Define fat/obese...

taylor5877
taylor5877 Posts: 1,792 Member
in Chit-Chat
As in if you were going to do blanket policy such as increased health care costs for overweight individuals based on measurables, what would it be?

Just a spinoff from the smoking thread.

Should have worded the thread title overweight/obese...my fault on that one.

Replies

  • _the_feniks_
    _the_feniks_ Posts: 3,412 Member
    Overweight = rolls of any kind on your body
    Obese = when those rolls make you waddle
  • magj0y
    magj0y Posts: 1,911 Member
    There is a scale can determine the % of fat in your body. I think if you're over %30, with a BMI over 30, you're obese.

    I think if you go in for a physical and you have a severely high level of cholesterol, you should also have to pay more.
  • chivalryder
    chivalryder Posts: 4,391 Member
    The way I judge it I got from various sources of information, and all have to do with BF%. Mind you, there is no "overweight" section, just "acceptable."

    For men: Over 25% BF is obese.

    For women: Over 32% BF.

    Yeah, you can look skinnier than the average person, but you will still be considered obese.
  • melsmith612
    melsmith612 Posts: 727 Member
    They'd have to use a previously determined measurement like BMI. And knowing insurance companies, they'd charge extra for anything over "normal".
  • jfrankic
    jfrankic Posts: 747 Member
    They'd have to use a previously determined measurement like BMI. And knowing insurance companies, they'd charge extra for anything over "normal".

    Yep, for private insurance, you are asked for your weight on every application, every company. All carriers "rate up" monthly premiums for overweight individuals and won't even cover you once you get to a certain weight.
  • Dub_D
    Dub_D Posts: 1,760 Member
    ( ......) fat
    (........... ) obese
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
    When I couldn't tie my shoes without getting out of breath, I was obese. I'm still fat, maybe when I can run a mile without stopping I won't be anymore.
  • fraser112
    fraser112 Posts: 405
    When theres a wingle in your walk and a jiggle in your talk.




    Honestly though bmi was created to apply to the average, It works fine for insurance companies and the like. Infact i would think anyone outside of bmi enough to be obese is 9/10 on steroids. Carrying that extra weight will still strain the body.
  • fraser112
    fraser112 Posts: 405
    There is a scale can determine the % of fat in your body. I think if you're over %30, with a BMI over 30, you're obese.

    I think if you go in for a physical and you have a severely high level of cholesterol, you should also have to pay more.

    Can you show me a study directly linking high cholesterol or high blood pressure with heart desease?
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    Setting aside any legal implications of a blanket policy on body composition for a group-based policy (as opposed to a voluntary behavior, or a private/individual policy)...

    The ideal would be body fat percentage, but that's fairly hard to measure accurately.

    The practical number is what everyone uses - BMI. Not a very accurate way to measure health, but you can measure everyone in your insurance pool cheaply and those who are outside the "boundaries" can always be offered a body fat percentage assessment as an alternative.

    So you catch 90% of people with the very inexpensive test, and the few athletes or other outliers of the BMI scale would be relatively inexpensive to test using a more useful metric.
  • taylor5877
    taylor5877 Posts: 1,792 Member
    When theres a wingle in your walk and a jiggle in your talk.




    Honestly though bmi was created to apply to the average, It works fine for insurance companiesand the like. Infact i would think anyone outsie of bmi enough to be obese is 9/10 on steroids. Carrying that extra weight will still strain the body.

    You just suspected me of using steroids btw...
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
    OMG. I hope they would never use BMI. That doesn't tell you a damn thing. It's a weight to height ratio and nothing more.

    Using that scale body builders are "obese". So they would have to pay more because they lift hellacious weights?

    I don't think anyone should be required to pay more because they're obese. Obesity isn't a behavioral problem. It's from metabolic damage. They shouldn't be penalized for it.

    And as far as "high cholesterol":
    High cholesterol isn't a disease. It's a proxy for an underlying problem (inflammation). Cholesterol is the body's band-aid system. It's also critical to life and brain function. With a little help from the sun our body turns cholesterol molecules into Vitamin D. Our body uses cholesterol molecules to make sex hormones. 20% of the weight of our brain is from cholesterol. The body absorbs very, very little of the cholesterol we eat. It makes tons more cholesterol than we eat. And there is no connection (the cholesterol in animal foods isn't even the same kind our body makes) between dietary and serum cholesterol levels. You can't have a cholesterol level. LDL and HDL are just carriers because the cholesterol molecule is fat-soluble and cannot travel through the bloodstream by itself. And HDL is more cholesterol-rich then LDL (LDL sends cholesterol out to the "resuce" and HDL goes out and vaccums it back up to be either disposed of or recycled)
    Neither saturated fat nor cholesterol cause heart disease.

    So either pay more for high cholesterol or pay for a statin (that could give you cancer and won't make you live any longer). No thanks.
  • tanyaslosingit
    tanyaslosingit Posts: 178 Member
    There's a WHO/CDC BMI index which is widely used: Depending on your height and age, a BMI of around 25-30 is considered overweight; and a score of 30.0 lands you in the obese category.

    In the four-part HBO documentary, The Weight of the Nation, there's a section on how heaviness and obesity are affecting the U.S. workforce in terms of diminishing productivity and increasing health care costs. Many employers take the easy way out by exporting jobs to healthier workforces overseas while a few employers have made a nominal investment in getting their employees healthier and ended up reaping incredible benefits.
  • strawberrytoast
    strawberrytoast Posts: 711 Member
    Get a small, medium and large wetsuit.

    If you can get in small or medium your fine, large ones to get in the sea and if someone thinks freewilly has got stranded on the beach your FAT lol
  • fraser112
    fraser112 Posts: 405
    [/quote]

    You just suspected me of using steroids btw...
    [/quote]

    Whats your stats ?
    I'm always open to br proven wrong :laugh: Just most anti bmi folk quote giant 8 foot footall playes roided out the nut. Bmi is pretty poor for taller people as weight increase is not linear.
  • hippietrailbadass
    hippietrailbadass Posts: 16
    The way I judge it I got from various sources of information, and all have to do with BF%. Mind you, there is no "overweight" section, just "acceptable."

    For men: Over 25% BF is obese.

    For women: Over 32% BF.

    Yeah, you can look skinnier than the average person, but you will still be considered obese.


    This.
  • taylor5877
    taylor5877 Posts: 1,792 Member
    5'10" 230" approx 17% body fat (electrical impedance, but these guys are usually high).
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
    There is a scale can determine the % of fat in your body. I think if you're over %30, with a BMI over 30, you're obese.

    I think if you go in for a physical and you have a severely high level of cholesterol, you should also have to pay more.

    The body fat I can understand but disagree on the cholesterol that isn't just an obese persons problem. My husband has high cholesterol but he is slim, doesn't smoke or drink, eats a very healthy diet, excercises regularly, in fact he recently completed a hundred mile bike ride for charity and he is 62 years old.

    You can't judge a book by it's cover. Until recently I was obese, smoked, rarely excercised, can drink for England and yet my cholesterol and blood pressure have always been normal.

    Just glad I live in the UK and we have our NHS glad to pay a bit from my wages for the security of knowing if I am ill (no matter what the cause) or how costly the treatment, I will be looked after.
  • SabrinaJL
    SabrinaJL Posts: 1,579 Member
    When I couldn't tie my shoes without getting out of breath, I was obese. I'm still fat, maybe when I can run a mile without stopping I won't be anymore.

    I can run (jog?) 10 miles with out stopping. Still fat. :laugh:
  • rodneyderrick
    rodneyderrick Posts: 483 Member
    When I couldn't tie my shoes without getting out of breath, I was obese. I'm still fat, maybe when I can run a mile without stopping I won't be anymore.

    I can run (jog?) 10 miles with out stopping. Still fat. :laugh:

    Yeah right. You're not fat, by any means of the word. What would real, corpulent people think?
  • SabrinaJL
    SabrinaJL Posts: 1,579 Member

    Yeah right. You're not fat, by any means of the word. What would real, corpulent people think?

    I'm 5'6" and am stuck between 175-180 lbs. By BMI standards, I'm firmly in the 'overweight' category. I'm actually closer to 'obese' than a normal weight. But BMI aside (which I know isn't the be all, end all), I've still got a lot of flab hanging in there. But that was a very nice thing to say. :flowerforyou:
  • fraser112
    fraser112 Posts: 405
    5'10" 230" approx 17% body fat (electrical impedance, but these guys are usually high).

    how do you manage that? im 220 i think and about 27% bodyfat i have a large frame and im pretty strong for a guy that does not lift.
    got a body shot ?
  • taylor5877
    taylor5877 Posts: 1,792 Member
    Saving the body shot for the end of year, but I bench 360-370, squat around 500, Deadlift 460-470, and overhead press about 210. Not winning any powerlifting meets any time soon, but not bad numbers.
  • heatherloveslifting
    heatherloveslifting Posts: 1,428 Member
    Saving the body shot for the end of year, but I bench 360-370, squat around 500, Deadlift 460-470, and overhead press about 210. Not winning any powerlifting meets any time soon, but not bad numbers.

    Holy crap! That's amazing.

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