Woman too fat to enter New Zealand

NFMC

A British woman planning to start a new life with her husband in New Zealand has been banned from entering the country - because she is too fat.

Rowan Trezise, 33, has been left behind in England while her husband Richie, 35, has already made the move down under leaving her desperately trying to lose weight.

When the couple first tried to gain entry to the country they were told that they were both overweight and were a potential burden on the health care system.

Mr Trezise managed to shed two inches from his sizeable waistline to fulfil criteria set out as part of his visa application to work as a technician in the country.

His wife however has had no such luck and faces a desperate battle to shed the pounds before Christmas, at which point the couple say they will abandon their overseas plans.

New Zealand officials assess people's weight using Body Mass Index which measures fat by comparing the height and weight of an individual.

Mr Trezise, a submarine cable specialist and former member of the army said his BMI was measured at 42 making him well over the limit of 25 which is regarded as overweight.

"My doctor laughed at me. He said he'd never seen anything more ridiculous in his whole life," he said.

"He said not every overweight person is unhealthy or unfit. The idea was that we were going to change our lifestyle totally and get outdoors and on mountain bikes and all sorts of activities."

Robyn Toomath, a spokesman for New Zealand's Fight the Obesity Epidemic and an endocrinologist said that obese people should not be victimised, but agreed with the restrictions.

"The immigration department can't afford to import people who are going to be a significant drain on our health resources.

"You can see the logic in assessing if there is a significant health cost associated with this individual and that would be a reason for them not coming in."

While the New Zealand Immigration Service could not say how many peolpe had been refused entry on similar grounds, the Emigrate New Zealand website revealed that many people had been banned for being obese.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... s/news.htm l?in_article_id=494616&in_page_id=1770

We should adopt this policy. Even for holidays.

pneumatic

The reason for refusing them entry was that they would be a drain on the healthcare system.

Presumably, with modern diagnostic bioscience, they will be able to test for genetic predisposition to other conditions that might cost them money to treat;

Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease, Alcoholism, MS, Leukemia, Alzheimers - the list could be quite long.

Then they could have a policy of only allowing people to live in their country who were genetically pure, good breeding stock.

Now where was it they tried that idea in the 1930's??

Crapaud

I wonder how they do the test for BMI? I recently went to the docs for a check-up of the punch weight/height into computer type and it gave me a BMI of 25. I believe that makes me borderline obese which is complete nonsense. Sure, I'm carrying a few extra pounds, but I'm not even stout or portly.Assuming that they're not using BMI as an excuse to knock people back I hope they're using a more accurate method of assessment.

iainf72

Apparantly 35 is the limit they use. The bloke in the article had a BMI of 42! FORTY TWO! That's not just a bit of a belly.

Crapaud

iainf72 wrote:

Apparantly 35 is the limit they use. The bloke in the article had a BMI of 42! FORTY TWO! That's not just a bit of a belly.

That would explain how he managed to lose enough weight and makes me feel better.

<snip>Mr Trezise, a submarine cable specialist and former member of the army said his BMI was measured at 42 making him well over the limit of 25 which is regarded as overweight.

Bleedin' Daily Mail

windyphil

I know there's now more emphasis on checking peoples waistlines if they are borderline over BMI. At work on a medical, I had a BMI of 27, but as I cycle 40 miles a day for commuting and have a 34" waist the Dr said that BMI can be misleading if you're "heavily muscled". Apparently this is now Government guideline rather than solely looking at BMI - still a BMI of 42 without a belly would need Charles Atlas to acheive!

oldwelshman

windyphil wrote:

I know there's now more emphasis on checking peoples waistlines if they are borderline over BMI. At work on a medical, I had a BMI of 27, but as I cycle 40 miles a day for commuting and have a 34" waist the Dr said that BMI can be misleading if you're "heavily muscled". Apparently this is now Government guideline rather than solely looking at BMI - still a BMI of 42 without a belly would need Charles Atlas to acheive!

Waste to chest should be lower than 1:1.5 otherwise risk of heart disease is high.
We should stat deporting people who are above this

pedylan

Crapaud wrote:

I wonder how they do the test for BMI? I recently went to the docs for a check-up of the punch weight/height into computer type and it gave me a BMI of 25. I believe that makes me borderline obese which is complete nonsense. Sure, I'm carrying a few extra pounds, but I'm not even stout or portly.Assuming that they're not using BMI as an excuse to knock people back I hope they're using a more accurate method of assessment.

No, 25 - 30 is overweight, over 30 is obese. You're right about some of the calculations though. i am 5 foot eight in old money and weigh 70-72kg year round in new money. that makes me borderline overweight despite the fact i need a belt to keep my 30 inch waistline trousers up!.

It seems to take no account of physique, didn't I see something recently that said nearly all the England rugby team were obese by BMI benchmark?

pneumatic

All of a sudden, I remembered this line from "I'm sorry I haven't just a minute", or one of those shows:

"Inside every fat woman is a thin one wanting to get out."

"Outside every thin woman is a fat man wanting to get in."

windyphil

Waste to chest should be lower than 1:1.5 otherwise risk of heart disease is high.
We should stat deporting people who are above this [/quote]

Thank God I've got a 44" chest. It does make me wonder why I still have to puff like a train when I go up hills!

gavintc

NFMC wrote:

[

We should adopt this policy. Even for holidays.

I think most Britons would have some difficulty getting back into Britain after their lardy holiday.

Crapaud

pneumatic wrote:

All of a sudden, I remembered this line from "I'm sorry I haven't just a minute", or one of those shows:

"Inside every fat woman is a thin one wanting to get out."

"Outside every thin woman is a fat man wanting to get in."

I remember it as "Inside every fat girl is a thin girl screaming for chocolate."

pedylan: You're right! I found this site. I'm merely on the cusp of being overweight. Phew!

BMI Weight Status
Below 18.5 Underweight
18.5 – 24.9 Normal
25.0 – 29.9 Overweight
30.0 and Above Obese

pedylan wrote:

It seems to take no account of physique, didn't I see something recently that said nearly all the England rugby team were obese by BMI benchmark?

I saw something about one of the antipodean players (can't remember who) that had a BMI of 35. If there was any fat on him it'd dripped of off someone else's kebab.

chrisjsmith

My cousin has a BMI of 14. Would they let him in?

He is 7' tall though.

suze

Well done, New Zealand.

Too many excuses these days for being a lard A**e.

spen666

a simpler more measureable way is simply to take waist size