overweight •

BMI Homework Went Viral

April 7, 2016 By Ryan Harris Leave a Comment

The index of body and mass is used to label people as underweight, normal, overweight, or obese.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – A gym teacher wanted to raise awareness of obesity and the health dangers it comes with. For this purpose, the physical education instructor asked her students to write a paper about BMI, calculating their own score and labeling themselves according to the results. But one teenager’s BMI homework went viral as she opposed the crude labeling method that can only lead to negative mental health effects when applied to high school students.

Tessa Embry, an Evansville teenager, decided to fight the system when she was asked to label herself as an obese person, according to her BMI score. When doing her homework, she wrote two pages about how the index of body mass is an outdated measuring instrument and how the self-esteem of students can be severely damaged if teachers continue to label them according to the results of the formula.

Embry is a curvy teenager, but certainly not an obese one. And she is not the only one to dismiss the legibility of the BMI. A study that was published a couple of months ago concluded that BMI is not an accurate measuring unit. According to that paper, more people considered healthy from their BMI score point of view suffered from afflictions than those considered overweight.

Furthermore, it seems that the outdated measuring unit can cause a person a lot of difficulties when it comes to obtaining a health insurance. Most providers still use the system and make people considered overweight or obese pay more for their insurances than individuals who have a healthy body-weight ratio.

Unfortunately, BMI is used to label people. And when it comes to labeling in high-school, things can go pretty wrong. Children, especially teenagers, are mean, and a homework that asks them to label themselves as obese or overweight can cause a lot of damage to their image when it comes to high school social interactions.

Previous studies have shown that students who suffer from a stigma are more prone to depression and suicidal thoughts than those who feel at ease in their bodies. So making a high-schooler write about the fact that he or she is obese and the health risks that this label implies can damage their self-esteem.

Luckily, the softball player chose to stand up for herself and her fellow students and write about the dangers of BMI labeling. Her BMI homework went viral after her mother posted the paper on Facebook.

Image source: Wikimedia

Obesity Affects the Memory

February 27, 2016 By Tara Hamilton Leave a Comment

Obesity is linked to memory deficit which leads to irregularities in appetite regulation.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – A new study brings even more bad news to people considered to be obese. According to the researchers, obesity affects the memory, so it may be that obese people don’t manage to lose weight because they forgot they already ate and just order another pizza with wedges on the side.

Aside from the fact that obesity may trigger additional serious health problems like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, depression and strokes, obesity affects the memory as well.

It may be that obese people tend to develop diabetes not just because their cholesterol and lipid levels are to the roof, but also because they forgot about that Snickers bars from 15 minutes ago so they grab a Lion to satisfy their sweet tooth.

The study in question analyzed a sample of 50 volunteers with ages between 18 and 35 and BMIs from 18 to 51. A standard, healthy BMI is ranged between 18 and 25. Those who measure a BMI in between 26 and 30 are considered to be overweight and everything above 31 is categorized as obese.

In order to test the memory capacity of the participants, the researchers gave them a memory test also known as the Task of Treasure Hunt.

The test is rather complicated on its own because the participants must “hide” different objects in different scenarios on a two days span.

Then they are asked to remember which object was hidden where and when. So it’s not your standard “I’ll give you ten words and ask you to repeat them after half an hour” memory test that is usually given to Alzheimer’s patients.

The results of this highly scientific study showed that obesity affects the memory. Most of the participants that measured a BMI higher than 31 had trouble completing the task.

The lead author of the study, Lucy Cheke, declared that a memory deficit present in overweight individuals could affect appetite regulation and feeding behavior. This mostly means that obese people eat too much because they forgot the fact that they already ate.

Obesity affects the memory so if an obese individual wants to start a diet, it is recommended that he or she starts an eating journal as well. This way the weight-struggling person can remember when was the last meal and it consisted off, thus avoiding to overeat.

This is not the first study that suggests the fact that obesity affects the memory. Previous research showed that the hippocampus of obese people is affected by their condition, thus making it hard for them to remember certain things.

BMI Is an Inaccurate Classification Criterion

February 5, 2016 By Tara Hamilton Leave a Comment

According to a UCLA study, the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to a new study published by UCLA, the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion. The study shows evidence that the people that are labeled by their index of body mass as being overweight or obese are in fact healthy.

The results of the study were published by the UCLA psychologist, Janet A. Tomiyama in the International Obesity Journal. Her conclusions were that the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion and that employers are charging high costs for health insurance because the companies use the BMI as a measure of determining a person’s health.

The index of body mass relies on a calculus formula. The weight of a person measured in kilograms is divided by the square of the individual’s height measured in meters. The CDC deems a healthy and normal BMI to be somewhere in between 18.5 and 24.9, the BMI of an overweight person is between 25 and 29.9 and the BMI attributed to an obese individual is higher than 30.

The problem is that this method of calculation is used to determine a person’s general health, and not just the weight. And since the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion, people were often deemed to be overweight or even obese and cataloged as health risks. This made their health insurance policy more expensive.

Latest studies showed that people with a healthy and normal BMI can actually prove to be very unhealthy and overweight people, from the BMI point of view, were actually healthy or had no major health problems at the time when they were seen by a physician.

Tomiyama considers the BMI to be really terrible and crude because it has made obesity seems like a death sentence and has obligated people with a little extra weight to pay a little extra more to health insurance providers just because the BMI pointed them as being a health risk.

Recently the Commission for Equal Opportunity in Employment in the United States proposed a rule that would grant employers the right to penalize certain employees with fees that reach up to 30 percent of their total insurance cost if they don’t meet a number of 24 health criteria. Obviously, the criteria include a healthy and normal BMI. And since Tomiyama has established that the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion, it only means that employees will pay more for no reason at all.

In order to determine whether or not BMI is an inaccurate classification criteria, Tomiyama and her team studied a sample of 40,420 Americans on the spam of 8 years. The volunteers were regularly checked by a physician who would look at blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin, glucose and C-reactive protein.

From a metabolic point of view, almost half the people considered overweighed by the BMI were healthy, and so were 29 percent of the individuals labeled as obese. On the other side of the coin, 30 percent out of the tested volunteers who showed a normal BMI ratio were found to have metabolic problems.

Image source: www.wikimedia.org

Categories