I knew my blood pressure was a problem, but I never took my Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of body fat, very seriously. I showed my reading, which indicated that I was overweight, to my doctor. “You can’t use that reading,” he said. “You have to use the Asian BMI.” He looked up my BMI on the Asian BMI scale. “You are obese,” he declared.
Amazing! In the span of 10 seconds, I moved from overweight to obese. I felt tremendously frustrated. I have tried hard not be a sedentary overweight Filipino, putting in mileage, lifting weights, stretching, playing volleyball, even dancing salsa. I could accept that my genes have given me high blood pressure despite a focus on exercise, but being labeled “obese” was hard to take.
My doctor, a thin Vietnamese guy with a slight build, calmed me down. He said that these are goals, not hard guidelines for everyone. He said that if in his own personal case he went by the white standards for BMI, it would catch overweight and obese states far too late. This study showed how for the ethnic groups in Singapore, for a given body fat percentage, South East Asians have a lower BMI than whites.
There has been some controversy over the practice of race specific medicine. This commentary asks whether race is now being commercialized, with BiDil (targetted at African-Americans), being just the start. I personally look at these as targetting people with a certain genetic disposition and that it doesn’t have to be race based. Probably more of my frustration is with the BMI measure itself. Arnold Scharzenegger at his Mr. Universe peak would be considered obese under current BMI standards. Body fat percentage seems to be a better measure, and not just because I am normal using that measure. I just hope that I suddenly don’t become obese again through some new Asian body fat percentage scale!
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11 Comments to “Asian BMI: How I Became Obese in Ten Seconds”
jozjozjoz wrote:
Please see:
http://www.jozjozjoz.com/2008/10/26/tweet-of-the-day-10-26-2008/
Posted on 17-Mar-09 at 8:50 am | Permalink
Efren wrote:
Without getting too technical, many forms of biomedical science are looking to see if and how ethnicity are playing a role in how drugs are metabolized, etc., while also looking at how cultural factors play a role in health. That being said, it’s been pretty well documented that there’s more difference genetically within “the races” than across “the races”.
Also, I’m not sure how accurate it would be to use an “Asian BMI” versus other BMI, especially if we’re raised in America. The BMI and other scales are generally just used as an initial indicator, but most clinicians recognize that the BMI is seriously flawed since it doesn’t distinguish between mass being composed of muscle or fat, hence that’d explain why the Governator would be considered obese. A better indicator would be measuring fat percentage relative to muscle, methinks.
Posted on 17-Mar-09 at 11:47 am | Permalink
Laura wrote:
It makes sense to use an Asian BMI. When I look at body fat calculators, they tell me that Asians have less bone density. Hence, our bones weigh less, so when we get on the scales, more of the weight is fat, or muscle. I never thought about it in terms of BMI, but it seems like an important consideration.
Posted on 17-Mar-09 at 2:56 pm | Permalink
Jeff wrote:
@joz – thanks for the link.
Here’s the link that the tweet is referring to:
http://foodarazzi.com/?p=651
My post covers similar ground as that one.
Posted on 17-Mar-09 at 4:25 pm | Permalink
Madley wrote:
Oh good grief, I’m already fighting to get my BMI down for transplant purposes and now there’s this new scale?! Yikes.
Okay… where is it? Where’s that chart (I didn’t find one in the article you noted in your post). Gotta know how much more I need to sweat off…
And I’m curious… where do we (Asian-Americans) lie in relation to other races re: BMI?
Posted on 17-Mar-09 at 7:28 pm | Permalink
Jeff wrote:
@Madley: Here is a link to the Asian BMI scale:
http://aadi.joslin.harvard.edu/asianclinic/asianclinic_bmi.asp
It also has other scales where you can compare.
Posted on 17-Mar-09 at 9:50 pm | Permalink
Dan wrote:
I’m fine with race specific health concerns, just people associate BMI too much with whether or not you’re a fatass.
Posted on 18-Mar-09 at 12:58 pm | Permalink
strawrose wrote:
So with all this muscle and active lifestyle, I’m a little over one point away from being overweight! Oh joy!
Posted on 26-Mar-09 at 8:36 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Asian-American Youth and Juvenile Diabetes wrote:
[...] diabetes), type 2 can be generally be prevented with a healthy diet and exercise – basically avoiding obesity and watching one’s weight. That’s something we all, regardless of ethnicity or race, can take away from [...]
Posted on 11-Apr-09 at 10:26 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Popular Posts in the Past 15 Days wrote:
[...] Asian BMI: How I Became Obese in Ten Seconds – “I showed my reading, which indicated that I was overweight, to my doctor. ‘You can’t use that reading,’ he said. ‘You have to use the Asian BMI.’ He looked up my BMI on the Asian BMI scale. ‘You are obese,’ he declared.“ [...]
Posted on 15-Apr-09 at 7:22 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Tall, Short and Segregated Asians: Six Lessons from a Basketball Season wrote:
[...] men desperately needing rest watched by 22,000 desperately needing exercise.” Diabetes and obesity are real problems in the Asian-American communities and beyond. Overemphasis on winning, as seen by [...]
Posted on 22-Apr-09 at 11:34 am | Permalink
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