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Friday, July 11, 2008

BMI: What is normal, anyway?

My BMI is finally at 25.0... good-bye "overweight", hello "normal"!

So what is normal?

In 2003, only 47.8% of Canadians were "normal", according to their BMI.

When less than half your population is "normal", how "normal" is it really?

And that leads us to the problem: people think they're fine because they look like the people around them. But almost half of the people around us are overweight or obese.

In our society, it's as normal to be overweight as not... we Canadians are not a healthy bunch (but hey, at least we're better than Americans!)

Now that I'm finally not overweight, I am really surprised at how fat I still am. When I first did the BMI calculation, I thought 6'0" and 185lbs would be skinny! I'm not fat, but I'm not skinny. I still have love handles and a small gut.

Don't ignore BMI.

You are likely not a bodybuilder, your bones aren't heavier than everyone else's... the reality is that if your BMI is above 25, you are at an increased risk of developing health problems. You don't have to become a triathlete to fix it - control calories and get even a moderate amount of exercise and you'll lose weight.

As for me, on to the next goal! 175lbs, here I come!

2 comments:

answerphoned1,d6 said...

Congrats on reaching this target.

I think it's interesting so many people are overweight when we are constantly bombarded by so many images of skinny celebrities. Maybe too many people think "I could never look like that so I'll just give up."

For future blog posting: has your training and exercise changed your life in other ways? More self-confident?

Jon P said...

Good idea... delve into the deep dark chasm of my mind. :)