I use the gym at work almost every day, and usually listen to my iPod. The past few days I’ve been listening to the audiobook of World War Z, which is awesome by the way, but today it was difficult to drown out the TV. It’s normally turned to a local news channel or to CNN, which I can drown out, but today someone turned up the volume extra loud. Obama was speaking at the town hall in Green Bay, and questions were being asked about the proposed health care reform. I tried to tune it out and focus on the awesome and sexy Henry Rollins in his role as the body guard to the stars during the zombie outbreak, but one thing slipped through and irritated the hell out of me.

I don’t really remember the question asked (there is no transcript online yet), but the President responded with “rising premium costs” and something to the effect like 20% of people who pay into insurance use 80% of the cost. In other words, a small amount of people eat up a lot of resources. Obama gave an example of ways we can help lower premiums by helping the people who use up those resources become more healthy. He said we could help an overweight person lose weight so they won’t develop diabetes. It was then I became stabby.

See, according to the craptacular BMI, I’m overweight and closer to obese than to normal. I’d have to lose more than 20 pounds to be in the “normal” range. I’ve ranted about this before, but it bears repeating.

Just because I am fat doesn’t mean I automatically will develop diabetes or heart disease or some other “fat disease”. Or it doesn’t mean that someone who is skinny, by default, is healthier than I am.

Fat in and of itself is not an indicator of health.