XP: Are you overweight or obese AND homestead or work hard?

I'm just barely escaping having a BMI of 25. Barely So I answered 'no'. I do, however, work hard physically for 2-3 hours 5 days a week on a regular basis and often more than that (not counting the yard work, gardening, cutting wood, etc at home because that tends to go in spurts and is not steady week to week).

But I don't think those BMI charts are reflective of what an individual's body is truly made of. My 15yo dd is considered obese, bordering on 'morbidly obese' according to the BMI charts. She is 5' 8" and weighs a bit over 200 lbs. This girl has big thick bones (like my dh), and plays sports year round. She plays high school volleyball, basketball and softball, plus on a summer softball league. She runs, she jumps, she is very physically active for 1.5 to 2 hours of team practice M-F all year. She also works around the farm, can toss hay bales and carry 50# grain sacks as if they were no weight at all.

Sure she could stand to lose weight (and that is a goal for us this year, she and I will be exercising together and working on portion control at meals). But morbidly obese? That BMI isn't taking into account how much muscle mass she has.

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Kris
http://thislittleplacehere.blogspot.com/

I think there is a great range of what is a healthy weight for different people, but when your weight interferes with your ability to do things, then you've got a weight problem. And talk about genetics doesn't get around that.

Do your joints scream in protest? Is your back pulled out-of-plumb? Do you sweat or breath heavily at the least exertion? Can you trim your own toenails? Do you catch colds/flus often? etc.

If your bulk is not bothering your pursuit of the life you want, then fine. If it does, then you need to lose weight. It isn't the number, it's how it drags you down.

Im not fat. Im insulated. I've always been a big guy and my work is very physical but as the years went by, had a stroke, quit smoking, take meds, I carry 30+ lbs more then Im used to. Im as strong as an Ox but it does effect my endurance. I was hiking in the Rockies about a year ago and got my butt whipped. The BMI thing is pretty stupid. I was considered obese back when I could lift over twice my body weight and cross country ski marathon distances. None the less I have to knock the weight off. 38 years of hard work have taken enough of a toll on my joints. No sense in speeding up the problems I know are coming.

the poll is flawed. There are two reasons to answer no that are unrelated. You can be fat and not working hard or skinny but a hard worker. Oh, you can also be skinny and a poor worker so that makes 3 no options. But I'm willing to bet most people in these 3 camps would just not bother answering the question.

So my guess is that the results are also flawed as mostly only people who answer yes would bother answering.

Chris

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Chris DeVries
Common Ground CSA
http://csa.amandadevries.com

I must have my priorities messed up. I'll take the cutie.

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The second amendment is the reset button on the Constitution.

I'm a 31.6

I'm 5' 10" 220lbs. 50 years old, a smoker, and I work with mostly younger men. I can keep up with all of them and outwork many of them when crunch time comes.

I have bad knees, bad back, bad hands, but I can turn all that off long enough to get done what needs doing. I think most physical problems can be overcome with a strong mind.

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The second amendment is the reset button on the Constitution.

The point was to see how many answered yes to the very specific question. The other two answers were thrown in as an option for those who wanted to reply but could not say yes to the original question. I wasn't asking about "skinny people", hence the title of the thread and the poll question.

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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

"Does this horse make my butt look big?" tshirt flashing in my head.


You are definately not heavy on my chart. Unfortunately according to the gov the horse needs to lose about 800 pounds.

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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

I voted other because I've no idea of my BMI. I am overweight.

A friend of mine is much more overweight than I am. Without really caring, I am sure he would fall into whatever catagory you wish to label him.

He works a lumber yard, and helped me with remodling a barn one summer. We have palyed volleyball and wallyball for over a decade now - we are too old for that any more, but what the heck.

I wouldn't bet against either of us for getting some work done.

My skiny wife has a heck of a time keeping up with me when I am working in spring or fall on the farm, walking all day to get one thing or another. I can stack a lot more bales per day than she can.

My friend handles pretty much all the lumber in that smalltown lumber yard - the forklift unloads the trucks, but most of the 2x gets put away & loaded up piece by piece.

Perhaps both of us will have more of a tendency to get certain problems as we age. But I don't think worthless or slow or weak would be ways to describe us.

--->Paul

I am a big fellow being 6' and around 250 lbs. Also I am a cancer survivor of 17 years and lost a lung from it. I run my homestead just fine and we can easily provide nearly all of our own food for a family of 4. We raise dairy goats, pigs, chickens, meat rabbits, honeybees, and ducks. We grow a garden for our veggies, hunt and fish. In a SHTF scenario without access to diesel or electricity we would definitely have to work harder or more manually. But let's be honest here, how much "heavy" labor is needed if you work smart. Survival is about being smart and making correct decisions regarding energy input verses benefit output. Instead of carrying 2 50lb sacks of feed on your shoulders, use a wheelbarrow, instead of back breaking cultivating the garden use thick mulch layers. BMI does not take into account the most important muscle...the brain

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