17th February, 2021
B.M.I.
Those three letters B.M.I. What do they really, really, mean? Putting it as simply as I can, the Body Mass Index is a value made from the weight of a person and that person's height. This calculation was worked out by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist, between 1830 and 1850. It works out roughly if a person is underweight, a normal weight, overweight or obese, but now in modern times it is questioned for so many reasons. There are so many things this equation doesn't take into account and I know for me that I would never now be able to reach a normal weight by this calculation. By my doctor's ideal weight template I should weigh between 8 stone, 13 lbs and 9 stone 6 lbs. If I ever reached that weight I would question just how healthy I really was, and I would never ever be able to keep myself at that weight. Years and years ago, when I did go to a slimming club, my target weight given to me was worked out from this equation, and until I reached it I would keep on paying my weekly fee. It may be different now, as I say I haven't been to one in many years, but many people still don't realise that different people of a similar height and weight can look different, and for many different reasons.
I myself can find it all very complicated and confusing, but there are some very interesting videos on Youtube about how two people of the same B.M.I. may, for whatever reason, look very different. I only know how the B.M.I. scale has affected me over the years. I can never, ever, remember going to the doctors and being the right B.M.I. I have never, ever, been “normal” :-). I have been told off so many times. From being 21 stone and a UK size 26, right down to 11 stones and a UK size 12, I still didn't fit the equation.
Many years ago I was refused varicose vein surgery because I was two stones overweight and the wrong B.M.I. Five years ago – nearly six now – I was refused joint surgery because my B.M.I was not 25 and we won't talk about how that same specialist said that fat people could not keep themselves clean and smelt, and didn't heal as well as they could because of infections they caused with bad hygiene. I weighed less then than I do now! When I went to see my present orthopaedic specialist, my B.M.I. stood at 43 and he said because of policy my B.M.I. had to be 35 or less. I thought at that stage “fair enough” and I got it down to that point. Now, until they can operate, I have to keep it below 37, but at least it's not 25 as the other so-called “gentleman” said. The B.M.I. equation has caused me personally a lot of stress over the years, but I do feel with many health professionals the area of the correct weight is, at last, softening. Perhaps one reason being that they themselves find it hard to conform to the ideal weight, although it still doesn't seem to stop some :-).
Perhaps one day the old B.M.I. equation will be taken down and filed away in the medical history archives and we will be treated as the individuals that we are. We can but hope, or at least we can be treated with a little more understanding and sensitivity when it puts us into a particular group.
At the moment, my B.M.I. stands at 32.6, down from 47.3. My present weight is 14 stone and my height is 5 feet and 5 inches and my dress size is a UK 14/16. I am still considered to be around 4 stone overweight and still in the obese group.
I will stay where I feel is right for me and not give that old equation a second thought.
That's all for now, until next time,
Love, Jackie
xx
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