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Weight Loss Forum / General Topics / February 2004health checkup
Prior to my leave I had given blood and done a health screening with the local county health department through a program at work. Today the results came in the mail, so I thought I'd share. It was a typical questionaire exam (which I hate, as their answers are bogus). Those life expectancies, like how many miles do you drive to work, how often do you wear your seatbelt, have you ever had unprotected sex, blah, blah.... Then they come up with the generalized answers. My results: Female, age 32 height: 5'3" weight: 130lbs blood pressure: 107/75 Total Chol: 165 Triglycerides: 71 HDL: 53 VLDL: 14 LDL: 98 LDL/HDL ratio: 1.8 ** now, if someone could give that to me in layman's terms, I'd be happy. ** Glucose, Serum: 79 Health Risk Appraisal: (** these are based on the questionaire, which I think is a bunch of bull sh!t) as compared to the population Average risk assessments: Breask Cancer: Below average suicide: average Homicide: average Motor vehicle crash: about 50% below average. (ha, ha.... ) HIV/Aids: average Liver Cirrhosis: below average Stroke: below average other injuries: average Heart attack: about 50% below average Diabetes Mellitus: average Poisoning: average Leukemia: average So, I assume that either 1. they didn't ask the questions on suicide, homicide, HIV, Other, Diabetes, poisoning or leukemia... or 2. the average person isn't going to get any of those things. Oh, on further inspection, all those have an * saying that the average value was used - which means that they didn't test me specifically on those areas, they just plugged me in as "average"... Now that's bogus! Weight assessment: 130lbs is considered to be 5% overweight. My desirable weight range is 112 - 126 lbs. To improve my risk profile I should bring my weight to my desirable range and it should take me approximately 0.01yrs to reach that goal. ** Dally and Determined - please express your opinions here ... you've met me in person... To do so, - Exercise briskly for 15-30 mins at least 3 times a week. (uh, would 1 to 2 hrs at least 4x a week do? duh) - use good eating habis choosing a variety of foods that are low in fat and cholesterol and high in fiber. (uh, I feel like a lesson from patricia. :) - learn to recognize and handle stress - get help if you need it. (DUH) OK, so other than a current cholesterol reading - that was an udder waste of my time and caused a wicked bruise on my arm from wheere they took the blood which I still had 2 weeks later for my wedding photos! Shame they don't get into body fat percentages as a comparison to weight and activity levels and eating habits. Now, IMO that would be a better "health" assesment. And for an even better assesment - how about adding in a cardiovascular fitness too, what is your endurance and exercise heart rates, etc. You are so healthy! Post your lab results on the fridge. Your Mom would be proud if she knew what they meant! Weight 130 - five pounds overweight. Yeah, probably; IF you looked at thousands and thousands of women five foot three. The numbers come from an enormous amount of data collection and correlation. (Please, Iggy, we know what you think of correlation!) Would it be safe to assume that you pack around a little more muscle than other women your age and weight? Like BMI's, this number can only compare you to the masses. It does not take into account your specific health information. It is nice to know that you only have an average homicide rate as most of us are at very little risk for homicide. I wonder how they determined that. Did they ask if you were in an abusive relationship or ask questions about marital stability? If you are a woman, the most likely person to kill you would be a disgruntled husband. Seems very unlikely being that you knew your current husband for years prior to marriage and they likely did not do a personality risk assessment on him. They likely asked you how often you enjoyed alcoholic beverages and thus they can determine that your risk of cirrhosis is below normal. I have no idea how they determined your suicide rate although I do know that suicide clusters at certain ages which you are in between. Apparently, you wear your seatbelt and do not engage in high risk activities. They most likely assessed your risk for a heart attack based upon your cholesterol, smoking history, weight and activity levels. These are reasonable predictors. Obesity contributes to the risk of breast CA and that is likely how they determined you were at low or average risk. Did they ask about family history? I think that while the information is rather general, it is good to have. The results specific to you tell a good story which should validate your commitment to a healthy lifestyle. The fact that you aren't at serious risk for heart disease or breast CA, is a good thing. A single blood glucose reading is not a reliable predictor of diabetes although your sugar was good. You did not state if it was a fasting level or if you had eaten recently. Your weight and activity level, imo, put you at a lower risk than average unless you have a strong family history. Of course, your weight is considered overweight when compared to wimpy women who don't work out! j > Prior to my leave I had given blood and done a health screening with > the local county health department through a program at work. Today [quoted text clipped - 77 lines] > about adding in a cardiovascular fitness too, what is your endurance > and exercise heart rates, etc. > You are so healthy! Post your lab results on the fridge. Your Mom would be > proud if she knew what they meant! [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > BMI's, this number can only compare you to the masses. It does not take > into account your specific health information. She is not overweight according to BMI, and bloody unlikely according to BF%. She may be above her "ideal weight", and the assessment was saying that, in a very poorly worded way. If she stays at her shape that she was at wedding, she will live a great life and will play with her great-grandkids etc. i Jayjay, your heart disease risk is nearly zero. Heart disease is the number one killer of bother men and women, and you've got it licked. > You are so healthy! Post your lab results on the fridge. Your Mom would be > proud if she knew what they meant! [quoted text clipped - 126 lines] > > about adding in a cardiovascular fitness too, what is your endurance > > and exercise heart rates, etc. >Jayjay, > >your heart disease risk is nearly zero. Heart disease is the number >one killer of bother men and women, and you've got it licked. Thanks Brad, I wasn't sure if I should be concerned about the fact that my LDL is 98 and the limit for "healthy " is 99. But I've never really taken the time to understand what any of that means. Unfortunately I was out of town when the service did the personal followups, so my results were just mailed to me with no real explaination of what any of it truely meant. > My results: > > Female, age 32 > height: 5'3" > weight: 130lbs Ha! I just posted in another thread that I thought you were around 130 pounds. > LDL/HDL ratio: 1.8 This is where I got jealous of you. My HDL is really low and even though my overall cholesterol is low it puts me in high risk categories. At least it did last time I checked back in July. Maybe losing another 25 pounds and eating salmon has changed things. > Health Risk Appraisal: (** these are based on the questionaire, which > I think is a bunch of bull sh!t) as compared to the population Average > risk assessments: > > Breask Cancer: Below average Curious, when nearly all of the risk factors are unknown... > suicide: average > Homicide: average LOL, what interesting questions those must have been! > Weight assessment: > 130lbs is considered to be 5% overweight. My desirable weight range > is 112 - 126 lbs. To improve my risk profile I should bring my > weight to my desirable range and it should take me approximately > 0.01yrs to reach that goal. > ** Dally and Determined - please express your opinions here ... > you've met me in person... What, you've never heard my opinion of BMI charts for weight-lifting women before? I've seen you and you're gorgeous. Strong, healthy, practically perfect in everyway. You could have a tape measure with your name on it. (I'm quoting Mary Poppins here loosely in case you're wondering.) > To do so, > - Exercise briskly for 15-30 mins at least 3 times a week. (uh, would [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > - learn to recognize and handle stress - get help if you need it. > (DUH) I like the way you handled the stress from a wedding: you went on a three week cruise. Now THAT'S good stress handling! > Shame they don't get into body fat percentages as a comparison to > weight and activity levels and eating habits. Now, IMO that would be > a better "health" assesment. But harder to do cheaply and impersonally. I've been wondering about going to talk to my doctor about a tummy tuck. I know I have to be at goal before we talk about that. My goal is 23% body fat and that's only about 10 pounds away for me. But will my doctor believe that 170 is goal for a 5'6" woman? I don't know. She may want me to get out of the overweight range on the BMI charts, and that will mean wasting muscle. I'm concerned about that. (On the other hand, I've got the world's most ugly belly and thighs. Losing more weight wouldn't hurt me any.) Dally 244/182/170 >> suicide: average >> Homicide: average > >LOL, what interesting questions those must have been! actually, they didn't ask any.... I think they skipped the really indepth analysis (although I believe webmd or one of those other sites has one of those really indepth questionaires that would really assess that kind of stuff). In this case they just threw everyone into the "average" catgory. Which sucks as if they input this into a national database of some sort (being that it was a county sponsored thing) then we are just increasing the "average" statistical numbers in a false way. >I like the way you handled the stress from a wedding: you went on a >three week cruise. Now THAT'S good stress handling! yeah - but as soon as I'm back home and the stress starts building again - what do I do - I find the biggest land boat of a vehicle i can find and pretend I don't see it at all and smack into its rear end going as fast as I can. How's that for stress management. :) >I've been wondering about going to talk to my doctor about a tummy tuck. > I know I have to be at goal before we talk about that. My goal is 23% [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >(On the other hand, I've got the world's most ugly belly and thighs. >Losing more weight wouldn't hurt me any.) Sounds like you are where I was a few years ago - when I decided that the BMI and weight charts were full of sh.t and decided that I'd set my goals on my own personal opinion of body image. Weight - don't care. And even now - BF% isn't as big an issue. Its how I look in clothes and nekid. :) > >I've been wondering about going to talk to my doctor about a tummy tuck. > > I know I have to be at goal before we talk about that. My goal is 23% > >body fat and that's only about 10 pounds away for me. But will my > >doctor believe that 170 is goal for a 5'6" woman? I don't know. She > >may want me to get out of the overweight range on the BMI charts, and > >that will mean wasting muscle. I'm concerned about that. Dally - I don't believe a doctor would have a problem with that ht/wt combo on a woman who is obviously in good physical shape with a healthy bf%. I keep getting told by the doctors I've seen that I don't need to lose any weight even though my BMI is in the overweight range. I've been working on maintaining my current weight just to do so (maintain) and I just found out this week that since I've been weightlifting (5 weeks) my bf% went down 3% and my weight has only gone down 1 lb. > >(On the other hand, I've got the world's most ugly belly and thighs. > >Losing more weight wouldn't hurt me any.) I might be decent competition for the ugly belly part. > Sounds like you are where I was a few years ago - when I decided that > the BMI and weight charts were full of sh.t and decided that I'd set > my goals on my own personal opinion of body image. Weight - don't > care. And even now - BF% isn't as big an issue. Its how I look in > clothes and nekid. :) Jayjay - that's exactly where I'm trying to get to. I'm sick and tired of hating myself just because of a number on the scale. Nowadays, I'm focusing on body fat in the sense of muscle definition. People are asking me if I'm losing weight again, even though I'm not losing pounds. I don't look like I weigh what I do and I'm beginning to see myself for how I actually look. I'm not quite the cow I thought I was, especially when compared to last January when I was 300 pounds. I'm receiving compliments on my arms & DH likes that when he puts his hand on my back he doesn't get poked with bones. A good example of this is that in 2 weeks I'm running a 5 mile race with some friends that I have been doing some running with this winter on the treadmills. The race has the traditional age divisions, but this year they added a division for women over 150 lbs and men over 200 lbs. I told my friends I was entering the weight division instead of the age and none of them believed that I qualify :) The exact quote was "you can't weigh more than 135 lbs" and my response was "I'd have to chop off a limb" (thanks Dally!). Even though I wouldn't have to chop off a limb, it just seemed like the perfect time to use that line :) All of this is helping me overcome the eating disorder (along with pretty decent medical care). It's people like you, Dally, Chris, and others who aren't fixated on scale numbers and BMI charts that are helping me make progress and making maintenance much easier these days. This weightlifting stuff is addictive! Jenn It is one of the best addictions I could think of! I love getting stronger and more powerful too! "JMA" <bjenniferb@yahoo.com> wrote in message > This weightlifting stuff is addictive! > > Jenn >This weightlifting stuff is addictive! Good for you, Jenn! :-) Chris (fellow addict) >>>I've been wondering about going to talk to my doctor about a tummy tuck. >>> I know I have to be at goal before we talk about that. My goal is 23% [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > > Jenn I love our peer pressure here! We all help each other and I really appreciate that. Yes, I'm trying to feel okay about being 170. (Not that I am, the bad scale looked like 184 today, but I had chinese food last night.) But I'm looking sturdy and athletic these days rather than blowsy. On the subject of weight-lifting being addictive, I think one of the reasons is that you need to go back in 48 or 72 hours to keep your gains coming. It's got it's own positive re-enforcement. I can go weeks without running (and at the moment I think I have) but I can only go a few days without weight-lifting. About the running: today was supposed to be my long run day but I woke up achey and crampy and tired with my period. I skipped my run. For the past two weeks I've never had more than 1/2 an hour for cardio so I've been doing other things - NordicTracking mostly 'cuz I can get it out of the way before my day begins. I'm sad about the setback, but not at all shocked. My billings from my business are up a whopping 52% so far this year. I'm working my a.s off in one respect, at least! Dally, just getting off work at 10 pm on Saturday night > I love our peer pressure here! We all help each other and I really > appreciate that. > On the subject of weight-lifting being addictive, I think one of the > reasons is that you need to go back in 48 or 72 hours to keep your gains > coming. It's got it's own positive re-enforcement. I can go weeks > without running (and at the moment I think I have) but I can only go a > few days without weight-lifting. My trainer said no more than 5 days between sessions. I've been pretty religious about 3x/wk but mostly because I enjoy it. The people at the gym are pretty cool and the results are more than obvious lately. > About the running: today was supposed to be my long run day but I woke > up achey and crampy and tired with my period. I skipped my run. For [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > at all shocked. My billings from my business are up a whopping 52% so > far this year. I'm working my a.s off in one respect, at least! A few weeks ago was the first time I ever had to take off from running because of cramps. I'd already whacked my tailbone doing XC skiing and between that, the cramps and some overly eager hyperextensions I had to take a full week off. I managed to keep up the cardio with the elliptical which was the only thing that didn't aggravate the situation. I've been battling another sinus infection which has made outdoor running nearly impossible. I'm supposed to run a 5 mile race in two weeks but I may pull out if I can't get in more outdoor miles this week. I have no need to drive 100 miles each way for a training run. Jenn on the way to see if I can do 4 miles on the treadmill > > I love our peer pressure here! We all help each other and I really > > appreciate that. [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > Jenn > on the way to see if I can do 4 miles on the treadmill I went for my first run in a very long time last night. Well, I ran/walked because I hadn't done it for a while. It was tough, but it was pretty fun. It was sprinkling outside and I love running in the rain. : ) As soon as skiing season ends, I'll get back into running and climbing, which have taken a back seat right now since every Saturday I've been going to Tahoe. This weekend promises to be the best powder day so far. : D I'm going to Squaw Valley which is one of my favorite places to ski. I've also lost another pound. : ) Martha 179/153/130 |
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