Asymmetrical Information

I'll give the mothers some credit. In my opinion, the BMI is not a very accurate indicator of obesity.

Yeah, BMI is crap for anyone that is well-muscled. Not saying that the basic study finding isn't true, but any of those kids that are wrestlers or linebackers or whatnot are going to be fat by BMI standards but (correctly) not seen as fat by their mothers.

BMI is ok for really fat folks and for big population averages (where the small numbers of well-muscled folks are lost in the numbers) but not very helpful for individuals, especially if they are health conscious.

Yes, but, that's way less than 1% of the population that's muscled that thickly (or tall enough to throw the numbers off). For most of that 33%, BMI was a fine indicator that they were overweight.

One thing I'll say in defense of the moms is that the medical profession has gotten very good at downplaying obesity concerns.

We have two boys who went through weight problems. Each time we took them to the doctor and asked about their weight and wanted to investigate to eliminate any medical causes of their weight gain. Each time we were told that they were in the "normal" range, and not to worry, that they'd grow out of it.

Doctors are very reluctant in most cases to advise someone to lose weight. Why? Ask my friend. Everytime a doctor tells him to lose weight, he switches doctors. Or ask my sister in law. At 5'2" and 330, when she was told she had to get her knees replaced she asked if it had anything to do with weight and the doctor told her no.

People don't like being told that they are responsible for their own health. Doctors have become defensive as a result.

Bob

Can I file a class action lawsuit on behalf of myself and other fat people against myself and other fat people for encouraging restaurants and food companies to make fatening food and larger portions?

Could we then get an injunction against ourselves to stop eating too much unhealthy food?

:)

Bolie IV

As a teenager, I babysat for a 9 year old girl. One day she had to go to a swim party and I found her bawling in her room. She didn't want to wear a bathing suit because she thought she was fat. She was, in fact, very much on the chunky side for a girl her age. Her mother fed her and her brother utter crap all the time. Chicken nuggets for dinner, chips for snacks, sugary sodas for drinks. I went out and bought them fresh veggies and fruit and cut them up for snacks and they loved them. I remember feeling so much anger toward this girl's parents because they weren't providing her with proper food. She was fat as a result. I think doctors have a responsibility to tell parents that their children are overweight and need to exercise more and eat less. And parents have a responsibility to see that their children do so.

What I would like to know is: Are obese mothers more likely to misidentify their obese children as being normal?

I think it's a strong possibility.

Overweight people tend to be around other overweight people. It's in their families; they don't hang around as much at the beach or the gym where more thin people are; in many cases they eat more often at the buffets and fast food places where there are other overweight people.

Another thing to consider - I recall reading various reports indicating that "the medical establishment" has been redefining "obese" down over the past decades.

So, there's a good chance that what clinically counts as "obese" and what even normal body-size-aware people would see as "overweight" may have a lot less overlap than one might otherwise expect, at least for the lower end of "obese".

I'm sure these mothers also think their children are above average... and I'd bet real money that these mothers could correctly identify other kids as chubby.

Jane, your point about the small percentage of people being well muscled or tall enough to throw of BMI as a measure is accurate enough, but if the more point of the discusssion is that people should be more fit, why are we using a measure that becomes useless when the unfit make the commitment to fitness, which includes strength? More to the point, if the ability to undergo sustained physical exertion is a better measure of fitness than weight, why aren't those guidelines being widely promulgated?

Many more people concentrate extensively on diet than they do exercise, which is unfortunate, for one can be skinny and very unfit, whereas if you can run 3 miles in less than 25 minutes (age adjusted, of course) and regularly push yourself hard in strength training, your weight is nearly irrelevant in regards to your general fitness, although fat as a percentage of your body mass will drop as muscle mass is added. Even 15 minutes a day of intense, concentrated effort on one muscle group, in combination with 30-40 minutes of cardiovascular effort, can do wonders, if followed 4 or 5 days a week. I think most people are far more obilvious to this than they are regarding diet, and in some part that is due to what gets talked about in media outlets. Given the normally high metabolism of children when active, I would wager that many fat kids are just watching too damn much televsion, or playing video games.

You have to be really, really muscular to throw off BMI, requiring a level of fitness that the majority of Americans are never going to achieve, since it takes several hours a day at least.

I think you are generalizing too much. My father and uncle had forearms like Popeye by the time they were 20 years old, never spent an hour in the weight room, and maintained those muscular physiques well into late middle age, despite having white collar office careers, simply by being what was then thought to be normally physically active, but is now thought to be unusually physically active. Yes, Americans eat too much, but I think it is underestimated what effect a sedentary lifestyle has, particularly when one becomes sedentary as a toddler.

Bolie,

We should file one against Ben & Jerry's for getting us addicted to their fatty ice cream. That will teach them to preach about corporate responsibility to others!

The BMI can be badly thrown by build but generally not that far. There's no great secret to weight loss, eat less, exercise more - you'll loose weight.

I do it regularly when my work load permits. Otherwise I tend to bulk out. Then I have to spend time back at the gym and remembering that beer is not a diet food.

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