Ep. 245 - Is BMI Useless?

It’s Eric-ception folks. Today, we put to bed two controversies. Not only the controversy as to whether or not Eric Trexler is vat-grown, as he seems to have at least SOME pop-culture knowledge, but also the controversy of whether or not Eric Trexler and Eric Helms are actually the same person. The last two episodes renewed this conspiracy theory due to the occurrence of the “new” host Eric Trexler being on the last two episodes, while Eric Helms conveniently could not be on at the same time. Well folks, this episode, both Erics are here, and boy do they deliver. Dr. Trexler does a deep dive on the topic of BMI, which has come under substantial fire in recent times due to its shortcomings as a useful clinical metric. But should we abandon it completely? What can BMI tell us? What can’t it tell us? And, how should it be used, if at all, moving forward? And, where do we find the middle ground between advocacy and scientific accuracy? Tune in to find out! 00:00 Introduction to the holy trifecta and Eric’s return 21:20 The background of BMI and metabolically healthy obesity https://massresearchreview.com/ Marcus 2023 Metabolically Healthy Obesity Is a Misnomer: Components of the Metabolic Syndrome Linearly Increase with BMI as a Function of Age and Gender https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37237531/ 40:00 The value of this research from a sociological lens 46:43 Limitations and criticisms of BMI Xu 2018 Association of Obesity With Mortality Over 24 Years of Weight History: Findings From the Framingham Heart Study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30646366/ Iron Culture Ep. 146- What The Fitness Industry Gets Wrong About The Obesity Epidemic  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfAbKeiAuII 1:04:55 Goal orientation: changing health behaviours vs reducing BMI Oscarsson 2020 A large-scale experiment on New Year's resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33296385/ 1:25:36 Closing out another monster episode Omar @omarisuf https://www.instagram.com/omarisuf/ www.raskolapparel.com Helms @helms3dmj https://www.instagram.com/helms3dmj/ https://3dmusclejourney.com/  Trexler @trexlerfitness https://www.instagram.com/trexlerfitness/ https://trexlerfitness.com/

Om Podcasten

Iron Culture was started by Eric Helms and Omar Isuf as a means of exploring the world of physical culture and attempting to distill a unified philosophy of lifting and to help listeners find greater meaning from the iron. The lifting community has become fractured over the last ~70 years and this Podcast will attempt to explore the fundamental threads that unite these different tribes. The Podcast focuses on dispensing practical, useful information to the listener, bouncing from history, to philosophy, to contemporary lifting culture issues, to science. This can range from teaching the audience about lifting, programming, nutrition, supplements/PEDs and the history of lifting culture. The format includes casual conversations between the two hosts on a variety of topics, discussions with a panel of experts and interviews with authoritative figures in the lifting community.