What Does Obese Mean?
What does obesity mean? Well, we can define what obese is by saying that it is “Weight that is higher than what is considered as a healthy weight for a given height is described as overweight or obese.”
Is that what obese means? Yes, but I think there’s more. Now, before I continue I want you all to know that I am in no way talking about who obese people are. Rather, I am talking about the facts and statistics surrounding obesity. I do not intend to or want to attack, demean, or demoralize anyone out there who is obese.
BMI Index
So, we know that being obese is having a higher weight for a given height. For example, If someone is 5'6" and 200 pounds, according to the BMI Calculator, that person would be considered obese. The recommended weight for this individual is to be between 115 and 154 pounds. Is that it tho? Where do these numbers and recommendations come from?
History of the BMI Index
To answer that, we need to go back to the 1800s where Adolphe Quetelet (change your first name!) a mathematician and statistician, first came up with the BMI Formula. Which fun fact, until 1972 the BMI Index was actually called the Quetelet Index. Now, with most things created in the 1800s, there are some flaws and missing data. Such as, the BMI Index does not measure overall fat or lean muscle, nor waist size. And the BMI Index can label a Crossfit athlete like Matt Fraser as obese. Yeah, that guy. The guy who has won 5 Crossfit Games in a row. He’s obese. So, clearly, there are issues, yet this is what labels people as being obese. I believe we will soon have a new measurement. Until then, this is what we got. So, should you ignore it? Or should you just take it with a grain of salt? I’ll answer that shortly, but first! What does being obese mean? Even though we have a flawed measurement, we are still labeling people as obese and compiling data on them. So, what does the data say?
Data on Obesity
In 2016, the WHO found that worldwide, over 650 million people were labeled as obese. In the US, over 40% of the population is obese and the trend is going up. Furthermore, obesity is in the Top 5 leading risk factors of premature death. For reference, you need to reach over 4 1/2 million deaths a year to get there. Additionally, obese people have over a 50% increased chance of developing depression and people with depression have over a 50% increased chance of developing obesity.
What Obesity Means
So, although we might be mislabeling some people, it seems that we’re closer to the bulls-eye than some might think. We’ve identified that our labeling system may not be getting the full picture, but it is getting some of it. So, what does obese mean? Well, it means that certain people may or may not fall into this certain category of obese and obese people might be at risk for the things mentioned above. If you’re a gym rat who watches what they eat, but you fall into this obese category, obviously, this probably doesn’t apply to you. If you haven’t been exercising or watching your diet, then well, you might fall into this category and you are at risk. Which, partly means you gotta get to work in the gym and the kitchen. And that’s what obese means. I wish you all luck. Thanks for stopping by.
Adios.
