h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is fun. Only 13 questions. I'm supposed to live to 98.

http://media.nmfn.com/tnetwork/lifespan

I am about to drop dead at my keyboard apparently

I have another ten years or so it says!

Websailor

I did better than I expected, but not great.

However, I do have an issue with this test and almost every physician in the country. The BMI is BS. It's leftover quackery from the 19th century. I'm not saying that it doesn't point to a real issue, obesity, but that it's calculations are very poorly designed. It does not account for different body types. Seriously, it arbitrarily uses the square of your height. That makes it nearly impossible for short people to have a good BMI. That said, a recent report shows that using BMI actually may under represent the number of people who should be classed as over weight. (Using either BMI or actual measure percentage body fat, either way, I know I'm a fat bastard.)

I'm just frustrated that such a poorly designed measurement has been so universally accepted for so long. It's only advantage is that it's easy to calculate. No dunking in a tub, no pinching your love handles, no electricity needed. (I did get properly measured when I was in college in my "kinesiology" class. I had an amazingly low 7% body fat back then. That was due to being much more active and having a meal plan at the school's cafeteria. I pretty much just ate buttered noodles and a few veggies. Almost everything else was inedible.)

Peanut. Please don't do that!

My cataloger and my boyfriend both have a life expectancy of 89, according to this calculator. To me this indicates that whatever formula they are using is flawed. She should have a better score than he does, considering his medical problems.

I so agree about BMI. It needs to find it's way onto the trash heap. I think it is perhaps fairly accurate with those who are very underweight and those who are morbidly obese. For the vast majority in between, I say let's find something that takes a person's overall health and fitness level into account. I'm obese according to BMI tables, but I have normal to low blood pressure, total cholesterol and blood sugar. I eat my veggies and exercise moderately. I'm in better shape than may of so called normal weight.

I've recently become disgusted with myself and have started eating less and exercising more. (Last week, I managed to regain only 5 of the 12 pounds I lost before going on the cruise. I only "ate til it hurt" twice and that was at the specialty restaurant onboard. The pappardelle ai funghi was just amazingly tasty.)

That sounds like me. Have you ever read a book by Gillian Riley called Eating Less? It is about food addiction and is helping me with my chronic overeating. It takes the focus off of how much you weigh and puts it on the overeating itself. It isbn't a quick fix, but it is genuinely helping me. I am binging less often and doing better with portion control. It's also helping me with my low-calorie IF days.

christ i'm dead all ready

i have another 26 years to go, which i flat out don't believe, what with my medical problems. and the question about checking blood pressure was a big cheat -- i'm in a nursing care facility and my "vitals" are checked on every shift. furthermore, i haven't driven in more than 3 years.

and then there's the matter of veggies. yes, i get them at lunch and dinner... and they are cooked to the point where they have absolutely no nutritional value.

so for me, the quiz is way, way off.

I can have my mid-life crisis in exactly 3 years according to that test.

still here

What unit does it want my weight to be in?? (sloppy writing, methinks)

Pounds! Those are kilograms multiplied by 2.205.

Did think so - thanks for the conversion factor (though that is imprinted on my brain due to working for some years with a product using in a setting that uses pounds/gallons in the US and kg/litres in Europe... )

In that case, I apparently can expect to reach 82...

The calculator clearly has flaws. But I suppose it's possible I'll live to 98. I have some very long-lived relatives. I suspect that if I do live that long it will be because I've never smoked, seldom drink and then moderately, don't do recreational or prescription drugs either one and handle stress better than a lot of folks. This sort of balances out the weight problem. Another thing is that although my family is prone to cardio-vascular disease, it is always past the age of 55, so it was clearly scored differently than if it popped up earlier in life.

Well I enjoyed doing that test and as it has given me another ten years to livel I reckon it is well designed. !!!

But I said I had suffered from cardio vascular illness - obviusly there was no way to report the open heart surgery which I had in 1994 when they told me that I had ten years to live. so that is one prophecy which has been wrong. !!!

Thank you for cheering us all....

Sincerely,

AlsoRahn84
Christiane.

Tuesday 16th april 2012 16.45 2012

Well I gave my weight in Kilogrammes!!! and they gave me a good result. Who is weighed in pounds nowadays? Perhaps the Irish. !!

AR83

Americans.

President Jimmy Carter gave up trying to convert us to sensible units of measurement when I was in school ('70s). Even if he had stuck with it, Reagan would have surely reversed us back to imperial units anyway.

The only nations today that still use imperial units are the U.S., Liberia and Burma.

I'm still bitter.

Oh dear! I am so sorry. I have forgotten what inoerial units were/are....

memory loss!!

Alsoran83

16/3/2012

Weight (not mass) - Tons, pounds, ounces, drams.
Distance - Miles, feet, inches, fractions of inches (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16...1/1000)
Volume - Barrels, butts, gallons, quarts, pints, cups, ounces...
Temperature - Fahrenheit.

Very unwieldy to calculate and convert even within itself.