New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity.
Think about the consequences of this. With everyone's BMI index on file, ask the question, how will that be used? Can you say rationed healthcare?
"Oh, your BMI is 25%. You need a coronary bypass? Fuck you and die. Oh, your BMI is 29% and you just got type one diabetes? Fuck you and your insulin you'll never get". We already have companies that are firing people that continue to smoke (Wellmark BCBS), so what if fat is next. What if a prospective employer had access to these records and categorized you. Will fat become a protected class like being gay or disabled? I doubt it.
Another possible side effect of this is taxation. If you are overweight, you will be taxed more than someone of normal BMI. A real fat tax, not just on food, but the individual. Someone has to pay right? I mean Who's going to pay for Obamacare?
It's just another step down the slippery slope of government control and regulation of people's lives. Uncle Obama knows better than you do and you will pay the price if you don't do as he says.
The other thing is, who says what is obese and what isn't? According to government charts, Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been considered obese during his peak as Mr. Olympia. Even with myself, at 6'5, the charts say I should weigh under 210 lbs not to be considered overweight. I could weight 240-250 and still run 1 minute laps. Not bad for an obese guy? It all depends on what the composition of weight is, which is something the government charts never take in to consideration (on the other hand, Michelle Obama would definitely be consider obese).
As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We do have a problem with obesity in this country and it needs to be dealt with. Putting it in someone's permanent record that the government controls is not the way to go. The only way to fix it is through personal responsibility. "So a man thinketh in his heart, so is he". The government cannot fix that, only the individual can.
One more step towards socialism. Aren't you happy you elected Obama? Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm. Pass the fried chicken and cherry coke.
Thank you for reading this blog.
11 comments:
Man, I don't know where to start with my anger towards these retards! BMI means absolutely nothing! According to the genius elites who came up with a BMI calculation, I am considered "overweight, with a BMI of 26.8. I am 6'4" and weigh 220 lbs. But my body fat content is under 10%. I can easily do a hundred pushups, run a hundred in around 10 seconds, split wood, move furniture all day, hike 25 miles with a 60 lb back pack back... I run a series of sprints up a steep hill three time per week, perform tabata squats... and guess fucking what? I turn 56 next month! But according to these assholes, I am considered a lard ass.
Honest to God, Jim, I am so fucking fed up with retards with college degrees. Hell, my father used to call them "over-educated idiots." That was when I was a little kid back in the 50's and early 60's. The ol' man was a sharp cookie to make that observation way back then. And they have become worse. The have nobody to answer to like an engineer or a physician. Hell, a plumber or an electrician is under more peer scrutiny than these miscreant fucks.
America better wake the fuck up before we turn into Phlegmatics like in the movie Zardoz. Hell, we are already half way there.
Well, I am an over educated idiot too...I have a masters in Information Systems...BUT, I agree with your dad. We have PhDs where I work that I have to tell them not to look into the LED on a mouse. Seriously. No common sense.
BMI matters if you do a water immersion test. It's body fat. The government chart on BMI is total fantasy. So if you are 220 and 10% body fat, in my book you are fine. 10% is a very good number. According to the government, you are overweight and bordering on obese. It's crazy. Like I said, Arnold was 240 at 6'2 and you remember the shape he was in? That's obese. Look at the picture of Lou here. He's 6'5 and weighs 300-315 here. According to Obama he's morbidly obese. Same with Magnus who is 6'6 or 6'7 and weighs 330. According to the government, he's ready for the gastric bypass.
The pencil necks that make up this shit are just that, pencil necks. They are the same idiot that say you only need 40-60g of protein a day. I just had that argument with a PA. I told her iI raide my protein intake to 200g a day and it was like I said I molested children. Competitive body builders eat 300-400g a day. I started lifting a month and a half ago and I need more. I believe I'll actually get hurt if I don't do the proper nutrition. I also take creatine, arginine, vitamins and fish oil.
Anyway, the PA called me back later that day to tell me she consulted with the nutrition person at the office and she said it was fine. Vindicated.
I clicked on the Lou link and found a comment I made back in 2008. At the time, I weighed 240. I dropped twenty pounds by going paleo. That is a high fat, fairly high protein (a hell of a lot more than 40 to 60 grams) and extremely low carb. My body simply does not do well with carbs, especially grains. And unfortunately, that means I had to cut beer out of the picture. But even with consuming a high fat diet, my cholesterol count is 131, with an excellent HDL/LDL ratio, and according to my doc, an "extremely high" creatine count, for someone thirty years younger, much less my age. So, with my data, a government weenie would still tell me to cut out fat, and start eating a high carb diet, even though I feel like I did in my twenties,, and can out perform these idiots any day of the week. If these government dolts think they know better, I wonder how they would react to someone who is even older than me, and is a high performer. Check out libertarian economist Art De Vany and his wife. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9618138 Art is 6"1" and weighs 210. According to the eggheads, Art's BMI is 27.7, which is almost a point higher than my obese ass. Art's diet isn't quite as high in fat as mine, but there are no strict rules here. Basically, fat content is set my each individual, and paleo blogs are full of variations from different people.
Because of my lap band, it's hard to go paleo, but like you, my body prefers that diet. Carbs go on as fat with me, so I have to watch my intake. I supplement with whey protein, try to drink some 1% milk and make up the rest with chicken, beef pork or fish, not to mention some cheese. My last blood workup a few weeks ago came back 166 total cholesterol, but I didn't fast. Ratios were good. Most people don't realize your skin and nerves need fat. Cut too much out and you are in trouble. What might be high is your creatinine. Are your kidneys ok? May be it's a side effect of the protein. Mine was fine. I use creatine to boost muscle performance and growth. I'd have to eat 5lbs of red meat to what I can supplement with powder. The arginine helps with post workout recovery and the fish oil helps with joints and it lowers triglycerides. The vitamins are just a supplement. The think I find helpful is to get enough fresh green veggies like spinach and red leaf lettuce. I also add cabbage. couple this with protein, and it's sort of paleo. The other thing I really use carbs specifically for is with the creatine and the insuline spike helps absorption and build muscle. This shit has turned really scientific.
I have read Art Devaney and the man's a genius. A very good read. For supplementation, diets and workouts, Will Brink's Brinkzone is great. So is Dave Draper's blog and dave is a saint.
I could never get my 100 down to 10. My 40 was 5.9, but my mid-range speed was good, the 440-880. I cou;ld do the 880 in 2 minutes. not bad at 245lbs. Right now I am hoping my knee heals sufficiently so that I can run again. I had arthro on my right knee in may and it's been talking it's time.
So what ration do you go by? I try to be no worse than 40-40-20.
My percentage breakdown is about 60 fat-30 protein-10 carbs. But I have never subscribed to a 24 hour cycle. I tend to view my food intake and exercise more in terms of a four to seven day cycle. As sensitive as I am to carbs, I restrict myself to fresh spinach, asparagus, artichoke hearts, and various greens: mustard, swiss chard, trunip greens etc. A total weight for a seven day cycle of these different vegetables is about four to five pounds, which is far more than many vegetarians, as they eat a lot of grains, and tubers. The rest of my diet consists of a lot of beef, fish, chicken, eggs, bacon, butter and I use cream or half&half in my coffee. By the way, coffee is something that is new to me. Most people consume more coffee in a two or three month period, than I have in my entire life. Also, I stopped using milk back in 1973, during my tour of duty with the navy, so the H&H and WC is new to me as well. Cheese is another matter, but since going paleo, my cheese consumption way down.
Basically, I followed the ASD (American Standard Diet) which consists of a lot of carbs, mostly grains. I ate five or six "mini-meals" each day, and did this for almost two decades. I always wondered why I felt like shit all the time, and by chance, came across the paleo community, via Art De Vany. It was at paleo blogs, where I discovered a world of people who were duped by egghead "experts," as I was. As a plus, many of these folks are libertarians, Objectivists (and Randians) and market anarchists, have fast twitch muscles and enjoy prog rock. LOL So we have much in common.
I ran sprints and threw discuss in high school. I don't remember my best hundred... (that was forty years ago) I think it was about 10.6, and I am certain I can still do that because I train on steep hills. It wasn't any kind of a record, but damn fast for a large kid.
No, my kidneys are just fine. The doc reasoned that my creatine content is an indicator of my natural strength, even though I have never been a weight lifter. It's all genetics. I come from long lines of knuckle draggers LOL!
My percentage breakdown is about 60 fat-30 protein-10 carbs. But I have never subscribed to a 24 hour cycle. I tend to view my food intake and exercise more in terms of a four to seven day cycle. As sensitive as I am to carbs, I restrict myself to fresh spinach, asparagus, artichoke hearts, and various greens: mustard, swiss chard, trunip greens etc. A total weight for a seven day cycle of these different vegetables is about four to five pounds, which is far more than many vegetarians, as they eat a lot of grains, and tubers. The rest of my diet consists of a lot of beef, fish, chicken, eggs, bacon, butter and I use cream or half&half in my coffee. By the way, coffee is something that is new to me. Most people consume more coffee in a two or three month period, than I have in my entire life. Also, I stopped using milk back in 1973, during my tour of duty with the navy, so the H&H and WC is new to me as well. Cheese is another matter, but since going paleo, my cheese consumption way down.
Basically, I followed the ASD (American Standard Diet) which consists of a lot of carbs, mostly grains. I ate five or six "mini-meals" each day, and did this for almost two decades. I always wondered why I felt like shit all the time, and by chance, came across the paleo community, via Art De Vany. It was at paleo blogs, where I discovered a world of people who were duped by egghead "experts," as I was. As a plus, many of these folks are libertarians, Objectivists (and Randians) and market anarchists, have fast twitch muscles and enjoy prog rock. LOL So we have much in common.
ran sprints and threw discuss in high school. I don't remember my best hundred... (that was forty years ago) I think it was about 10.2, and I am certain I can still do that or close because I train on steep hills. It wasn't any kind of a record, but damn fast for a large kid. And, we're talking yards here, not meters.
No, my kidneys are just fine. The doc reasoned that my creatine content is an indicator of my natural strength, even though I have never been a weight lifter. It's all genetics. I come from long lines of knuckle draggers LOL!
Sounds like we are both very fast twitch dudes. You went for longer sprints than I, but for large guys, we are both pretty damn fast. Football coaches were constantly on my ass about joining the team (I was 6'4" on my fifteenth Bday), but I had no interest in team sports, other than baseball, earlier. I was a pretty damn good shortstop, and very good hitter. But the team aspect was never attractive to me. A natural individualist! lol
By the way, your cholesterol count is impressive. So stick that in your fat asses, eggheads!
Sorry for the multiple posts. My initial comment was too long, so I had to break it down, and this happened hahaha. I did correct my sprint time though. As I remember, it was 10.2
That is pretty high in fat. I don't think I burn enough calories to make that work. At most, I eat 50-30-20 protein-carbs-fat. usually 40-40-20. Most people are 20-50-30 or something like that. Too much carbs. You know that they say that before man got into grains and agriculture, he was bigger, stronger and healthier. ag and grains brought a lot of problems, but solved the problem of sustainable living.
You know, your diet sounds more like that of an Eskimo, as far as ratios.
Great post. I want the government out of my bedroom, out of my kitchen, out of my refrigerator, out of my bathroom and away from my bathroom scale. I want the government OUT of my private business and life -- all of which is just that: PRIVATE.
Before and after agriculture is a common topic at many paleo blogs. And yes, my diet does resemble Inuit Indians, at least in terms of the ratio breakdown. Inuits are another common topic.
There are many paleo/evolutionary fitness blogs as of late, that I can't keep up. But these three are on my daily read list: http://www.modernpaleo.com
might be of interest to you, given your affinity for Ayn Rand. The blog owner recently received her Phd in philosophy from Univ. of Colorado, and is married to physician Paul Hseih, a regular columnist at Pajamas Media.
This guy has an interesting story, in that he was a high carb eating, national class long distance runner. He became sick and turned his life around by going paleo, and converting to resistance training, rather than long distance. He is often mentioned in columns at Lew Rockwell http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
This dude is a man after my own heart. He speaks my language! Former navy officer who became tired of being a lard ass, after being duped for many years by "experts." http://freetheanimal.com
I have never been a weight lifter, but recently I have experimented in training to failure. It is an ass kicking workout, and since light weights are used, there is virtually no wear and tear on joints and ligaments. Plus, for a guy who has no desire to perform regimented exercise, other than sprints, a once-a-week workout in twenty minutes just might fit the bill for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ufSYBcZa0
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