Millions upon millions of Americans became 'overweight' overnight when some gov't hacks decided to redefine overweight.
Not that there is anything wrong with evaluating your own situation and making lifestyle changes.
But being redefined by a bunch of suits whose most strenuous activity in a given day consist of fidgeting while waiting for the elevator irks the hell out of me.
I may have mentioned before that it took my nephew about a year to get into the USAF because of BMI when the LAST thing you would call him was fat.
He's 6' 2" & he looks emaciated compared to before but his BMI says that he is borderline overweight.
Last I heard, he does reps with 325 pounds & shrugs over 500!!
He used to look like the incredible freaking hulk.
CDC is a gov't shill.
If there aren't enough crises to insure the status quo, they'll make something up.
There has been an inconsistent use of BMI cutoffs based on references and standards that yield contrasting results. For example, when applying the BMI cutoffs of ≥27.8 for men and ≥27.3 for women to the NHANES III data, the prevalence of overweight among adults aged ≥20 y is 33.3% for men and 36.4% for women. In contrast, at a BMI ≥ 25.0, the prevalence is 59.4% among men and 50.7% among women. By simply changing the overweight cutoffs, the estimated number of overweight adults increases from 61.7 million (BMI ≥ 27.8 and 27.3) to 97.1 million (BMI ≥ 25.0), representing a difference of 35.4 million overweight adults. This example calls to attention the actual effect that a shift in BMI criteria can have on determining the population at risk.
Link
The gov't redefined acceptable BMI in 1998 and suddenly there are thousands of new gainfully employed gov't researchers telling previously healthy citizens to shape up.
It's the new health crisis since smoking is waning.
You're hearing how obesity is the downfall of American society and how health costs associated with it are going to ruin our economy.
Meanwhile, back at the lab, hundreds of maladies heretofore unrelated to being overweight are being re-categorized to 'fit the profile.
