About BMI as a measure

However, I do know that being obese is bad for your health, and severe and complex obesity with a BMI of over 39 has serious implications for your morbidity and mortality. This doesn’t mean that if you fall into this bracket, you should be treated differently. Any weight you lose will be advantageous over time. It is also not all your fault that you are obese. The foresight study found that there are more than 300 causes of obesity. It is not helpful to apportion blame to individuals, and it is not accurate. There are some awful statistics related to obesity; 10% of all cancers are directly related to obesity and a BMI of more than 39 reduces your chance of making it to 70 years old by 50%. Currently 64% of all adults in the UK are overweight or obese, and this is increasing all the time. Obesity isn’t just about heart disease. Fat is an active metabolic tissue, and it is busy! Having a large amount of body fat has knock on effects for your whole metabolism and impacts your kidneys, liver and hormone systems as well. I’m not telling you all this to frighten you, I’m really excited for you because you have taken an important step and decided to take responsibility for your health and well-being, even

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if you didn’t realise it! Gaining weight may have been out of your control but losing it will be a huge personal achievement that is all your own.

About BMI as a measure

So BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is roughly an indicator of percentage body fat. It gets a lot of bad press. There are some humans who will have a body mass index of >30 even though they have a much lower body fat percentage. Unfortunately there are not many of them, and they are mostly professional sportspeople. So although you may believe that you are that person, it is unlikely. Which I realise, sucks. We do need fat, it is very important for us, but a healthy amount is around 20-25% of our mass. If you were super keen, you could have some fancy analysis. I don’t believe that we can use BMI as an exclusive measure of health. However, for the purposes of prescribing this drug I have to know your body mass index and use it as a guide. There is also no getting

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