[redflamesfan08]

Originally Posted by Itse

First, no it's not one study, it's a metastudy result.

The categories are just flat out mislabeled, "slightly overweight" is only called that so people would diet. Not because it's actually slight overweight. It's just normal weight. Most people are normal weight, and normal weight is statistically a good thing. They just get labeled "overweight" because of diet and beauty industry lobbying, because then people can be sold things, and they're customers all their lives because statistically dieting helps almost no one in the long term. Because most people just are of the weight that's normal to them and will naturally go back to it over time, and most people gain some weight as they age because again that's just normal. What isn't normal is being the same weight you were as a 20 year old for your whole life.

Second, somehow people are never as interested in all the hundred things that tend to cause overweight when they want to say "weight is correlated with negative health".

Yes, frickin' obviously, because basically any serious health issue will cause you to be less mobile in your everyday life, and thus make you both unhealthy in additional ways, AND more likely to be overweight, whether we're talking physical problems or mental problems.

The science just doesn't really support the idea that BMI categories are valid, let alone that they should be used as health indicators for individuals. Especially because we have actual, real ways to measure health that are much better than your weight.

Promoting exercise is good, but it always takes about 3 seconds when someone says that for the discussion to turn into "people should just really be less fat, being fat is the real problem".

Somehow people don't get excited about the idea that people should be more healthy in general because it saves money on healthcare.

You can't be fat, that's a choice and we shouldn't have to pay for your health problems, but if a normal weight person develops health problems because they love bacon and hate veggies, that's not a choice we should punish people for.

Sorry, most people are normal weight? In what country??? Where I live in suburban Calgary that could not be further from the truth. Most people are packing around 50 pounds more than "normal" if that word means normal healthy body weight. If it means average then sure most people are average by definition.