SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) More than half of the adult population in the United States is considered overweight or obese according to government statistics. But what if the overweight epidemic isn’t as deadly as it’s cracked up to be?
Studies published in the journal Obesity shows overweight, and obese people can expect to live at least as long as people of “normal” weight, while underweight people actually are at an increased risk of premature death. These studies correlate with earlier research published by the American Medical Association and add fuel to a new movement of self acceptance, which is also anti-diet, and holds that Body Mass Index is a faulty measurement of overall health.
Lillian Scoville can be found working out in a Salt Lake Gym three days a week. She has lost sixty pounds in the last year, but she is not counting calories, doesn’t have a target weight, and isn’t worried about her BMI. She says “I know the numbers are arbitrary, in a way, like right now I weigh more than I did in college, but I wear a smaller size.”
Lillian is part of the nationwide movement that believes losing weight isn’t about focusing on the numbers on the scale, or your current body mass index, it’s about being healthy, at any size, even if it’s a larger one, and accepting your body for what it is. “I was never able to be consistent with exercising well, or eating well, until I learned to love my body.”
Chase Casillas has earned the title of strongest man on campus at Utah State University. He turned three hundred pound of fat into muscle. He says he knows he will always have trouble spots, but he didn’t start losing weight, until he stopped watching it and worrying about what other people were thinking. “If you are going into a gym with an attitude, I have to lose weight because people think I am fat or I think I’m not good enough, it’s never going to work for you.”
Research shows not focusing on numbers, and instead concentrating on just being healthy is more effective in long-term weight loss and improved health.
Julie Gast, PhD, a health education professor at Utah State University says “Everybody can be health at every size but we look at things like physical activity, dietary composition, tobacco use.” She says body mass index and weight are just crude measurements that might help in large health studies but are not accurate predictors of health for individuals. “There is quite a range of BMI and you can be very healthy and not have increased mortality risk and that’s the news that’s not getting out to the American public.”
She says cholesterol levels, blood pressure and even hip to waist ratio are better indicators of overall health. “We are putting the focus on health and not weight; we are looking at lifestyles, not a number. The focus is on something positive not negative.”
Lillian says having a positive attitude about her body has made the difference. “I think you take better care of what you love.”
