Men's Health Obesity Standards

Currently, there is no single universal criterion for healthy obesity in men in the medical community. The most commonly used reference combination for clinical and daily self-screening is "BMI in the 18.5-23.9 range + male waist circumference <85cm + body fat rate in the 10%-20% range." If the three indicators are met at the same time, it can basically be judged that the weight is in the healthy range and does not fall into the category of obesity.

A while ago, the fitness studio I often went to picked up a 32-year-old Internet programmer. He was 175cm tall and weighed 72 kilograms. After calculating his BMI, which is weight divided by height squared, it was 23.5, which was right on the edge of the normal range. His limbs looked not too fat. When he measured his waist, he His circumference was 90cm, and his body fat rate was measured at 24%. He pinched the sebum on his belly to create a thickness of almost 3cm. Later, he went for a physical examination and found that he already had a slight fatty liver. The doctor immediately sounded the alarm to him, saying that this was typical central obesity and that problems would arise if he ignored it.

Interestingly, practitioners in different fields have quite different opinions on the criteria for determining obesity. Most public health scholars prefer BMI. After all, this indicator is too convenient to measure. You only need to report your height and weight. It is extremely efficient in community free clinics and large-scale population screening. Their basis is that ordinary men rarely have athlete-level muscle mass, so as long as BMI ≥ 24 is considered overweight, and ≥ 28 is considered obese. The accuracy of this standard at the group level can reach more than 80%, which is completely sufficient for preliminary screening.

However, when this standard is put into clinical nutrition and fitness circles, it has been criticized a lot. Last month, I had a meal with the attending physician of the Nutrition Department of the Provincial People's Hospital. He said that among the male patients currently receiving treatment, almost half have normal BMI but excessive visceral fat. This is especially true for middle-aged men aged 30 to 50 who sit in the office and socialize every day. Their limbs are not fat but their belly bulges first. This is central obesity. The risk is more than three times higher than that of general obesity, so when they make clinical judgments, waist circumference has a much higher priority than BMI - as long as the waist circumference of Chinese adult men exceeds 85cm, even if the BMI is only 22, they must first check the visceral fat content, and they will not draw conclusions just by looking at the BMI.

When it comes to the body fat rate that everyone often mentions, there is even more controversy. The American College of Sports Medicine’s reference for a healthy male body fat rate is 10%-20%, while the Chinese Nutrition Society’s standard is relaxed to 10%-22%. Many fitness bloggers on the Internet will also shout that “a man’s body fat rate is below 15% to be considered healthy.” In fact, there is no need to apply one-size-fits-all. My dad is 61 years old. After retiring, he does Tai Chi every morning and walks briskly in the evening. He is 170cm tall and weighs 75kg. His BMI is almost 26. According to public health standards, he is considered overweight. However, his waist circumference is only 82cm and his body fat rate is 23%. All metabolic indicators in his last physical examination were normal. The doctor also specifically said that he does not need to lose this weight. His muscle mass is much higher than that of the elderly of the same age, and he is healthier than those skinny old men.

In fact, ordinary men usually do their own screening. There is no need to buy a professional body fat scale that costs hundreds of dollars, and there is no need to worry about the differences between different standards. First, find a soft ruler to measure the waist circumference - stick it tightly to the skin around the belly button, do not suck the belly, and do not tighten it too tightly. If it is lower than 85cm, you can usually climb the third floor without gasping, and there are no underlying diseases during the physical examination, so there is basically no need to worry about obesity. If your waist circumference exceeds, if you touch your belly again, the sebum next to your belly button can be pinched out by more than 2cm in a relaxed state. Then you should consciously control your diet and take more time to move.

In the final analysis, these so-called standards are a reference for ordinary people, not an iron rule that must be followed. You really don’t need to panic because your BMI is 0.3 more, and you can’t just eat and drink and stay up late every day just because your weight is normal. After all, your body feels the most real way, and the arrows on the physical examination report can’t deceive anyone, right?