Here’s something else to take into account (link at the bottom, if you want to check it out):

“Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores — a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height — can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.

“Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.

“Relating the news to what Bell calls “TOFIs” — people who are “thin outside, fat inside” — is rarely uneventful. “The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise,” he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18594089/

Absolutely. I wouldn’t recommend anyone following a certain lifestyle just because someone else had success with it (even in my own case of switching to a higher fat diet). You have to research and find what’s best for your body.

I like your point about genes and destiny. I just saw a piece about how children’s distaste for vegetables is genetic. Oh, brother…

http://www.iotf.org/database/GlobalAdultTableJune07.htm

RE: the BMI debate - the problem is that the examples of people who don’t fit the BMI - fit folks here and athletes - are NOT the norm for the population in general. Honestly, how many of those 30% obese do you suppose are muscled athletes? Look around you. In my community, I see a lot more pudgy people than ripped bodies.

The only way to measure fat accurately and quickly is through calipers, right? Compiling more accurate national and international statistics on obesity would require a lot of belly-pinching. I understand the arguments against BMI; I just don’t see a pragmatic alternative means of assessing for compiling statistics. People who are athletic know they’re athletic, so they’re not going to sweat a high BMI.

Maybe what we need is a national promotion of fitness standards to help people assess their physical conditioning.

“BTW…my great grandfather lived to be 104, though he claimed he was 108. Everyone was too scared of him to disagree He was definitely a greasy breakfast and coffee kinda man. I think a lot of longevity has to do with your constitution as well as the lifestyle choices you make.”

Everybody knows an old codger who smoked, drank, and ate bacon every morning yet still lived to a ripe old age. However, most of the old codger’s relatives and friends dropped dead long before. Diabetes pioneer Elliott Joslin gave us this oft recited quote about the interplay between genes and lifestyle:

“Genes load the gun. Lifestyle pulls the trigger.”

Our genes are not our destiny. Even if we have a genetic disposition to disease, it is our environment and lifestyle choices that will determine if and how those genes are expressed. The 25-year Okinawa Centenarian study claims that 2/3 of the longevity of the participants can be accounted for by lifestyle factors and only 1/3 genes. (http://www.okicent.org/news/boston_globe.php)