Take a moment, enjoy the irony...

So I get a phone call this morning from a local university that is doing a scientific medical study on how yoga and stretching can help with metabolic syndrome. Those accepted will attend two 90-minute yoga/stretching classes each week, and get PAID for it! Not to mention, a physician-supervised weight loss program along with the yoga and stretching.

The young woman screening me over the phone asked a few questions, including how many hours each week that I exercise. I told her that up until August 5, I was going to the Y two or three times a week to swim and that I could do a mile in about an hour, and that I can bike 12 - 20 miles a couple times a week, and in the last couple of weeks, I've worked up to half an hour on the treadmill, but that since August I've been nursing my MCL injury incurred on Aug 5 when I was training for a triathlon and tried to jog too far rather than walk.

She hesitated a moment, then said, "I think you may be too active for our study."

"What? But even with all that, I'm still 100 pounds overweight?"

"You are?"

"Yes."

Hesitation. "Well, we're looking for people who have been largely inactive for the last six month. You're just too active and it would affect the values we're looking for in the study."

Alas.

Oy!!!

Yeah, no kidding. Too fit to be fat. Ha!

I get this. I gained weight training for marathons. Who runs 50+ miles/week and still gains weight (and, trust me, it wasn't muscle)?! I actually lose weight a LOT easier when I am inactive. Aerobic activity wreaks havoc on my hunger levels and cravings.

Ideally their study would include a group of sedentary people and another group of active people who don't currently do yoga, but it looks like they're just focusing on the former.

You're still better off than someone who's been sedentary, and that's what matters.

Oh the irony! Well, you are proving all those people wrong who think "fat" and "inactive" are mutually exclusive. I gained a bunch on hormone treatment for endometriosis and my stupid GP back home was on me about it. However, my amazing GP here just laughed saying that my chart says I am in great shape.

I may need to "lose" 25 lbs according to my freaking BMI, but even when I was running 5-10 miles a day and a size 0, I was "overweight", so I say screw it!

You just can't win, chann!

How in the world can you be a size "0" and still be overweight?

Zoom-zoom, I'm with you. The more active I am, the more cravings I get, and the easier it is to give myself permission to give in to those cravings. Sure, I can have that chocolate croissant because I just swam a mile. No problem.

Still, I think I'll look into the yoga classes at the Y. I'm already paying for them.

Roxy

My sister is closer to a 00 and is a real runner and the same GP said she was overweight. I just ignore it. It's because BMI is so screwed up! I say if you are happy and healthy that is all that matters. Sizes are just numbers and if you can swim a mile, you are clearly in better shape than 9/10th of the people I know ("skinny" or not!).

I come from tiny people, so 25 lbs IS a lot to gain when you are 5' even, but I know I am healthy and THAT is what matters.

Have a croissant and enjoy it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zoom-zoom

I get this. I gained weight training for marathons. Who runs 50+ miles/week and still gains weight (and, trust me, it wasn't muscle)?! I actually lose weight a LOT easier when I am inactive. Aerobic activity wreaks havoc on my hunger levels and cravings.

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Me too, zz! My weight is pretty constant within about a 3-lb. range, but I notice that I am usually at the low end when I am exercising the least and at the high end when I'm doing the most. Strange stuff.

went for the annual healthy woman check up today and had the nurse tell me that my pulse (resting rate 45) and blood pressure 110/50 was too low for a woman of my age and something must be wrong with me. The doctor laughed at that and told me that I could skip the bone density stuff until I was 65 because with the amount of training I do it was ridiculous to do a baselineat 62 before I decided to slow down to normal.

She's and irish woman, salt of the earth and I love her. All she ever says about any activity is "as long as it doesn't force you to start popping prescription pain killers, go for it."

HEE! Oh the irony.

Regarding BMI, a mathematician friend once forwarded me an article about why the BMI is complete and utter bo**ocks and needs to be taken with a whole mine of salt. Lost the link, but needless to say, I've stopped taking anyone seriously when they mention the word 'BMI'.

Also curious on the being a size '0' and overweight thing. How??!!