Posted on 03/06/2013 3:10:32 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets
Tracy & Matt Watson of North Andover were sent a “fat letter” from the State of Massachusetts warning them that their son, 94-pound 10-year-old Cameron Watson, was considered obese. The fit looking 4th grader recently won a Massachusetts state wrestling championship for his weight class by pinning his opponent in under 30 seconds. But according to the Department of Public Health (DPH) standards which mandates schools collect height and weight information to calculate body mass index (BMI) as an indicator of body fat, the star athlete is unhealthy.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
When this B.S. first came out, Micheal Jordan was obese.
What does that make Ms Obama?
I demand transparency! What is Moochal’s BMI? Is it off the scale?
Most of the running backs in the NFL would probably be rated as “obese”.
Most advanced bodybuilders would be considered overweight. I heard about one British bodybuilder that was denied healthcare, because his BMI was off the charts.
I wore a 48 jacket with 32" waist pants.
My body fat was about 9-12%. I worked out an hour a day and ran 5 miles a day.
Even the inventor of the BMI process admitted that it was imperfect and flawed, yet here we are using it to gauge the health of children. It’s the simplest measure of body composition without having to grope with calipers or immerse someone in water. However, the health departments of the world go to it without pause because it is the simplest despite the flawed output. Body composition is so much more than height and weight. Bone density, muscle density, flexibility, and overall strength are much more important factors when considering body composition and health than how much fat one is carrying.
My Grand daughter got a fat letter.
She is definitely not fat. I think they send them to everyone just to help Michelle Obama keep her program going.
I wonder where the Mooch would come out on a BMI.
If you want to gain weight, you’re told to exercise and build up the muscles. That’s what this boy did.
It’s as simple as that.
If the government can’t understand that, they should get out of the “fat” business.
Those BMI indexes are BS for a lot of people. I have always had a large frame, big shoulders, broad chest, wider than average hips for a guy, thick thighs. I couldn’t play pee wee football when I was young because I weighed too much. I wasn’t fat, just tall and big for my age.
I am heavier now, and have been off and on during my adult life, but about 10 years ago went on a serious work out/weight loss program. I went from about 260 pounds and within a year was down to under 180. But I didn’t look healthy at that weight. Instead of “boy you look great!”, I got “oh, are you OK?”. People thought I had cancer or something. The thing is, 180 is the upper bound of what is “optimal” for someone my height. If I lost any more weight, I would have looked like I just walked out of Auschwitz after the war. Yet the lower band of “optimal” for me is 140 pounds. My organs would just about be shutting down at that point. Optimal for me is probably around 200 pounds when I’m working out.
My wife’s side of the family is the opposite, thin, fine bones narrower shoulders. Our son inherited those traits from his Mom. He 22 and is 6 ft 2, about 165 pounds, and he weighed less than 150 a couple of years ago. He has always been told he is skinny and hates it....
Men should be at 10-15% fat. If you’re within that range, you’re good.
What’s the government doing in the “fat” business anyway? How about let’s all send Michelle and her daughters letters saying their ugliness puts everybody around them at a mental health risk. And it’s our business because we have to pay for their mental health care. And it would be good for the Obamas to know about their true condition so they are shamed into changing their physical features to what the rest of the world thinks they should be (or shamed into suicide if they can never be what the rest of the world thinks they should be...)
Anybody who thinks that would be “mean-spirited”, tell me exactly what is the difference between that and what the government is doing as policy. The reasoning is exactly the same.
Sheesh! Mind your own dang business, government!
I wasn’t a star athlete, but I was 6’-1” and weighed 190 in the late 1950s (and for decades afterward). You guessed it - when I was a college freshman they said I was almost 20 pounds overweight.
Nowadays, I weigh too much. No doubt. But in college? Not so much that I wasn’t nicknamed “Slim!"
My son’s BF was 6% and he was classified as obese. The kid was ripped like an old t-shirt. He had a three-foot standing high jump and could do pushups and pullups all day without breaking a sweat. A SEAL team had a booth set up at some local function and had the civilians try their hands at meeting the minimum SEAL requirements. My son blew it out of the water.
The gym instructor used him as an example of the flaws in the BMI system and talked the school into buying a BF machine. (My son was one of the first ones they used it on.)
There’s still a LITTLE common sense left in the world.
‘Men should be at 10-15% fat. If you’re within that range, you’re good.’
My fat composition was 10-15% when I was 16 yo.
Then they checked out my left leg...
“I’d like to see the fat tub of lard state bureaucrat ...”
He/she may be one of the cadaver-like vegans, who look emaciated and quite unhealthy, but who feel called upon to recruit children into their cause.
I had a dr tell me I was fat, when I was in high school. I was 17, 5'-11", 185#.
I arrived at Basic Training just before my 18th birthday. I was 6'1", 195 and got put on the 'fat boy' program.
I had a chuckle when I read that, because when I started running regularly and training seriously I dropped from high 180s - low 190s to about 165. A number of folks I hadn't seen in a while asked if I had cancer!
The one on the left is the Massachusetts Director of Public Safety, the boss of both the State Police and National Guard. She's the former Sheriff of Suffolk County (contingenous with the Shitty of Boston). Need I say more?
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