AIBU to ask if anyone else is classed as obese?

I'm obese. 5 ft 4, and currently around 13 1/2 stone, which puts me in that category. Also in my 60s, so finding it hard to lose weight. I was just under 15 stone at the start of the year, and my target for the year is to get down to 12 stone which will get me into the overweight category. I was just under 13 stone a couple of weeks ago, and then I went on holiday to France where wine, cheese and croissants are very available! With me it's about balance - I want to be lighter and healthier and fitter, but I also want to enjoy my life...

Incrementally over many years for me.

I was 12st when I married my first husband in 2018. 14st by the end of Covid, and 16st 10lbs by March this year.

I have a profoundly disabled son, and a chronic health condition. I was eating for convenience and speed. Air fryer teas, takeaways, drive through coffees because the aforementioned child has horrendous sleep issues.

I was watching the weight creep up and couldn’t find the energy to do anything about it. I was shocked at the number on the scales, but I knew I was big.

I went to the doctors and was told I was prediabetic and had early fatty liver - at 36 years old. That, and being around/being able to care for my son, was enough of a kick.

I started doing something about it seriously on the 13th April, and to date have lost 20.5lbs.

I'm not sure if it is

Sorry I know that sounds weird 😭 but for example today I have eaten...2 packets of oven baked ready salted walkers crisps. Granted 96 calories a bag...and on top of that 2 cans of monster energy which were 15 calories a can.

And that's probably standard for most days and yet can't say I'm losing weight more than usual. I find it extremely hard to eat one meal a day, I rarely have an appetite due to my medication (and anxiety means I've been unable to cook any food in this hmo for the past decade). I do admit once a week I absolutely do cave and order a takeaway just so I've eaten something. But year I find it weird cos the food I do eat never seems to correlate with my weight per say 😳

Yes I’ve been in the obese box forever. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t on a diet or hated the way I look. I found a diary of when I was 10
and I hated how I looked then.

I was at my heaviest 21st and classed as morbidly obese (possibly severely my BMI was quite literally on the edge of the charts at that point

Now 13st 10lbsin the obese category and if I can shift another half stone I'll finally be in the overweight category

A lot of people just refuse to have scales in the house.

Very often the same people won't allow their children to be weighed either.

They can use their eyes but without the numbers, denial is a bit easier I expect.

5ft 6 and 16 stone . Started my diet at the end of May and now down to 14.5 stone . Still want to lose another 2 stone . But feeling better about myself already.

I don’t want this to land wrong but I am very curious. How do you get to obese? I can’t imagine not noticing that I’d put on a couple of pounds and then eating a bit less to adjust. To put on 2-3 stone is quite some additional food - do you not notice?

No, nobody in the world, ever, has ever been classed as obese 🙄

@TwoCatsandAnxiety although the who and the american medical association consider obesity a disease, many like the british medical association and the canadian equivalent don't.
the issue is that it does not automatically cause bloodwork or systems like the endocrine system to go off balance.
so obesity really is simply a height vs weight chart which oddly holds a lot of stigma.

<steps out looking like the hulk>
well actually

No. You won't. It's denial.

Last year I was 5 stone overweight and though "I don't have 5 stone to lose, I'm not that big! I'll look ill at 11 stone! I lost 4 stone and thought I looked weird and lanky I didn't recognise myself. I thought I looked too thin and if I lost another stone I'd look emaciated. I stayed at that weight for a while then I got used to seeing myself at my new size then after a couple of months I realised I still had pockets of fat on my inner thighs, my love handles and on my tummy. That's when I realised if I lost the last stone I wouldn't look ill at all, if just lose those little pockets of fat that aren't supposed to be there. I've lost half a stone, I look slim and healthy, I'm still half a stone overweight and I just can't shift it. It's fine, I love how I look but I do absolutely recognise I'm carrying half a stone of fat that I don't need and I wouldn't look emaciated if I lost it, i'd look lean, which is what humans are supposed to be. We've just got used to people carrying excess fat being normal and have convinced ourselves it needs to be there. Only after finishing my weight loss journey have I realised all those years I thought I'd look ill at my recommended weight have I realised it was denial all along. No one looks emaciated at the top end of their healthy weight. Some do at the lower end but that's why it's a range, just getting into the top end of the range will not make anyone look ill.

I’m 162cm and 15st 3.5lbs.

At the end of March I was 16st 10lbs. I’ve lost 9.3kg and moved my BMI from 40.4 down to 36.8.

Just being and knowing you’re obese isn’t always impetus enough.

I’d known for a long time, and only decided to do something about it a few months ago.

You will not look emaciated at the top of a healthy weight scale. It is impossible to look emaciated when you are so far away from actual starvation. You will not look skeletal at BMI 23-25. Nobody does. No matter how big your frame.

I do take the weight charts with a grain of salt. At my lightest I was 69kg which is right in the middle of ‘healthy weight’ for my height. But I was very slim and had to work really hard to maintain it. My aim is to get to borderline healthy/overweight which is 80kg and much more sustainable and healthy looking. Unfortunately I’m way above that now!

I was classed as obese 18 months ago and it prompted me to do something about it. I knew I was overweight I just didn't realise by how much!
Now I'm a healthy weight and feel so much better I am determined to stay that way but I've had to rethink how I eat.
I usually have just two meals a day and I was particularly careful about portion size. I also cut out almost all bread and snacks. Now I have the very occasional snack and eat bread sometimes though nowhere near as often as I used to

Oh no, an internet random thinks I'm 'not coming across well', however will I cope 🙄

If your idea of 'coming across well' is the way you post, I'm more than happy with mine in comparison.

Yeah you’re not coming across well. No one wrote oh but I’ve got a disease, and ghe way chat forums work is everyone can read what was written before, so when you post shite everyone knows.

Chat forums don't really work that way.

In order to join in with the chat and post a POV, one does not need to be personally offended.

But the situation is the same for everyone, yet not everyone chooses to be or to remain overweight.

Those who do, can continue to blame 'disease' 'food noise' and everything else that pleases them as it's their life and their own health they're ruining.

But 'Ohhh I've got a disease' isn't particularly a helpful mindset for those who do want to take responsibility.

I’m a kilo into obese. Even when I was young and super skinny I would still have been classed as overweight, I’m shocked as in old photos I’m so thin. I’m short though. I did think I was fat though because my best mate was a size 6 (early 90s)

I think this is a stat thay needs contextualised. 25 is still over weight by the way, it’s 24.9 which is the very upper limit of a healthy bmi, which goes down to 18.5

but that 24 lbs, will be a significant percentage in terms of your recommended body weight. In isolation it doesn’t look much, but could be as much as 20mpercent of where you should be,

The difference between BMI of 25 and BMI of 30.1 for me is 24 pounds (or 1 stone 10). Yes, I am obese.