My brother, 21 yo, is like this. He’s ~180 cm tall and has never weighted more than 61 kg (during the 2020 covid lockdown, he made a big deal out of this since it was the first time he passed the 60 kg mark; after the lockdown was over he immediately dropped back to his perpetual weight of ~55kg). I live with him so I know his eating habits: he eats all the time, whatever he wants, whenever, how much he wants and simply doesn’t put on any weight. Is very energetic, no sick look / demeanour. It’s just fascinating to me cause I’m not like that at all, I have to watch what / how much / when I eat.
it’s embarrassing that people still use eugenics calculators in scientific discussions
The linked page uses the Mifflin-St Jeor Formula which appears to have been published in 1990. As someone acquainted with eugenics but not how BMR calculations play a role, could you share some I formation on how the two are related?
I think the initial assumption that a “healthy” universal weight even exists is rooted in eugenics. oh, and also the attempts by the medical industrial complex to standardize it and enforce it through violence against fat people
I’ve seen you say a few places in this thread that reducing caloric intake is related to eugenics. That’s a pretty strong claim to make without any evidence. Can you share any?
I think amino may be referring to the history of BMI, which is how most folks judge weight/mass, and has a long history of racist origins. There’s loads of research on it now and Aubrey Gordon’s book ”You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People summarizes some of the research very well. Here’s a recent ethics article that also sheds some light onto the subject:
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-use-bmi-fetishizes-white-embodiment-and-racializes-fat-phobia/2023-07
thanks for the recs, will check them out!
Belly of the Beast by Da’Shaun L. Harrison, Fearing the Black Body the Racial Origins of Fatphobia by Sabrina Strings.
a podcast on the intersection of fatphobia and eugenics I recommend is Maintenance Phase. on BMI, on the obesity “epidemic”