30, which means you're definitely obese." My reply was "Did you look back through my file to see that I've lost 40-50 pounds over the last couple of years?" So she looks and says "I see, but you need to be under 165 according to the charts, so you've still got a way to go here." Told her I was on an exercise program too and her only response was "well, it must be a minimum of 30 minutes a day of aggressive cardio", insinuating without even asking that there's no way in hell I could be doing anything close to that. Well, thanks for the encouragement, sweetheart....nice bedside manner, too. At that point I just shut up and waited for the exam to be over.

No argument that I could stand to shed a few more lbs, but my priority has not been on a number but getting healthier. So I decided to test this BMI calculation a bit. Used a few Cardinals since their heights and weights are published - plugging them into the calculator, here are the results (normal weight range is BMI of 18.5 to 24.9).

Pete Kozma, 6'0" 190: BMI 25.8 - Overweight
Jon Jay, 5'11" 195: BMI 27.2 - Overweight
Daniel Descalsco, 5'10" 190: BMI 27.3 Overweight
Trevor Rosenthal, 6'2" 220: BMI 28.2 - Overweight
Adam Wainwright, 6'7" 235: BMI 26.5 - Overweight
Yadier Molina, 5'11" 220: BMI 30.7 - Obese

BMI Chart:

[SHOW]

OK, I feel a little better now. But dig a little deeper and it says that there are limitations:

Although BMI can be used for most men and women, it does have some limits:
- It may overestimate body fat in athletes and others who have a muscular build (which I assumes explains the Cards results)
- It may underestimate body fat in older persons and others who have lost muscle (which I assume means she thinks my BMI was understated)

So what the hell good is it? Sounds about as worthless as BA or Wins. Isn't there some sort of sabr measurement that can be developed that says I'm not obese anymore?????

BMI+? wBMI?

i believe bmi has 90% of the country as obese.

Body fat % is a better estimator of health but much harder to measure.

I've been obese according to BMI for the last 15 years. It's [expletive] useless.

Pretty sure we've gone through this. Your rant should be against the PA and not BMI. It's a mildly useful public health type of stat. You should have gone all advanced metrics on her.

RxOfCowbell wrote:Body fat % is a better estimator of health but much harder to measure.

You can get a decent enough idea of it from some online calculators.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/

This one pegs me at 18.5-19%, depending on my weight at that moment in time. I'd peg it slightly lower than that if only because I have a wider build than average, but either way, it's probably a solid estimate given how I look in a mirror.

If I were in the green I'd look like a late stage cancer victim.

I would have walked out of the office, told whoever would listen that the PA is a [expletive], and that you will come back to see your normal doctor. If they gave you any [expletive] about that, I'd tell them to send my chart to my new doctor. Who do these people think they are?

To quote myself from a previous thread:

http://gatewayredbirds.com/forum/viewto ... re#p852180

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:

JackofDiamonds wrote:

clake wrote:6'1" and 210... The BMI thing is a bit off, there's no way I'd look healthy if I was at the ideal weight according to that... There's no way I'm denying being overweight but even my personal ideal weight (approx 195) would be considered overweight.

I think BMI's biggest weakness is leg strength. If you have anything (insert penile humor) from the waist down you're overweight.

++ Runners and swimmers are about the only athletes I can think of that don't have big legs. And wrestlers, but they're freakishly small somehow.

Here are some current athletes BMIs:

George St. Pierre: 24.4
Albert Pujols: 28.7
Adam Wainwright: 25.9
Michael Phelps: 24.3
Usain Bolt: 24.5

I could go on and on, but look at that list. I think you can make an argument that the best athletes in the world are on that list, Wano made it just because I have a man crush, and none of them are under 24. That's insane. What's really interesting is how close St. Pierre, Phelps and Bolt are; I don't think anyone can argue those are three of the best in shape people in the world.

FWIW, that post was made in 2010.

Marp is undoubtedly ok with BMI. That dude looks on the healthy side of thin, right?

[SHOW]

nope 6'3" 215lbs BMI 26.5 overweight

I'm guess he's playing lower than that 215 now, but he'd have to be 190 to be normal BMI