Thread: Japan, Seeking Trim Waists, Measures Millions

It sounds like the standard they are setting is a a bit ridiculous.

Another reason I love Japanese people

I saw the TV program 2 weeks ago(in Japan). Pretty much people complaining about invading rights and such. Aka why should the goverment care. Lotsa perople praising this too though.
As a person I think its annoying that someone should bother your lifestyle.
But if I was the goverment, I understand, longterm this will lead to a healty population as well as decreased $$$ spending on your population health concerns.

ironically looking at that picture I just wanted to say sumo are very athletic and extremely flexible, also there was studies done on them, and they are in a good health zone suprisingly.

the japanese are f***ing crazy

In US its 40 for men and 35 for women.

I think it has been shown that for people of Asian origins, waist circumference is a much better predictor of disease risk than weight or BMI.

Originally Posted by Anoopbal

In US its 40 for men and 35 for women.

I think it has been shown that for people of Asian origins, waist circumference is a much better predictor of disease risk than weight or BMI.

Wouldn't that be true for all (not just asian) people, at least when considered on an individual basis (as opposed to population studies where the small number of "overweight with muscle instead of fat" people fall into the noise)?

Some studies indicate that waist / height, rather than just waist, may be a better indicator of health:

http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTR...c=GetTRDoc.pdf
Body-Mass Index, Waist-to-Height Ratio and More...

Wouldn't that be true for all (not just asian) people, at least when considered on an individual basis (as opposed to population studies where the small number of "overweight with muscle instead of fat" people fall into the noise)?

Would depend on where your BMI falls. Thats why the classification has different levels like Increased, high, very high, & extremely high. Both BMI & cicumference becomes factors where you fall in the classification.

Read this. It also has a reference from NIH at the end if you want to learn more.

How do you know if you are healthy or not- health, obesity, overweight, BMI, diabetes

Originally Posted by Anoopbal

Would depend on where your BMI falls. Thats why the classification has different levels like Increased, high, very high, & extremely high. Both BMI & cicumference becomes factors where you fall in the classification.

Wouldn't waist size correlate much better to fatness than BMI, in the case of people who have more than the usual amount of muscle (as well as those who are not that muscular)? Some people are "overweight" but not overfat, while others who are "overweight" are not as overfat as would be implied by how much they weigh (i.e. some excess fat, but also some extra muscle).

Also, 39" is a rather large waistline for most men.

I understand the invasion of privacy concerns and whatnot, but Japan is not too far behind the US in the obesity race (the Aussies are actually leading the race). According to several studies and news reports, current youth generations are not expected to live for as many years as their parent generations here in the states due to cardiovascular disease. That completely crazy.

I think that it is somewhat good that the Japanese may actually be proactively trying to do something about it, because while I understand that a lot of the responsibility for managing fitness and weight control is on the person or the parents of young children (of which it is increasingly clear that their is simply a lack of effort on a large scale), the government here in the states continues to cut programs that would give young children a better shot at maintaining their weight early.

Programs and classes such as P.E., recess, and after school activities continue to be cut. P.E. in particular needs to go through a paradigm shift, transforming it into a fitness curriculum based class in which children can initially be exposed to physical fitness training basics and human anatomy and exercise physiology. This could give P.E. a little more backing when it comes up in some schools for being cut. In the end though, schools here in the US need the funding so that physical activity based programs are not so readily being used as sacrificial lambs, and parents need to take a vest interest in the physical health and well-being of their children in this matter. Feeding a child fast food 3 times a week and allowing children to eat everything they want leading to childhood obesity severely hampers a child's ability to grow into and develop a good training program with lifelong habits.

Originally Posted by illiniphase4

Programs and classes such as P.E., recess, and after school activities continue to be cut. P.E. in particular needs to go through a paradigm shift, transforming it into a fitness curriculum based class in which children can initially be exposed to physical fitness training basics and human anatomy and exercise physiology. This could give P.E. a little more backing when it comes up in some schools for being cut. In the end though, schools here in the US need the funding so that physical activity based programs are not so readily being used as sacrificial lambs, and parents need to take a vest interest in the physical health and well-being of their children in this matter.

Physical education is a joke. Weight lifting, nutrition, the concept of caloric deficit/surplus and how weight can be managed were never even mentioned in any of the PE classes I had to take.

Originally Posted by Danger_Dave

Physical education is a joke. Weight lifting, nutrition, the concept of caloric deficit/surplus and how weight can be managed were never even mentioned in any of the PE classes I had to take.

They weren't in mine either, not until I was able to take "condition" in high school. I'm merely pointing out that these concepts could easily be added into current phys ed curriculum, giving P.E. courses stronger academic (and grading) basis while continuing to teach entry level sports.

Teachers wouldn't have to take all of the fun out of the class, but the class would become more meaningful, and more useful.

yeah, that'd be a good idea. It'd have to be the right info though. They tried teaching us proper weight lifting technique in middle school. Didn't work out. I never would havel ost any weight taking advice from P.E. teachers

That's why P.E. teachers, like teachers of other subject areas, should have to certify or have specifically studied that area... individuals who have graduated with degrees in kinesiology, exercise physiology, or physical education degrees, so that the aren't just teaching something out of a book that they know nothing about, but have actually committed themselves to those fields of study.