"Bloggers Get Healthy!" - Check Your Body Fat and Other Ways to Measure Health

"So, the greater the pizza size..."
Some time ago, I did an article (see "Healthy Alternative...") urging my fellow bloggers to take some time out at least thrice a week to get some light exercise into their routine. The tip is intended for non-bloggers also, in case you're wondering. So did you fellows take the advice?

Well, did you?

For those of you who failed to heed the call of the stairmaster or your local aerobics instructor, here's a quick check to see whether you're qualified for the next sumo wrestling world cup.

There are of course devices in the market that can measure your body fat quite accurately. However, these digital monitors won't your reduce body fat but rather it will strip away your hard earned blog advertising revenue. Keep that cash and stay wealthy and healthy at the same time.

Your Ad Here

What you do is you get your grandma's trusty old tape measure and head on over to HealthCentral.com's Health Calculators at their CholesterolNetwork site. Here you'll find a few online tests to gauge your health's status.

Body Fat Percentage and Body Mass Index (BMI) are two important measures relevant to finding out whether your likely prone to weight-related health risks. You need to know your height, weight, waist and hips measurements, plus you will also need to measure your wrist's and forearm's girth. Plug those numbers in on their calculators and you'll get a close enough picture of how healthy you are.

There's also the Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) measurement which relates to whether you're body is shaped like an "apple" or a "pear". Apple shaped body types have extra weight concentrated around the waist which is correlated to greater health risks. You may visit healthyforms.com and use their cool graphical WHR tool.

My scores aren't pretty but I'll share it to the rest of the web universe as a baseline. I'm currently keeping to a workout program and I'm confident these numbers will improve a few dozen blogs from now.

Body Mass Index (BMI) - 31.8 (High Risk, Overweight)
Waist-Hip Ratio (WHR) - 1.08 (Apple, Overweight, Health Risk)
Body Fat Percentage - 22.1% (18% is healthy for Asians like me)

Remember that keeping a healthy weight is a key factor in avoiding heart ailments as we grow old.

What about you? How do your health scores add up?

Healthy Alternative for Bloggers

Two reports (see "Pot Belly..." and "Even Light Exercise...") made me bow my head and seriously think today. Particularly, the first one entitled "Pot Belly Linked to Heart Disease" was even cited as the most emailed article for at the BBC News site.

I admit, I do have a pot belly and therefore the article made my heart beat a tad faster than usual. Basically, the study states that while being overweight is a definitive factor to developing a heart disease, the concentration of that weight in the abdominal area poses increased risk for atherosclerosis - the narrowing and hardening of the arteries.

Ardent bloggers have a tendency to lead sedentary lifestyles due to the fact that they spend considerable time sitting down, uploading their various blogcasts in front of the computer. Couple that with a viscious amount of coffee and chips throughout the day and there then is a picture of a future medical bill that by itself can cause a heart attack.

Don't be deceived by video bloggers who look healthy from the chest up. Notice they won't show their waistline on webcam because in most certain terms there are probably love handles brimming down there.

Kidding aside, there is hope for bloggers to remain healthy come Web 3.0 and beyond. The second report encouraged light exercise (i.e. brisk walking) for 30 minutes 3 times a week. That is apparently enough to achieve certain health benefits. Although the minimum exercise regimen to achieve truly significant gains is 30 minutes for 5 times weekly, the 3 times a week program should push borderline couch potatoes off to performing some level of healthy activity.

So when you're stuck in a writing rut or presented with the option of blogging about a pop star in rehab, take your 30 minutes and just walk it off. The world won't miss it and you'll probably be a healthier blogger to boot!