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I'm 6'2" 250 and built like a linebacker. That translates to a 32. I don't think BMI means a whole hell of a lot.
 
36.1 but I am also 193 cm.

Even at my slimmest I was 30.4. Then I had 5% body fat. I would have had to loose 15 kg of muscle to be "normal"

Its skewed towards short people. It should be based around the cube of the height. (My father says its the 4th power of the height to compensate for the extra muscles and skeleton to hold up the extra muscle and skeleton)
 
MrSmith said:
Care to share what and how?

I am glad to share. I began a weight loss program in late January 2004 and by Thanksgiving my weight went from 200 to a low of 149. I finally stabilized at 151 in early January 2005 and have remained there since. This obviously has required a change in what I eat on a daily basis. I consistently stay with cereal or fat-free yogurt for breakfast, and I usually have an apple or pear for lunch while at the office. Dinner usually consists of either chicken, tuna or crab plus two vegetables such as carrots and green beans, along with a sizable salad from iceberg lettuce, plum tomatoes, sliced olives and fat-free Thousand Island dressing.

Twice a week I satisfy my love for Italian food by having whole grain pasta. I have not had cravings for cakes and ice cream in a long time and the reason I am doing well is because I honestly enjoy what I am eating now. I do not participate in any vigorous exercise, but try to walk for at least 30 minutes a day. My daily food intake is limited to approximately 2,200 calories and I do not eat anything beyond 7 p.m. and drinking 5-6 glasses of water is part of the daily regimen. At times when I feel a bit more hungry, I will have extra fruit and that does a nice job of eliminating hunger. An added bonus is that my cholesterol reading has been lowered from a prior range of 225 to my new number of 152.
 
jayscheuerle said:
It might to your knees in another 10 years...

Evolution hasn't caught up to protecting ourselves from our larger bodies yet. Cartilage, hearts, cooling systems don't necessarily scale up without genetic modification.

If you know of a way to remove muscle mass, I'm all ears.

BMI is allegedly for rating whether you're overweight or not. It has nothing to do with the health of you joints, connective tissue, or other organs.
 
aloofman said:
If you know of a way to remove muscle mass, I'm all ears.

BMI is allegedly for rating whether you're overweight or not. It has nothing to do with the health of you joints, connective tissue, or other organs.

Don't eat so much. Your body will eat itself then.

Right, BMI doesn't address those issues. I was saying that the human body has not caught up to our rapid increase in size with the type of refinements needed to support large bodies well over an entire lifetime. Parts wear out quicker in larger bodies.

200+ lb. bodies are not part of the human evolutionary gameplan. The industrial and agricultural revolutions have caught our genes off-guard.
 
Yeah, I've always found BMI BS as well.

6'4"
209 lbs.
25.4 BMI

Yeah, I'm overweight...right. That's why so many people comment on how thin I am. Granted I have 13% bodyfat which I'd like to get down to 9%, but anyone who works out and gets in shape by adding muscle is going to skew overweight.

Found this on http://bansheeblog.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_bansheeblog_archive.html

"To test my theory, I decided to put a few world-class athletes' statistics into the BMI calculator and see how they turned out.

Kobe Bryant: Overweight (BMI 25.4) Guard for the LA Lakers
Yao Ming: Overweight (BMI 26.9) Center for the Houston Rockets
Scott Stevens: Overweight (BMI 27.6) Defenseman for the New Jersey Devils
Jaromir Jagr: Overweight (BMI 28) Right Winger for the New York Rangers
John Ruiz: Overweight (BMI 29.0) WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World
Roger Clemens: Overweight (BMI 28.6) Pitcher for the Houston Astros
Ivan Rodriguez: Obese (BMI 32.5) Catcher for the Detroit Tigers
Priest Holmes: Obese (BMI 31.5) Running Back for the Kansas City Chiefs
Ray Lewis: Obese (BMI 32.3) Linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens

So, if you and your friends and neighbors are all falling into the overweight or obese categories, you'll know you're in good company. Too bad we can't all run 4.4 40's like the obese Mr. Lewis.

# posted by Wild Banshee : 7/27/2004 01:00:04 PM 0 comments

Found this interesting, too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7129586/

Shaq most obese in NBA? So says BMI

Height-weight formula doesn't appear to hold up in assessing basketball players

ANALYSIS
By Malcolm Ritter

Updated: 4:45 p.m. ET March 9, 2005
NEW YORK - Last week it was obese football players. Now it’s ... overweight basketball players?

Yep. If you apply a widely used criterion to the published heights and weights of NBA players, nearly half qualify as overweight.

Only four players assessed using the body-mass index (BMI) by The Associated Press made it all the way to the “obese” range, most notably — you guessed it — Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal.

But the notion that 200 other NBA players out of 426 are even within a 3-point shot of tubby might make one wonder: Just how good is the BMI at telling if somebody is too fat?

The finding follows a study of football players published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That research concluded that according to BMI standards, more than half of National Football League players are obese, and nearly all are overweight. The study’s validity was questioned by an NFL spokesman.

What’s going on here? Obesity experts say the BMI really is a useful guide to identifying individuals who are too fat for their own good, but it shouldn’t be used by itself.

“The value of the BMI for the (general) population is it’s a good first step, and I underline ’first step,”’ says Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

“No one has ever suggested it’s the only criterion to use, because it clearly is not.”

The body-mass index doesn’t directly measure fat. It comes from a formula that considers only weight and height. At 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds, O’Neal had the NBA’s highest BMI, 31.6, in the AP analysis. (He admits to gaining 2 pounds since those numbers were posted.)

That puts him in the “obese” range, which is 30 and above. A BMI indicates normal weight if it falls between 18.5 and 24.9, and overweight if it’s between 25 and 29.9.

“I’ve read that same formula, but as an athlete, I’m classified as phenomenal,” O’Neal told The AP. “You can look it up.”

O’Neal, ranked among the NBA’s 50 greatest players, lost 40 pounds after team management asked him to when he joined the team last summer. He says he now has 13 percent body fat.

Studies show that as a group, people who score “overweight” on the BMI run an elevated risk of developing such problems as diabetes and heart disease, while those in the “obese” category have even higher risks.
Tim Frank, the NBA’s vice president of basketball communications, said BMI studies like the AP’s analysis are “pretty subjective” and weight has not been an issue in the league.

“We’re confident our players are some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world,” he said.

Nationally, almost a third of American adults are obese and nearly two-thirds are either obese or overweight under the BMI criteria. Experts are studying how appropriate the standard cutoffs are for non-Caucasians; research suggests that members of many Asian populations may need to keep their weight lower to fend off health risks.

The AP’s basketball analysis points out a key drawback of the BMI: People who are lean but well muscled, like most basketball players, can have the same elevated BMI as somebody who carries too much fat.

You might think that somebody who gets an “overweight” BMI from muscle would have a lower health risk than somebody of the same BMI, but carrying more fat. But experts say that’s not clear. For one thing, experts noted, athletes tend to keep their high BMI’s after they retire — only then, their muscle gets replaced by fat.

Thirty-four percent of U.S. adults are considered overweight, and an additional 31 percent are obese.

For non-Asians, BMI’s are informative when they’re below 25 or above 30, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel of the University of Colorado, president-elect of the American Heart Association. For example, a BMI of 23 likely indicates an acceptable amount of body fat while one of 33 means “you’ve got too much fat,” he said.

But for BMI’s between 25 and 30 — basically the overweight range — the implication is more murky, especially in athletic people, he said.

He and others emphasize that calculating BMI is really just a starting point. A key follow-up is determining waist size with a measuring tape. If it’s greater than 40 inches in a man or more than 35 inches in a woman, there’s an elevated risk of weight-related disease.

Some studies suggest the waist measurement tracks health risks better than BMI, said Dr. Louis Aronne, president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. But like other experts, he thinks “the two of them together provide you with the best information.”

And, Bray adds, it’s important to look at other things like a person’s age, level of physical activity, rate of weight gain, blood pressure and cholesterol levels to really get a good picture of one’s risk.

In any case, Dr. William Dietz of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said BMI alone is a good enough tool that the national estimate of obese adults — about 59 million people — won’t be affected by findings from the specialized world of professional athletes.

And for those who persist in thinking Shaquille O’Neal is obese, he has a simple message: “You think that, stick to science. Top 50, three rings, lot of money, two mansions.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Frank Bass, AP director of computer investigations, did the NBA analysis. AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this story from Miami.
 
Angelus520 said:
Yeah, I'm overweight...right. That's why so many people comment on how thin I am.

I'd say most Americans are not good judges of whether people are thin or not. Many have skewed perceptions thinking that anything less than chunky is skinny. Some have skewed perceptions that anything more than boney is fat. And so on. People's arbitrary, subjective comments are going to be less reliable than mathematical measurements, no matter how flawed they may be.
 
MacAztec said:
BMI is total ********. I am 5'10, 165, and I am fine, but my friend who is 5'9, about 186lbs, but is ripped and big, great shape, is considered overweight.

Hmmm...total bs

Wow- I would've sworn you weighed more than that after seeing your pics. You're in pretty good shape and a fairly well-built guy. I thought you were more around 175- 180.
 
miloblithe said:
People's arbitrary, subjective comments are going to be less reliable than mathematical measurements, no matter how flawed they may be.
I don't care what they say, Texas still should be #1. USC sucks.

Oh, wait, that's the BCS. Wrong flawed mathematical measurement.

:p
 
at 5'10" and 175, my BMI is 25.1.

football weight, i'm usually around 165 in the offseason. and i wish i was like 200 right now, so if that thing wanted to tell me i'm obese, it can shove it :p
 
aloofman said:
I'm 6'2" 250 and built like a linebacker. That translates to a 32. I don't think BMI means a whole hell of a lot.
Sorta the same for me. 6'2" 235 and a BMI of 30.2. According to that I would be Obese, but I don't know of anyone who would call me obese. Overweight, sure I buy that, but Obese?
 
I agree, it's way off. I'm almost in the overweight category according to this, and I am far from overweight. I'm 5"11, 174 lbs.

_Emerson
 
jayscheuerle said:
Don't eat so much. Your body will eat itself then.

I would basically have to eat barely any food at all and get no exercise, which would be quite unhealthy. I'm naturally muscular and little short of a chronically debillitating disease would change that. I suppose if I were an amateur physiologist too, then I could convince myself otherwise.
 
scem0 said:
I agree, it's way off. I'm almost in the overweight category according to this, and I am far from overweight. I'm 5"11, 174 lbs.

_Emerson

compared to me you are gigantic

i think i have the lowest BMI :/
 
hehe, yup. And guess what? I'm trying to bulk up! I'm increasing my protein intake and exercising to convert some of my fat to muscle. I'm in pretty good shape, I go dancing 3 to 4 times a week (even considered becoming a go-go boy, but that didn't work out :rolleyes: - my parents weren't too happy about such aspirations) and work out 2 or 3 times a week. I still have a healthy layer of fat on me, but I'm in good shape.

_Emerson
 
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