BMI = Baseless Misleading Information
Body Mass Index: what does it really mean? I bet your doctor doesn't even know! But he or she will tell you that you are at an unhealthy BMI if the number is too high. You can teach your doctor why BMI is a "waist" of time!
What BMI Means
This methodology was created over 200 years ago by an astronomer named Adolphe Quetelet as a statistical method to categorize body characteristics of "an average man"! It was never intended as a measure of individual body fat, build, or health! And yes, women, you are being compared to a white average man's body from two centuries ago when people were shorter than they are now! The BMI was never meant to be used for medical purposes and tells your doctor NOTHING about your health outcomes based upon these statistical calculations.
Doctors Are Ignorant of What BMI is
But your doctors tells you that your BMI indicates you are obese or too heavy. You are embarrassed and TERRIFIED. You hear about "Body Mass Index" in the news and how being fat can cause lots of diseases and ailments. There are even claims that people with a high BMI are dying more often from Covid-19! It's all about misleading people using baseless statistics that just stress them out and do nothing to improve health. Instead of focusing on what your presenting symptoms are, many doctors just tell you to lose weight!
What Causes Illnesses?
Researchers often blame the cause of illness of your weight. There are a few reasons why their conclusions are wrong. They may be leaving out the actual cause of the illness and blaming the weight of the research subject. Most people who have a higher weight also have inflammation and stress. So, did the stress causes the inflammation instead of blaming it on the subject's weight? Researchers don't consider that!
Correlation or Causation?
This wonderful article in a respected publication, WIRED, by Christy Harrison, who wrote the book Anti-Diet will explain clearly why you do NOT have to worry if you are overweight, fat, plump or any heavier than you'd like to be. Your weight may be at most a correlation that does NOT imply that being heavier caused the disease.
The difference between CAUSATION and CORRELATION is so important to understant. Here's an example:
It's like a researcher saying that cancer causes yellow teeth.
Of course cancer doesn't cause your teeth to get yellow. But if you smoke, your teeth may have turned yellow. And when you smoke it increases your chances of getting CANCER! Now do you understand? This is a correlation - NOT causation.
BMI is a Racist Tool
You should totally ignore anything about BMI. It is baseless misleading information at best! Read what My Fat Friend says about it to get a deeper understanding about how flawed and racist it is. Then teach your doctor!
Higher BMI Lives Longer than Underweight
In fact, being overweight up to seventy pounds will statistically show that you will live longer than someone who is a few pounds UNDERWEIGHT! TAKE THAT Diet Industry!
BMI is Not an Indicator of Good Health
Continuously being told that you are going to get a terrible disease or die from having a high BMI or being overweight is incredibly frightening and false according to actual governmental epidemiological statistics! No matter what health issue you have, getting stressed out about BMI exacerbates the negative impacts of illnesses of all kinds!
STRESS from Fear Makes You Sick
ALL illness is worsened from living with the STRESS of prejudice, making less money, suffering from food insecurity, having less access to health care, and living in dangerous living conditions. All these stressful conditions may be responsible for higher rates of diabetes and hypertension and can also cause weight gain among people in these oppressed groups. It's not a causation of being heavier but it may be related because heavier people are generally more stressed in life.
Diet Industry Lobby
It is the diet industry lobbying the government that sets the standards for what they even determine is "obese" despite the fact that the BMI is an out and out poor measure of health. That's like the fox guarding the hen-house. Set the bar lower, and then doctors will tell even more patients to go on a diet!
When the National Institutes of Health redefined obesity based on the Diet Industry lobby, millions of people "became obese overnight"!
Inform Your Doctor
If a doctor tells you about your BMI being dangerous, it's time to educate them! First of all- the only thing that diets do is temporarily make you lose weight. In the long run you will regain and probably add to your weight. Weight cycling (yo-yo dieting) is really bad for your health.
So WHY would a doctor tell you to lose weight when there is NO DIET, no exercise, no lifestyle change that has ever been shown to work except temporarily. And the bottom line is LOSING WEIGHT DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH!
If your doctor doesn't listen, it's time to find a better, more informed physician!
Sometimes you have to be your own doctor. It's important to do your own research from reliable sources and be your own health advocate. Just because a doctor tells you something it doesn't mean it is absolutely true for you and your body. Get empowered- consult with Dr. Google and at least do a thorough investigation before doing anything radical!
