Thursday, February 17, 2011

Statistical Review as a Reality Check


In the painful analysis called BMI (Body Mass Index) or Quetelet Index, I have not been of appropriate weight since 'ever'. Now I am still within the clinically obese category and will be for the rest of the month. To actually leave the obese category I would need to be at a weight I have not been in my entire adult life, or at least not since college. To be below overweight I suppose I would need to regress back to high school, where, according to this index, I may have been OK.
 It is hard for me to accept that I have not been 'OK' at my present height 'ever' according to the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet developer of "social physics".
\mathrm{BMI} = \frac{\mbox{mass} \ \mbox{(kg)}}{\left( \mbox{height}(\mathrm{m})\right)^2}

At half my present weight I would be considered 'NORMAL'.

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