Yesterday the most interesting thing happened. I work with a corporate client on Wednesdays and they were having a “Safety Week” event that included information from Weight Watchers and one of the leading health funds.
As part of the health fund “station” there was a machine that measures whether you are standing evenly across both feet. I thought it would be fun to find out if I stand evenly. I had to wait my turn and while waiting I tried out this other machine that reads body weight, body fat % and BMI.
The machine looks like a set of scales and the young man tapped in my information; height, age and female. Then he said a couple of interesting things:
The first was: “Don’t worry about the BMI, that was never intended as an individual measurement – it was always intended as a measure of a community”
Personally, I have never really paid much attention to BMI because it didn’t really make sense; now I know why.
He then went on to say “Your weight is on the high end of the range for your height and age; should be between 50.4 kg and 68.1kg. It would probably be a good idea for you to be about 59-60kg so you need to lose about 3 kilos.”
“Oh,” I replied “three kilos?”
“Hey, it’s only 3 kilos, that’s nothing.” He then went on to tell me that all I needed to do was cut down on the amount of fat I eat and it would be easy. Not once did he ask me anything about what I eat, exercise, lifestyle, general health.
“It’s just 3 kilos, that’s nothing”
I said “good bye” and left. I didn’t have time to wait for the balance test.
Afterwards I thought about what he had said. I have a couple of issues. Firstly, the fact that he thought for me to lost 3 kilos would be “nothing”. I presume by “nothing” he means “effortless”. I have been this same weight for more than 10 years and I have not ever really tried to lose weight I just eat a healthy, balanced diet and do some sort of exercise every day. I wondered what it would take to lose weight and wondered about this young man’s personal experience at losing a prescribed amount of weight for him to say “3 kilos, that’s nothing”
A second issue relates to the concept of “set point”. Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis talks about “set point”; which is the amount of body fat that the body decides is right for a point in time. Of course “set point” is not fixed but it does take a deliberate strategy to change the body’s “set point”. I feel that my body has reached a comfortable “set point” and I would need a very deliberate strategy. My recent experience with “dry July” suggests that it might take a real “jolt” to destabilise my “set point”.
The range for my height is almost 20 kilos – he said “between 50.4 kg and 68.1kg” and my 63 kg seems OK to me. What might be important is whether this changes i.e. increases.
The real issue for me with this comment is that he asked me nothing; not one single question about my health, diet, anything. He has based his statement on a chart that he has in his head about what height and weight a woman my age “should” be. He knows nothing of my history or life style.
If I was a different person that information could have had a disheartening effect. I know clients who would be very “traumatised” by a statement like this. Women who have worked for a period of time to change exercise and eating habits and are seeing the results. A close encounter with some one like this could be quite detrimental. Many people are very quick to give power to so called “experts”.
He was representing an authority in Health Care as an “expert” and there is a responsibility to represent with integrity.
Anyway, if you find yourself at one of these opportunities for a “quick assessment” take it for what it is; a “quick assessment” based on very minimal information. There may be some usefulness in the information so it is for You to be discerning about how much power you give to their comments. Also maybe question the “expertise” of the person operating the machine.
I’m wondering if this person was a health expert or a promotional person hired for the information booth.
