Is BMI meaningless, especially for kids?
Mar 4, 2010 Kids, Weight Loss
I was quoted this morning in a piece on ABCNews.com about tracking kids’ health through the use of BMI. An adult’s BMI is calculated using height and weight, and that number puts you in the underweight, normal, overweight, or obese category. It doesn’t take into account muscle mass, cholesterol, blood pressure, sugar levels, activity levels, waist size, or any other indicator of health and fitness.
And when you start talking about BMI for kids, it gets more complicated, because a BMI that’s considered OK for a ten-year-old is obese for a seven-year-old. I don’t think using BMI to track kids’ health is a good idea at all. (However, unlike most of the commenters on the ABC piece, I don’t think trying to improve kids’ health is a commie-liberal-big brother idea either – those commenters get paranoid and nutty pretty fast.) [Please note: the comments link has been working on and off all day; the link is correct, it's a problem with ABCNews.com.] Whether a kid is healthy or not is complicated. My son was in the top 5% on the BMI charts for a seven-year-old when he was seven, which is what triggered the note home. The problem is that the kids’ charts compare kids by age. My son was towering over the other kids in his class, so the comparison was completely out of whack. The charts allow for the fact the older kids are supposed to have a higher BMI, but not for kids who are very tall for their age.
It’s just one of those things where a number or a label without information is useless. I knew the assessment was ridiculous, but had to actually look up the info and explain the BMI-by-age concept to The Ass to talk him down after he saw the letter. He’s not a stupid guy. He’s actually quite smart, smarter than me in many ways. But the government told him his son was obese and he took them at their word. That’s a problem on many levels.
What’s the answer? I have no clue. I’m lucky that I have one kid who chooses to eat like a health nut and another who is active enough that he burns off the huge amount of carbs that he consumes. If one of them had a health problem I would expect my doctor to talk to me about it. He’s got all of my kids’ information right there in front of him, and even more important, he’s got my kids right in front of him. Does he need the government’s guidance talking to me about my kids’ weights? I don’t think so, but if they’re going to tell him anything, I’d rather it be something useful, like whether or not my kids can run and play with their classmates and how they do on fitness tests. What their blood tests should look like. And yes, whether their measurements are in a safe range, based on many factors. Using one number to target kids will include kids who don’t need the intervention and exclude kids who actually need the help.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Win a Your Shape to get yours in shape!
Feb 24, 2010 Product Giveaway, Weight Loss
UPDATE: Congratulations to the winner of the Your Shape game, Christine W.!
The Challenges
So I completely killed the week five challenge for the Your Shape challenge that I’m participating in. The ten participants get weekly challenges, like drink more water (which I did OK at, not great) or walk 10,000 steps a day (which was easy when I was at home, not so much when I was sitting my ass in sessions at the Blissdom conference). But week five I was awesome on. OK, I really didn’t do anything special at all, it’s just that the challenge was to get outside every day, getting some kind of exercise, even if it was only for ten minutes. And it was the week that I was at Disney World. I walked miles and miles around the parks every day. If that challenge had happened last week, though, I would have totally lost. My family was out of town and I didn’t leave my house for four solid days. I would make an awesome hermit. That is, as long as I had access to the internet and could have things delivered to me.
Anyway, the week six challenge was to be innovative with healthy snacking. Each participant was given a Wal-Mart gift certificate to buy food to make the snacks. Only problem was, there’s no Wal-Mart anywhere near me, and they don’t sell food online. So, instead, I tried to stick to the spirit of the challenge, and I bought a few things that would help me to eat at home more. When I go out to eat, I tend to go a little crazy. It’s not that the food I’m eating is necessarily all that terrible, it’s just that I have no way of knowing the calorie content. So, I usually say “screw it” and eat whatever. Therefore, the more I eat at home, the more likely I am to eat less and better. So, I bought three things to help me cook at home more, stuff that I love to get at restaurants. That way, I can control what goes into it and know exactly how many calories I’m eating.
I love getting sandwiches in restaurants, they’re just fancier than what I make. So I bought a cast-iron panini press. I love getting nice, creamy soups in restaurants, and I like to make homemade soup but I hate cleaning my blender, so I bought an immersion blender. And last, my kids – Jake especially – are always dragging me to the coffee shop for Belgian waffles, so I bought a waffle iron. Besides eating better, I’m hoping I’ll save a little money too!
The Giveaway
What I love about the Your Shape Challenge is that it involves more than just the game. Drinking more water, walking more, these things all contribute to healthy living and weight loss. But the heart of the challenge, of course, is the Your Shape game for the Wii. And I get to give one away! (Sorry, Wii not included.)
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment stating what you weight loss or health goal is: lose ten pounds, be able to do a pull-up, walk up stairs without getting winded, etc. For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:
Win a #YourShape exercise game for Wii from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/9se1iF
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Friday, February 26th and random.org will draw the winner. Contest open to residents of the U.S., and shipping is available in the continental U.S. only. Entrants must be 18 years or older. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page.
Good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 and 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Wii, Your Shape
French Fries & Progresso Light Soup cancel each other out
Feb 14, 2010 Product Giveaway, Product Review, Weight Loss
The Soup
I just got back from a couple of rather decadent trips. They were both conferences, and I’ve found over the last couple of years that conferences feed you very well. The food is plentiful and usually very good, and at these two the food was particularly fantastic. So, it’s time to get back on that weight loss wagon. Or perhaps jog behind it.
Last night I was in Orlando International Airport, kidless, with two hours to kill. I headed straight for McDonald’s. I know most vegetarians don’t usually make a bee-line for Mickey-D’s, but I love their French fries. And since I was alone, I was able to really savor them. And I wasn’t breaking any kind of weight-loss rule either. It’s all about balance, so today’s job is to make up for the French Fries.
I started with a yummy egg-and-cheese sandwich for breakfast, which at 326 calories wasn’t terrible, but also not making up any ground from the fries. So for lunch I just reached for a can of Progresso Soup. Progresso was nice enough to send me more than a dozen cans of soup along with a nice mug and a jumprope, although I’m honestly not sure if the soup I ate was from them or already in my pantry – I always keep Progresso Light Soup around. This particular one, Zesty Southwestern-Style Vegetable, is probably my favorite. I can eat the whole big can and it’s only 120 calories!
The Contest
Progresso is hosting a fantastic “Souper You” contest (that I’m totally entering) where three people will win a make-over in NYC! And while I won’t have much use for the airfare, I’m salivating over the rest of the prize: two nights in a luxurious hotel, a make-over, and a $1,000 shopping spree! This is what I need, because it falls right in line with my theory that you can’t wait until you lose weight to love yourself and how you look – loving your look NOW will help motivate you to lose weight! And a thousand dollar shopping spree would be a crap-load of motivation. So go here and enter. Maybe you’ll get one of the other two spots. 
And whether you enter or not, you can download Progresso Soup coupons.
The Giveaway
Progresso is also giving one of my readers a cute little prize pack, including two cans of Progresso soup, a soup mug, and a digital jump rope. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment with one of the following: either saying that you entered the awesome “Super You” contest, or what your favorite flavor of Progresso soup is (you can see the full Progresso Soup line here). For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:
Win a Progresso Soup prize pack from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/9otphh
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Friday, February 19th and random.org will draw the winner. Shipping available in the continental U.S. only. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page. Good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Progresso Light Soup
Weight Loss Tuesday: Hitting the Road
Feb 3, 2010 Weight Loss
Travel is scaring me
I’ll be out of town for most of the next two weeks. That’s a little scary for me right now. I panic when I’m in situations where I can’t count calories, say “screw it” and go crazy. I also have a hard time passing up free food and buffets, and the next two weeks will be filled with both. But I’ve laid a good foundation over the past few weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to stay on track. I have no illusions about losing weight with all this travel though – if I come out even I’ll call it a win and be thrilled. I lost less than a pound this week, but I’m not surprised. It’s that time of the month, you know what I’m talking about. I’m only not naming it so as not to attract weird googlers.
So this past week, the third week of the Your Shape Challenge, has been really good. I did manage to get in three 30-minute Your Shape workouts, which was my goal. I also went ice skating last week, which worked some leg muscles that hadn’t been worked in a while. However, I’m going to be without my Wii for five out of the next seven days. If I can get in two 30-minute Your Shape workouts in the next week, I think that will be an accomplishment. I’m going to try to get in a little exercise on the road, but it’s never happened before so I’m trying to manage my expectations rather than set myself up for failure. In other words, I’m setting the bar low in the hope that I can leap over it with ease.
I made my water goal three days this week, and not coincidentally it was the same three days that I worked out. I need to stop thinking about drinking water (and yes, by that I mean Crystal Light) only when working out. I feel better when I drink more water. It’s such a no-brainer I don’t know why I struggle with it. But I’m going to bring my little “On the Go” packets of Crystal Light with me. Don’t worry, I won’t take them in my carry-on. I don’t want to be arrested at the airport for carrying a suspicious red powder.
This week’s challenge: step to it
The Your Shape challengers have a new challenge this week, and that’s to walk as many steps as possible each day. To help us keep track we were each sent a pedometer, and I’ve been wearing mine faithfully for the past two days, despite a few close calls where I almost dropped it in the toilet. It’s going to happen eventually. Whether or not I rescue it depends on what it lands in. Yesterday I walked just a few hundred steps shy of 10,000 steps, which is the magic number that’s always thrown around about how active a person should be. I almost got there even though the only time I left the house yesterday was walking the kids to school and picking them up. At home, I’m always going up and down the stairs and all over the place, so it was pretty easy. Today was even easier. I went into the city with the kids, and we did a good deal of walking. I’m over 14,600 steps right now and not quite done yet – hoping to hit 15,000 before I fall into bed.
So, things have been going well. Pretty easy. I’m really glad that this all started during a really busy, crazy time for me. If I had more time to pay attention to the challenge, I’d probably over-do it in the beginning and then flame out. Instead I took things slow, and I’m still going strong. At the end of the day My Food Diary tells me when I will reach my goal if I ate the same way every day. Today it told me that I would reach my goal on my birthday, which is in October. Far off, yes, but I really feel like I could keep this up until then. What a great birthday gift that would be.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Crystal Light, Wii, Your Shape
Jenny McCarthy is trying to kill me
Jan 27, 2010 Amy in the Morning, Weight Loss
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Wii, Your Shape
