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

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.

it almost sounds like posters are trying to legitimise reducing the underweight BMi so more people currently underweight can be considered normal weight.

UK BMI already adjusts for ethnicity to some extent, mainly reflecting the older British Caribbean and Indian origin population who (unfortunately for them) generically should be lighter than white Europeans to stay at a comparable risk of heart disease and stroke.

But they do, that is why they are such a wide range. In Asia the WHO and various national health authorities have seen fit to narrow the range with the overweight cut off reduced to 22.9. If there really is an issue with 18.5 for the Asian underweight limit, why hasn’t that been reduced too?

I'm not sure you will get objective replies on mn. My friend was the same height and weighed much less. Told me she was under the hospital for potential issues why she couldn't absorb food. She would eat half a finger roll at lunch and restricted her diet. Mil is 5,5 and weighs five and a half stone and has been a lot less. They are just accepted as aspirational. I know both are too thin.

However my son was 5,8 and weighed under 8 stones. Appeared very healthy. Couldn't pass his motor bike test as couldn't hold up the bike.

I'd say common sense says its too thin. However lots of people praise all the above figures. My ds was home from uni in the most oversized outfit I have ever seen him in. No idea how much he weighs now. Some people are worried about him.but plenty more praise his figure. I haven't seen him in fitted clothes for over 7 years. It's a big worry that no one else sees.

DD1 is 20, about nine stone and 5'4" and a size six. So, yes, two stone lighter is very thin.

This. I get so fed up of people using weightlifters and athletes as examples as to why they can’t fit into BMi. Well neither do supermodels and you’re not one of those either.

added to which, athletes, supermodels and weightlifters are not necessarily healthy at all. They are disciplines with high levels of eating disorder and unnatural punishing of the body which often leaves their bodies ruined well before middle age.

That's why the range is so wide. There are outliers like professional rugby players, Olympic weight lifters and gymnasts.This is indeed a limitation of BMI, but those people will absolutely be aware of this.

It is one metric and one that is very easy to assess and for most people it is helpful.

Because, as has been explained, BMI are simply guidelines and don’t account for build and muscle mass.

There will be many men and women like my brother with big frames, a lot of muscle mass, little fat, who register in the unhealthy range.

It would help if OP came back and gave more info, but I suspect you’re right, they just wanted to start a daft thread where people who are clinically underweight can claim it’s all very fine.

^^This - it all depends on the build. I’m 5ft 3 and I still didn’t look skinny at 7st 7 (my lowest adult weight), despite the fact that it’s at the lower end of a healthy weight for that height. I’m what they used to call “small-boned”, and even at 7st 7 I still had fleshy upper arms, a not insubstantial bum and a little pot belly!

(All this is pure nostalgia for me now as it’s a long while since I was anywhere near 7st 7 😭)

What is the point of this thread? People just listing their weight and height and how fab they felt at 7 stones?

I’m 8st 10 and 5ft 1 and I look tiny after being size 16 for 25 years. This weight feels tiny and she is taller and lighter. Is she comfortable with her weight?

Gosh, that's a BMI of 15.3 (I knew it was low because I am an inch taller and at 9 stone have a BMI of 19.2 which is pretty slim).
Even as a teenager that would be regarded as severely anorexic.
I'm very surprised that you were a size 12 at that weight and that you menstruated.

Because I’ve had kids by c section and my stomach area is not how I would like it. Like I said. I’m 5ft so even a gain of 3lb notices a lot. Unless you’re petite you will not understand! It’s literally a mind F.

Yet the WHO and the health authorities of all the countries where those women live maintain that 18.5 is the lowest end of the healthy range.

Why?

The BMI of a woman of 5ft 4 weighing 7st is only 16.8, which is underweight.

Exactly. And that is a completely different issue from the numbers of healthy well-fed Asian women who nonetheless register in the lower to underweight BMI category.

I've believed I was "in tune with my body" at various times when I was eating far too little to maintain a healthy adult weight. If you consistently undereat then your appetite cues go all wonky.

Tbh I'm going to stop commenting on this thread because it's not good for me (because it makes me think, why bother maintaining a few pounds into the healthy weight range - why not be as thin as I like? Maybe I didn't look so ill after all? Maybe I didn't need to gain weight in the first place because we've lost sight of a healthy weight!)

But l will say the language around food and eating on this site can be utterly disordered, e.g. the thread from a couple of years ago about what BMI people feel slim at. And I know this from sad experience.

There is poverty and malnutrition in the populations in that study - China, India and Philippines - that you see much less of in countries like Japan and S.Korea let alone Western countries.

Indeed there is, and it results in sub 18.5 BMIs with the associated higher mortality rates.

DD is currently that height and weight and is under the eating disorder team at CAMHS.

It depends? I’m 5’4 and used to be 7 stone 5. It was the best I looked and I still had curves but was just strong and lean. I was a size 4-6. I’m now an 8, weighing 8 stone 3.

Depends entirely on genetics/context. Has this person always been this weight? Have they suddenly lost weight without intending to? Are there any other factors (ilness etc.) at play?
I am 5"5 and 7'7 so not worlds away from what you describe. I lost a lot of muscle postpartum due to not doing as much sport.

Congrats on the googling but that doesn’t change anything.

There is poverty and malnutrition in the populations in that study - China, India and Philippines - that you see much less of in countries like Japan and S.Korea let alone Western countries.

An interesting phenomenon on these threads is the preoccupation that lower BMIs in unhealthy with little concern for the reams of evidence linking overweight and obesity’s to serious illness. Obesity now being the second biggest preventable cause of cancer in the U.K.

Or alternatively, eats when they need rather than sticking to arbitrary notions of mealtimes. An awful lot of us could learn from being more in tune with our bodies.

You’ve got that the wrong way round I think .

Yet at least one study I have seen found that low BMI (under 18.5) was consistently associated with increased mortality among all Asian subgroups

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.147.suppl_1.P333