Body Types, Skinny Fat and the drawbacks of the Body Mass Index (BMI)

Fresh off our trip up to New England, Shannon and I kick off this week’s Addicted to Fitness podcast reminiscing about how good, and how bad we were in regards to what we ate. Shannon discovered, with the help of the Lose It! app, that the most egregious diet perpetrators were the adult beverages and dessert. In other words, SUGAR! Even though we strayed a little from our normal low-carb diet, we weren’t the only ones concerned about “cheating” on our diets. We discovered that a couple of close friends had recently joined Weight Watchers and I’m happy to say have had some awesome results. I know that in the past we’ve voiced our concerns about the long-term success rates of “calorie counting” diets, but I do believe they can make people more cognizant of the effect certain foods have on their bodies. Their weight loss and the way they were discussing food choices made me believe they were on the road to healthy eating.

 

After our trip down recent memory lane, Shannon and I jump into a discussion about the 3 different body types. According to a article adapted from the book ROAR by Stacy T. Sims, PhD, the three general body types are ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph. Each body type has different symmetry, ability to gain/lose fat or muscle, exercise preferences and nutrition requirements. According to the article, Shannon and I identify with a lot of the mesomorph qualities but we also possess attributes from the other categories. Check out this article and let us know which body types you most identify with. It may help you determine which nutrition and exercise plan will optimize your health.

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Image courtesy of robinshea.com

One of the seemingly antiquated methods to determine overall health is the Body Mass Index (BMI). A simple ratio of weight and height has been used for nearly 200 years to determine whether a person is underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. Shannon and I discuss the pitfalls of BMI, including some troubling statistics brought to light in a recent New York Times article. The article breaks down a survey of over 5,000 people in which nearly 1 out of 5 participants were misidentified as being at a healthy or unhealthy weight. One segment of the population that is misdiagnosed are those with weight that is normal according to BMI, but their body fat % is higher than recommended. This phenomenon is known as “Skinny Fat” and Shannon and I describe why this may be more dangerous than being obese.

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Image courtesy of nytimes.com

Week in and week out, we try our very best to give you the most up to date health & fitness information. Whether it be about healthy foods, new exercise equipment or the latest wellness book, our goal is to provide information that will ultimately improve your quality of life. We already have our next interview with a health & fitness professional lined up, and we’re planning a couple cool on-location podcasts for the near future. Our weekly downloads continue to climb which tells us that you enjoy what you hear and you’re sharing the podcast. Keep on sharing and please, please, please give us a rating and review on iTunes. Thanks again and stay healthy this week peeps!

Links to this week’s episode

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/addicted-to-fitness-podcast/id1121420986?mt=2#episodeGuid=4b15b6c3cd7a94b904e0ace4e33cdb5e

Android/Google Play: http://subscribeonandroid.com/addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/rss

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/body-types-skinny-fat-and-the-drawbacks-of-the-body-mass-index-bmi

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