BMI question - Lower end of healthy

[chattoaspanishgirl]

Apparently 7 stone is 10lb is a healthy weight for my height, 5 foot 3.5?

Surely that can't be right? I had an eating disorder at that weight.

I'm currently a Size 10, at 10 stone. I'm athletic in build and quite fit given my lifestyle.

How can 7 stone 10 be okay? It's really difficult for me to read actually, gives me intrusive thought that I was okay starving myself and living off of less than 500 calories a day

BMI is the stupidest thing EVER invented, at the lower end of my healthy BMI I look ill!!

7 st 10 lb is right at the lower limit for a healthy weight. BMI is only a rough indicator, across a large population the numbers are correct, but there will always be some individuals for whom it doesn't work, the classic one is a person who carries a lot of weight as muscle, like a rugby player.
You may well have had an eating disorder at 7 st 10 lb (& congratulations if you've thrown it off), but there will be other women for whom it's a perfectly healthy weight.

BMI is an arbitrary scale, and pretty meaningless.

I’m 7.4 at the same height and in no way underweight - plenty of junk in the trunk- whereas at 9st I am definitely overweight. I have a small frame with narrow shoulders and presumably light bones; similarly I have one very “light” child who is a champion gymnast and very muscly, with a 2 yrs younger sibling who is shorter / looks smaller (much narrower) but is virtually the same weight. They both look great on a very similar weight.

I'm 5ft 5 and hover around 8st. BMI of 18-19 I think. I'm super healthy- run long distances and very rarely sick ( touch wood).

I do have a pretty small frame though and agree that BMI is flawed. If I put on weight it's round my middle only- lots of fat next to major organs is the worst place to have it from a health point of view. I suspect I would be quite unhealthy before my BMI got to 25+

surely BMI is more about a suggested range allowing for variance of frame size? I am tall, but with narrow shoulders, small breasts, and am not particularly muscular. The upper "healthy" weight for me (BMI 24.9) is 12st, and I can tell you that at 12st I am definitely fat. I guess someone more heavily muscled or bigger breasted may not be though.

I've never been as low as the lower suggested range, but I look great and not at all gaunt with a BMI of 20.

My bmi is right at the lower end of healthy. I am slim but I’m short and have a small frame. I eat about 1750 calories a day and exercise regularly.

Depends on build/ethnicity. Chinese and Japanese people are often slighter (ribs, hips) than more European builds. When not pregnant I am a 28 ribcage for bras even when top end of overweight so am quite a narrow frame. Other people are broader carrying no excess weight.

In men it will be more extreme - look at the different builds of Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray (see Jamie Murray for difference serious working out can make to similar genetics) vs Rafa Nadal vs Juan Martin Del Potro. Or Tsonga vs Monfils. All are successful in the same sport but totally different in build and would be different BMIs.

In athletics Mo Farah or Adam Gemili - and the effective domination of distance running by those of East African genetic heritage and sprinting being largely won by those of West African (often via Carribean) heritage.

BMI has to cater for such a mix of body types that it has to have a broad range - body fat percentage is much more useful but expensive to measure on a population basis!

I’m the same height and at that weight I would look too thin, I think. But just because that weight is considered “lower end of healthy” rather than “underweight”, it’s not like the NHS is saying you should aim for that weight because it’s “healthy”. BMI is a sliding scale and by definition, isn’t exactly precise. If you were to show me two people of the same height, one with a BMI of 18.6 and one at 18.4, I’m probably going to think both are too skinny even though only the latter is technically underweight in BMI terms. Does that make sense?

I'm 5,4 and 10 stone 12. I'm overweight with a BMI of 26. 2 years ago before my lovely son I was 8 stone and the lower end of my healthy BMI. People told me I was way too skinny but actually I was very fit and in the gym 5 times a week and swam twice a week too. I ate a lot of the right foods, I think we just have a skewed idea of what a healthy weight is and what that looks like.

When I was at the lower range of healthy for my weight you could count every one of my ribs, see the knobs of my spine and my hips were just bones. I was cold all the time and always sick.

BMI does not take into account skeletal frame. If you have a larger skeletal frame, you need to up your Lower BMI by about 10-15 lbs.

It very much depends on your build. The healthy BMI range is large because a very slight person at one height will weight less then a heavy set person at the same height but will still be healthy.
If you have a very small frame you could easily be healthy at the bottom end and fat at the top end of the range and a heavy set person could be very underweight at the bottom end.

BMI is not 'arbitrary'. It's a range, some people will look and feel better at the lower end, some people in the middle, etc.

For what it's worth, OP, I weigh 8 st 10 and I'm 5 ft 7 inches tall. That gives me a BMI of 18-19 and I feel comfortable and healthy at this weight.

At the top or even middle of my 'healthy' weight range, anything over 9 st 6 really, I feel big and uncomfortable in my skin.

I train daily, including weights, and am athletic with low body fat. i eat around 1500 calories a day, including alcohol.

As long as your BMI is healthy and you are fit and comfortable in your skin, there is no need to stress about it.

I am 5ft 4" and weigh 8st 4lbs. My colleague is 5ft 4" and weighs 9st 6lbs. We are both a size 8. She has a slimmer frame than me. I am muscular but curvy. She is athletic but boyish. We are both fit and healthy.

BMI is a general guide and of v limited use.

Can you seek more support? If you're obsessing over weight and having intrusive thoughts, you need to seek help.

It will massively depend on your build. I am 5ft 5 but have a very small build. At the higher end of ‘normal’ BMI I look and feel overweight. At the very lower end (not been there for a while!) I imagine I’d be verging on looking too skinny, but not massively so. I look and feel best with a BMI of about 20. Someone with a bigger frame would look skeletal with a BMI of 20, I imagine.

You weren't ok at that weight, because to get to it you had to starve yourself, and presumably you looked unwell.

I have extremely light bones and a small frame, but am also fairly curvy (think 30 GG as a bra size) and as a result I've never gone above a BMI of 22 even when I was clearly carrying extra weight because essentially my small frame/light bones gave me a big margin on the scales. At the same time, to actually get to a BMI of 18 I would have to lose far too much weight - I recently looked at photos of me on honeymoon, I'd lost weight without planning to before the wedding due to stress and I just look so tired: there are hollows under my eyes, my face looks thin. I was a BMI of 19 then, and its pretty clear I would look healthier with an extra half stone on, which is my 'normal' weight.

I think a lot of people with eating disorders get triggered by numbers, and comparing themselves with others. I think the BMI scale works at population level, and for most people being somewhere in that healthy range is healthy. For lots, being at the bottom will be unhealthy, for some, the same applies to being at the top. But for the majority, one of the numbers in there will work. I think that's the best way to look at it - that unless there's some other circumstances, your 'healthy' will be in that range, not that anywhere in that range will be healthy for you.

I'm the same as you. Currently 5'4, 10 stone, an athletic, broad-shouldered size 10. My best weight appears to be around 9.5 stone. When I first got more seriously into exercise in my early twenties I ate a bit less and lost weight at a healthy rate for a while but at 8 stone 10 (size 8 for me) my periods stopped, so that must be too light for me. I was pretty bony at that weight, certainly around my ribs and hips. Seeing how far I still was from being officially 'underweight' according to bmi at that point did strange things to my head too - even though I know bmi has a range of weights for a reason, I have always had a strong build and have always weighed more than anyone thinks I look like I do. I must be very dense!

Don’t use BMI as a stick to beat yourself with. If you are anywhere in the heck they range then you are not putting yourself at additional risk from obesity related heath issues. That’s enough, you don’t have to worry about where you fall within in.

Yeah I’m not sure what I’m the heck the range means either but you get the drift.

Thanks all, but I must say, I thought that being a 'heavy build' and 'big boned' were suppose to be lies and not actually exist? Can anyone clarify on this for me please?

For example, I feel like I genuinely do have a bigger frame, with 'bigger bones'.

For example, you can see my bones in my wrists. But compared to someone who may even be fatter than me, my bones always look wider.

I also have huge calf muscles that never went from years of gymnastics and Irish dancing. I also have what feels like really broad shoulders. Even when incredibly thin, I was somehow still 'wide'

Does that make sense? Or is it just warped body image speaking?

For what it's worth, I think I look lovely at my current weight. I have healthy skin, I don't worry about food, I enjoy food, I thin I look more attractive at 10 stone...

But for some reason, some things do make me wonder and linger on old thoughts. Thankfully I can get them out of my head fairly quickly by giving my head a wobble now

There’s not such thing as ‘heavy bones’ but of course there are different frames. Compare someone like Beyoncé to kate moss. There’s no way Beyoncé could be as thin as Kate and not look awful.

Yes there’s no such thing as heavy bones. But people do have different builds. My wrists for example are tiny, and my ankles.

This is why BMI provides you with a range, instead of just saying "if you're 5'3 and a half your ideal weight is 9st 1lb". Anywhere between 7st 6lbs and 10st 3lbs is deemed to be a 'normal' weight for your height. It takes into account different body types, so some people will be better off at the lower end of that scale, some at the middle, and some at the higher end.

Exactly right @lostinjapan

I'm the same size as Gorgon but I've always been thin. Before kids I weighed about 7 1/2 stone but ate huge amounts. I still eat a lot and I walk everywhere, sometimes I swim once a week. A lot of it is genetics, my 3 girls are all slim and big eaters, although my mum and sister are a lot bigger than me. In my mum's case it's what led her to be diabetic, and my sister is heading the same way. I'm determined not to be the same.
At one stage during the menopause I went up to nearly 10 stone, and it was all on my stomach and the tops of my legs. I took myself in hand, cut out a lot of crap (not all, I'm not an animal!) and am now at a happy weight. 10 stone for me was within the BMI guidelines but that was too heavy for me.