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...your weight doesn't matter if you're fit
Your ratio of body fat to lean body mass is a good thing to know. It
tells you much more about your health than your weight ever will. Let
me put it this way:
Obsessing about your weight is stupid.
It’s inconclusive.
Get Smart: Throw Your Scale Away!
Let
me tell you why. I’m five foot, nine inches tall. The antiquated charts
put out by the insurance companies would have me believe I should
ideally weigh 172 pounds.
Well, I’m 215 pounds, and I feel great.
But by their standards I’m overweight by almost fifty pounds! Hey, take
a look at the cover photo. If I lost fifty pounds I guarantee you I
would be in deep trouble. My body fat to lean body mass ratio is 14%,
and that’s why I’m healthy. I’m smack dab in the middle of the 10 to
18% determined to be ideal for my gender.
Nevertheless, my health
insurance company wrote me. Because of my weight, they want me to pay
an additional forty-three dollars per month. What would you do? I sent
them a picture. I sent them the results of my annual health check-up.
My cholesterol level is 138. That’s way below the norm, which is
180-215 (anything above 215 is considered the borderline to trouble;
your cholesterol level should be 100 plus your age).
My insurance company demanded the money nonetheless.
I refused the premium.
What’s the moral of the story?
Weight is not the exclusive measure of your health.
Your
weight is only one component in a larger field of interacting
components like diet, nutrition, fitness, muscle, mass, strength,
stamina and exercise.
As for my insurance company, I still have
disability and catastrophe, but I’m now saving $143 per month by
letting go of health insurance I don’t really need or use.
Am I afraid?
Hey, I would sooner pay out of my own pocket than pay an insurance company that has me confused with a health risk.
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