We all know what obesity looks like. Too many ‘spoons pie and pint nights, too many burgers, not enough gym time.

Except, we don’t.

It might be visually obvious if the T shirt barely covers the waistline, but how do you define it? If you use the BMI scale (weight in kilos divided by height in metres squared), then obesity is considered anything over a BMI of 30, overweight is over 25, healthy is 20-25 and so forth.

But then a lot of athletes, especially power althletes, are obese. Of course, the more mass you have to move around, the greater the load your body has to manage, both for joint health and cardiovascular load but this doesn’t take into consideration the positive effect of muscle mass, cardiovascular fitness, and any other number of markers for health. The only use for BMI in most aspects is to tell you what you already know, when its far too low or far too high. For reference, you probably don’t want to be below 20 (not enough muscle mass) and above 30 (increased risk of joint issues).

A preferred methodology, for a rapid ready reckoner, is height to waist ratio. This ignores mass, but can idicate central obesity, which has been shown to have a detrimental effect on internal organs and general health. This is simply calculated as a ratio of height to waist circumference (waist divided by height in m), and should be less than 0.5.

As for markers of fitness, define your own. Markers such as the amount you can lift, or how fast you can run, are spurious goal setting. And no matter what the companies might say, you can’t tell your fitness from blood tests. Those are for if you are sick. Otherwise the levels will constantly fluctuate and tell you very little.

Be able to run, if you have the physical capability. Then try to increase the distance you can cover. Lift heavy things safely, then do it again. Move regularly, as smoothly and freely as possible. Constantly develop your capacity.

Train as though your life depends on it.

It does.