In my previous article, we discussed protein: how much, deleterious effects and its relationship to muscle mass. If you recall, I mentioned that overconsumption of this macronutrient results in stored fat. That actually goes for fats and carbohydrates.

Therefore, if eating too much of any macronutrient causes excess weight gain, then just about anything you eat too much of can cause you to become overweight—maybe even obese. But have you ever stopped to think about the concept of an ideal weight? And, who put forth the information that categorizes us all.

The whole idea of an optimal weight was started by insurance companies. The selling of life insurance comes with payouts that these companies want to avoid for as long as possible. To determine how long this payout would take, they came up with the body mass index scale, or BMI for short, as a way to measure a person’s health status.

There’s nothing inherently “wrong” with this practice. Except, at its onset, most policy holders were white males. In addition, not everyone in the population wants life insurance. Furthermore, studies have shown that overweight and obese folks can reduce hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease with a mere 5 to 10% reduction in weight.

But a word of caution. Be careful when comparing yourself to BMI numbers. They are skewed and should align more with 25 to 30 BMI and not 20 to 25. This number could be even higher for athletic people because the mathematical equation for BMI does not consider how much of your body mass is fat and how much is muscle.

Shorter bodybuilders are especially victimized by an “obese” reading, yet their body fat percentage is in the single digits!

Overall, be careful labeling yourself as overweight or obese. You are likely making a false judgment. And suffice it to say, you may be setting yourself up to be someone’s cash cow.

Magazines, websites,  surgeons, the pharmaceutical industry, gyms, and yes, even personal trainers, ALL benefit from you trying to lose too much weight and they’ll gladly fit you into a category that you were never supposed to be in. It is a far better metric to find out your body composition with a body fat percentage reading. That’s even better than scale weight.

Then you’ll know exactly how much lean muscle mass, fat mass and water your body contains. More of that to come in future newsletters!