Obesity and Binging

Now that you have heard my story let me talk about the other end of the spectrum. Obesity and the confusion of obesity. One of the confusions include, if obesity is considered an epidemic or is it a disease? Well, a disease is a incorrect functioning of the body and epidemic is something that is rising. People tend to say it is a disease in order to relieve themselves from the guilt, or they made fun of less, or even get Medical coverage. Now, what is really considered overweight and how can people overestimate or underestimate weight.
Some of these criticisms include the frame size of a person, if they are more muscular, then muscle weighs more than fat so the BMI would be incorrect. Some insurance companies are determining overweight through phone calls and collecting them to make surveys. These results can tend to be very biased towards the different states these are recorded from. Others say obesity runs within the predominantly white, middle class in which there is no say because this nation is the melting pot so everyone is taken into consideration. People that do surveys over the phone have no say because they didn't actually weigh the people, and giving them the benefit of the doubt can lead them in the wrong direction. Also clothes and shoes weigh more on the scale than they do off the scale, so they did not take that into consideration.
Some methods used include the BMI which is your weight relative to height, and it is easy, but it doesn't distinguish fat mass from lean mass. Also the waist circirmferance, which is the midpoint between bottom of ribs and top of pelvis. This is a rough assessment of the upper body fat deposition, but doesn't assess visceral fat. Skinfold thickness is measured through calipers. This is fairly easy, but high inter-observer variability and no information on visceral fat. Hydrodensitometry which is fat=dry land weight-underwater weight. This is quite accurate, but it is not easy to do and not so great for the very young and very old. Bioimpedence is the difference in the conductance of current between lean and fat mass. This is quite simple, but not as valid as hydrodensitometry for obese and lean individuals.
My Goals:
1. Inform people the live a healthier life
2. The benifits of health and fitness
3. Inspire those with eating disorders to go out and reach help before something serious happens.
4. Inform. people of my story and learn from it.
5. Teach people with eating disorders to love themselves.