From CNN SI:
It’s no secret that size matters in the National Football League, but a new study suggests that a whopping 56 percent of NFL players would be considered obese by some medical standards.
The NFL called the study bogus for using players’ body-mass index, a height-to-weight ratio that doesn’t consider body muscle versus fat. The players union said that despite the familiar sight of bulging football jerseys, there’s no proof that obesity is rampant in the league.
I have no idea what the deal is with the BMI, but I do know that according to some charts, I am supposed to weigh about 185 pounds or I would be considered obese. Since I weighed 185 lbs when I was in my peak shape when in the military (at 6’0″), able to run two miles in under 11 minutes and in the best shape of my life, I have a real hard time understanding how I am supposed to be below that weight now. At any rate, it is pretty damn clear that a lot of players inthe NFL are obese.
Mikey
At age 32, running 30 miles a week, and doing a damn near vegetarian diet, I weighed 175 lbs, the lowest I had weighed since tenth grade when I was on track.
According to height and weight charts, I was supposed to weigh no more than 163 lbs. There was no way, short of going into a gulag, I was ever going to weigh that. I don’t think those charts adequately take into account a person’s build (I wear a 50 suitcoat). Some serious rework needs to be done to take into account heavier frames, etc.
RW
Ignore the BMI. It’s ridiculous.
According to it, Michael Jordan was something like 10 pounds away from being OBESE during his last season in the NBA.
It ignores the concept of muscle mass and factors in only weight, thus an athlete who is ripped would be considered overweight. Arnold Schwarzenegger, during his competiting days, was around 255 lbs and around 6′ tall. That means the 7 time Mr. Olympia would be considered excessively obese according to the BMI.
IOW, ignore it all together and don’t give it another thought unless you want to waste time and brain cells.
CadillaqJaq
“At any rate, it is pretty damn clear that a lot of players in the NFL are obese.”
Nothing like they used to be, John. In my junior high school days, the Detroit Lions used to train at our small hometown college in mid MI… it was a low key open sort of place and a buddy of mine and I happened to wander into the locker room one day after their practice— just in time to see a huge 300 pound Les Bingaman step out of the shower! Soaking wet he ignored us and waddled over to his locker, dragging his towel behind him. [Some images are indelible and last for a lifetime…]
M. Scott Eiland
I’d suggest a rule-of-thumb for the question of obesity in men:
If when you jog, a larger volume of matter is jiggling than when Anna Kournikova goes running without a sports bra, you’re obese.