Besides my wife’s heart incident I talked about before where a doctor panicked because he never saw a heart rate of 44 before, other recent incidences occurred that just make me shake my head.
Switching and adding to life insurance policies saw Joni and I taking the insurance company’s version of a physical. Already knowing about insurance companies’ infamous height/weight charts, the guy in charge passed along instructions to take my chest, waist and hip measurements. Why? Because just from a PURE height/weight standpoint, I’m considered overweight and one chart, “Obese, Class 1”. Muscle is heavier than fat. At my height of 5’8” and a weight that’s usually @ 205, I’m anywhere from 13 to 46 lbs overweight according to 5 different charts I consulted.
I was in the Armed Forces when they had come out with their latest version in the early 80’s. Myself and 2 other weight lifters were sent to the base Dispensary for review as we were considered very overweight according to their new standards. Luckily, the Major in charge was a lifting partner with common sense. I can’t print what he said exactly, but he thought it was a load of BS to put it mildly and gave us waivers. By the way, I was also the fastest runner on base in the 2 mile run. I wasn’t just a muscle head and my aerobic capacity exceeded guys half my size. (Laughingly, I’m STILL 22 lbs over their max for weight based on their latest chart.)
People can look at charts, weights, scales, whatever. The mirror doesn’t lie. You can fall within some chart’s version of acceptable weight and still be an out of shape mess. The truth stares back at you from a full length mirror as you stand in your skivvies. Not to sound narcissistic, but a mirror will tell you more than any scale you step on or any chart you consult. Be honest, would you rather have a good looking reflection and feel healthy or be within some table’s guidelines and be flabby and out of shape? Like the saying goes, “You can’t flex fat.”
So, anyways, hopefully they’ll use my measurements along with a dose of common sense to apply the rates. However, the nurse took Joni’s resting heart rate five (Yes, 5!) different times and it came out to 40 each time. She “Didn’t understand how that could be possible.” Here we go again……………