Now this is just a quick observation of my watching and listening to the President and CEO of Humana Health Insurance on C-Span talking about rising health care costs and legislation.  Boring as usual but he started speaking about children and their being overweight.  His discussion talked about them playing video games, inactivity and such creating a lifestyle that made them obese.  Now I’m watching him and thinking to myself, he’s lecturing the masses on health, eating right and exercise when I can see what kind of shape he’s in.  I’ve shared information from the CDC on Obesity in the US and what I’m seeing on TV certainly looks like a trend from that report, ….just say’in….

He also talked about BMI or Body Mass Index and noted that in his own company that those with a BMI over 30, spent all the money.  Now I’m fairly he was sure about the health insurance money, but he stated that if he could figure out a way to lower the BMI of his employees and knew it would lower his cost by 25 million, then he would be all over it.  But he hasn’t figured out a way to do that yet.  You have got to be kidding me!  Eating right and exercise…Duh!

The problem lies in that we are quick to point out others faults and fail to take action ourselves.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have to look at myself in the mirror and forcefully say…”Hey…do what you preach or don’t preach…”.  My real desire is that if we are going to try and help others, that we first help ourselves.  It’s like on a plane ride.  Remember that the flight attendants say that in an emergency, first place the mask on yourself, then help others do theirs.  There is a reason for that which I think is very obvious.  So let’s start taking care of ourselves first, then let’s care for one another and help them where they’re willing too.  Have a great weekend my friends!

Tweet This Post

OK, OK.  I give in.  Sometimes I’m as confused as you about all these technical terms in life that people around us spout off like they were born with that vocabulary.  Seriously though, there are a few terms that we just need help with.  And with everyone wanting to lose some weight, gain some muscle or just down right want to know what the heck is a “BMI” then I’m here to help you today!

BMI stands for “Body Mass Index” and in a nutshell provides an estimate of how much your weight is muscle and bone and how much is fat…yuck.  Now let me just say right now that BMI is a better health gauge than weight alone, but it’s not perfect so we’ll discuss other more accurate measurements in a later post.  A normal BMI is 18.5 to 24.9 with 25 to 29.9 being overweight.  A BMI of 30 or greater is considered to be obese.  I have a great post coming that really shows you how we in the United States are doing from State to State as reported by the CDC.

To calculate your BMI do this; divide your weight in pounds by height in inches squared.  Then multiply that answer by 703.  OK, we’re back to math aren’t we and we all hated that in school, and least some of us any way.  So a 5 foot 9 inch man weighing 190 pounds would have the following BMI.  69 inches times 69 inches equals 4761.  190 pounds divided by 4761 equals .0399.  Multiply .0399 times 703 and we get a BMI of 28.  Now here’s the inaccuracy of it.  A heavily muscled person could be classified as overweight or obese when obviously they’re not.  So take your own physical condition into account when doing this.

If you deal only in metrics, send me a short message or reply here and I’ll do it in kilograms and meters squared… that ought to be fun!

Coming soon we’ll talk about Body Fat measurements using calipers ….

Enjoy!

Tweet This Post