There’s a lot of fat Canadians. In the 50-64 year old age range 70% are either overweight or obese. Probably more given that the data is based on self-reporting.
Statistics Canada- Body mass index, overweight or obese, self-reported, adult, age groups (18 years and older)
Huberman Lab- Dr. Elissa Epel: Control Stress for Healthy Eating, Metabolism & Aging
It’s based on BMI. It’s worthless data, aimed at causing panic. Government food regulation anyone? It’s absolutely necessary to save you after all.
Quite right, John. BMI was by a Belgian astronomer Adolphe Quetelet in the 19th century. What an astronomer knows about human biology is beyond any rational explanation. Average human nutrition then in the 1830s was vastly inferior to what exists for the past century. Worse, the scales of what constitutes “healthy body weight” as opposed to obesity have been subject to great discrepancy over the past half-century. Only recently in 1998 was the US scale harmonized to a world scale established by WHO. The result was instant: overnight 25 million Americans (and presumably a similar proportion of Canadians or any other citizens of OECD countries) were reclassified as obese.
This is pretty obviously political manipulation.
The ONLY time I’m willing to use BMI and consider its proportional values … is when I’m dating women. Those numbers don’t lie. And neither do the black yoga pants.
Which … BTW … just flew to Orange Co. to see the grandkids … and OMG! John Wayne Airport … I barely got out of there without a noticeable erection for all the absolute HOT BODIES walking around in black Tights. Mmmmm mmm mmm … “You work out, doncha?”
No one follows government food regulations. You can’t blame that for people being fat.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not rocket science. Significantly restrict carbs and sugar (down by two-thirds), shorten your eating window to about six hours (lunch and dinner) and take a walk late morning just prior to lunch. Other than that, eat what you want and until you’re full. I did this and lost 40 pounds in five months in 2018 and have kept the weight off. During this time the Canada Food Guide was updated and re-issued with more of the same wrong-headed thinking. The detrimental effects of carbs and sugar have been known and documented for almost 200 years, but few are listening.
Progs are a bigger issue in Canaduh than overweight people. However, combine the two and…
Cookies and beer for me.
But they’re also rewards/stress relievers.
10lbs of love handle or rat-shooting spree. Its a balance…
BMI is bullshit. I’ve seen pencil-necks who couldn’t lift a jar of farts and tubbies who can jog for miles.
Big muscle dudes get labelled overweight.
Oreos and Merlot here.
RNrn
When I was in university, a linebacker for our football team, i was 6ft, 205. I remember seeing a BMI chart and reading that I was apparently overweight…. Haha. Single digit body fat, constant exercise, almost 6 pack abs….but overweight.
Never cared so much about measurements up til that point…cared even less afterwards
Muscle weight is a real thing. I know, I’ve got a similar problem
I resemble that statistic. I am trying to get down to a healthy weight.
Cutting out pop and sugar is working, but slowly.
I identify as a fire hydrant. So there.
Don’t let the dogs near you.
but I like a cookie….
I’m in shape…round is a shape.
How much for the 70% overweigh or obese are like Mad Macs above with single digit body fat? BMI is only good as a base starting point. Further testing MUST be done to get and accurate picture of a persons health. BMI is only a starting point. (Think the first brick when building a solid house). Don’t try to paint Canada as overweigh or obese based solely on BMI, but than you don’t get a good fear/porn story.
I could use a few pounds, so will cookie up!
The BMI is the same chart for men or women. Does that make sense? Muscle mass, bone density it’s all the same I guess??
I got a new doc as mine hung it up during covid. The new doc got out the chart on my first visit. Told me to be careful, maybe think about losing a few pounds. I am a pretty muscular guy and am in shape. I have never had a doc tell me to lose weight.
My Dad prolly hit the BMI bullseye.
WW2 vet. Less 1/2 a leg
Smoked, beer drinker with vet buddy once a week
He’d let me win at arm wrestling sometimes.
Gave grandad a room to live with us.
This is an issue we should be fixating over? You are obviously not paying attention.
As an fyi, not looking for feedback. I went carnivore-adjacent* in January and have dropped 15 pounds.
*meat, cheese, eggs, a few veg, occasional cheat meals, (as in when Lance made homemade pasta on Saturday). Curbed 95% of my sugar intake. That’s it. easiest diet I’ve ever been on.
Been there, done that. And trimmed weight faster than ever before. Literally all the vegetables and salad you wanted to eat … but only 8oz of lean meat once a day for dinner. Tiny amount or NO carbs. Dropped > 30lbs in 60 days with virtually no exercise.
I flipped that. All the meat I want, token veg.
I vote for your version … although I DO like my salads and vegetables. I just feel healthier when I’m eating them regularly.
The aggregate (in this case BMI) tells you nothing about the individual
I’m a 6 foot bone rack. 190 lbs. BMI 25.8, overweight. 70 years of age. All other health indicators are excellent.
I’m 6 foot 1 225, my son is 6 foot 2 and about 140. I’m 40 lbs heavier than I was when I was in the army, but I don’t feel fat. I’m 59 and can still ride my bike 100 km. A few years ago I decided to loose weight and counted all my calories. Less than 1800 calories a day and 40 k a day on my bike (more on weekends) got me down to 200 in six months. Not worth it. I eat anything I want and my weight doesn’t change from 225, I can live with this.
Most fat people die years too early
Some don’t
Roll the dice
An obese woman still outlives a normal weight man, statistically speaking. Go figure.
What they did
This study, led by Heather M. Orpana, Ph.D., from Statistics Canada, set out to estimate the relationship between BMI and all-cause mortality in a nationally representative sample of Canadian adults, weighted to represent the total population of the ten Canadian provinces. The database they used to look for these correlations, using Cox proportional hazards computer modeling, was of 11,834 adults (25+ years old) who had participated in the National Population Health Survey in 1994-1995 conducted by Statistics Canada. The data was matched to the Canadian Deaths Database through 2005. During those 12 years of follow-up, 1,929 people had died. The authors adjusted for age, gender, smoking status, physical activity and alcohol consumption in their computer model. They didn’t factor in social and economic status.
Because the BMI data was self-reported, they also used a correction factor they had developed, which showed the same pattern of results. As they pointed out, self-reported height and weight “are considered valid for identifying relationships in epidemiological studies, with self-reported values being strongly correlated with measured values.”
What they found
The results of this epidemiological study were published in Obesity, the journal of the Obesity Society. This study found that none of the relative risks associated with mortality they examined were tenable [explained here], except for one. Age. At age 65, the relative risks of dying rose to 44.35 times compared to age 25; and by age 75, relative risks are 119-fold. We should stop right there, as tenable correlations are the only ones that deserve our focus. But that wouldn’t have made a news story, so what followed was splitting hairs among the rest.
Looking at corrected BMIs, according to the breakdowns adopted by the world’s governments, the authors found that compared to ‘normal’ BMIs (18.5 up to 25):
● being overweight (BMI 25 up to 30) was associated with a 25% lower risk of dying
● being obese (BMI 30 up to 35, which includes about 80% of all obese people) was associated with a 12% lower risk of dying.
● And the risks associated with the most ‘morbidly obese’ (BMIs 35+) — the uppermost 3% of this Canadian cohort— were statistically the same as those with ‘normal’ BMIs. [RR=1.09 (0.86-1.39, 95% CI) versus RR=1.0.]
Because physical activity could be a confounding factor, and also associated with age and health problems, they analyzed the data using models that excluded and included physical activity. Physical activity had no statistical effect on their findings.
They also analyzed the data to adjust for health by excluding the first four years of follow-up to account for possible reverse causation, where pre-existing illness and poor health could lead to lower BMI and earlier mortality. The results, again, were not statistically affected.
As the authors broke down the data into a multitude of variables looking to parse out correlations, the most significant relative risk they found was among underweight men (BMI less than 18.5) associated with a 2.5 relative risk of mortality, while higher weights were associated with no greater risks for men until those with the very highest BMIs — although the 72% risk was still untenable (attributable to random chance or confounding factors).
In contrast, the authors noted that among women, who comprise most of those at the uppermost extremes of obesity, even the most ‘obese’ (obesity class II and higher) was associated with no higher mortality risks, while being overweight and obese up to class II were associated with a 23%-19% lower risk.
Putting it into perspective: Rather than a population-wide weight problem, the vast majority of Canadians, according to the government’s Community Health Survey: Nutrition, have BMIs of 18.5 to 35. In other words, nearly every Canadian is at a “healthy weight” range — with no association to higher risks for death and even associated with lower risks. Far from a crisis of people at extremes of weight, only about 2% of Canadians have BMIs under 18.5 and 2.7% have BMIs 40+.
I weigh a bit under sixteen stone, which I think is o.k. for my height (5’14”). I don’t care what the BMI says, I live alone and if I don’t finish these Costco muffins today they might go moldy tomorrow.
… and if I don’t finish these Costco muffins today they might go moldy tomorrow.
Hahahaha ha ha ha … I resemble that rationalization
More wisdom from the witchdoctors.
BMI is rubbish.
However it is a good way to get a handle on your Doctor,if they push it ,change doctors..
Them and their ever changing gospel on “proper foods”,”proper exercise” and “proper drug prescriptions”.
I have been “Obese” according to the BMI since I was 12.
Last idiot tried to put me on Statins,right after we learnt the worth of their “Studies effectiveness”.
Stopped eating bread,spare the starches and heap on the steak,some years back..Ain’t getting any wider.
Of course the Land Whales do waddle amongst us,but can we be sure that they are not planning ahead for the coming famine?
Preparing for the logical consequences of Dear Leader Justine’s Reign.
Those peasants aren’t going to starve themselves,they need Dear Leader and his minion’s help.
Well despite the BMI being bullshit, there is definitely an overweight problem. The majority of the people I see whenever I’m out and about are overweight, fat or morbidly obese. LOTS of morbidly obese. I feel so sorry for the obese young folks, what chance for happiness do they have?
Eat less and you will lose weight, eat more and you will get fat.
You conservatives always see the world as so simple … so black and white. You muh conservatives just lack understanding of … nuance.
/extreme sarc.