What Do You Think of BMI?

[Joe_0206]

@djhall looks like we're closer in opinion than I thought.

@cuda yeah, that's part of what I was attempting to say. I think that people who were never in the correct range (or weren't paying attention when they were) tend to think, "I couldn't drop that much weight," when in fact most can. I believe a lot of people - for many and varied reasons - simply underestimate how much extra fat they are carrying. The guy who should lose 50 pounds thinks he's only 20-25 over weight. Then they look at the range the chart recommends and think there's no way that's correct. Yet for most of us it is.

Yes, I guess you are right. I must be fooling myself. It's either lose weight or die.

The well trusted Mayo clinic suggests:

With a BMI of 33.1, I am Obese (30 or greater)

•Embrace healthy eating by choosing a variety of nutrient-rich foods, including fruits, vegetables and whole grains and small amounts of energy-dense foods like olive oil, nuts and dried fruits.
•Exercise. Ask your doctor about the right type of activities for you. Remember, even small amounts of activity provide immediate benefits.
•Set action goals focused on specific healthy activities such as starting a daily food and activity diary.

Ah, life is always wonderful! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

[Joe_0206]

I found this article at WebMD to be informative: Lose Weight Fast: How to Do It Safely

And this one about exercise: Why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner—and why we're wrong.

Happy fat burning!

[Sludge]

And this one about exercise: Why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner—and why we're wrong.

As the Finns themselves concluded, with characteristic understatement, the relationship between exercise and weight is “more complex” than they might otherwise have imagined.

It is not "more complex" (but that sounds better than "I don't get it").

The formula for Daily Caloric Expenditure is:

Thermic Effect of Food + Resting Metabolic Rate + Thermic Effect of Physical Activity = Daily Caloric Expenditure

Run a deficit of 500 calories a day and you will lose a pound per week. Exceed DCE by 500 calories a day and you will gain a pound a week.

This is as predicable (and as metaphorically appropriate) as a fire.

Reasons that this does not appear to "work" are:

• People overestimate their RMR;
• People overestimate their TEPA; and
• People underestimate their Food Consumption.

[OhHelpMe]

Trying to lose weight? Stay away from organic food!

For sure, organic food causes autism. You can see right here that as organic food became popular, the cases of autism grew.



teehee
causation, correlation

[Kiralynx]

Run a deficit of 500 calories a day and you will lose a pound per week. Exceed DCE by 500 calories a day and you will gain a pound a week.

This is as predicable (and as metaphorically appropriate) as a fire.

Reasons that this does not appear to "work" are:

• People overestimate their RMR;
• People overestimate their TEPA; and
• People underestimate their Food Consumption.

No, it isn't predictable, and no, it isn't appropriate.

But of course, you probably haven't read Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating, and Emotional Overeating by Judith Matz and Ellen Frankel.

The authors note that “The official policy is that all large people can and should lose weight. Health and medical professionals who promote this view assume that any excess weight over a narrow ‘ideal’ is unhealthy, dangerous, and expensive. They believe that weight loss is always desirable and healthy for persons over this ideal, no matter how it is accomplished, and that all large persons can successfully lose at least 10-15 per cent of their weight and maintain it. These assumptions are not supported by research.”

[49er]

Run a deficit of 500 calories a day and you will lose a pound per week. Exceed DCE by 500 calories a day and you will gain a pound a week.

This is as predicable (and as metaphorically appropriate) as a fire.

Reasons that this does not appear to "work" are:

• People overestimate their RMR;
• People overestimate their TEPA; and
• People underestimate their Food Consumption.

No, it isn't predictable, and no, it isn't appropriate.

But of course, you probably haven't read Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating, and Emotional Overeating by Judith Matz and Ellen Frankel.

The authors note that “The official policy is that all large people can and should lose weight. Health and medical professionals who promote this view assume that any excess weight over a narrow ‘ideal’ is unhealthy, dangerous, and expensive. They believe that weight loss is always desirable and healthy for persons over this ideal, no matter how it is accomplished, and that all large persons can successfully lose at least 10-15 per cent of their weight and maintain it. These assumptions are not supported by research.”

As a thin person, I give you a +1 for this comment. If I have an excellent metabolism and can pretty much stay within an normal weight range no matter what I ate, it stands to reason that people who are overweight aren't going to always be able to lose weight even if they do everything perfectly.

Also, losing and regaining weight several times is alot more unhealthy than staying at a stable weight that may be considered to be too much by certain medical authorities. Something to keep in mind.

It is just so sad with all the eating disorders in this society that we are still focused on people having the "perfect" body.

49er

[Sludge]

Run a deficit of 500 calories a day and you will lose a pound per week. Exceed DCE by 500 calories a day and you will gain a pound a week.

This is as predicable (and as metaphorically appropriate) as a fire.

Reasons that this does not appear to "work" are:

• People overestimate their RMR;
• People overestimate their TEPA; and
• People underestimate their Food Consumption.

No, it isn't predictable, and no, it isn't appropriate.

But of course, you probably haven't read Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating, and Emotional Overeating by Judith Matz and Ellen Frankel.

The authors note that “The official policy is that all large people can and should lose weight. Health and medical professionals who promote this view assume that any excess weight over a narrow ‘ideal’ is unhealthy, dangerous, and expensive. They believe that weight loss is always desirable and healthy for persons over this ideal, no matter how it is accomplished, and that all large persons can successfully lose at least 10-15 per cent of their weight and maintain it. These assumptions are not supported by research.”

That has absolutely nothing to do with what physiologically controls weight.

Further, the only "Official Policy" is the one contrived by the authors to sell their book.

Their diet plan requires that one drinks their Kool-Aid...

I'll bet they're fat....

[NameGoesHere]

Run a deficit of 500 calories a day and you will lose a pound per week. Exceed DCE by 500 calories a day and you will gain a pound a week.

This is as predicable (and as metaphorically appropriate) as a fire.

Reasons that this does not appear to "work" are:

• People overestimate their RMR;
• People overestimate their TEPA; and
• People underestimate their Food Consumption.

No, it isn't predictable, and no, it isn't appropriate.

But of course, you probably haven't read Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating, and Emotional Overeating by Judith Matz and Ellen Frankel.

The authors note that “The official policy is that all large people can and should lose weight. Health and medical professionals who promote this view assume that any excess weight over a narrow ‘ideal’ is unhealthy, dangerous, and expensive. They believe that weight loss is always desirable and healthy for persons over this ideal, no matter how it is accomplished, and that all large persons can successfully lose at least 10-15 per cent of their weight and maintain it. These assumptions are not supported by research.”

Let's stay within a few standard deviations of the mean. For the overwhelming majority of people who are overweight eating less and expending more energy will lead to weight loss. Yes, that is simple and predictable.

Further, although I'm not familiar with the book you've referenced the title doesn't seem to contradict the prior poster's statement at all. Binge eating, compulsive eating, and emotional overeating are all examples of increase of food consumption and fit perfectly with the formula provided.

[Kiralynx]

As a thin person, I give you a +1 for this comment. If I have an excellent metabolism and can pretty much stay within an normal weight range no matter what I ate, it stands to reason that people who are overweight aren't going to always be able to lose weight even if they do everything perfectly.

Also, losing and regaining weight several times is alot more unhealthy than staying at a stable weight that may be considered to be too much by certain medical authorities. Something to keep in mind.

It is just so sad with all the eating disorders in this society that we are still focused on people having the "perfect" body.

49er

The other thing which is pitiful is the level of abuse heaped on those who are obese. A very dear friend of mine died of cancer because her doctors refused to accept that the female issues she was having wouldn't "just clear up" if she would "stop stuffing her face, and lose some weight." By the time they admitted it wasn't her weight, she was Stage 4 cancer, and she died 6 months later, just shy of her 14th wedding anniversary. (She also had sleep apnea which went undiagnosed because women don't have apnea.)

[Kiralynx]

Let's stay within a few standard deviations of the mean. For the overwhelming majority of people who are overweight eating less and expending more energy will lead to weight loss. Yes, that is simple and predictable.

Further, although I'm not familiar with the book you've referenced the title doesn't seem to contradict the prior poster's statement at all. Binge eating, compulsive eating, and emotional overeating are all examples of increase of food consumption and fit perfectly with the formula provided.

Not having read the book, you don't know what is laid out -- and that's the fact that dieting can make a person fat. Cut the calories, and the body goes into starvation mode, the metabolism drops, and the body holds on to every calorie it can get, assuming that there's a famine going on.

Eating less MAY cause weight loss -- but the weight doesn't STAY lost. And yo-yo dieting makes it harder and harder to lose weight, and is extremely unhealthy.

[Kiralynx]

That has absolutely nothing to do with what physiologically controls weight.

Further, the only "Official Policy" is the one contrived by the authors to sell their book.

Their diet plan requires that one drinks their Kool-Aid...

I'll bet they're fat....

Actually, it does. And no, the authors are not fat. Look up Judith Matz's picture on Amazon.

I have a real problem with people who take a moralistic view of the problem. The assumption that if fatties just weren't so weak-willing, they could lose weight if they really wanted to. If they'd just get a little exercise, like pushing themselves away from the table....!

Oh, yeah. Like that kind of abuse is going to help.

[Sludge]

Actually, it does.

Does not...

[Sludge]

Not having read the book, you don't know what is laid out -- and that's the fact that dieting can make a person fat. Cut the calories, and the body goes into starvation mode, the metabolism drops, and the body holds on to every calorie it can get, assuming that there's a famine going on.

Well I haven't read the book, nor would I, even for $10.49 (Kindle Edition) because undoubtedly, the only loss anyone is going to see is $$$ from their wallet.

Anyway...

Cut the calories, and the body goes into starvation mode

is an astronomical exaggeration.

First of all, "starvation mode" means dropping your daily caloric requirement to less than half of what it needs. That excludes all those unnecessary bacon double cheeseburgers stuffed in throughout the day.

Secondly, it is not that the body

holds on to every calorie it can get...

the BMR drops about 40% (after weeks of starvation: see Minnesota Starvation Experiment). So even a normal person, starving themselves, would still be running a 10% deficit, and losing weight.

Thirdly, throughout all this, the above formula remains true:

Thermic Effect of Food + Resting Metabolic Rate + Thermic Effect of Physical Activity = Daily Caloric Expenditure

In fact, that's precisely how one monitors all this.

Concludingly, it is not that if one diets, one goes into "starvation mode".

One goes into "starvation mode" if one...

..."starves".

[Sludge]

Well I haven't read the book, nor would I, even for $10.49 (Kindle Edition) because undoubtedly, the only loss anyone is going to see is $$$ from their wallet.

Instead, listen to this for free:

Metabolic Slowdown or Starvation Mode?

[Too tall]

I just lost 50 lbs over about 6 months. It's pretty simple and changes your entire life to keep it off. I went from 260, currently at 202. Get an accurate scale is a must. I went for nearly two weeks before I started seeing results. I ate regular food because I knew I would have to come off of the diet eventually. Just eat very low sugar and carbohydrate meals. Low fat. That works. You have to get a good scale so you can monitor your progress and see if you are living by your diet once you get to your goal. It's a life style change. Exercise will expedite the process although I didn't do it as much as I should have. I do try to walk a mile a day now.

A pound is 3600 calories. If it takes you 3600 calories to maintain your currently weight and you start eating 3000/ day, You drop 600 calories aday or a lb in 6 days. It's that simple.