Study Says Shaquille O'Neal Is Technically Obese

[matcom]

<snip>

MIAMI -- He may rank among the NBA's greatest players, but basketball star Shaquill O'Neal is technically obese.

That's according to the body-mass index. The Associated Press applied the widely used criterion to the published heights and weights of NBA players and found nearly half qualify as overweight.

The BMI doesn't directly measure fat. It comes from a formula that considers only weight and height. And at seven-foot-one and 325 pounds, O'Neal has the NBA's highest BMI at 31.6. Thirty and above is the "obese" range.

Last week, a study of NFL players concluded more than half of them are obese, and nearly all are overweight. The NFL rejected the findings.

"I've read that same formula, but as an athlete I'm classified as phenomenal. You can look it up," O'Neal said.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4271115/detail.html

[PsN2Wind]

1. Well!

He certainly has a fat head.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Saw That Yesterday. Completely Ridiculous

50% of NBA players are overweight and Shaq is obese?!?!? Come on. We've all seen NBA players and they are NOT overweight.

Same study said 45% (i think) of all NFL players are obese and something like 90% were overweight.

A doctor in the study said that the index is not to be used alone but is simply one indicator. If this indicator says 50% of NBA players are overweight, it shouldn't be used at all. It's completely useless.
The Professor

[Reverend_Smitty]

3. Muscle weighs more than fat...

therefore BMI's should not be used on athletes, it simply doesn't work for them. It's a flawed system

[meow2u3]

5. BMI's shouldn't be used on anyone--period

BMI doesn't take into account the fact that some people are very musculur, large-boned, or, in this case, athletes. BMI has a built-in bias against these populations, since it only measures how big a person is--not how fat.

Instead, we should use percentage of body fat (PBF) as a criterion for obesity, or at least a combination of BMI and percentage of body fat. Some anorexics are skinny and obese at the same time by the PBF standard because starvation only causes someone to lose muscle mass without burning the excess fat.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. That's What I Said Too, STP

I was very brief in my post, but i agree with you 100%. it's a useless parameter.
The Professor

[NorthernSpy]

4. junk science

We've known for some time that at every level of BMI, blacks have significantly more lean mass (muscle and bone) than whites have. The current Body Mass Index and associated "guidelines" do not accurately detect obesity in blacks, and they do not accurately predict health problems in blacks, either. This is junk science -- racist junk science, actually.

[meow2u3]

6. Not just racist junk science--ethnic junk science, too

Eastern Europeans and their American descendants tend to have larger bonestructure and more muscle mass than their Western and Northern European counterparts. This is especially true of Poles--so BMI also has a component of ethnic bigotry in it, too.

[MADem]

8. The irony of it all is

...that if he were serving in the Army or the USMC, they wouldn't even bother putting him on the "fat boy" program, they are so hard up for bodies. If he were in the Navy, he'd be hounded until he was drummed out, or offered the "Blue to Green" program to put him in a set of Army desert cammies toting a weapon in Baghdad.

[Orsino]

9. ...Only to face taping two-to-four times per year...

...at the hands of by-the-book NCOs who are forced to treat this junk science as gospel. He'd probably pass the taping, too, or he could request to be dunked in a swimming pool for more precise measurements.

The Army Physical Fitness Test is intended to measure, well, fitness. That the Pentagon decided to enforce an appearance standard has no bearing on how well a soldier does his or her job.

[Ernesto]

10. As a King's fan, all I can say to Matcom is..............

I bet you wish Shaq was back out west.