Can Somebody Who Is Slim Be Classed As Obese?

A reporter for the Daily Mail Newspaper went for a health check just recently and was told to his amazement that he was pre-obese. Yet to look at him in his picture it tells a different story as he doesn’t look obese at all, he wears a medium T-shirt and his legs don’t rub together like they would if he was pre-obese.

And for exercise he does two kick boxing sessions weekly, takes his dog for a two mile walk every day and uses kettle bells during his lunch hour. So why is this the case.  How can somebody who is nowhere near obese be classed as such?

It’s all down to the irregularities of BMI which I have spoken about before. However, despite the fact of its inaccuracies it is still widely used as a measure of how healthy you are.BMI is based on two factors, your height and your weight, which is then squared.

However, according to what this newspaper reporter saysBMI is quite flawed it doesn’t consider, how your body composition is made up whether your big boned or not or have lots of muscle. If you are of a muscular build then you could quite easily fail theBMI the main reason for this is , It works on your weight only so it fails to take in a lot of other considerations.

According to what a leading professor says we have this obsession with weight alone, he gives an example of this and says you can have a hypotheticalBMI of 24, which is supposed to be healthy, but you could have fatty liver and this could mean that you could become quite easily pre diabetic.

I wrote a post a long time ago now called does Inner Fat Mean Inner Danger where people were scanned using aMRI scanner, and it was found that even though some were quite thin they still had high levels of inner fat within their bodies.

Which if they left and didn’t do anything about would quite easily cause them problems later in life such as diabetes, etc. So is there any need to worry if you are somewhat overweight and have a highBMI ? Some researchers in Japan followed 44,000 people who were in the age group between 40 and 79 years of age and monitored and monitored them for 10 years.

What they found was quite interesting people who were overweight could have a long life expectancy despite what we hear every day in the media.  At the age of 40 overweight men could live over 40 years and this was in comparison to people who were of a normal weight their life expectancy was something in the region of 38.7 years.

Then in another study which was done by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey which was based on 5, 440 adults actually noted that a lot of overweight people can be, in fact, healthy they had very good health indeed no sign of diabetes whatsoever, lowerLDL cholesterol and low blood pressure.

The reporter in question had various tests done, which showed he had excess body fat but not necessarily extremely high but enough to be concerned about. Unless you put yourself through lots of complex tests like having your fat measured with skin calipers, and the ultimate thing is really to have aMRI scan which unfortunately most of us don’t have access to. I can’t see many doctors surgeries having aMRI scanner can you.

So if you are overweight, and you are physically active don’t get too worried and concerned about how accurateBMI is. If you are thinking about joining a gym you may get bombarded with things like this, they may want to know what to yourBMI is, so they can use it against you, and you feel forced to join up.

So yet again we have more evidence about how flawedBMI measurements are yet again. Perhaps they should change the name to body mass inaccurate. What do you reckon? is body mass something that you’re concerned about and do you use it to decide how healthy you are? To me, it sounds like a load of crap. I am going to see if I can get a second handMRI scanner off eBay so I will be sure then. Once and for all.

Source and references:

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk

What Does Yo-Yo Dieting Do to Your Immune System?

Winter is upon us yet again, doesn’t it come round fast and have you ever noticed that some years, you can breeze through winter without getting any viruses then other years you don’t.

Is there a particular reason for this? was it colder last year and the viruses were unable to survive or could you have been run down or may it be due to the fact that this, winter has been mild up to now and the viruses are rampant unlike last year. And that is why you have a infection now.

Could the reasons above? be why you have or haven’t had a dose of the flu or a cold this year or last year. Or is there something else at play, could it be that your weight has been going up and down and this has been causing the problem rather than the latter. This may or may not be the reason but it could be something worth bearing in mind.

Some researchers in Seattle at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre seem to think this is the case, their research suggests that if you are losing and gaining weight repetitively over a period of time it can play havoc with your immune system.

Which I find quite interesting have you ever noticed yourself ? That some years you can get away without being ill then others you don’t, without there being any logical explanation. Another thing that they say is keeping your weight constant over a length of time, strengthens your immune system rather than weakening it.

The study published in the Journal of the American Diabetic Association, found that women whom dieted a lot would have reduced immune system function, compared to those who maintained a constant weight. Their immune system function became stronger rather than weaker.

The researchers took interviews with the people and asked them questions about whether or not they had yo-yo dieted or not. This was from a selection of 114 people who were quizzed over there dieting habits over the past 20 years.

The researchers found that the people that had more episodes of up and down weight had lesser (NKC ) Natural Killer Cells. When compared to the women who had constant weight over a long period of time, their Natural Killer Cells was surprisingly higher 40 percent or more.

In conclusion then it would seem that if you are able to maintain a stable weight, rather than one that is up and down it should be better for you. Here are some of the reasons that may cause yo-yo dieting and one more point to take away from this even a small amount of exercise can help boost immune system function.

One thing that can cause yo-yo dieting is that you start to lose weight and you may get a little bit complacent you may think I’m on my way.  And may drift a little with your eating habits and start eating the wrong foods again hence weight gain. Or you may be unaware of some of your eating habits which may be unconscious say like emotional eating, or you may be on some diet that just does not work or is not suited to you.

Or it could be the amount of exercise you are doing or the type of exercise is not getting you out of breath slightly.

Can you relate to this? have you noticed any patterns with gaining weight and losing weight and becoming ill? it would be interesting to know if anybody has noticed this themselves.

Source http://sportsmedicine.about.com

The Online Fitness Test

Do you know yourself exactly how fit you are? have you got any way of measuring it? I would say the answer to this for the majority of people is they probably don’t know exactly how fit they are or aren’t. But what if there was a way where you didn’t need to be hooked up to various equipment. And walking on a treadmill to see how exactly how fit you are.

I came across this site this morning whilst looking for something else, and thought some people might find it useful. The site in question is called the National Fitness Test. You only need a few basic items like a tape measure and all you need to do then is fill in the information in on the site.

In order to find out what your fitness level, is as to the degree of accuracy of what this actually measures, I can’t say but thought people might be interested in giving it a go here is the link for it http://www.testmyfitness.co.uk/

it is free so give it a whirl and see how you get on you might have a nice surprise at the end of it you never know.

Quick Reminder For Free Health & Weight Loss Webinar

Hi this is a reminder for tomorrow nights free webinar

Are you free on the 18th of November between the times of 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.  If so then why not join weight loss guru, Pete Cohen on a free weight loss and health webinar.

There is no where to go physically you will be able to do it from the comfort of your own home, all you need is access to the Internet and some speakers so you can listen.

Here are the details;

You are invited to a FREE workshop with Pete. Nov 18th -8pm to 9pm

It will be an inspirational event and Pete will introduce you to exciting new tools and techniques to help you get slimmer, fitter and healthier. In addition Pete will explain how you can get the most out of petecohen.tv to guarantee success.  All you need to do is register your place on this workshop by sending us an email at info@petecohen.tv

You don’t even need to leave your front door to attend this session as you can take part over the Internet.

Technological advancements now make this possible and anyone with a Broadband Internet connection and a browser can log onto the Internet and take part in this event.

All you need are speakers so that you can hear Pete, and you will also need a pen and paper. This is not an interactive session but you will be able to type any question during the workshop and Pete will answer as many of these as possible.  Places are limited so book now…

Free Online Health Workshop Webinar

Are you free on the 18th of November between the times of 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.  If so then why not join weight loss guru, who is in than Pete Cohen on a free weight loss and health webinar.

There is no where to go physically you will be able to do it from the comfort of your own home, all you need is access to the Internet and some speakers so you can listen.

Here are the details;

You are invited to a FREE workshop with Pete. Nov 18th -8pm to 9pm

It will be an inspirational event and Pete will introduce you to exciting new tools and techniques to help you get slimmer, fitter and healthier. In addition Pete will explain how you can get the most out of petecohen.tv to guarantee success.  All you need to do is register your place on this workshop by sending us an email at info@petecohen.tv

You don’t even need to leave your front door to attend this session as you can take part over the Internet.

Technological advancements now make this possible and anyone with a Broadband Internet connection and a browser can log onto the Internet and take part in this event.

All you need are speakers so that you can hear Pete, and you will also need a pen and paper. This is not an interactive session but you will be able to type any question during the workshop and Pete will answer as many of these as possible.  Places are limited so book now…

Fatty Liver Vs Fat Belly What Is the Difference Regarding Health?

Having excess abdominal fat isn’t very healthy, it’s well known that it can be a precursor for diabetes, another reason is when you have excess belly fat it can make you eat more food which is something I have previously discussed.

But now it seems there is another factor which scientists have been investigating which is more to do with having a fatty liver. They have been putting more emphasis on having a fatty liver which may be a greater health risk compared to having excess belly fat.

This research which came about from the annual meeting of the obesity society, which was conducted by Samuel Klein, he says that “Fat in the liver is a more important factor of health problems”.

During the research Klein and his associates had 31 obese men and women, and compared their visceral fat which is the fat which is in the organs in your belly, they also measured their liver fat. If you compare two livers side-by-side non-fatty liver will have five percent fat and a fatty liver will have 50 percent of fat in it.

When they compared the participants some had higher levels of fat others had lower percentage of fat in their livers, during their tests they found that the people that have fatty livers tend to;

• Have increased levels of triglycerides which means higherLDL levels of cholesterol which is the bad one
• They will probably more likely to be reactive to their own insulin, which means that their bodies don’t keep blood sugar levels under control very well compared to if they had less fat in their livers

Dr Klein said “We do not yet know whether the liver fat is causing these health problems or is simply a very good indicator of health risk,” he says. “Even though it looks like visceral fat itself might not cause harm, it is often high in people with increased liver fat.”

In another study people who had gastric bypass surgery and lost weight and whom were severely obese, had their liver fat measured and it was significantly lower.

One of the reasons to take notice of what is being said in this particular study is even though you may not notice that you have fatty liver to start off with, it could creep up on you eventually. There may or may not be symptoms with fatty liver some people get them some people don’t if you do get them

You may notice the following; Feeling lethargic or tired all the time, feeling generally unwell a good percentage of the time, you may experience some discomfort in the upper part of your abdomen which is at the base of your rib cage.

If you would like to know some of the foods to eat which will help your liver then please see my previous posts  The Secret Life of Your Liver Recipes.

Source http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-10-25-liver-fat_N.htm