Are Irish People Overweight?

TheMonster

Just been on Grafton St at lunchtime. Is it me or are Irish people getting fatter, the amount of beer bellies and fat bits sticking out was gross.

Use the BMI Calculator Here and put your result in the poll.
BMI Calc

xzanti

How dare they! :eek: ... And I suppose ur a supermodel?

Nimrod's Son

I'm of the normal weight persuasion.
I don't ever think of Irish people as being a fat nation in general.

seamus

Yep, they are. Not as bad as you might think though. Pop down Grafton Street the next time it's sunny (not today, it's bloody freezing :rolleyes: ) and your faith in the attractive Irish people will be restored

DrIndy

Ireland is an overweight nation. Albeit not as bad as the USA - however, we are already starting to get the same health problems the US has......

KTRIC

I'm not overweight but I think it's terrible for you to judge people fat or not. It's not your body so don't worry about it.

I dunno, I got told recently that I don't have an ass. Will do the BMI...

According to the BMI I'm normal (19.9).

Downtime

Yes as a nation we are but those BMI calculators are rediculous and very inaccurate.

Stark

We're just coming out of the winter period so people are going to be fatter. People will start losing weight again now that summer's coming up.

LegacyUser

yes, overweight people would definitly be in the majority.

Hydroquinone

That BMI indicator yoke; is the evaluation of what's fat and what's not fat the same as for men as for women?
It says it's ameasure of the amount of fat on you, but aren't women supposed to have more fat on 'em than men?

Tobias Greeshman

As a nation were not really full of fatties, like america is. A nice warm day brings out all the hot fit women, god knows where they hide for the rest of the time.

Im of the Normal weight.

DrIndy

Yes, people should be judged. If it is the only way to convince someone they are overweight, then yes you should. But to be clear, being obese is not having a bit of a beer belly, its being over 30 BMI.

Being overweight is the new pandemic and causes enormous ill health. It results in millions of deaths in the western world. You develop high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease and all the results from having such diseases.

Those are just the big diseases. People also do worse after surgery, snore and have no energy.

Only Human

I'm 17.5. Undwerweight! woooo \o/

xzanti

I agree with K-Tric I am not overweight but overweight people dont bother me.. I think everyone is responsible for their own body... and its not for anyone else to comment on somebody else's appearance.. We could ask the question who is more attractive, the guy whos a bit overweight or the obnoxious git whos slagging him off???? I know who id prefere anyway

DrIndy

If people are not convinced to lose weight they are in for a hell of a time later in life. Metabolic syndrome is caused by being obese and results in type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. This is completely avoidable if weight is lost before the condition develops. Women who are overweight develop polycystic ovarian syndrome which results in infertility.

If nagging makes someone lose weight, then its a good thing.

seamus

DrIndy wrote:

If nagging makes someone lose weight, then its a good thing.

It very rarely does. More often than not it just makes them worse. A bit like hoping a large wound will heal if you keep poking it with a knife.

(I think this is more suitable in Fitness. I'll move it back if it doesn't seem so)

Mr E

BMI is BS and doesn't take muscle mass into account. I'm overweight according to that calculator. In reality, my body fat is the lowest its ever been and I'm in the best shape of my life.

Good topic for debate, but don't take the BMI calculation too seriously.

sunbeam

DrIndy wrote:

Women who are overweight develop polycystic ovarian syndrome which results in infertility.

PCOS is a complex syndrome which tends to run in families. Being overweight may exacerbate it, but many sufferers are of normal weight.

The Clown Man

My g/f is a size 8 and she tells me that she finds it great to go to the continent, especially Spain, to buy cloths because they have everything in a size 8. In Ireland she has to go looking for clothes that fit her.


I once had a greek proprietor ask me one time after 3 very irish looking girls walked past the restaurant with their fairly prominant "baby fat" spilling over their mini sarongs; "Why you Irish take all your fat women over here!? In Greece, we put our fat women in the Mountains!"

It occurred to me that it's probably because we don't have any decent mountains.

Duckjob

I'm about 5'9" (ok, maybe a shade under ) and 12.5 stone. I'm decently built especially around my shoulders and arms, but I still sometimes get told 'you haven't a pick on you', despite being a good stone heavier than what is supposed to be considered average for my height. It seems to me that as an Irishman, people expect you to have a beer-belly.

It doesn't bother me now but in my more insecure days a good couple of years back, I used to get annoyed by being told 'there's not a pick on you'. A fat female colleague said this to me one day in the presence of a few other people, and then took it badly when I responded that there was enough on her for a kings banquet. Why should one be an insult and the other not? I've never got that.

seamus

Duckjob wrote:

I'm about 5'9" (ok, maybe a shade under ) and 12.5 stone. I'm decently built especially around my shoulders and arms, but I still sometimes get told 'you haven't a pick on you', despite being a good stone heavier than what is supposed to be considered average for my height. It seems to me that as an Irishman, people expect you to have a beer-belly.

It's meant to be a compliment dummy!

juno75

I once had a greek proprietor ask me one time after 3 very irish looking girls walked past the restaurant with their fairly prominant "baby fat" spilling over their mini sarongs; "Why you Irish take all your fat women over here!? In Greece, we put our fat women in the Mountains!"

.

hHAHAHA



The best thing I read all day!

LegacyUser

these don't account for muscle.

i'm pretty fit, work out, and weighed myself on one of those fancy scales in a chemists.

said i was overweight, even though my body fat was around 11%.

mirror is the best way to know if you're fat or not, or some bf calipars.

Sangre

Not a pick on you means that you've no fat....hah.

I think I'm around 21 after months of no real activity except cycling to commute.
Join the gym again after I'm back from America this summer.

Although I just don't seem to change weight, I've been the same weight to the pound when I checked this time last year (only got a scales few weeks ago)

xern

My BMI is 25.5!!

I didn't think i was in the overweight catagory, I'm definetly not fat, I do alot of weights and have alot of muscle, so I guess you can ba fit and lean but still overweight!!!

johnnyc

xern wrote:

My BMI is 25.5!!

I didn't think i was in the overweight catagory, I'm definetly not fat, I do alot of weights and have alot of muscle, so I guess you can ba fit and lean but still overweight!!!

i have to agree with you there xern my bmi is 23.9 borderline use to be 21.3 before have gone from 11st to 13st and i haven't a pick of flab on me going to the gym for a year, what do i think of the bmi index not much it doesn't take into account your bone structure and if you are carrying muscle.

windowgazer

The Clown Man wrote:

My g/f is a size 8 and she tells me that she finds it great to go to the continent, especially Spain, to buy cloths because they have everything in a size 8. In Ireland she has to go looking for clothes that fit her.
QUOTE]
I have the same prob as your girlfriend. All the big irish stores: Pennys, Dunnes, etc seem to have stopped doing any of their clothes in a size eight. Its not THAT small. When I ask for an item in a size eight I'm told they don't make them. So this would suggest that there aren't enough people of a small size to make size eight clothes economically viable. This definitely indicates that the Irish public is getting bigger. I pity size six people!
Btw, my bmi is 18.5. It was the same before christmas, but I have dropped a clothes size due to workouts and training. The bmi index doesn't take into account that muscle weighs more that fat and so u can actually weigh more but be smaller/better toned.

rasherboy

xern wrote:

My BMI is 25.5!!

I didn't think i was in the overweight catagory, I'm definetly not fat, I do alot of weights and have alot of muscle, so I guess you can ba fit and lean but still overweight!!!

i cant believe who ever made this thread is using a bmi test instead of a body fat test!
bmi is useless is u have muscle or heavy bones or anything like that! it dosent know the differenve betwen muscle and fat and catergorises them as the same!
this is a test which would tell a body builder who had a body fat test of under 5% that he was seriously overweight! its the most pointless test in the world when taken on its own!
dont take your result from the bmi to heart! it means nothing!

Only Human

rasherboy wrote:

i cant believe who ever made this thread is using a bmi test instead of a body fat test!
bmi is useless is u have muscle or heavy bones or anything like that! it dosent know the differenve betwen muscle and fat and catergorises them as the same!
this is a test which would tell a body builder who had a body fat test of under 5% that he was seriously overweight! its the most pointless test in the world when taken on its own!
dont take your result from the bmi to heart! it means nothing!

I have no muscle or fat on me at all so it's all good.

rasherboy

thats not such a good thing either....

Only Human

rasherboy wrote:

thats not such a good thing either....

Meh.

logic1

Everyone in this thread discounting BMI as a health indicator is a moron. For the vast majority of the populas BMI is a very useful *approximate* calculator of a healthy individual.

People start hearing that BMI is useless for bodybuilders and they try to apply the same to themselves discounting it's worthiness in some vaine ffort to assure themselves that they're not unhealthy even though they wobble like the michellin man and never lifted a weight in their lives. Yeah sure you're just big boned, give me a break.

If you test your BMI and it tells you you're over 30 then you look in a mirror and you're fat you can't say BMI is incorrect because you simply have big bones or that BMI is rubbish because it's inapplicable to bodybuilders.

The simple fact is everyone knows whether their fat or not, BMI will work for 99% of people and alot of folks are in deep denial of their current state of health.

.logic.

stagolee

The Clown Man wrote:

I once had a greek proprietor ask me one time after 3 very irish looking girls walked past the restaurant with their fairly prominant "baby fat" spilling over their mini sarongs; "Why you Irish take all your fat women over here!? In Greece, we put our fat women in the Mountains!"

It occurred to me that it's probably because we don't have any decent mountains.

ahh thanks mate that made me chuckle

kasintahan

22.2

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Trojan

I'm 30+, and overweight. But fitter than you

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Trojan

I think dave's just jealous cos he's skinny.

Sangre

Its like the old saying goes, only fat people dismiss BMI.

It would be like if everyone found it doesn't apply to people over 6'5' then anyone who was 6' discounted it because...'ah sure..it doesnt apply to really tall people'. Its the exact same thing, except with less people falling into the bodybuilding category.

The only people who need to ignore BMI are people who know they aren't fat. How do they know that? Because they train, a lot.

rasherboy

logic1 wrote:

Everyone in this thread discounting BMI as a health indicator is a moron. For the vast majority of the populas BMI is a very useful *approximate* calculator of a healthy individual.

People start hearing that BMI is useless for bodybuilders and they try to apply the same to themselves discounting it's worthiness in some vaine ffort to assure themselves that they're not unhealthy even though they wobble like the michellin man and never lifted a weight in their lives. Yeah sure you're just big boned, give me a break.

If you test your BMI and it tells you you're over 30 then you look in a mirror and you're fat you can't say BMI is incorrect because you simply have big bones or that BMI is rubbish because it's inapplicable to bodybuilders.

The simple fact is everyone knows whether their fat or not, BMI will work for 99% of people and alot of folks are in deep denial of their current state of health.

.logic.

dude if you auctually read what i said is that its useless when takin on its own its ment to be taken with tests like a body fats test and a few others(cant remember their names) as for working for 99%of people that iss a complete over-estimation! it dosent work accuratly on its own for anyone with muscle!

DrIndy

Although many people do object to the BMI - nevertheless, it has an enormous evidence base behind it with first rank evidence in medical clinical trials as an excellent predictor of being overweight and is excellent at predicting the sequelae of being overweight such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

Those who detract from it do not fully understand the system it is based on. An investigation of the research it is based on is warranted. www.pubmed.com

Body fat calipers are not a good screening tool as they are cumbersome and only relevant in detecting fat ratio of someone who works out.

The BMI needs adjustment when someone does work out a lot and in fact there are additional formulae that are used. The simple rule-of-thumb in medicine with someone who is clearly well muscled is to give a few integers leeway.

In children or indeed those under 18, you use a centile chart which reflects the statistical norms for the age group in question. BMI isn only used for those over 18.

To clarify - muscle does weigh more than fat, hence you use a small discretionary leeway. There is no such thing as "heavy bones".

Finally, BMI is used as a predictor for clinical diagnosis, BMI is not a diagnosis in itself wherein the entire clinical picture of the person concerned must be considered.

Although weight loss would be strongly recommended for someone with diabetes and high blood pressure to within 25 on the BMI. Someone who had a 25-30 BMI butwas otherwise healthy and normal cholesterol, a doctor would be less inclined to make this an important request.

If you are concerned that your BMI is high, it would not do any harm to mention this when you next visit your GP.

rasherboy

i used heavy bones as a loose term but some bones are stronger and denser making them heavier! some people have bigger bones then others to adding that little bit of weight etc..

Chucky the tree

rasherboy wrote:

i used heavy bones as a loose term but some bones are stronger and denser making them heavier! some people have bigger bones then others to adding that little bit of weight etc..

it will add a little bit of weight, but not a huge amount.

There is alot of fat people in dublin, Not enormous american fat, but chubby. I think its just going to get worse, soon we will be like america.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

rasherboy

it can work for people with muscle but only if you use differnt equations or something like that i think...not to sure...but 80kgs on a 1.8m person isnt auctually that much!! alot of people who are that height and are into sports like rugby or just go to the gym alot would be heavier

but once againpeople are taking things out of context! people will you please read my words carefully before you go against them! i said it dosent work accuratly on people with muscle on its own that you should have other tests done as wel for more accuracy!

The Bollox

I couldn't be bothered trawling through the posts so my apologies if this has already been said but I hear on the radio that a bit of flab is the way forward, that ppl of normal/slightly overweight live longer, but no doubt its the same ppl who say that all food is bad for you :rolleyes:

ergo

Ok,

BMI: not perfect but its the best we have at the moment,

myself BMI = 22

and yes, even though I'm almost bang in the middle of the range it happens the whole time that people would say "not a pick on you" or whatever, like it's a negative thing,
such is life in Ireland

and yes of course, we're an overweight nation, I can't remember the most recent stats but in the last 5-10 years average BMI has increased significantly

of all the girls you know , what % get any decent regular aerobic exercise? not many that I can think of, better watching every soap under the sun every evening

and of the guys you know who do exercise, play football or whatever, how many don't have 7 or 8 pints the night before and the night after the game

and look at America, whether we like it or not, it's where we're going

tribulus

BMI = 25.1..... meh
bodyfat 12% last check, admittedly 3months ago, it's crept up a bit since - stressful college exams: crap diet, lack of gyming etc.

even so i can be fairly sure my slight 'overweightness' isn't a health problem

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

shoegirl

Muscle has 10 times the density of fat so technically if you lose a pound of fat and replace it with a pound of muscle you will lose 90% of the original mass. I'm being simplistic here though. In practice many body builders will have significantly more muscle than normal people, so many weigh more than a person of the same mass who has average or less than average muscle.

Also once you hit 25 you start gradually losing muscle - which is why middle-aged spread occurs.

For most people the BMI calc is a useful tool. A lot of people who regard themselves as "big boned" are in denial about their weight. And I talk from years of experience. For years I wouldn't weigh myself because I didn't want to hear the truth. (A healthy eating plan and exercise including weights is changing this however).