To think someone that’s 7 stone and 5’4 is tiny

You may.

that is not the same as a healthy person measuring underweight by BMI though.

youre taking a situation which can be healthy (even being an overweight bmi can be perfectly healthy for most) and applying it to one that is very rarely healthy.

being a BMi under 18 isn’t comparable to being a bmi of over 25.

This is not about being at the top of your sport, it’s about your frame and muscle mass.

You seemed to have missed the point that all the types quoted may have undertaken programmes to work our and build their bodies.

As has been covered ad nauseam if your muscle mass and your build is large you may register as a high BMI despite low body fat, so how exactly do expect these people to “act” if their BMI falls outside the expected range?

Fitness enthusiasts should not be outliers in BMI. They are not that size because they are fit.

a supermodel, or ballet dancer may have a BMi under 18. They are not healthy people.

My daughter is 7.5 at 5ft 6. It’s slim but she’s only 12 so her frame is still quite narrow. She doesn’t look unhealthy. I’d say on an adult woman it would though

To me elite means representing your country, whether professionally or amateur.
I mean something like the top 1% (or less) of people who compete - so our Olympic weight lifters and gymnasts. Amateur or professional is only to do with how/if they get paid for doing their sport.

I'm pretty sure BMI works well for security service people and those in the armed and emergency services and that they should act upon a BMI outside of their healthy range.

I'd imagine because I said a poster could 'fuck off' which I probably shouldn't have done, but I am rather fed up with 'teeny-tinies' and the apparent acceptability of stating that those who say they eat plenty must be either lying or too stupid to know what their intake is.

For the record, I'm now on the high end of the weight range, bordering on overweight according to guidelines, because I am now post menopausal and much less physically active. I'm still not mentally or physically ill and I'm still totally aware of what I eat and how much of it I eat, and would be if I put on the two pounds necessary to make me numerically and statistically overweight. If I posted my height and weight, I bet I'd still get a lot of 'teeny-tinies' style comments, in fact on the weight loss forum there is a petite thread and it has had those type of comments.

Not all athletes are “elite” whatever that means - many are amateur, then you factor in gym, sports, fitness enthusiasts of all types, weight training, body builders, armed forces, security services, police and emergency services like fire service etc.

Btw I don’t know why your post was deleted and didn’t find it in the slightest unacceptable

By definition, outliers are not the general population. That’s the point.

Not really - from a body composition POV I do not place elite athletes among the general population.

I’m 5’4” and I think being 8st would put me in normal range on bmi, bmi is of course a nonsense measurement! I recently went below 7st and it was because I wasn’t eating well, I was signed off work, combo of stress, perimenopause, adhd and vitamin deficiency. I’ve put on 4lbs, which was my normal weight in my 20s, my clothes are fitting a bit better, but I was up to 8st last summer and that’s probably a healthier weight for me at my age ( mid 40s). It can be very difficult to gain weight and people are very dismissive about low weight, the number of times I’m told I’m lucky to be thin, when actually health outcomes when you’re underweight really aren’t great.

I was 'underweight' according to guidelines. I didn't have physical or mental health problems, I just had a very physical job at the time.

I'm not pretending that being underweight is the same as being thin, I'm saying that you simply can't tell from looking at the number on the scales that someone is starving their body/deficient in nutrients, etc. All we have to go on from the OP is a number on the scales. Nothing about lifestyle, eating habits, fitness routine.

I wouldn't assume from a post simply stating someone's weight and height that they had an eating disorder, or lacked nutrients, or were going to be diabetic, etc, because I know nothing about them. I was responding to a post which stated that people were falling over themselves to justify low weight, yet I see the equivalent all the time with people of a weight outside the official guidelines in the other direction.

For me, as the poster I was replying to said, it does indeed go both ways, and I'm sorry but most (and rightly so) would find an equivalent post about someone's weight in the other direction would find it rather abhorrent. As the other post I referenced (which is presumably why mine got deleted) referring to 'teeny-tinies'.

Can you imagine if I responded to a post asking about 'concern' for someone outside the NHS guidelines in the other direction as 'fatty-watty who claims to eat less than they do?'

I'd never do that. Yet my post has been deleted whilst 'teeny-tinies' remains. A nasty little post about how we're all lying about what we eat. Nice, but apparently acceptable.

They are the general population.

thus making it an inaccurate individual health indicator.

I disagree. It's a good starting point. Someone lying outside their ideal range has something going on. It's going to be clear if they are an Olympic gymnast or a world class sumo wrestler. For everyone else, it's unlikely that them lying outside of the healthy range is due to very low or very high muscles composition.

Most people whose BMI is above the healthy range are indeed carrying too much weight.

I am that size and weight. Perfectly healthy thank you. Have decent arm and leg muscles thanks to yoga and weights.
I have been this weight all my life. I have a tiny frame and very long legs. It’s who I am genetically as many in my family the same. My oldest is very light and thin and small too.

The point is to stop applying outliers to the general population.

BMI bands are weird as well in fact lowest mortality is found in the moderately overweight category.

As already noted BMI are broadbrush guidelines. They are a useful screening tool for populations but don’t show body composition thus making it an inaccurate individual health indicator.

BMI does not account for muscle; it measures total weight relative to height, failing to distinguish between fat and lean mass, which means very muscular people (like athletes) can have high BMIs classifying them as overweight or obese despite low body fat; and small-framed people with less muscle end up classified as underweight.

Posters on the thread have given personal examples of this, and the example of the experiences of Asian women has also been given.

If at this point you still cannot grasp this, that’s on you.

@ObelixtheGaul I’m being told your post has been deleted but replying to it anyway.

it was referring to the unfairness of commenting on thin bodies when no one would do so to a fat body.

I think the deliberate mixing up of lines isn’t helpful either.

small, thin, naturally skinny people aren’t underweight. They may or may not be healthy, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they don’t have an eating disorder.

Underweight people will have a physical and or mental health problem. A physical illness that makes them lose weight, or anorexia.

let’s not muddy the waters by pretending this isn’t the case.

as a poster above said, it’s not about how people look wandering around in their clothes. It’s about their heart being strained, their brains being staved, having vitamin deficiencies. It is obtuse to pretend this is the same as being thin.

it reminds me of the past on here where wealthy people try and compare their lives to billionaires when in reality they have nothing in common.

Adult Dd used to be this weight and the practice nurse used to have her in regularly to weigh her as they said she was underweight. She does have a physical medical condition which causes her to struggle eat, not that they do anything about it, but guess at least they were monitoring her.

Yes, I’m 5ft 2 but nothing about me is slight! I have wide shoulders and hips, large hands and feet, big boobs and bum. My minimum healthy weight according to BMI would be 7 stone 5, but even at 8.5 stone I was a size 6-8.

It's not what I'd say was worrying.

It gives them a BMI of 16.8. This classifies as underweight, but then it depends on so many genetic factors, build etc... Are they tired and struggling with energy? Are they eating lots and very active or low weight due to a very low food intake?

My BMI was 17.4 at one point but I was healthy. Just VERY active and busy. Yes I looked skinny (I'm almost 5'11) but I ate loads.

I’m 5ft 2 and weight 7st. Actually might be a lb or 2 under actually atm.

I work full time, breastfed 2 babies, have a regular period and I’m perfectly healthy.

I also wobble.

I don’t understand why there is so much discussion about Asian BMI. It doesn’t impact anyone who isn’t (east?) Asian. It wouldn’t have any impact on underweight white British people.

Nor me. It just isn’t relevant and seems to be based on assumptions rather than science.

It’s just the same with the weight lifting argument at the other end of the scale. As well as my day job I am a gym instructor and P/T. I used to lift heavy weights and even when I was training for body building competitions I never even came close to the top of the healthy BMI range. It was barely 20.