ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the nature and future of knowledge work that a cultural analysis of obesity research is explored. The primary discursive element has been the body mass index (BMI), a measure of a person's weight divided by their height. In fact, the BMI's rise to international notoriety is a remarkable story in itself. The BMI assumes a mathematically standardized relationship between a person's height and weight. As a result, people who are shorter or taller than average are likely to record very different BMI scores even if their bodies are composed of the same percentages of body fat. A virtually identical state of affairs exists in the field of energy expenditure research. As with energy intake, techniques for directly measuring energy expenditure suffer from three serious drawbacks; they are expensive, almost impossible to administer 'in situ' rather than the artificially controlled environment of the laboratory, and invasive.
