Politics & Current Events
DownToEarthGirl
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
S/O BMI/Obesity - body fat test?
So if body fat testing is possibly more accurate than BMI, how many of you who care about your weight or have had a doctor mention weight have had their body fat tested by a professional?
Has any doctor that's mentioned weight to you ever offered to do that test in their office?
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
Re: S/O BMI/Obesity - body fat test?
Me!
But I had it done at my gym not the doctor. They also did all of these strength/agility/flexibility tests. I had 98% core strength ::flips hair::
I wonder if doctors do this? It would be a cool thing to incorporate into the yearly check up, but with the already hurried pace of 15 minutes to cover your whole health history and exam they may not be open to adding something else to the routine.
What speciality is a doctor for fatties? I'm seriously asking because I'm not sure.
It's actually really hard to accurately measure body fat. I've had it done a couple times. Once at a gym I worked at when they got some new piece of machinery that was supposed to be able to tell you your body fat just from standing on it. Once as part of a bone density study in law school ($$$), and once with a personal trainer post-PTS.
But to do it accurately, you have to use the calipers on a number of different places on the body... the most accurate way to test is using some kind of weird water displacement thing and that is really inconvenient. So, BMI is kind of the in-office quick default.
This suprises me. Diet (carb controlled) and exercise are a big focus of my endocrinologist.
I did a water displacement test in 7th grade as part of a Science/Health study. There were four of us who volunteered for the class experiement.
I also have one of those scales that will tell you your body fat when you use barefeet, but honestly I've maybe used that scale 10-times and the batteries have been dead for over a year. Other than that, I've never had it done, but wonder if I the tests at the gym are accurate.
I wonder if endocrinologists have to rely more on drugs to stabilize diabetics b/c it's hard to motivate/get the same amount of change you see with drugs with diet/exercise since the doctor can't "make" someone workout and change their eating habits, but adding a pill/shot a day is a much easier change?
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
When DH got his diabetes diagnosis, the nurse leading the group class at the hospital for new diabetes patients said that even just doing laundry or cleaning can help your blood sugar to drop. Exercise makes a huge difference in DH's glucose levels after eating. He goes for a walk after breakfast for anywhere from 20-60 minutes and then does Pilates with me after lunch 4 days/week. I realize that you have a LO, so your schedule isn't as flexible, but doing anything after eating has made a giant difference for DH.
I was still seeing a pediatrician when I got into overweight range and I remember the doctor put 169.5 as my weight even though it was definitely 170. She was a li'l chunky herself so maybe she was being empathetic or something, but no, not a peep was ever mentioned about body fat testing or lifestyle modifications.
It wouldn't have helped anyway. I knew the boilerplate nutrition do's and don'ts and my eating was already disordered at that point despite that. I had to figure things out on my own in a way that made sense me. Which I did eventually, in a years-long process.
So would it have helped if your empathetic doctor, parents, a doctor recommended nutriotionist and trainer were holding you accountable for relearning how to eat and exercise? I guess I'm saying that if a doctor prescribed you a nutrionist and trainer and it was partially covered by insurance, would that have turned things around more quickly?
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
This is interesting to me because DH's A1C has been as perfect as possible since his diagnosis, and at every doctor's appointment, the doc says, "Well, your A1C is perfect! Are you exercising and eating right? What are you eating? How often are you exercising?" He notes it in DH's chart at every appointment. DH's GP also set him up with a nutritionist after he got his diagnosis, and the nutritionist was very thorough. She did ask if we cook/like to cook/know how to cook. When we said that we did, she went from there and never mentioned anything boxed or frozen. IDK what she would have done if we had said that we didn't.
Major, I'm really surprised that your doc would try to push boxed/frozen stuff on you when you're so good about cooking from scratch and using organic ingredients. I would think that most doctors are so glad when a patient with diabetes says that he/she knows how to cook. That's half of the diabetes diet battle right there! Maybe DH's doc is just a lot more thorough?
I actually think it's terrible that they didn't tell you that. The nurse at that class actually said, "If you test your blood sugar and it's a little high, do anything that you can do. Fold a load of laundry even! Anything will help." It's the most helpful advice DH has been given. I can't imagine telling someone they have diabetes and then not giving them that simple little tip. Sorry your doctor seemed to totally drop the ball on that.
No, I think it would have fueled disordered eating to a greater extent unless they dished out something besides the typical conventional wisdom of eat less-move more, low fat, calorie counting and a bunch of cardio.
But still it probably would not be enough - my dad was out of the picture and my mother was half the problem (really controlling, volatile personality at that point). She would keep all sorts of shiity junk food in the house and then I'd get yelled at for eating it. I was getting pretty deep into depression and my mother flipped out when I told her about that. She was not in a place to be helpful with any of that.
I lost some extra weight after highschool (not in a healthy manner), gained it back within 2 yrs and finally got on the right track after college was through. I gained much more control over my life and kicked depression first. I moved out on my own and lost 15 lbs eating whatever the heck I felt like, sort of in the fashion Intuitive Eating advises. The other 15 I lost with a summer of doing some moderate exercise and learning and putting to practice the differences between Real Food and "food," that fat is not all bad for you, that there's more to food than its calorie count, etc. Other than pregnancy, I've maintained the loss for over 10 yrs. and I love that I've learned a lot along the way.
I would love to have body composition testing, but I confess that I don't trust gyms or trainers to do the job right. There are so many different versions of it and frankly, half of what gyms offer so far as health recommendations (apart from exercise is good for you) borders on woo, IMO. Why don't M.D.s do this?
I might consider one of the tank displacement tests, but they're spendy. I do know that according to one of the livestrong calculators that relies on measurements of waist, hip, neck and wrist circumference, my body fat percentage is 25-30%, which seems way off given that I'm leaner than I've ever been and can 'pinch an inch" only in my lower ab region and no where else. I mean, I know I'm not in the 10% or less range but I bet I'm closer to 15-20%.
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
While a much better indicator, getting an accurate read of body fat is tough, short of the water-based testing. Calipers are only as accurate as the person using them. The hand-held reader sends a pulse through your upper body, so if you hold more of your body fat in your top half, you could get a lower reading vs. if you stored more in your bottom half. Vice versa for scales that allegedly measure body fat.
A friend of mine, while studying for her PhD in epidemiology, did a study on college athletes using the water method (my only real support for the theory it's best - she says so and I trust her about that sort of thing!). She said the readings were generally a lot higher than caliper/hand-held or scale readings, at least according to self-reported prior readings. Kind of interesting.
I just checked out the livestrong calculator and it says my bodyfat percentage is 29%, which I know isn't right. I don't know for real what my bodyfat % is, but my scale tells me 19-20%, and I tend to think that's close judging by how much fat I have (I could be slightly higher). I don't trust a calculator that takes measurements like those but neglects actual weight. Besides, when you consider that muscle is denser than fat, if I weighed the same with less muscle (and more fat), my measurements would be even larger, yielding an even high %, which I don't buy at all.