Why weight is a stupid metric for health
Weight is a simple metric of the force of gravity on the mass of an object (weight = mass multiplied by gravity).
Weight alone does not take into account your gender, height, body composition (how much muscle and fat you have and where that fat might be stored), fluid intake or retention (or where you are in your menstrual cycle), or the recency of food intake or bowel motions.
As a society, we rely too much on numbers to tell us what matters. Do I believe in data-driven decisions? Yes, in the workplace. Does data make it easier to achieve and hold people accountable to KPIs? Yes. Does information help inform us to better understand what’s happening? Absolutely! But decisions should never be based on one number. Decisions are generally multi-faceted and require input from multiple valid sources.
Weight is one part of the picture. As a stand-alone number, it is relatively meaningless and BMI (body mass index which is a ratio of weight to height) isn’t much better. In fact, eighty per cent of pro baseball players would be considered obese according to BMI ranges. In a review of BMI in master athletes (those typically over 35 years of age), the conclusion was that “the standard BMI equation exaggerates thinness in short individuals and fatness in tall and muscular individuals”. Ethnicity is another aspect that is not catered for in BMI.
“The standard BMI equation exaggerates thinness in short individuals and fatness in tall and muscular individuals.”
Health is a combination of factors, many of which can be measured, including:
Resting heart rate
Aerobic fitness
Heart rate variability
Waist circumference
Blood pressure
Cholesterol levels
Blood sugar levels
Body composition
VO2 max
Thyroid hormone levels
Flexibility
Muscular strength and endurance
There are other measures that add up to overall wellness, including:
Number of glasses of water you drink daily
Number of alcohol-free days a week (and the number of alcoholic drinks you consume on the days you do drink)
The average number of hours of sleep you get each day
Time spent moving each day and the split of how you move when you are exercising
The number and variety of vegetables you eat daily
If and how much you smoke, including vaping
Physical safety
Financial security
And also wellness indicators that cannot currently be measured
Happiness
Confidence
Sense of connection and belonging
Creativity and mental growth
Resilience
Sense of hope, purpose and meaning
Ability to concentrate
Participation in meaningful work
When you consider holistic wellbeing the standard for health, you can see why I don’t believe that weight alone is a good measurement.
