BMI. I don't get it.

[AudaCityLimits]

OK so I've not been well since lockdown. Got an appt with the doctor today, several tests etc. She weighed me and I was 55kg. I'm 5"11. Which makes me underweight according to BMI- it works out 16.9.
I'm a size 12/14.
I am in shock. I have an ED but am well at the moment, eating meals and not obsessing about food. But I thought that I'd be clued up on weight/height/bmi because I have obsessed about it before. I don't have scales in my home because of the aforementioned ED, but afaik I have never been so light before. And yet, my clothes aren't hanging off me...
Size 14 and underweight? Anyone had this before?

At 5'2" I'm a size 10 at 57kg. I can believe you might wear a size 12 jeans because you are so tall but that's only because of your hip bones, you have a dangerously low weight. What's the outcome from seeing the GP? Are you going to see someone to help you reach a healthy weight?

There’s no possible way you’re a size 14. None.

This is your eating disorder talking.

This is your eating disorder talking
Thank you for saying that, I probably needed it.
Doctor is sorting out the health problems- I'm being referred for gynae stuff.

What build are you? Slight, athletic, large etc. You can be tall with a slight build; thin wrists, smallish feet for your height, small rib cage etc or your frame could be larger, ie a size 12/14

For instance a tall lanky teenager could be your height and weight and still have weight to put on as they get older. Some people are naturally tall and thin and that in itself is not a problem.
However, if you’ve been heavier in the past, have had an ED your weight is very low.
I would ask your GP for some help. Maybe you need to see a dietitian who could help you as it’s likely you’re not consuming enough calories. It’s great you’ve recognised you may be not as heavy as you thought as you can now take steps to be as healthy as you can. Good luck.

You might be a size 12 taking into consideration you’re tall and therefore generally larger. I’m 5”2, size 12 and fine but definitely chubby. My colleague is also a size 12, but is 6” tall and looks very slim. Height can have a big knock on to the general fit of clothes for sure. If you’re broad of hip a 14 might be necessary in jeans but it’d have to be a small 14 - and there’s no rules on what each shop has to call a different size. But it’s likely you didn’t really need a 14

But sizes and even BMI aside - you are a very low weight for your height and it won’t be healthy. You say you’ve been unwell, what sort of unwell? Are you still engaged with ED support services?

Short answer - clothes sizes are made up and don’t really matter.

Surely 55kg is a mistake? 8.6 stone? I'm the same height as you op. Also size 8 shoe and fairly big boned.

As an adult the slimmest I've ever been was aged 30 after being hospitalised with severe food poisoning. My weight dropped to just over 10 stone and I was a size 12. For most of my 20s and early 30s I wavered between 10.5 - 11 stone (70kg) and a size 12-14.
A few decades later things have gone a bit downhill!

Thanks Buffalo. My build is definitely large- my shoulders are wide, hands like shovels, and I can never find a hat big enough to accomodate my head...
But yes, it is a very low weight and I obviously need to sort it out.

Oh hats!! I resorted to buying an extra large men's sun hat the other week as nothing designed for women has ever been big enough for me!

What's brand and how old are the clothes that you're wearing? Are they fashion clothes or sports clothes? I'm about your height but weigh 70kg. I wear a size 12 bottom and 8-10 top. But in sports clothes I'm a XL (in fact they only had one pair of trousers large enough for me in the entire shop ). I certainly couldn't fit into my size 12 jeans I bought 11 years ago, although the same make size 12 fits me now.
What about your actual waist/hip/bust measurements, could you ask the doctor about those to put your mind at rest?

I don’t think ordering scales is a very good idea.
Given that the GP didn’t dismiss the weight, I think you do probably look that weight.
Have you a good friend you could talk to to ask if you are looking thin? How does your rib cage feel?

Medievalist it's nuts isn't it. I used to be overweight in my teens and early 20s, but have hovered around 10st6 for a while. I've never, even at the worst of my eating disorder, been smaller than a 12 (which basically gives me my answer doesn't it. Fuck.)

Honestly, I think the size 14 may be linked to the eating disorder: you may equate clothes that are 'fitted' to feeling 'tight' and favour having excess fabric, even if it isn't conscious.

Roughly speaking, clothes sizes can be equated with how much fabric it takes to cover your body. That depends on how much flesh you have, where its positioned on your body, and where your bones are. I weigh more than you at 5"6 and am a 10-12. But no matter now much weight I lost, I don't think I could be a size 8, even though I have weighed the same as a friend who is my height and was size 8 at the time. My hip bones are just further apart that a pair of size 8 trousers are built to fit. Similarly I usually wear a 12 on top because I don't like things fitting tightly at the bust.

So, you're tall, so maybe a size 12 is your 'minimum' in terms of your frame. But really, I think you may be falling victim to some distorted thinking here, and the same may apply with the 'healthy' approach - are you sure that on some level, not having a scales and checking your weight isn't a way to ensure you don't have to confront the fact you're losing more weight than is healthy?

Yes I’d also agree that it’s physically impossible that you could be a 14 at that weight. I’m your height with size 9 feet and ‘large’ surgical glove sized hands - I’m the best part of 20kg heavier and a size 10-12 - and yes that’s including H&M! Hope that you can find some support if it does turn out that the weight was correct.

Greyish My sister is always brutally honest about my weight, but I haven't seen her for a while due to lockdown.
ExBF left me for good about a week ago (monumental arsehole) and I've been making sure I eat properly every day, because that kind of stress is exactly the kind of thing that would trigger my ED.

At 5'11" you can have a broad frame which fills size 12/ 14 clothes regardless of how much muscle and fat are on there.

My best friend as a teenager was anorexic. She was about 5'5" but could not wear anything smaller than a size 10/12 because her hips and shoulders were too broad for anything smaller regardless of how thin and underweight she became.

Being underweight through disordered eating makes it likely that you have reduced muscle mass which would also contribute to a lower than expected weight.

You need appropriate, specialised advice about diet and exercise for healthy weight maintainence.

OP, I’m more or less the the same height as you & can work out what clothing size I am by my weight - mostly in the past (& I haven’t been a size ten for 30 years!) these are the weights/dress sizes that correlate:

Size 10 at 68kg, size 12 at 76kg, size 14 at 82kg, size 16 at 86kg.

If I were 55kg (which I haven’t been since I was a child!) I would be skeletal & as I’m a size 10 at 68kg then definitely a smaller dress size at 13kg less than that - even allowing for differences in body shape (& mines fairly average) it doesn’t add up.

As an ex personal trainer I would have been be wary of taking on a client with such a low weight/height ration as without any underlying health conditions that would strongly indicate an ongoing ED. At 55kg I would assume you were compromising your health - affecting heart & bone density, that it would also mess with your menstrual cycle & it would be detrimental for hair/skin etc plus lower your immunity to illness & possibly affect sleep and energy levels? If any of those things are symptoms that you’ve been experiencing when you say you’ve not been well during lockdown they could well be connected (& it’s very unlikely you are a 12/14 tbh, do you measure around waist 30/32” & hips 40/42”?).

You recognise in the OP that your perception might be skewed by having had an ED & it sounds like if you have acknowledged a potential issue now, you could take some action to remedy it & hopefully feel better as a result?

Hutshopping . de sell hats and you can filter by head size

If you really were a size 14, the dr would have noticed your weight didnt fit with your body size. They arent going to say your underweight if you look like you blatantly arent

I had a freind who was 5'10, they were really slim - weighed less than me (by about 10kg) but wore size 12 clothes while I wore a 10. Purely because their bone structure was wider than mine because of their height. So its possible your height means you need a higher clothes size. However the scales are more accurate than clothing size. You are underweight and I suspect your ED has skewed your perception

I don’t want to be patronising, but are you sure this thread is a good idea OP? I used to have an ED and I think hearing all this “x weight is so light, there’s no way you can be a size 14” really would have fed into some of my unhealthy thought patterns.

You can be skinny and still be broad. My step-mum is very thin, hardly any flesh on her bones, but she still takes a size 14, because her shoulders are broad and she is 5'9". I think it can be hard for shorter women with smaller frames to understand this - I know I was shocked to discover she's a 14, because from the look of her I'd assumed she was about an 8.

I'm with @riotlady on this one. This thread is a bad idea, people commenting on it are not really helping and getting scales are a terrible idea OP.

If your "big boned" then you could easily wear a size 12/14 due to bone structure and be underweight.

It's also worth remembering the taller you are the more base weight you will carry in bone/muscle/organs etc due to you naturally being taller (for example and perspective: which is why you never wanna be the tallest in your category in weight lifting comps as you will have less muscle then someone who is 5 inches smaller and the same weight, as a portion of your weight will be internal stuff that cant be influenced). I would say that alone makes being underweight much more worrying and likely to be accurate, whereas being overweight when tall is less of a issue due to the aforementioned information.
I'm actually hugely overweight and although I dont look 18st at 5ft5 I do look over weight, but have the opposite ED with binging due to food sensitivities. It's really difficult to deal with, but you've got to look after your health. Being underweight can cause lots of health issues not to mention horrible fatigue.
Please look after yourself

Also want to point out that when I was very slim and athletic, still at 5ft5, I could wear anything from a size 12-16 depending on fit due to being very broad in the shoulders and hips, while at being overweight I'm still only a 16-18 yet obese enough it puts pressure on my joints without looking obese. Yet my physical composition was muscle/toned vs very overweight and fat. Clothes size is really not a good indicator of health. Something I wish I learnt when I was skinny and really harsh on myself for still wearing bigger clothes.
Although physical dimensions is a better measure then weight when over weight, losing weight or particularly athletic (my BMI has never been perfect due to muscle even when I was very healthy and slim), when potentially underweight then weight becomes more important then clothes size/physical size, as a PP mentioned theres huge variations in physical structure which can influence these things.

Hi OP, I'm 5ft2, 55kg and a size 8. I find it hard to imagine size 14 unless it's down to you having longer legs x