Posted in Chapter 1 on 06/12/2009 08:59 pm by Scott Hunt
The big floor in the Get Active campaign is using the BMI, put Pat Rafters stats of 1.85m and 86kg into their BMI calculator and their own spokesperson has a BMI of 25.128 which is in the overweight category (BMI of 25 to 30)! According to this Pat Rafter has an “increased risk of weight-related health problems such as heart disease and diabetes type 2”. These are his stats as a player, so now that he is retired and not training eight hours a day his weight would be higher, which would apparently make him “fatter” according to the BMI. So if one Australia’s sexiest men (according to Cleo) and one of our greatest athletes is classed as overweight in the Government’s own campaign, what hope do the rest of us have? The BMI was created 179 years ago in 1830 and is clearly out of date, Pat Rafter is obviously not overweight, even now that he has retired, he’s a great fit and healthy Aussie icon for the ads. However once again it gives people unrealistic weight loss expectations. If the average person puts their stats into the calculator they will be told to achieve such an unrealistic goal that it can only set people up for failure. Who wants to work out to try and achieve a goal weight that’s virtually impossible to achieve?