A Thoughtful Reminder About Using Weight As a (Primary) Measure of Health

Family physician Yoni Freedhoff, MD (Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa; Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) recently penned a worthy read over on MedScape – Scaling Back on Weight as a Measure of Patient Health. (Note – free account required to read the full article).

From the article –

…When I was a medical student in the 1990s, I wasn’t taught how to use a scale, and I’m betting that the same is true for most medical students today. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not that I think scales are complicated pieces of equipment, but after exclusively practicing obesity medicine for the past 15 years, I do think that their proper use is worth discussing.

Scales do measure the gravitational pull of Earth at a given moment in time. Scales don’t measure the presence or absence of health, nor do they measure lifestyle or effort. And for patients, it’s useful to note that scales don’t measure happiness, success, or self-worth, either…

He goes on to remind that while weight is without question a significant risk factor for a plethora of medical conditions, particularly at the extremes of the body weight curve, weight alone is not a guarantee that any or all of these conditions will occur. He also reminds that inferring health status from body weight alone is often a fool’s errand, and that scales don’t measure lifestyle.

My specific intent in mentioning the article is two-fold. One, to remind us all that the principle objective of improving our nutrition and fitness is to optimize our health and ability to function in life, not necessarily attaining some (often arbitrarily derived) number on a scale that conforms to our (real or not) body image.

And two, it’s always interesting to read responses to opinion articles that are targeted toward a physician audience and “peek behind the curtain” if you will at their responses. I for one think it’s a good thing conventional medicine is beginning to talk in earnest (at least part of the time) about lifestyle influences on health…