Sugar Turned On Me

I am obese. I know this because I looked at a number of calculators on the internet and put in my height and weight and got a number that declares it so. It’s not surprising; type 2 diabetes and weight issues go hand in hand. But the question I have is do the numbers actually tell me anything.

Obesity has been linked to type 2 diabetes by many studies. It is defined as having an excess of body fat such that it may negatively effect your health. The Body Mass Index (BMI) was developed to help diagnosis this condition and while modern medicine recognizes that it has limitations, not differentiating between adipose tissue (fat) and muscle, it is still used today.

The BMI scale was developed in the 19th century. There has been some attempts to update the scale for age and frame, but for the most part it is used as it was first made (or so my internet research leads me to believe).

I don’t have enough temporal hubris to think that just because the BMI scale is old that it is no longer relevant, but the numbers it tells me I should be striving for give me concern. To stop being obese, I’d have to drop from my current weight of 215 down to around 195. Not huge and not vastly different than I’d want, but at that point I’d still be overweight by the same scale. To get to a “normal” weight by BMI, I’d have to drop to almost 150 pounds.

I haven’t weighed that since middle school. I don’t fancy trying to get there agian, either.

That the body undergoes strain due to excess fat tissue is not in question. While I don’t think it’s an automatic death sentence in and of itself, it’s something most people would be happier without. Considering the growing stigma of obesity and the treatments which are recommended to combat it, I would be much happier if its measure was not the product of a seemingly arbitrary determination.

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