How would you answer the question, "What factor does research show has the most impact on a person's health?"
Maybe you'd say their weight. (But you'd have to be pretty new around here to say that.) Or maybe you'd say what they eat, their diet. Or perhaps you think exercise plays a more important role. How about sleep? Or other self-care in the form of meditation, prayer, nourishing our souls in whatever manner speaks to us?
Let's address a few of these answers.
The more research is done, the more we see that healthy behaviors matter more than weight or body size in determining health - behaviors like
exercising at least twelve times per month,
not smoking,
limiting alcohol consumption,
and eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily.
While what we take into our bodies and exercising moderately have significant influence, you might be surprised to learn that the most powerful factor in determining a person's health is their zip code. The social conditions in which we live have an enormous impact for a number of reasons.
I lead with this information not to launch a discussion of social impact but to open up the idea that much of what we've been taught in this area is misleading or simply wrong.
Let's start with a tool used quite commonly: the Body Mass Index.
Rather than go off on an extended rant about using the BMI as any kind of health measurement, let's let Lindsay & Lexie Kite sum it up for us. Theirs is a succinct, well-edited opinion with which I whole-heartedly agree. "Plenty of research has been done in the last several years on the problems with correlating a person's weight with their health, as well as how ineffective it is to determine someone's healthy weight according to the body mass index. To breeze through just a few issues with the standard BMI chart promoted by the CDC;
- it doesn't take gender into account despite healthy levels of fat and weight distribution differing greatly between men and women;
- it is based on a Caucasian standard, though even the World Health Organization has acknowledged the extensive evidence that 'the association between BMI, percentage of body fat, and body fat distribution differ across populations";
- it doesn't take into age into consideration, so it doesn't allow for weight naturally (and healthily) increasing with age;
- it doesn't account for body frame or muscle mass, which leads to serious miscalculations of body fat;
- and Adolphe Quetelet, the French scientist who developed the original height-to-weight ratio that would come to be known as the BMI, intended it for large diagnostic studies on general populations, not individuals. Despite promoting a personal BMI calculator to be used by individuals, the CDC website now states, 'BMI can be used for population assessment of overweight and obesity. Because calculation requires only height and weight, it is inexpensive and easy to use for clinicians and for the general public. BMI can be used as a screening tool for body fatness, but is not diagnostic.'
"So why, despite all the evidence against it, do federal health agencies and countless medical professionals continue to rely on BMI for helping individuals understand their health? Because, as the CDC has stated, it is 'inexpensive and easy for clinicians and for the general public.' It might be misleading and ineffective, but it's cheap and easy.' Yikes." (More Than a Body, pgs 211-212)
Yikes, indeed. So, please, if you haven't already done so, let go of the BMI for your personal use. Just let it go.
What can we use to measure our health and fitness instead?
Lots of things: resting heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar level, cholesterol levels, physical stamina, various vitamin and mineral levels, energy level, paying attention to how our body feels and if our brain feels clear. Of course, this isn't an exhaustive list, but you get the idea.
So, then how do you decide what to eat and how to exercise?
It will let you know.
We've talked extensively about intuitive eating in numerous posts (HERE is just one with links to others.) I'm going to leave it at that, or this post would become a full-length novel. I urge you to learn more about it. My other posts are a concise place to start, but there's an abundance of info to be found by a simple Google search.
But what about exercise?
Let me ask you this - If you knew your exercise routine would have absolutely no impact on your body's physical appearance, would you still continue with it?
Be honest.
If the answer to that question is yes - Hallelujah! If your answer is no - this is a good area for exploration for you. In whatever form we choose, our movement should add to the quality and enjoyment of our lives. If it doesn't, it's time to reevaluate. HERE is a post on that subject.
"Making the locus of control our own senses and intuitions rather than profit-driven diets (and I would add exercise plans) is a powerful way to gain a more balanced relationship with food and to reconnect with our own bodies. For people whose ideas about living a healthy lifestyle are dominated by restrictive diets and exercising for weight loss or maintenance, unlearning those ideas and learning new ones takes lots of conscious and self-compassionate effort." (MTaB, pg 243, italics added)
"When you can see more in your health than the numbers and appearance ideals you might have been trained to focus on, your body can become an instrument for your own use and experience rather than an ornament to be admired, fixed, and judged. With that shift in perspective, you can have greater access to your own physical power that comes through experiencing your body from the inside, not the outside." (MTaB. pg 262)
Friends, it's time to reclaim our health and fitness by letting our body wisdom guide us rather than external expectations.
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Prior posts in this series -
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