How fat is your state?

Obesity Map (http://health.msn.com/reports/obesity/default.aspx)

only orange!

It was interesting to see Oregon is always one tick ahead of California. I thought OR was at least as obsessive about weight/health as CA.

It was interesting to see Oregon is always one tick ahead of California.Hey, it's you southerners who are screwing up the average for California. San Francisco is in the top ten fittest cities.

But yes, America is fat, and getting fatter with no end in sight. And older. As I said, health care stocks are cheap now; if you can't fight the American lard machine, at least get rich off of it.

BMI is one of the stupidest measures of obesity.

When I was in high school and in the military, I would have been considered overweight or obese by BMI standards, despite having little fat and being in excellent physical condition, because my build is such that at 5'10, I weighed 190-200. That I could run five miles in 35 minutes, leg press well over 1000 lbs, play a five hour tennis match in 100 degree weather, and manage over 100 sit-ups in two minutes, didn't matter at all.

Of course, now, I'm fat for real...but dammit I earned the right to be fat.

Hey, it's you southerners who are screwing up the average for California. San Francisco is in the top ten fittest cities.

But yes, America is fat, and getting fatter with no end in sight. And older. As I said, health care stocks are cheap now; if you can't fight the American lard machine, at least get rich off of it.
I'd think LA would be right up there too, they're so freaking vain in that city.

Yeah, BMI is pretty awful. They're talking about replacing it with waist/hip ratios since body fat in the mid-section is usually associated with a lot of diseases.

Is there a place to with waist/hip ratios? BMI charts for me either want me to lose so much weight I'd be skeletal or otherwise call me grossely obese, which I'm not.

I fit in this (http://www.redstone-atlas.net/bcss/DSC0031.jpg) though on the stand it is shorter.

EDIT: the answer to my own question is yes. Using the W:H ratio I come out as healthy.

Here's one. http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/whr

I found it by searching for waist hip ratio.

You have a waist to hip ratio of 0.70

And of course, Wikipedia "weighs in" on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waist-hip_ratio

Yeah, BMI is pretty awful. They're talking about replacing it with waist/hip ratios since body fat in the mid-section is usually associated with a lot of diseases.BMI is designed to be a quick and easy measure for non-athletes (i.e., 99.99% of Americans). Statistically, over the entire range of Americans, it works well.

Waist to hip ratio sounds terrible, because people have a lot of variation in their natural (skeletal) dimensions, and you're measuring just a tiny area.

Actual body fat testing is best. One cheap and semi-accurate way is using calipers (http://www.linear-software.com/online.html); it's not very accurate but it will get you close. Use either the 3 (if doing alone) or 7 (if you have some to assist you) point methods. There's also the somewhat inaccurate Navy method comparing the abdomen to height and neck size; in the link, look at the right most column on the form.

Waist to hip ratio sounds terrible, because people have a lot of variation in their natural (skeletal) dimensions, and you're measuring just a tiny area.
The variations in skeletons is far, far less than the variation in the distribution of body fat. And it is just that variation in the body fat distribution that has a high level of determining disease. Look up "central adiposity" when you have time.

And there is some thought that fat stored in the thigh area is actually beneficial (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/051128/28waist_3.htm) to one's health. Could be an explanation why women tend to outlive men.
Some recent studies also indicate that hip and thigh fat--common to pear-shaped people--may actually offer some unique safeguard against cardiovascular disease. "Hip fat is definitely protective," says Marie Savard, a Philadelphia internist who is researching the health effects of body shape. She points to a 2004 Danish study of nearly 3,000 men and women that showed that a larger hip circumference reduced cardiovascular disease and death among women but had no positive effect for men. Similarly, research on 3,000 older adults reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine earlier this year confirmed not only that abdominal fat leads to metabolic syndrome but also that leg and thigh fat--among both women and men--was associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and less heart disease.

The variations in skeletons is far, far less than the variation in the distribution of body fat.No it isn't. That's why we have more "attractive" people with certain ratios, and less attractive ones with others, even given the same body fat. It's a silly measure.Could be an explanation why women tend to outlive men.Yes, I'm sure smoking and other risky behaviors probably have <b>nothing</b> to do with it.

Hey, I paid for an argument. This is just contradiction!

BMI is designed to be a quick and easy measure for non-athletes (i.e., 99.99% of Americans). Statistically, over the entire range of Americans, it works well.

Waist to hip ratio sounds terrible, because people have a lot of variation in their natural (skeletal) dimensions, and you're measuring just a tiny area.

Actual body fat testing is best. One cheap and semi-accurate way is using calipers (http://www.linear-software.com/online.html); it's not very accurate but it will get you close. Use either the 3 (if doing alone) or 7 (if you have some to assist you) point methods. There's also the somewhat inaccurate Navy method comparing the abdomen to height and neck size; in the link, look at the right most column on the form.

Its more than somewhat innaccurate lol. The USMC used that method for my duration...and I was constantly doing stupid ass paperwork for waivers, and I wasn't even one of the bodybuilding types who normally are the one's getting waivers for that. Evidently I just had freakishly large legs from the years of tennis.