The U.S. obesity rate is growing fast — but the rate of extreme, morbid obesity is growing three times faster, a RAND study shows:
Obesity means having a BMI (body mass index, a ratio of weight to height) of 30 or higher. Severe obesity — also called morbid obesity — begins at a BMI of 40.
That's a weight of about 235 for a person who is 5 feet 4 inches tall and a weight of about 280 for a person 5 feet 10 inches tall.
Even more extremely obese people have a BMI of 50 or more: a weight of about 292 pounds for that 5-foot-4 person and about 350 pounds for that 5-foot-10 person.
RAND economist Roland Sturm, Ph.D., looked at data from a telephone survey of American households.
He found some shocking numbers — especially as people in self-report studies tend to say they weigh less than they really do.
From 2000 to 2005, Sturm found, the U.S. obesity rate increased by 24%.
But the rate of severe obesity increased even faster.
The number of people with a BMI over 40 grew by 50% — twice as fast.
The number of people with a BMI over 50 grew 75% — three times as fast.
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4 comments:
on the news this morning they were talking about how waist circumference needs to be used as well as bmi because fat in different areas has different metabolic activity..i guess it's more active around the waist and linked to increased risk of some diseases
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=ce3d968e-fd57-47cf-9113-35d4fb264b9c&p=2
yeah BMI is pretty crude
lower calorie intake has also been linked to longer life :)
i just eat whatever i feel like whenever i get hungry and stop as soon as i feel full
i try to eat organic and healthy but i crave potato chips and other crap pretty much daily :)
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