Will hoey

[Chickendoodle]

I am intrigued by the "statistics" released stating that 25% of all adults are now obese. How do they know? Who do they ask?

 

No-one has ever asked me how much I weigh. I rarely go the the doctor so he doesn't know. MY OH doesn't know either . Do they get the figures from Doctors, in which case the figures are unreliable as only people who are ill see the Doctor, and as obesity might be one of the issues making them ill.....Is it the size of clothes being bought - unlikely as height would be a factor in this.

 

Does someone stand on a street corner somewhere looking at everyone walking past. Do they send a questionnaire out, if so, where? Do they weigh a group of people in a particular town and extrapolate the figures to the whole population?

 

The same applies to eating habits. How on earth can they say that a certain propotion of the population are eating too much sugar or fat. I cook everything from scratch and am very careful with my food but I don't appear in a survey somewhere.

 

I look around my home town and don't see 1 in 4 people as being obese? Have any of you taken part in a survey?

[Saronne]

I often wonder this, too. Occasionally, I am asked to take surveys by phone - or by Ipos-Mori survey-takers, but I do wonder where information for more general health related issues comes from?! Never have I been asked about anything health related....

[Charlottechicken]

I would also love to know where they get their stats from.

 

If I look around at work then I'm afraid it's about 1 in 4 who are obese Whilst out shopping too, I generally see more people who are bigger than me, widthwise. Younger people too, mainly.

 

You only have to have a BMI of 30 to be obese, it's not that big.

 

I have taken part in a survey with the Office for National Statistics. It wasn't about health though, it was about income and spending, bet they had fun with my thrifty answers

[LolaLayla]

Our GP was asking everyone their weight a couple of years ago so maybe that is one source. I have to say I was horrified at the time to find out that I was classed as obese. I wore size 14 clothes so I was not that big

[Grandmashazzie]

Oh I think we were picked for that survey too( income and spending)I wonder do they get facts from retail.I can't see people letting strangers in home to weigh them.I think when out and about that a good 50% of people look overweight.Certainly causing major problems in NHS when you hear of special ambulances being made and theatre floors and operating beds being reinforced to cope with overweight patients.I pity too the staff who have to manhandle obese patients.

[merlina]

Once upon a time, many many years ago, I was an international tae kwon do champion. I was also classed as 'obese' using the formula they still use today. I was (literally!) fighting fit.

More recently (but not very recently!) I did MMA. About 90% of the men and women were considered 'obese' at their normal weight (ie the weight they were when they hadn't starved and dehydrated to meet a match weight). Most had almost no fat on them

I'll bet that goes for a whole load of people who are of 'stocky' build

 

In other words the BMI is a ridiculous measurement to use - and it's not surprising that so many people count as being in the danger zone.

There are much more sophisticated tools which are much more meaningful (such as body fat measurement), but that would be more complicated.

 

All the scaremongering is annoying. Yes there are some problems, but using bad science to try and justify research etc just means the important messages are lost in some of the silliness.

 

While I'm on my soap box... another thing about the whole obesity panic that annoys me is the assumption that everyone who is overweight pigs out on junk food and therefore we need to tax chocolate etc etc. Simply untrue. I'm overweight and so are many of my friends. We eat a very healthy wholefood diet. We just eat too much of it

[JellyBean2605]

I agree, BMI is NOT an accurate way to assess someone's size, it's only height vs weight and doesn't take into account muscle content and bone density. I can only imagine they do a survey of a % of the population and then apply that to the entire population.

[chickencam]

Very true, most rugby players would be considered obese on BMI alone.

[The Dogmother]

I reckon they did the survey in Banbury

[Charlottechicken]

Nah, had to be Brum!

 

Found this old report, admittedly from the Daily Wail but looking around me I'd say it's true;

 

Fat Brummies

 

Looks like it's just the slim Jims of Wales and London stopping the figures from being so much worse.

[yvonne]

Nope, Somerset ! Look around central Somerset and find a non-obese person, I challenge you all !

[Space Chick]

I am classed as just obese on the BMI scale

 

However, on a body analysis I have the muscle mass of an athlete

 

So I guess I'm built like a rugby player

 

OK anyone who knows me (and several omleteers are friends) will know I am a chunky girl, but I'm not huge and I'm very fit and active too!

 

In fact, only today I have been for a lovely 22 mile cycle.... Not your typical view of an obese woman

[Mrs Webmuppet]

That BMI chart gets me a lecture every time I have a well person check.......if only they used a fat detector (they have one at the gym) they would see that I am not fat just muscular (years of sport and exercise has given me muscles ladies ought not to have).

 

I still do a lot of exercise, I have to otherwise my body will start to seize up.