My Body Mass Index

One popular way to measure your degree of obesity is using the Body Mass Index (BMI). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) would like you to know that "Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems."  

There are all sorts of info graphics and charts you can use to identify your degree of abhorrent "fatness".  For example, at roughly 326 lbs and 5'5", I have a BMI of 55, as seen below.  If I put on 5 more pounds I will evade even being on this chart (and I dare you to try to find a chart that has higher weights listed than this-most stop around 260 lbs-it's like they are saying if you're beyond 330 lbs you're so hopeless you don't even need a chart!).  This puts me into the category of severely obese, something I probably could have figured out without the actual number.  I mean, I have high blood pressure and I get winded walking up a flight of stairs.  The fact that I'm fat has not eluded me...

 Just in case I didn't quite get it from the bright red number on the chart above, someone has made a useful info graphic that I can use to identify how fat I am.  In this case, I am the plumpest lady on the right, lack of thigh gap and all (thigh gaps and their stupidity will be addressed in a coming post).

Most of us already know of the controversy surrounding the BMI chart.  You can have minimal body fat and still be "obese" according to your BMI because muscle weighs more than fat.  Below is a picture of 5 lbs of fat compared to 5 lbs of muscle.  This is exactly why we should not so much focus on pounds lost or pounds weighed, but on measures like decreased waist band size and increased muscle definition.  Not to say BMI or the scale are useless, we just have to keep things in perspective.  And when 5 lbs lost doesn't seem like very much or isn't as satisfying as you want it to be, look at the picture below and think of that gross golden lump having been burned off your body!