Thanks for a wonderful post, Lisa!! I can't wait for the day when people stop using faulty guidelines for this stuff, like the scale and the !~#%~ BMI nonsense.

The Insurance company guidelines are based on a statistical model, and it's only as "good" as what they based it on. Most things like that are NOT statistically sound (i.e. they're often based on a small population of upper-class, college-aged white men rather than a diverse, valid sample) or are just plain made up (like the BMI stuff). And yes, AllysonneV, they are not necessarily updated as populations change, and anyone who has ever been in an old house (say over 100 years) will notice that people were a LOT shorter then!

Furthermore, these things are never based on optimum health - they're based on mortality rates (which may or may not correlate with weight, but correlation does not equal causation), as they are intended to try and save the Insurance companies money! Bottom line is that these "guidelines" are better than nothing, but not by a whole lot!!!