Morgan BellHugh Jackman: fat bastard
January 20th 2009 17:32
We regularly see reports on the evening news tell us we are getting fatter. Australians are getting fatter. More Australians are more fat. We are the fattest people in the world. Or is that the USA? Either way, both of our counties sport a giant load of fatties . . . or so we are told.
The standard for measuring this supposed increasing "fatness" is the BMI (Body Mass Index). I have long been critical of the BMI. As a formula it simply does not make sense. The formula involves divided one number by the square of another creating a graph with a parabola shape.
Take the healthy weight range for a person 5'3" (1.6m), according to BMI you should be 46-64 kg. A person a whole foot taller, 6'3" (1.9m) should be 65-90 kg to be considered healthy by the BMI. I dont know, seems wrong to me.
Here are some male celebrities who are overweight or obese according to this scale:
OVERWEIGHT (25-29):
Ethan Hawke: 5'9": 172 lbs: 25
George W Bush: 5'11": 191 lbs: 26
Tom Cruise: 5'7": 170 lbs: 26
Matt Damon: 5'11": 187 lbs: 26
Vin Diesel: 6'2": 200 lbs: 26
Richard Gere: 5'11": 187 lbs: 26
Nick Lachey: 5'10": 180 lbs: 26
Hugh Jackman: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
Johnny Depp: 5'7": 190 lbs: 27
Will Smith: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
Denzel Washington: 6'0": 199 lbs: 27
Billy Zane: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
David Boreanaz: 6'2": 218 lbs: 28
Brad Pitt: 6'0": 203 lbs: 28
Nicolas Cage: 6'1": 210 lbs: 28
George Clooney: 5'11": 211 lbs: 29
Bruce Willis: 6'0": 200 lbs: 29
Keanu Reeves: 6'1": 223 lbs: 29
Dr. Phil McGraw: 6'4": 240 lbs: 29
Harrison Ford: 6'1": 218 lbs: 29
David Duchovny: 6'0": 212 lbs: 29
Brendan Fraser: 6'3": 234 lbs: 29
OBESE (30-40):
Matt LeBlanc: 5'11": 218 lbs: 30
Mike Tyson: 5'11 ½": fighting weight between 218-235: 30-32
Mel Gibson 5'9": 214 pounds: 32
The Rock (Dwayne Johnson): 6'5": 275 lbs: 33
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 6'2": 257 lbs: 33
Sylvester Stallone: 5'9": 228 lbs: 34
So are we getting fatter or just taller?
Taller people end up having a BMI that is uncharacteristically high compared to their actual body fat levels.
The anomaly is partially offset by the fact that many taller people are not just "scaled up" short people, but tend to have narrower frames in proportion to their height.
Wikipedia suggests that instead of squaring the body height (as the BMI does) or cubing the body height (as seems natural), it would be more appropriate to use an exponent of between 2.3 to 2.7.
Still sounds fishy to me. I think the exponential is the whole problem.
So next time you see a negative news report talking about the obesity epidemic you may want to think "do they mean Mel Gibson obese? or just as tubby as Hugh Jackman?"
The standard for measuring this supposed increasing "fatness" is the BMI (Body Mass Index). I have long been critical of the BMI. As a formula it simply does not make sense. The formula involves divided one number by the square of another creating a graph with a parabola shape.
Take the healthy weight range for a person 5'3" (1.6m), according to BMI you should be 46-64 kg. A person a whole foot taller, 6'3" (1.9m) should be 65-90 kg to be considered healthy by the BMI. I dont know, seems wrong to me.
Here are some male celebrities who are overweight or obese according to this scale:
OVERWEIGHT (25-29):
Ethan Hawke: 5'9": 172 lbs: 25
George W Bush: 5'11": 191 lbs: 26
Tom Cruise: 5'7": 170 lbs: 26
Matt Damon: 5'11": 187 lbs: 26
Vin Diesel: 6'2": 200 lbs: 26
Richard Gere: 5'11": 187 lbs: 26
Nick Lachey: 5'10": 180 lbs: 26
Hugh Jackman: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
Johnny Depp: 5'7": 190 lbs: 27
Will Smith: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
Denzel Washington: 6'0": 199 lbs: 27
Billy Zane: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
David Boreanaz: 6'2": 218 lbs: 28
Brad Pitt: 6'0": 203 lbs: 28
Nicolas Cage: 6'1": 210 lbs: 28
George Clooney: 5'11": 211 lbs: 29
Bruce Willis: 6'0": 200 lbs: 29
Keanu Reeves: 6'1": 223 lbs: 29
Dr. Phil McGraw: 6'4": 240 lbs: 29
Harrison Ford: 6'1": 218 lbs: 29
David Duchovny: 6'0": 212 lbs: 29
Brendan Fraser: 6'3": 234 lbs: 29
OBESE (30-40):
Matt LeBlanc: 5'11": 218 lbs: 30
Mike Tyson: 5'11 ½": fighting weight between 218-235: 30-32
Mel Gibson 5'9": 214 pounds: 32
The Rock (Dwayne Johnson): 6'5": 275 lbs: 33
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 6'2": 257 lbs: 33
Sylvester Stallone: 5'9": 228 lbs: 34
So are we getting fatter or just taller?
Taller people end up having a BMI that is uncharacteristically high compared to their actual body fat levels.
The anomaly is partially offset by the fact that many taller people are not just "scaled up" short people, but tend to have narrower frames in proportion to their height.
Wikipedia suggests that instead of squaring the body height (as the BMI does) or cubing the body height (as seems natural), it would be more appropriate to use an exponent of between 2.3 to 2.7.
Still sounds fishy to me. I think the exponential is the whole problem.
In 1998, the U.S. National Institutes of Health brought U.S. definitions into line with World Health Organization guidelines, lowering the normal/overweight cut-off from BMI 27.8 to BMI 25. This had the effect of redefining approximately 30 million Americans, previously "technically healthy" to "technically overweight". It also recommends lowering the normal/overweight threshold for South East Asian body types to around BMI 23, and expects further revisions to emerge from clinical studies of different body types.
So next time you see a negative news report talking about the obesity epidemic you may want to think "do they mean Mel Gibson obese? or just as tubby as Hugh Jackman?"
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