Loud Thoughts

BMI is so unsatisfactory. Imagine you are inside a tube that is exactly the same height. Now imagine this magic tube can re-arrange your body without hurting you. It will contract and re-arrange until there is no more empty space left. BMI represent the diameter of that tube.

The theory is based on several deeply flawed assumptions:

• People have very similar density.
• Diameter, therefore, is a good proxy for figure.
• Figure, then, is a good proxy for the how much fat in the body.
• That, of course, is a direct proxy to how healthy one is.

With these, they surveyed the population and published guidelines. Soon, governments picked up the concept and published the obesity numbers. It spiraled out of proportion.

Anyone can stand on a scale, compute BMI with a simple calculator, look up the website, and knew where does he or she stand. Government can open the huge database of people’s height and weight and does the same. This is quite powerful. Up until now, no one has come up with a simple (one number, self measurable, huge data already collected) replacement to BMI.

Since what we really want to know is how fat we are, we should substitute BMI with body fat ratio. But all accepted methodologies are basically impossible to do in private, at home, and for free. Enter the SIndex!

The mechanics is simple by design. Measure the circumferences of your waist and hip and divide the sum of them by your height. The idea is also simple: this should be a reasonable substitute to the body fat ratio.

We all knew that most of our stored fat is in either the belly or the hip. My doctor told me that “gut measure” is an excellent predictor to heart diseases. So waist line size is a good proxy for fat contents in the body and also for how healthy one is. Since some store fat on the waist line and other on the hip, we would simply measure both and add them up. The next natural step is to normalize them for height.

I will leave it to you to name this new measure.

Our national esteem has been low these days. Toyota is the biggest car company, Iran war feels like VietNam war, Chinese and Indians are taking our jobs, Canada has better health care, Koreans make the best online games. What happened to the United States of America?

In fact, good old USA is still #1 in many, if not most, meaningful categories.

• We are, by far, the richest country in the world. USA’s GDP is over $13 trillions dollars. It is over 27% of world GDP and larger than the sum of the next 4 largest countries (Japan, Germany, China, and UK).
  Per capita, US citizens made more than their counterparts in those countries too: just a bit more than Germans and Brits, 24% more than Japanese, almost 15 times Chinese, and 43 times Indians.
• US is the #1 producer of corn, soybeans, and pretty much all the meats; 3rd in wheat; and 4th in potato. It is fair to say that USA feeds, or even fattens, the whole world. I believe that US farmers are the most productive in the world, probably better than China by more than 50 to 1.
• According to Wall Street Journal, US manufacture 20% of the goods in the world and China only 12%. Global Insight predicted China to catch up only by 2020, in terms of value-added manufacturing.
• US media industry clearly dominates the world. No other country produces the global buzz and craze like US does. Hollywood has long conquered the world in movie entertainment, so has the music industry.
• US has the most advanced medical industry. It dominates the world on pharmaceutical, bio-engineering, and all other medical technologies. Whoever was sick, his best bet will be in the US.
• Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, Dell, Cisco, Intel. Need I say more? Who has the best computing technologies in the world?
• Lastly, US generates the most pollution. Whatever measure, whatever category, we are also #1 in depleting those non-renewable resources.

This country was founded on strong pillars, envied by many. All worthy countries started the race to catch up the US after World War II. Sixty four years later, some of them are showing up in the rear mirror. I don’t think any would catch up in a decade or so. If you consider natural resources and population as the fundamental competitive factors, only EU and China are possible contenders in this arena.

History offers lessons on how empires fell. Americans will be wise to study them.

Even Michael Phelps cannot outswim the suit. The international swimming officials now want to outlaw those hi-tech swim suits so that athletes can compete on their own talents, instead technology or funding. The ideology could be right, but the money is not. The swim suit industry stands to lose big and that is not good for the sport. I propose two options for the industry to consider. Note that they are not mutually exclusive.

• Sprayed-on: It is the body wrapper. Put on your standard whatever look-good suit. Pay $100 and stand in the paint stall before the competition. A high-tech film will cover your entire body and make you as smooth as fish. It also add a tiny bit of buoyancy, but no one will notice.

  The film is warm water solvable. When you hit shower, it melts and flows down the drain.

• The Jet Pump: This suit has many tiny tubes along the motion line. As the athlete moves, water naturally flow into them. The muscular actions will squeeze them out and create tiny jets that help propel the swimmer.

  The suits are graded on their propelling power and amateur athletes compete based on a handicap system, similar to golf. Professionals will all use the same and there is no issue.

  Note that the spray-on will plug all tubes and essentially remove propulsion. Just wash your suit in hot water after the competition.

The idea is to enable commercialism in sports, not suffocating them. Money makes thriving sports. Don’t forget that.

This post is sponsored by Swimwear.