Without trying to start a war on what the media considers fat I just saw something interesting that talks about how doctors and the medical profession calculate their numbers for who is considered (overweight, obese )
They use the Body Mass Index. I have heard of it, but never knew how to calculate it before.
In U.S. measurements, its calculated by dividing your weight in pounds divided by your height squared. Multiply that by 703 and you have your very own BMI.
20-25 = Normal
25-30 = Overweight
30+ = Obese
Granted its a simple formula that doesn't really take into account gender, peoples different musculatures and I'm guessing it doesn't work well for the extremely tall or the extremely short, but its an interesting formula.
Might come in handy to help understand stats thrown around in the papers, or when people try applying for health insurance to know what weight they might want target. You may be only a few pounds from the "normal" range if you knew what that was before your health screen. Divide 25 by 703 and multiply it by your height squared to get your "ideal low insurance premium" weight. Ironically, could be the difference of you drinking lots of water that day.
Not sure this works too well for me, since at 6'11 I'd have to be 196-245lbs to be normal, which is obviously far too skinny for my size, but I could shoot for overweight and keep it under 294.
What do you think about this scale? Does it work for you? Is it fair that your insurance depends upon some plug and play system based merely on height and weight?