Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

...and printed it someplace where the masses will accept the information, namely O Magazine. I've been saying the highlighted stuff below for years, glad it's finally sinking in.

Old Rule: Keep your BMI between 18.5 and 24.9.
New Rule: Eat healthy, exercise and let your weight settle naturally.

Physicians use BMI (Body Mass Index)--a ratio of your weight to your height--as a tool to diagnose obesity. But critics say BMI ignores muscle mass, and a 2011 Obesity study notes that it also ignores a person's hip circumference. "People come in different shapes and sizes," says Joanne Ikeda, nutritionist emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. "The idea that everyone should fall under 25% is ludicrous. "A person can have a high BMI and still be healthy, Ikeda argues. Research supports the theory: A Journal of the American Medical Association study found that fit women--even if they were overweight according to their BMI--were less likely to suffer a heart attack than those who were out of shape. Ikeda advises her patients to stop obsessing over their BMI, eat a nutritious diet, and log 150 minutes of exercise per week. "A healthy lifestyle results in a healthy weight."

O Magazine, as I'm sure you know, targets broad spectrum America, not athletes in particular. The grand majority of Vegan Bodybuilding forum members no doubt have far loftier goals than outlined above. But it is heartening to see the kind of common sense science we have all known for years crop up in popular media. I'm proof that it's true: the women in my family genetically have high waist-to-hip ratios and are built very strong. I have personally climbed 25 mountains solo, lifted heavy in the gym for 24 years, and have logged over 5000 lifetime hiking miles...all of it with a BMI over 25%. And I rock.

Baby Herc

Totally agree. I like to call it the BS Mass Index, because that's what it is. lol

I used to have arguments with my physicians (back when I was dumb enough to go to allopathic medicine for answers about things I could figure out on my own) because every visit began with a pressure cuff around my arm and a step on a cold metal scale. They were always amazed that my blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, and every other "tool" they had in their arsenal said I was in perfect health but the scale did not. I kept trying to explain that muscle weighs more than fat and takes up 18% less space, my hip ratio is genetically high, and bodybuilders aren't accurately represented by mainstream medicine. I always half-jokingly offered them a demonstration by challenging the doctor to a race up the fire escape steps or a showdown to see who could do the most push ups. A few of them understood and shrugged their shoulders in resignation to the misinformation they were forced to operate within, the rest stolidly called me obese and launched into one annoying lecture after another about how I was on a one-way road to hell and heart attacks. Then, I'd see a lot of these "experts" out in the parking lot, sucking on cigarettes.

Baby Herc