Yes, You are obese, and it's not just a number.

Only you can control this moment. 

I want you as a reader to recognize something very simple. There are truths out there about fitness and health and there are lies out there about fitness and health. I have grown very concerned over the previous ten years as my career in this industry has expanded.  My concern is related to what people think they know about health.  It's a terrible concern to me. The primary reason it is a concern is because I see the dysfunction and disease present in America every single day, and the truth is that a large percentage of the physical ailments present are not only stoppable, but reversible. Why then, is nothing being apparently done about these issues in most of our daily lives? I want to start discussion of these issues one by one, broken down, piece by tiny piece with open conversation about the clear and present reality of these issues without being pretentious or overbearing.

Let me be forthcoming -The truth is that many of the concerns I will speak about in this blog will be issues that I am currently dealing with myself, or that I see regularly. If we're going to be truthful, much of my concern is brought about by my own quality of life issues. I am overweight, and I have back pain that limits my daily activities. You will find out more about these issues in future posts, but let’s move to the topic of this week.

There is currently an epidemic running rampant throughout the United States at alarming rates. The epidemic is actually very well known and yet we seem to think that we can ignore it in our personal lives. The problem with this epidemic is less the current position it puts us in, but rather it is the quality of life it promotes as we age. I’m talking about obesity.  Don’t stop reading, as this is the beginning of great discussion that will explore health over the next few years.  

As a doctor of physical therapy is spend my days with patients that have a great variety of afflictions. These afflictions range from total knee replacements to such severe morbid obesity that a person cannot move from their bed to their toilet that is literally right next to their bed.

It pains me to see quality of life depleted to such sad levels. I directly tie a very large majority of disorders to the progression of the obesity epidemic.  According to the CDC, or Center for Disease Control (Let me be blunt, they don’t control our health, we do), the current percentage of Americans who are obese is 35.7%.  That means that one out of three of us are obese. The numbers to follow are going to be more important than my last statistic because you are not a statistic alone, you are you, and you get to decided where you go from here. I don’t really care about the stats.  What I care about is that each person reading this knows where they stand currently.  Let’s find out your truth.

Let me explain what obesity is.  First off it is a measurement of weight in comparison to height. We scale it into categories that we call underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese, or morbidly obese. 

Ok I’m going to get a little educational here, and I’m not apologizing because what we need to start with is a real understanding where each of us stands today, so that tomorrow can be better.

If you really aren’t going to read this go to http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm
so that you can simply plug in your numbers.

BMI = Weight (Kg) / Height (m²)

Let’s use me as an example: 

Now Let’s find meters squared or m².

Final Calculation:


                                       BMI = 83.6kg / 2.98m²

My BMI = 28.06 Therefore I am overweight.

Below you see the categories.
                                  

Now you know and understand what category you fit into.  The arrows simply indicate where you or I should be going from this point forward.

Though they are currently just a number for you, I will explore the issues present for each category more thoroughly in following blogs.  This is just the beginning, so please subscribe and the information you recieve will be quality.  Not just some random opinion.  I have been working in this field for years and am well versed in navigating the difficulties you have had at deciphering all the bits and pieces of broken information.