Confusion Over Statistic on Obesity Is Reduced

Don’t add another half-hour to your Stairmaster time just yet.

Health-conscious Southern Californians buzzed about Wednesday, trying to calculate their “body mass index,” after a federal researcher was quoted Tuesday as reporting that overweight Americans are now in the majority. However, the researcher’s colleagues at the National Center for Health Statistics sheepishly backed away from the data that jarred so many pudgy Americans out of their recliners.

Remarks by the center’s Katherine Flegal at a conference on obesity were either misinterpreted or misleading, said Jeff Lancashire, a spokesman for the center. Lancashire said the center instead stands by its 1994 report that found one in three American adults were overweight--not more than half.

The confusion stemmed from Flegal’s speech Tuesday before the North American Assn. for the Study of Obesity. Flegal told the group that according to center statistics, more than half of American adults had a body mass index higher than 25.

That’s true, but 25 turns out to be the World Health Organization’s international standard for measuring obesity, said Lancashire.

The U.S. government standard “is 27.8 for men and 27.3 for women,” said a somewhat weary-sounding Lancashire, whose office has been swamped with calls since the reports broke about Flegal’s speech.

That’s a big difference. A 6-foot man would be considered over the limit at more than 185 pounds if the healthy body mass index maximum is 25. With a body mass index of 27.8, the threshold rises to about 206 pounds.

According to charts the center uses in addition to body mass index, a man that height would be at the upper end of the “healthy weight” range at 185 and in the “moderate overweight” range at 206.

Center officials have been unable to reach Flegal because by the time they found out about her speech, she was on vacation in parts unknown, Lancashire said.

Lancashire said the institute has not been able to obtain a copy of her remarks, but he speculated that she mentioned the WHO’s 25 body mass index standard.

“She was going on the international figure--maybe because it was an international conference,” he said. He said Flegal may not have known reporters were present for her talk. “But they sure were,” he said. “We started to get calls right away.”

In any case, the news left plenty of folks talking about why Americans eat so much, or why they eat what they do.

At a McDonald’s restaurant in Costa Mesa, as he ate a hamburger and fries, 35-year-old Ron Petersen of Fountain Valley said, “Dieting is just a fad. People gain weight, they diet, then they want something with flavor, so they eat fast food again.”

Karen Sears, a 32-year-old student from Huntington Beach, attributed bad American eating habits to the fast pace of our lives.

“We’re always on the go,” she said. “Even ice cream is served drive-through now. People don’t make meals at home anymore; they’re quick to pick up a cheeseburger and French fries and go.”

Miriam Mayor, 75, a native of Switzerland visiting relatives in Seal Beach, said, “I’ve been here several times and I’m always astonished at how much Americans eat. It’s immense. What I serve four people at home is what one person eats here, and there’s too much fat. We think that Americans live dangerously.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writer David Haldane and correspondent Matea Gold.