MRI not BMI (Big Monsterous Idiocy)

For the myriads of you who are anxiously awaiting tales of Bucky Nelson, you'll have to wait one more blog. I just can't bear to let the BMI thing go by without making a comment other than the one I made on Linda's blog. Ladies please, oh please, do NOT fall into the trap of thinking that somehow a machine or chart can tell you if you are fat or not. The only real way to accurately measure body-fat is to be weighed under water. That gets your specific gravity and is absolutley correct but who cares anyway. For the better part of my career in the AIr Force, every human wearing the USAF uniform was subject to MAW. Good old MAW. It stood for Maximum Allowable Weight. Much like BMI the chart, it decided that if you were so tall, say 72" the absolute most you could weigh and still be usable cannon fodder was 211 lbs. That's it, end of story. Whatever height you were, you had a MAW. If you were caught being over that MAW you were put on the Fat Boy program and made to suffer further indignation at the hands of medical personnel, your First Sergeant, commander and anyone else who thought you might be too fat to live. My "normal" weight then was 220 lbs. At that weight I felt, functioned, and looked pretty darned good. I could, and did manage to starve myself down to that 211 when I knew a weigh-in was coming but the whole concept was/is ridiculous. I complained for years that they should target fat people not heavy people. The only way to get that MAW adjusted was to go to The medical center at Lackland AFB and be wieghed under water like I described before. It was way past stupid. Finally, about three years before I retired, they went to measuring body fat instead of just using that MAW crap. They would measure your neck, waist, and hight (and hips for women). They would then subtract the neck measurement from the waist one throw some chicken bones, spin around three times, chant unintelligible phrases to the East, then use that number with your height to look up your fattitude on a chart to see how much you could weigh. It was TONS better (for me at least) as I never had a problem the rest of my career and did't worry or sweat about forthcoming weigh-ins. So ladies and gentlemen,I am all for Linda's FON but prefer MRI. No, I don't mean that huge magnetic machine that can see soft tissue and pull the fillings right out of your teeth, I mean the Mr. Rogers Index..."I like you just the way you are."