Nurse told bodybuilder to lose weight and exercise more!!!

katylil

Mental.

Here's the full article from today's Metro (London):
http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/26/a-picture-of-obesity-nhs-tells-bodybuilder-she-must-lose-weight-and-exercise-more-4679903/?ITO=facebook

"A superfit bodybuilder was branded overweight and put on a strict diet by an NHS nurse simply based on her BMI.

Anita Albrecht said she was told during a routine appointment she was ‘eating too much’ and needed to lose weight.

The 39-year-old, who works as a personal trainer, said her body mass index came out at 29 – four points over the healthy range and one short of obese.

But Ms Albrecht, who competes against some of the world’s leading bodybuilders, said the measure was distorted by her muscle-bound physique.

She said: ‘She insulted me by making assumptions about my lifestyle.

‘The information the nurse has given me is actually dangerous. A 1,000 calorie-a-day diet is only for people who are severely obese who are not active.

‘They should only be on that for a maximum of 12 weeks – generally as a precursor to surgery.’

BMI is worked out by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. But critics say it is flawed because it does not distinguish between fat and muscle, which is heavier.

Miss Albrecht, who is 1.5m (4ft 11in) tall and weighs about 66kg (10st), saw the nurse during an appointment about contraception at a family planning clinic in Harold Hill, east London.

She was told she needed to exercise more, eat less and to cut alcohol and fruit juice from her diet.

‘She put me on scales and clearly I’m a lot heavier than other women because of my height and I’m a bodybuilder,’ said Miss Albrecht.

‘For nine months of the year I don’t even drink as I am a competitive athlete. I felt insulted, was made to feel as though I was overweight, over eating and I felt a knock in my confidence.

‘When I tried to explain to her about body composition she wasn’t interested at all.’

NHS England declined to comment because of patient confidentiality. But its website concedes that athletes, such as rugby players, can be wrongly classed as overweight using BMI."

Boogage

I read this too. Think I would have asked to be referred to a specialist lol

bheathfit

Nice!

Had a nurse try that on me once when I was in for a physical. I am 6', and at the time was about 210 pounds.

When the doctor came in, I'm certain he assumed that he would find a pasty pale man with a computer programmer build. He looked at her notes, looked at me and said. "Um, just keep doing what you are doing..." :laugh:

fairygirlpie9

Her figure is amazing! :blushing: :blushing: :blushing:

honsi

I know a couple of people this has happened to, one of my fitness instructors who weighs 112 lb and has 23 inch waist was told she was overweight because her bmi was just over. They just go by the bmi and nothing else about the persons physique or lifestyle

summertime_girl

Does common sense even exist anymore?

sentaruu

what's that?

Galatea_Stone

People can be ignorant.

Crimson_Fire

Does common sense even exist anymore?

We live in a time where common sense isn't common anymore.

Perplexities

Mental.

Here's the full article from today's Metro (London):
http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/26/a-picture-of-obesity-nhs-tells-bodybuilder-she-must-lose-weight-and-exercise-more-4679903/?ITO=facebook

"A superfit bodybuilder was branded overweight and put on a strict diet by an NHS nurse simply based on her BMI.

Anita Albrecht said she was told during a routine appointment she was ‘eating too much’ and needed to lose weight.

The 39-year-old, who works as a personal trainer, said her body mass index came out at 29 – four points over the healthy range and one short of obese.

But Ms Albrecht, who competes against some of the world’s leading bodybuilders, said the measure was distorted by her muscle-bound physique.

She said: ‘She insulted me by making assumptions about my lifestyle.

‘The information the nurse has given me is actually dangerous. A 1,000 calorie-a-day diet is only for people who are severely obese who are not active.

‘They should only be on that for a maximum of 12 weeks – generally as a precursor to surgery.’

BMI is worked out by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. But critics say it is flawed because it does not distinguish between fat and muscle, which is heavier.

Miss Albrecht, who is 1.5m (4ft 11in) tall and weighs about 66kg (10st), saw the nurse during an appointment about contraception at a family planning clinic in Harold Hill, east London.

She was told she needed to exercise more, eat less and to cut alcohol and fruit juice from her diet.

‘She put me on scales and clearly I’m a lot heavier than other women because of my height and I’m a bodybuilder,’ said Miss Albrecht.

‘For nine months of the year I don’t even drink as I am a competitive athlete. I felt insulted, was made to feel as though I was overweight, over eating and I felt a knock in my confidence.

‘When I tried to explain to her about body composition she wasn’t interested at all.’

NHS England declined to comment because of patient confidentiality. But its website concedes that athletes, such as rugby players, can be wrongly classed as overweight using BMI."

So she's approximately 145 lbs lean at 4 feet 11 inches tall.

Perhaps she was told to cut the alcohol and go on a diet due to elevated liver values from oral steroids, and bad lipid panel results. (also from steroids.)

Also, IIRC I believe the heart needs to work just as hard to pump blood through a 145 lb obese individual as it does a 145 lb fit individual.

Seems like she may have just wanted her name out, and made a big thing out of nothing considering it wasn't even an MD that told her this, it was an RN.

honsi

Mental.

Here's the full article from today's Metro (London):
http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/26/a-picture-of-obesity-nhs-tells-bodybuilder-she-must-lose-weight-and-exercise-more-4679903/?ITO=facebook

"A superfit bodybuilder was branded overweight and put on a strict diet by an NHS nurse simply based on her BMI.

Anita Albrecht said she was told during a routine appointment she was ‘eating too much’ and needed to lose weight.

The 39-year-old, who works as a personal trainer, said her body mass index came out at 29 – four points over the healthy range and one short of obese.

But Ms Albrecht, who competes against some of the world’s leading bodybuilders, said the measure was distorted by her muscle-bound physique.

She said: ‘She insulted me by making assumptions about my lifestyle.

‘The information the nurse has given me is actually dangerous. A 1,000 calorie-a-day diet is only for people who are severely obese who are not active.

‘They should only be on that for a maximum of 12 weeks – generally as a precursor to surgery.’

BMI is worked out by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. But critics say it is flawed because it does not distinguish between fat and muscle, which is heavier.

Miss Albrecht, who is 1.5m (4ft 11in) tall and weighs about 66kg (10st), saw the nurse during an appointment about contraception at a family planning clinic in Harold Hill, east London.

She was told she needed to exercise more, eat less and to cut alcohol and fruit juice from her diet.

‘She put me on scales and clearly I’m a lot heavier than other women because of my height and I’m a bodybuilder,’ said Miss Albrecht.

‘For nine months of the year I don’t even drink as I am a competitive athlete. I felt insulted, was made to feel as though I was overweight, over eating and I felt a knock in my confidence.

‘When I tried to explain to her about body composition she wasn’t interested at all.’

NHS England declined to comment because of patient confidentiality. But its website concedes that athletes, such as rugby players, can be wrongly classed as overweight using BMI."

So she's approximately 145 lbs lean at 4 feet 11 inches tall.

Perhaps she was told to cut the alcohol and go on a diet due to elevated liver values from oral steroids, and bad lipid panel results. (also from steroids.)

Also, IIRC I believe the heart needs to work just as hard to pump blood through a 145 lb obese individual as it does a 145 lb fit individual.

Seems like she may have just wanted her name out, and made a big thing out of nothing, it wasn't even a MD that told her this, it was an RN.

They don't do those kinds of tests, they weigh you and check your BMI as a routine thing if you go for a ( well Woman/sexual health) check up with the nurse.

blackcloud13

Crazy!
Its should be well known (especially by health professionals) that BMI alone is not a useful number.
I had a recent encounter with the BMI twilight zone in my latest health update.

"Your BMI is 26 - thats a bit high; bordering on overweight, so watch what you eat" followed (6 seconds later; same person) by "your body fat is only 13% - thats a bit low for a man of your age ... you might want to fatten up a little"

Quality entertainment!

honsi

To be fair I don't think its the nurses fault, It the system in general. The nurse will have to do certain things as part of the check up, tick the boxes etc
BMI is unreliable esp in people who are very active and its a big issue for peoplel with a lot of muscle.

fishgutzy

A moron at the National Institute of Health had the most ludicrous reply when I pointed put the absurdity of BMI and not distinguishing between lean and fat weight.
He said that it doesn't matter from a health perspective because the heart has to work harder to push blood through muscle than through fat.
How stupid do these people think we are?
A man who is 6' tall and 210 pounds with 30% body fat will always have a much higher resting hear rate than a man the same height and weight but only 10% body fat.

But bureaucrats demand a one-size-fits-all answer for everything. Hence the mandated lunches that starve athletes.
So when HHS starts issuing mandates based on BMI, there will be no exceptions for anyone not in a labor union that has bought preferential treatment, as they did with Bummercare.

honsi

The friend i mentioned earlier put in a complaint as she felt that if she was a younger woman being told she was over weight it may have let her to go on a diet when she didn't need to and could have become a real problem ,its as though you are being told only skinny is good.

Unknown

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breeshabebe

I think I might have taken off my shirt and flexed.

The_Enginerd

Did she go here for care?

lilawolf

Did the nurse have eyes in her head? She looks amazing! I would shake a baby for that body. Maybe depending on what she was wearing and if she was doing a bulk, maybe it wasn't clear that she was that in shape though.

usmcmp

I had the same thing happen to me a month after my second competition. I showed her my abs and asked where I should lose it from. The doctor was smart enough to take my waist measurement and ask what my body fat was.

trojan_bb

This is why I ALWAYS make sure I'm seeing a general practitioner that knows how bodybuilding works and has experience treating weightlifters. It's pretty obvious when you are dealing with a Dr. whose only knowledge on the subject comes from his med school books.

If you lift regularly and look like you do, one of the first things the Dr should comment on or notice is that you weight lift. If they don't, find a new doctor. Especially important for men. Blood Pressure is a huge concern the more muscular (or fat) you get and a leader killer of men. And it's easily treatable. Lot's of Dr.s without bodybuilding knowledge will tell you to just drop the sodium or eat less or lose weight. That is dangerous and often deadly advice. If you are at 155/115 (I was, at only 23 years old)....changing the diet is NOT going to be enough (unless you give up bodybuilding and diet the weight off) and will almost certainly lead to an early death without meds

Also, IIRC I believe the heart needs to work just as hard to pump blood through a 145 lb obese individual as it does a 145 lb fit individual.

I've heard this as well and believe its true. BUT, that completely ignores the fact that nearly every other health marker should be dramatically better in the lower bodyfat individual (unless of course, the orals are elevating liver enzymes, estrogen, BP, etc etc).

It also completely changes the way the person should be medically treated.

ninerbuff

Well let's not look at it as all bad advice.

While BMI isn't the best indicator to assess someone's health, weight is still the number predictor of health risk.

Now putting it into perspective, I'm 5'7" at 192lbs (as of this morning) right now. Based on BMI I'm 30.1 which is considered obese. But from my photos, anyone can tell I'm not.

However, the weight I carry (even though it's muscle) still puts load on joints, ligaments, tendons, and heart. If I was 25-30lbs lighter (which I'm now starting to do) all of the above would take less stress (bad stress) on it.

Remember that just because someone looks good, it doesn't necessarily mean they are the epitome of health. Competitive bodybuilders have some of the highest LDL rates amongst "healthy" people.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

__freckles__

Mental.

Here's the full article from today's Metro (London):
http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/26/a-picture-of-obesity-nhs-tells-bodybuilder-she-must-lose-weight-and-exercise-more-4679903/?ITO=facebook

"A superfit bodybuilder was branded overweight and put on a strict diet by an NHS nurse simply based on her BMI.

Anita Albrecht said she was told during a routine appointment she was ‘eating too much’ and needed to lose weight.

The 39-year-old, who works as a personal trainer, said her body mass index came out at 29 – four points over the healthy range and one short of obese.

But Ms Albrecht, who competes against some of the world’s leading bodybuilders, said the measure was distorted by her muscle-bound physique.

She said: ‘She insulted me by making assumptions about my lifestyle.

‘The information the nurse has given me is actually dangerous. A 1,000 calorie-a-day diet is only for people who are severely obese who are not active.

‘They should only be on that for a maximum of 12 weeks – generally as a precursor to surgery.’

BMI is worked out by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. But critics say it is flawed because it does not distinguish between fat and muscle, which is heavier.

Miss Albrecht, who is 1.5m (4ft 11in) tall and weighs about 66kg (10st), saw the nurse during an appointment about contraception at a family planning clinic in Harold Hill, east London.

She was told she needed to exercise more, eat less and to cut alcohol and fruit juice from her diet.

‘She put me on scales and clearly I’m a lot heavier than other women because of my height and I’m a bodybuilder,’ said Miss Albrecht.

‘For nine months of the year I don’t even drink as I am a competitive athlete. I felt insulted, was made to feel as though I was overweight, over eating and I felt a knock in my confidence.

‘When I tried to explain to her about body composition she wasn’t interested at all.’

NHS England declined to comment because of patient confidentiality. But its website concedes that athletes, such as rugby players, can be wrongly classed as overweight using BMI."

So she's approximately 145 lbs lean at 4 feet 11 inches tall.

Perhaps she was told to cut the alcohol and go on a diet due to elevated liver values from oral steroids, and bad lipid panel results. (also from steroids.)

Also, IIRC I believe the heart needs to work just as hard to pump blood through a 145 lb obese individual as it does a 145 lb fit individual.

Seems like she may have just wanted her name out, and made a big thing out of nothing considering it wasn't even an MD that told her this, it was an RN.

Oh come on. She's a personal trainer and competitive body builder. She knew the nurse didn't know what she was talking about. Agree with above. She wanted her 15 minutes.

Unknown

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trojan_bb

Lots of us lifters take BP meds, at least until we give up the hobby and drop a lot of weight. There are several classes of drugs that work in very different ways. Most of them are fairly mild and dont have unwanted side effects. I'd talk to your Dr about it, if your BP is still high at around 14-15% BF...then he should either put you on a couple of them (most guys take 2-3 BP meds since each one is mild and drops BP maybe 5-15 points and they are complementary). Or consult another doctor.

But there are so many BP medications and they have very important interactions with other drugs, so definitely only a doctor with your medical history can pinpoint which will work. And usually it's trial and error. They will put you on 1 for a couple months and change it, repeat, etc until there is a good balance.

High BP is probably the best and easiest thing a man can treat to improve longevity. It is pretty staggering to see the stats of life expectancy decreases for an X increase in BP.

msf74

Well let's not look at it as all bad advice.

While BMI isn't the best indicator to assess someone's health, weight is still the number predictor of health risk.

Now putting it into perspective, I'm 5'7" at 192lbs (as of this morning) right now. Based on BMI I'm 30.1 which is considered obese. But from my photos, anyone can tell I'm not.

However, the weight I carry (even though it's muscle) still puts load on joints, ligaments, tendons, and heart. If I was 25-30lbs lighter (which I'm now starting to do) all of the above would take less stress (bad stress) on it.

Remember that just because someone looks good, it doesn't necessarily mean they are the epitome of health. Competitive bodybuilders have some of the highest LDL rates amongst "healthy" people.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Please stop talking sense.

It gets in the way of a good rant.

That said the nurse's proposed solution was rather pants...

QueenBishOTUniverse

Lots of us lifters take BP meds, at least until we give up the hobby and drop a lot of weight. There are several classes of drugs that work in very different ways. Most of them are fairly mild and dont have unwanted side effects. I'd talk to your Dr about it, if your BP is still high at around 14-15% BF...then he should either put you on a couple of them (most guys take 2-3 BP meds since each one is mild and drops BP maybe 5-15 points and they are complementary). Or consult another doctor.

But there are so many BP medications and they have very important interactions with other drugs, so definitely only a doctor with your medical history can pinpoint which will work. And usually it's trial and error. They will put you on 1 for a couple months and change it, repeat, etc until there is a good balance.

High BP is probably the best and easiest thing a man can treat to improve longevity. It is pretty staggering to see the stats of life expectancy decreases for an X increase in BP.

This is very interesting. There's another thread that's been up a few days about possible dangers for heavy lifters involving BP spikes during the lift, but last I looked the consensus seemed to be that the threat was mostly just the spike during the lift and that for healthy individuals it shouldn't be an issue, but what you are saying here would indicate otherwise.

Also, do you know if this is a frequent problem in women as well as men and at what level does this usually start to become a problem (i.e. only at the competitive levels or can an enthusiastic amateur run in to this issue)? So far my BP has done nothing but drop. I'm currently at 102/76, but I haven't been lifting very long and still have plenty of fat to lose. I'm probably not interested in getting to a competitive level myself, just curious where this starts becoming an issue.

Collier78

Does common sense even exist anymore?

Nope in the Safety Industry we call it "Good" sense now instead, because common sense isn't so common anymore.

trojan_bb

Lots of us lifters take BP meds, at least until we give up the hobby and drop a lot of weight. There are several classes of drugs that work in very different ways. Most of them are fairly mild and dont have unwanted side effects. I'd talk to your Dr about it, if your BP is still high at around 14-15% BF...then he should either put you on a couple of them (most guys take 2-3 BP meds since each one is mild and drops BP maybe 5-15 points and they are complementary). Or consult another doctor.

But there are so many BP medications and they have very important interactions with other drugs, so definitely only a doctor with your medical history can pinpoint which will work. And usually it's trial and error. They will put you on 1 for a couple months and change it, repeat, etc until there is a good balance.

High BP is probably the best and easiest thing a man can treat to improve longevity. It is pretty staggering to see the stats of life expectancy decreases for an X increase in BP.

This is very interesting. There's another thread that's been up a few days about possible dangers for heavy lifters involving BP spikes during the lift, but last I looked the consensus seemed to be that the threat was mostly just the spike during the lift and that for healthy individuals it shouldn't be an issue, but what you are saying here would indicate otherwise.

Also, do you know if this is a frequent problem in women as well as men and at what level does this usually start to become a problem (i.e. only at the competitive levels or can an enthusiastic amateur run in to this issue)? So far my BP has done nothing but drop. I'm currently at 102/76, but I haven't been lifting very long and still have plenty of fat to lose. I'm probably not interested in getting to a competitive level myself, just curious where this starts becoming an issue.

The lifting itself only causes spikes, you're right. That's only a worry if also taking stimulants with other heart problems usually.

But it's the weight gain that causes chronic hypertension. It's much less a worry in women simply due to weight and other genetic factors. Besides the general stats on hypertension in women (much lower risks), I don't know much else as it relates to women.

For male lifters, it's a worry because increases muscle mass increases BP, even if bodyfat is low. Muscular females are still usually fairly low weight in comparison to men....much less stress on the heart. Lots of guys are also genetically predisposed to various heart problems and high BP, even at a healthy weight.

Stress is also probably the biggest factor besides weight on BP. I've seen my own BP change by 10/10 between periods of high stress and/or sickness and low stress .

QueenBishOTUniverse

Lots of us lifters take BP meds, at least until we give up the hobby and drop a lot of weight. There are several classes of drugs that work in very different ways. Most of them are fairly mild and dont have unwanted side effects. I'd talk to your Dr about it, if your BP is still high at around 14-15% BF...then he should either put you on a couple of them (most guys take 2-3 BP meds since each one is mild and drops BP maybe 5-15 points and they are complementary). Or consult another doctor.

But there are so many BP medications and they have very important interactions with other drugs, so definitely only a doctor with your medical history can pinpoint which will work. And usually it's trial and error. They will put you on 1 for a couple months and change it, repeat, etc until there is a good balance.

High BP is probably the best and easiest thing a man can treat to improve longevity. It is pretty staggering to see the stats of life expectancy decreases for an X increase in BP.

This is very interesting. There's another thread that's been up a few days about possible dangers for heavy lifters involving BP spikes during the lift, but last I looked the consensus seemed to be that the threat was mostly just the spike during the lift and that for healthy individuals it shouldn't be an issue, but what you are saying here would indicate otherwise.

Also, do you know if this is a frequent problem in women as well as men and at what level does this usually start to become a problem (i.e. only at the competitive levels or can an enthusiastic amateur run in to this issue)? So far my BP has done nothing but drop. I'm currently at 102/76, but I haven't been lifting very long and still have plenty of fat to lose. I'm probably not interested in getting to a competitive level myself, just curious where this starts becoming an issue.

The lifting itself only causes spikes, you're right. That's only a worry if also taking stimulants with other heart problems usually.

But it's the weight gain that causes chronic hypertension. It's much less a worry in women simply due to weight and other genetic factors. Besides the general stats on hypertension in women (much lower risks), I don't know much else as it relates to women.

For male lifters, it's a worry because increases muscle mass increases BP, even if bodyfat is low. Muscular females are still usually fairly low weight in comparison to men....much less stress on the heart. Lots of guys are also genetically predisposed to various heart problems and high BP, even at a healthy weight.

Stress is also probably the biggest factor besides weight on BP. I've seen my own BP change by 10/10 between periods of high stress and/or sickness and low stress .

Ok, that makes sense given what I know of basic physiology. Might have to think about my plan to try and get the husband to start lifting with me. He's already on BP medication linked to his OCD and migraines, and his grandmother died of an aneurism. The question is, would he be better off lifting than nothing, because right now it's nothing and he IS overweight and carrying too much fat (and hell will freeze over before I get him to do cardio :grumble: ). Any suggestions on how to find a doctor that would know how to advise on that? Are there any medical associations that would have a list of doctors that specialize in this field? I know with scuba diving you can find lists of doctors that have training in treating diving related issues. Sorry, lots of questions, this topic discussion just got me thinking.