Millions of Obese Americans are actually quite healthy

According to a new study, researchers have come to a conclusion that over-reliance on BMI as a factor to measure the health of a person may go terribly wrong during most of the times. A. Janet Tomiyama led this research, and she claims that 34.4 million Americans considered overweight under BMI are healthy.

Her study clearly indicates that 47.4% of people with an overweight BMI and 29% of “obese” people are as fit as a nut. As per Tomiyama, we think that BMI is just a crude and terrible indicator of someone’s health, and obesity is just a number based on BMI.

Tomiyama made it clear that many healthy people are penalized based on a faulty health measure. On the other hand, several unhealthy people who have average weight falls under the radar, and they will not be charged more for health insurance.

Federal Government has recently proposed a rule that would grant employers the right to penalize individual employees if their BMI is more than the 24 mark.

Tomiyana’s research claims that a person with good height weight ratio will not necessarily have healthy blood pressure and sugar levels.

Her study also suggests that millions of persons with good cardiovascular health have wrong height weight ratio, and they are being charged more for insurance premiums.

The study conducted by Tomiyama unanimously confirms that the BMI standard has literally mislabeled more than 54 million people unhealthy which is something alarming in nature.

A co-author of the study recommends people to eat well and do proper exercising rather than focusing more on their weight. In short, we can finalize that BMI can be considered as a useful quick test to indicate the health of a person, but it should be followed by other check-ups to determine its credibility.

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  • yep! I know some mightily big people and they are never sick, and even if they aren’t considered healthy, they aren’t in the hospital as far as I know, ever (and they’re all over 35). So, yes, it can contribute to bad health, but it also may be their body’s genetically programmed shape. I think we need to truly get EVERYONE on a healthy eating program for THEIR genetics, more than anything!

  • Yeah, but if you’re a fat and a smoker (and dumb) you’re gonna get a trip to the hospital to die sooner than if you were active, thinner, and well read, I guarantee it.

    Seriously. I work in a cath lab in a major SE hospital and the number of fat, lazy smokers I get for acute heart attacks greatly outweighs (no pun intended) the number of thin, active, and educated patients.

    Get off your ass, get out of your car, and put down the soda, fast food, and cigarettes. If you don’t, then don’t complain when you or family dies early.

    This study is bullshit.