Fat Athletes

[slacker]

Big freak'n surprise. I do agree with this article that they shouldn't use the BMI to determine obesity, I'm sure the muscle alone of some players weigh more then me.

 

 

CHICAGO -- 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.

 

But former defensive tackle John Jurkovic said he's seen plenty of evidence that players have gotten not just bigger but sometimes fatter, "big as houses" in recent years because of league pressure to intimidate opponents and win.

 

"The NFL teams want it because it's working," said Jurkovic, who played for Green Bay, Cleveland and Jacksonville before retiring in 2000.

 

The theory is that bigger men, especially linemen and defensive players, are better blockers and harder to move.

 

But the study results suggest that bigger players don't make a team more successful. There was no relationship between teams' average player BMI and their ranking in 2003-04, the season studied. Arizona had the highest average BMI, but also the worst record in its division.

 

In the study, University of North Carolina endocrinologist Joyce Harp and student Lindsay Hecht used statistics on the NFL Web site to calculate BMIs for 2,168 NFL players, nearly all those playing in the 2003-04 season.

 

Almost all the players qualified as overweight, and 56 percent had BMIs of at least 30 -- what doctors consider obese. For example, a 6-foot-2 man weighing 235 has a BMI of just over 30. Nearly half of the obese players were in the severely obese range, with a BMI of at least 35, and a small percentage were morbidly obese with a BMI of at least 40.

 

Harp acknowledged that without measuring body composition, it's uncertain how many players were truly fat, but she said it's unlikely the high BMIs were "due to a healthy increase in muscle mass alone."

 

"The high number of large players was not unexpected, given the pressures of professional athletes to increase their mass. However, it may not be without health consequences," the researchers wrote, citing previous studies that documented obesity-related problems, including sleep apnea and high blood pressure in NFL players.

 

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

 

While the study methods were not very scientific, players' growing girth "is a major concern," said Dr. Arthur Roberts, a former NFL quarterback and retired heart surgeon whose Living Heart Foundation works with the players union to evaluate heart-related health risks faced by current and retired players.

 

"These larger body sizes are generally associated with greater cardiovascular risks," Roberts said.

 

The increasing emphasis on size may be a bad influence on "all the young kids that play football around the country ... and are trying to be like their heroes," Roberts said.

 

Players union spokesman Carl Francis said health and safety are "discussed all the time," and that while some players likely are obese, it's not a major problem.

 

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello called the study substandard and said there's no proof obesity is worse in the NFL than in U.S. society in general, where about 30 percent of adults are obese, based on BMI data. "This was not a serious medical study," he said.

 

Dr. Brian Cole of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, an orthopedic surgeon who works with the Arena Football League, also questioned the study methods and said some teams list inaccurately high weights to appear more intimidating.

 

"While clearly there are pressures for increased size" in professional football, relying on published height and weight data but not physical exams is faulty, he said.

 

Julie Burns, a nutritionist who works with the Chicago Bears, said combining BMI data with players' waist measurements is a better fat indicator because some highly conditioned athletes with a high BMI also have a large amount of lean tissue.

 

Jurkovic said he weighed 272 in the mid 1990s -- hefty by any standards on his 6-foot-2 frame -- but was pressured by a coach to get even bigger and ballooned up to 328. On the BMI scale, that's morbidly obese. Jurkovic said he had already maxed out on weightlifting so he packed on mostly fat by gorging.

 

Combined with the physical toll of football, excess weight wears down joints and causes problems as players age and then retire, Jurkovic said. At 37, he now weighs a "chunky" 295 and has ankle problems he blames on football and excess weight.

 

"It's tough for the league to police, but I think they should try to police it," he said.

 

Full Story Here

[Blackshirt]

The article didnt address it very much, but the most serious concern is after these guys retire. Many that arent currently obese will be in bad shape after they slow down and all that muscle turns to flab. I recall hearing at one time that ex NFL players have about a 50% greater chance of dying prematurely than the average person. The most amusing part of the story to me was this line:

 

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello called the study substandard and said there's no proof obesity is worse in the NFL than in U.S. society in general, where about 30 percent of adults are obese, based on BMI data. "This was not a serious medical study," he said.

 

..no worse than society in general? Helluva comparison. Thats like saying "well at least OJ is no worse than Dahmer..." The worst part of all are the little pork rhines that will soon be sucking all of our tax dollars down the drain with their inevitably high medical bills.... when was the last time you saw multiple physically fit looking kids in the same place - outside of a sports event? The sad part is the current youth generation is so obese overall that their PARENTS generation is on pace to outlive their own freakin kids... meaning the average life expectancy is projected to go DOWN over the next 50 years. When the hell has that ever happened?? Serious serious stuff. Maybe sally struthers really is on to something with her whole "starve the kids, feed me" campaign.

 

Alright, gotta go wash this bucket of KFC down with a litre o cola... which is French for a really big f*&@*g cola!!

[slacker]

Here's a follow up. I knew using the BMI to measure professional athletes is a little unrealistic. They should have instead use % body fat, which is unrealistic and would probably return the same results for most NFL players anyway because most ARE fat. But NBA players, this article use the BMI to measure players in the NBA and turns out half of them are fat too, humm, what's wrong with this picture?

 

 

Overweight NBA Players? a Cautionary Tale

 

NEW YORK - It's hard to think of "fat" and "basketball player" at the same time, but by the most widely used standard nearly half the players in the NBA qualify as overweight.

 

Four players are even obese — most notably, Miami Heat star Shaquille O'Neal.

 

The analysis of 426 players by The Associated Press actually says more about the widely used body-mass index than the National Basketball Association: Just because 200 players are "overweight" doesn't necessarily mean they're too fat.

 

The finding follows a study of football players published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That research concluded that according to BMI standards, more than half of National Football League players are obese, and nearly all are at least overweight. The study's validity was questioned by an NFL spokesman.

 

What's going on here?

 

Obesity experts say the BMI really is a useful guide for identifying people who are too fat for their own good, but it shouldn't be used by itself.

 

"The value of the BMI for the (general) population is it's a good first step, and I underline 'first step,'" says Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

 

"No one has ever suggested it's the only criterion to use, because it clearly is not."

 

The body-mass index doesn't directly measure fat. It comes from a formula that considers only weight and height. At 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds, O'Neal had the NBA's highest BMI, 31.6, in the AP analysis. (He admits to gaining 2 pounds since those numbers were posted.)

 

That puts him in the "obese" range, which is 30 and above. A BMI indicates normal weight if it falls between 18.5 and 24.9, and overweight if it's between 25 and 29.9.

 

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

 

O'Neal, ranked among the NBA's 50 greatest players, lost 40 pounds after team management asked him to when he joined the Heat last summer. He says he now has 13 percent body fat.

 

Tim Frank, the NBA's vice president of basketball communications, said BMI studies such as the AP's analysis are "pretty subjective" and weight has not been an issue in the league.

 

"We're confident our players are some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world," he said.

 

Studies show that as a group, people who score "overweight" on the BMI run an elevated risk of developing such problems as diabetes and heart disease, while those in the "obese" category have even higher risks.

 

Nationally, almost a third of American adults are obese and nearly two-thirds are either obese or overweight under the BMI criteria. Experts are studying how appropriate the standard cutoffs are for non-Caucasians; research suggests that members of many Asian populations may need to keep their weight lower to fend off health risks.

 

The AP's basketball analysis points out a key drawback of the BMI: People who are lean but well-muscled, like most basketball players, can have the same elevated BMI as somebody who carries too much fat.

 

You might think that somebody who gets an "overweight" BMI from muscle would have a lower health risk than somebody of the same BMI, but carrying more fat. But experts say that's not clear. For one thing, experts noted, athletes tend to keep their high BMI's after they retire — only then, their muscle gets replaced by fat.

 

For non-Asians, BMI's are informative when they're below 25 or above 30, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel of the University of Colorado, president-elect of the American Heart Association. For example, a BMI of 23 likely indicates an acceptable amount of body fat while one of 33 means "you've got too much fat," he said.

 

But for BMI's between 25 and 30 — basically the overweight range — the implication is more murky, especially in athletic people, he said.

 

He and others emphasize that calculating BMI is really just a starting point. A key follow-up is determining waist size with a measuring tape. If it's greater than 40 inches in a man or more than 35 inches in a woman, there's an elevated risk of weight-related disease.

 

Some studies suggest the waist measurement tracks health risks better than BMI, said Dr. Louis Aronne, president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. But like other experts, he thinks "the two of them together provide you with the best information."

 

And, Bray adds, it's important to look at other things like a person's age, level of physical activity, rate of weight gain, blood pressure and cholesterol levels to really get a good picture of one's risk.

 

In any case, Dr. William Dietz of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said BMI alone is a good enough tool that the national estimate of obese adults — about 59 million people — won't be affected by findings from the specialized world of professional athletes.

 

And for those who persist in thinking Shaquille O'Neal is obese, he has a simple message: "You think that, stick to science. Top 50, three rings, lot of money, two mansions."

 

Full Story Here

[Blackshirt]

Heres a story that touches on what I mentioned earlier -- obesity actually reversing the life expectancy rate. They estimate within 50 yrs the LER will drop by 2-5 yrs. Pretty ridiculous.

 

This would reverse the mostly steady increase in American life expectancy that has occurred in the past two centuries and would have tremendous social and economic consequences that could even inadvertently help "save" Social Security (news - web sites), Olshansky and colleagues contend.

 

A pretty sad way to save SS. What they dont mention are the astronomical health insurance ramifications from an epidemic prevalent enough to not only stop a mortality rate in its tracks.. but reverse it for the first time in modern history.

 

Still, failure to curb obesity "could impede the improvements in longevity that are otherwise in store," he said. Americans' current life expectancy already trails more than 20 other developed countries.

 

Hmm.. whats wrong with this picture? We're THE most technologically advanced country and the largest superpower in the world, yet we rank #20 overall for life expectancy???

 

What many people dont realize is that the biggest contributor to obesity is high fructose corn syrup. And unfortunately its in damn near everything found on conventional grocery store shelves. The best way to avoid this crap is to stop drinking soda altogether. Even "diet" has the crap in it. Stop drinking soda for a month and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to lose weight. The garbage should be as hard for a minor to purchase as alcohol IMO.

 

Report: Obesity to Lower U.S. Life Span

[slacker]

I had honey on my toast this morning instead of strawberry jam. There's no high fructose corn syrup in honey…

 

How can there be HFCS in Diet Coke and it still have no calories, that doesn't make any sense?

[joshuavacek]

The BMI index is a joke and does not take into account muscle mass. It is just a general index for height and weight. Yes some linemen are overweight, but not all of them. A lot of people are out of shape and obese in this country, but NFL linemen players are not in that catergory.