Hei there Krissy!

Fitness and Fatness: The Conflation of Weight with Health and the Consequences of Fat Shaming

In March of this year, I sent out a call on social media for individuals to participate in a web-based online survey on physical activity, social messaging, and perceptions of bodyweight. This was a research project I conducted as part of my undergraduate thesis, and the culmination of my work towards my BS in Health Studies: Physical Activity and Exercise. The response I received was overwhelming; I was amazed and touched by the generosity demonstrated by the respondents, in their willingness to share their personal stories and experiences with bodyweight, stigma, and shaming in exercise settings.

"Fitness and Fatness: The Conflation of Weight with Health and the Consequences of Fat Shaming" is available here, for those who would like to see the survey results or have an interest in the topic.

Abstract: Obesity is widely accepted as one of the major health crises facing the United States, and increasingly, the world. Labeled a disease by the American Medical Association, and frequently characterized as an epidemic, obesity is the target of high profile national health interventions, media campaigns, and a multi-billion dollar self-help industry. The message produced by public health agencies is that obesity is a killer, and that reducing weight is a beneficial and achievable goal generating many positive health outcomes. This paper presents two primary arguments that counter the prevailing attitudes towards obesity: that as a stand-alone measure, Body Mass Index (BMI) is a poor metric for gauging health status of individuals; and that current public health messaging, with its implication that being fat is an inherently unhealthy and undesirable state, is counterproductive to the intended goal of motivating the public to engage in exercise and healthy dietary habits. Via a literature review and a survey, I demonstrate that obesity stigma and fat-shaming create an environment that stimulates and perpetuates poor lifestyle choices, and subjects fat people to dangerous psychological and physiologic stress. I also provide data demonstrating that cardiovascular fitness is a more meaningful health measure than is BMI. It is my contention that public health messaging should stop focusing on weight, drop references to weight reduction as a meaningful health goal, and instead focus on goals of increased cardiovascular health and the development of healthy dietary habits.

Keywords: BMI, body mass index, obesity, stigma, fat-shaming, weight-bias, exercise, stress

Physical Activity, Social Messaging, and Perceptions of Bodyweight Survey

You are invited to participate in a web-based online survey on physical activity, social messaging, and perceptions of bodyweight.

This is a research project being conducted by Kristin Spurkland, a student at Portland State University, as part of her undergraduate thesis.

This short survey should take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

Your survey results will remain anonymous; your contact information is separate from your survey completion and your answers are not linked in any way to your contact information or IP addresses.

If you are at least 18 years old, and are interested in participating in the survey, please click on the link below for the survey and additional information.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me ([email protected]).

Physical Activity, Social Messaging, and Perceptions of Bodyweight Survey

BMI? BS!

In medical and public health discussions, weight status is frequently discussed in terms of BMI, or body mass index. Developed in 1832 by Belgian mathematician, statistician, and astronomer Adolphe Quetelet, the “Quetelet Index” is calculated by dividing an individual’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters. Quetelet was not concerned with matters of obesity and/or health when he developed his calculation; his goal was to delineate the physical attributes of the “normal” (average) man.  In 1972, physiologist and researcher Ancel Keys adopted the Quetelet Index (renaming it the Body Mass Index), noting that the BMI formula “proves to be, if not fully satisfactory, at least as good as any other relative weight index as an indicator of relative obesity” (Keys, et al., 1972).

But just how useful is BMI as a measure of health?

From FiveThirtyEight: BMI is a terrible measure of health

From the article:

"A study by researchers at UCLA published this month in the International Journal of Obesity looked at 40,420 adults in the most recent U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and assessed their health as measured by six accepted metrics, including blood pressure, cholesterol and C-reactive protein (a gauge of inflammation). It found that 47 percent of people classified as overweight by BMI and 29 percent of those who qualified as obese were healthy as measured by at least five of those other metrics. Meanwhile, 31 percent of normal-weight people were unhealthy by two or more of the same measures.Using BMI alone as a measure of health would misclassify almost 75 million adults in the U.S., the authors concluded".

From Slate: Why are doctors still measuring obesity with the body mass index?
(provides a useful history on how BMI came to be the standard measure for obesity, and a proxy for health status)

 

Keys, Ancel, Fidanza, Flaminio, Karvonen, Martti J., Kimura, Noboru, & Taylor, Henry L. (1972). Indices of relative weight and obesity. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 25(6), 329-343.

The single best thing we can do for our health

 

Help for sitters!

Sitting, and its negative effects on health, is something of an obsession of mine. I'm on a mission to get people to sit as little as possible and/or to take frequent activity breaks if long bouts of sitting are non-negotiable.

From the "The Art of Manliness" comes some great advice on "How to Undo the Damage of Sitting".

(Advice is applicable to all, regardless of level of manliness).

Career change, blog change

My much neglected blog will be undergoing a transformation in the coming months.

The neglect is due to my return to school; I am working on a BS in Health Studies, with a long-term goal of becoming a Health and Wellness Counselor. I started the process in January of 2013, and have had little time for knitting and designs since becoming a student.

In addition to my studies, I am currently working as a certified personal trainer, and have decided to turn this blog into a resource for my clients (and anyone else who is interested in health and wellness info). I will be posting links to articles on nutrition, fitness, postive self-image, and other wellness related topics.

Knitting will probably show up from time to time as well, but the overall focus is going to change.

I am still on Ravelry, and while I very much have the intention of converting many of my previously published patterns to pdf downloads, progress is slow, with school and work taking most of my time. But I'll keep trying, and will post updates as the pdfs become available.

In the meantime, here's a great article and info-graphic about the negative effects of too much sitting.

Knitters, can you find a way to stand while you knit?