His pre-diet BMI wasn't 28.9...it was 31.2, which falls into the obese category, as he said. His post-diet BMI was 28.2.
Check out the screenshot from the end of the movie:
http://thebluesite.com/images/fathead_bmi.JPG
He showed morbidly obese people to make the point that the media, when they declare "obesity" epidemic, want you to think that it's massive people that he said he had to spend an hour recording just to get the short clip he was able to get...which means most people have the wrong idea, thanks to the "experts" and the media hysteria. Few would look at him, horrified at his "obesity," but his BMI puts him directly into the obesity category. The point was also to attack BMI, which is a fairly new method used.
How are Spurlock's methods irrelevant? He made several claims that couldn't have been possible. He had to have exaggerated a number of claims as well, and that serves no one in the end.
He doesn't gloss over the fact that people eat out too much. He mentions it many times. He mentions that women used to, statistically, stay home and cook meals...now, according to all data we have, women work and no one is home to cook dinner, so we eat out more. But the food isn't killing us as Spurlock and others would have you believe.
The fact that his indicators improved across the board prove Spurlock's main claims bogus. Food pricea have been on the rise for years, in fact. Besides- the point was, people should be free to choose as they wish. It's not the place of an expert or bureaucrat to tell you what to eat or not eat, especially considering that half the official govt guidelines are so misguided, and in some cases, flat out deceptive.
You seem to have missed the point on several of these items, and you're just plan wrong on the BMI. I haven't studied the science mentioned in the movie yet, but it sounds credible, and nothing seems to have been fudged here on the surface. He set out to do something and he did it...he did the opposite of what Spurlock did, he showed some flaws in Spurlock's methods, and he included an entire second act that had almost nothing to do with Spurlock or Super Size Me. Conservative, liberal libertarian, whatever...I don't see the complaint.
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DrWhen
13 years ago
I have studied the science as much as my background allows and the conclusion usually comes to "we just don't know," but the concept that eating cholesterol causes cholesterol buildup in the arteries seems to be taking statistical hits every year.
Personally I've found I'm healthier after ditching the government recommendations and eliminating large amounts of grains from my diet. I also keep the fats down because they contain a lot of calories, and I work a desk where I don't burn them off. Most of my diet comes from lean protein, fruits, and vegetables. I'm not sure why people talk about eliminating processed foods but don't include grains which didn't exist in large quantities in the human diet until relatively recent farming technology made it possible.
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Ezel
13 years ago
BMI isn't what's shown on the screenshot though.
BMI is NOT percentage of fat in the body, it's just a simple math-calculation:
weight (in metric kilogram)
----------------------------------- = BMI
height * height (in meters)
He says in the beginning of the movie that he is 5 foot 11 inches and has a weight of 206 pounds.
Using the BMI-calculator located here:
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
It shows that he had an BMI of 28.7 which is not, even according to the BMI-scale, obese at all actually but instead overweight.
These numbers might be wrong though since I don't know if the calculator are using the same definition of "pound" as is used in the movie, but that's what you got to live with when some countries still keeps ignoring the metric-system.
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