What's your resting heart rate?

[Crankin]

Shooting Star, I don't use my HR monitor anymore for cycling. But I do monitor my resting HR and take it by hand at other times, as an indicator of my overall health and stress level. We have a BP machine at home (digital) that I also use once in awhile. It's important for me to keep an eye on it, as mine can be very low or too high; it's very dependent on my stress level.

[shootingstar]

Dumb as this may seem, I gauge my "heart" fitness by how I can cycle certain hills at certain % grades continuously and onward for awhile without feeling pooped out.
Plus know my weight (vaguely since I weigh myself um... 1-3 times per month. I can see the bathroom scale less than 10 ft. from where I am sitting now at the computer.) and how my clothing fits on me.

'Course it helps that I know how much annual approx. cycling mileage I did too. I probably sound as if I don't care about my health, but would just use other indicators to help myself long term.

[roadie gal]

BMI is a very poor, but easily obtainable measurement. When I was in the army my BMI always came out high, but when they did the actual body fat measurements with the calipers I had a body fat of 18-19%. The BMI doesn't take body composition into account at all. Stupid. End of rant.

I used to have a resting heart rate of about 28. Of course that was right before I got my pacemaker...Now my resting heart rate is 60.

[pll]

It is an interesting issue to try to consider some health indicator when setting the insurance rates. The tricky question is which one (or which ones... perhaps it should be a composite score). Given any indicator, there will be people that get hurt by it.

I don't have a measurement of my resting heart rate. At the doctor's office, it's generally around 60, +/- 1-2 beats. I do suffer from some measure of 'white coat anxiety', so that must push my HR a bit higher than would otherwise be. After a couple of medical procedures, in the recovery room, I saw my heart rate was under 50. In terms of BMI, I fluctuate between 19 and 20. I have not had my body fat measured with calipers in many years, but according to my scale in the morning, it is around 19%. A typical BP measurement would be 90/60 or 100/70; my cholesterol panel is very good (not as good as zoom zoom's, though).

[goldfinch]

It is an interesting issue to try to consider some health indicator when setting the insurance rates. The tricky question is which one (or which ones... perhaps it should be a composite score). Given any indicator, there will be people that get hurt by it.

Frankly, I think that we should have national health insurance, paid through our taxes, but that isn't a popular position these days.

Given that it is so hard to maintain weight loss, the number of factors that go into weight gain, including genetic factors, my opinion is that a punitive charge is not going to help.

Here is an interesting article on the issue of charging people different rates, depending on whether they are obese, or smokers, or the like: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/he...pagewanted=all

[pll]

Frankly, I think that we should have national health insurance, paid through our taxes, but that isn't a popular position these days.

+1. I agree with you.

[Brandi]

+1. I agree with you.

+2 :d

[Miranda]

Sitting here at my pc desk, my HR was 63 bpm. Think first thing in the morning when I've lied in bed, right after waking, and taken it, still about 60 bpm.

Though I'm considered fit by a doctor's standards, my HR is still always higher than you would expect because of my medicines. My asthma meds that I must take to prevent an exercise induced attack just spike my HR like crazy. Also, my allergy meds that are decogestant and antihistimine based affect my overall BP and HR as well. Seems like my HR on the Garmin bike pc is always at least a 100bpm- before I ever even start the ride.

I'm weighing more than I would like now, but am still about 20% BMI based upon just height and weight with a basic BMI calculation.

Sorry you are having a hard time with your insurance rates. I worry this is coming down the pike for us as well. Your's though sounds unfair. DH is so unhealthy and this year to not get a price increase had to do a health screening. Oh geez, if they start changing our rates based upon his health habits we are screwed.

Best of luck to you.

[Owlie]

Frankly, I think that we should have national health insurance, paid through our taxes, but that isn't a popular position these days.

Given that it is so hard to maintain weight loss, the number of factors that go into weight gain, including genetic factors, my opinion is that a punitive charge is not going to help.

Here is an interesting article on the issue of charging people different rates, depending on whether they are obese, or smokers, or the like: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/he...pagewanted=all

+1, on all of it.
My mom's new insurance (which sucks) has the premiums set by I believe a combination of BMI, cholesterol and some other things, but primarily BMI. (Of course, BMI means nothing at the level of an individual, but we knew that.)
No idea what my resting HR is, but the last time I had it looked at (ER), it was around 65-70bpm...probably not my resting HR!

[Crankin]

+1 on the insurance.
Given my experience here, with our "Romney Care," I can't say anything bad. Almost all of my clients are getting therapy because of this insurance; it's a behavioral health initiative for families who have this plan. What I don't like is that if you are a working person and your employer doesn't offer insurance, what the state finds for you can still be pretty expensive.
I have mixed feelings about the issues raised in the NYT article. I wouldn't have a problem, because my BMI is 20, I don't smoke, or have any of the other risk factors. But, I know how hard it is to quit smoking. On the other hand, I kind of do feel strongly that people need to take more responsibility for their own health, but we need to help them. Behavioral change is extremely hard and unless most people get support, it's not going to happen. And using one thing as a measure of good health is just dumb.