I've only paid attention to the BMI and its classifications during the past ten years or so ... after I began spending lots of time on the internet.

My BMI ignorance happened despite the fact that I've spent over 60 years of my life dieting, which has included - from the 1960's through the present date - reading hundreds and hundreds of diet books as soon as they were published.

I didn't need the BMI to tell me I was fat, because our culture gave me that information in thousands of other ways.

It was only when I had lost a great deal of weight, and was setting my ultimate weight "goal" that BMI Classifications got my attention.  I then learned that - for my BMI - a "normal" weight is between 95 and 127 pounds. 

Since I spent the majority of my life - at a height of 5' 0" - around and above 200 pounds - with a high of 271 pounds,  for me to reach a weight of 129 was a fantastic success bordering on the incredible.  Therefore, I was not happy to learn that at this 129 number I was still considered  "overweight". ... and needed to lose more... and more... and that my goal should be to have a body with less and less substance.  In fact, I've sometimes thought that what our culture (including the medical profession) really wants in general, is for me to get small enough, and light enough, to disappear entirely.

I may write more about this at some future time, but for now, I'll share the following article:

How BMI affects emotional eating
          by Isabel Foxen Duke
                   of
     How to Not Eat Cake
     ...really fast, standing up, when nobody's looking.

I recently made a passing comment to a colleague…something along the lines of “BMI is bullshit.”

In the slightly patronizing manner that only an older, male, health professional can assume, he said to me: “I would be careful to make blanket statements like that…you don’t know all of the different ways that BMI is used…”

Voicing your
pseudo-concern about the bodies of others.

This is not a Tree.

I am not a Kitten.

Put Your
Ladder Away.

 
Keep Your Concern to Yourself
             by Ragen Chastain of Dances With Fat

Reader Sara told me about some food-shaming dishes.  Some of the plates are:

1.  “It’s hard to be around you when you eat like this."

2.  "Did you really need that second helping?."

3.  "Please stop eating, we’re worried about you."

4.  "For the love of God, stop eating.”

Let’s start with my answers in order:

1.  "See ya."

2.  "No, but at this point if I stop eating with this fork I’m going to stab you with it; so bring on a third helping, or get some gauze for compression."

3.  "I can’t stop you from worrying, but I can stop you from talking to me about it." 

4.  "For the love of God, mind your own business."

We’ve already talked about the total bullshit that is the “Do you need to eat that” question. But of course it goes beyond that.

I’ve heard people suggest that it’s their moral obligation to tell fat people that we “need to lose weight”, exercise more, or that if someone sees a fat child they need to say something to the caregiver. I’ve been part of any number of conversations where people who had no business or permission to talk to me about my weight did so. 

I asked some friends on Facebook who had spoken to them about their weight inappropriate.  The answ...

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