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

Does common sense even exist anymore?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.