Warren Buffet is Overweight
People cite him dangle $10,000 checks to stay under 173 pounds and calling it “mental fortitude.”
But here’s what’s quietly strange:
At ~5’10”, 174 lbs is overweight. On the BMI scale it’s roughly 25, which is the overweight threshold—fyi obesity starts at 30.
So if the bar is “stay under 173,” he’s not signaling superhuman discipline.
He’s signaling something else: a preference for optics and control rituals over actual physiological excellence.
In other words, it’s less “peak standard” and more “constraint with a clean story.”
And that tells you a lot about how someone thinks:
They pick a number that’s simple, public, and enforceable.
They turn it into a spectacle.
They let the ritual create the aura, even if the underlying target is only moderately demanding.
That doesn’t mean it’s useless—constraints do work.
But it suggests the goal isn’t health optimization.
It’s identity enforcement: a visible line that proves “I’m in control,” regardless of whether that line is actually elite.
Fasinating take on the performativ aspect of Buffett's weight ritual. The BMI observation is sharp: he's essentially advertising discipline while staying just barely within 'acceptable' bounds, which says more about narrative control than fitness. This kind of public accountability theater can be effective for behavior change, but you're right that it prioritizes the visible marker over genuine health optimization.