Bmi - I could weigh 6 stone 10 lb !

[Frostine]

Just checked the BMI guidelines and at my height of 5ft ( yes I realise that is short ) BUT surely even at that height 6 stone 10 would be very very slim . I've weighed 8 stone before ( not now ) and personally for me it was a little too slim .

Are you sure? I just ran that through the NHS app and it comes out as underweight.

Even so, it's not mandatory to stick to BMI. It's a good rough guide.

You’ve done something wrong with the numbers. This is the range for 5ft…
I put a weight of 8st which is a bmi of 21.9

The range is 6st10 to 9st1 if you can’t see it on the picture.

Isn't that what op is saying? That the bottom end of the range is very low?

I think that's where the 'me personally' bit comes in, also to account for different ethnicities that have a larger or smaller average frame.

You’d need to be about 4ft3.5 to have 5stone as a healthy weight.

Isn't that what op is saying? That the bottom end of the range is very low?

Not as low as she says it is. Nearly two stone more in fact.

Yes it is , it gives you your weight and then gives you the healthy range. I've screenshot it.

That has 6st 10 as the bottom of the healthy range. Same as mine.

It clearly states 6.10 to 9. 1 is within healthy weight. I'm shocked !

Ignore me, I’ve misread your post.

People fail to take into account small famed people and people with smaller breasts, etc. I’m 5ft 3 and 7 st 7lb but I’m not emaciated and I eat plenty, I’m just petite and at the lower end of BMI and healthy (I’d I were only 5 ft then I could probably get away with being 6.10 too). I can also be up to 10 st 1 and that would be way too much weight for me despite being in the healthy range. The large range is to accommodate how every body carries weight differently, they’re not saying you should aim for 6 st 10.

Interstingly, though, if you input 5 feet and 6 stone 10 (rather than something else and looking at the range), it does tell you it's underweight.

I wonder why the difference?

I'd say, anyway, that it's fairly clear it's the absolute bottom limit of healthy at best. There's a big old range there.

It is possible to be very slim and still healthy.
Just as it is possible to be well padded and still healthy.

Moving on from my total misreading of the figures…

It is the very bottom of the range and not a target. For me, it’s more shocking how much I could gain and still be considered a healthy weight.

But I think you could be that weight and healthy. Some short people (and indeed tall people) are very slightly built. I am not one of them but can totally see that someone could be.

Yes I agree . As I've said I'm 5ft but for me that lower end would not be right for me . I will also add I'm not knocking anyone who is that height and weight .

Hello fellow 5 foot person!

I was always around 8stone and then put on loads and weight and then lost it. Went a bit crazy with the exercise and developed a mild eating disorder. Anyway I went down to 6.5 stone and it was incredibly hard to maintain. I worked out for 4 hours a day on top of having three waitressing/bar jobs in a day so was always active. Didn't eat hardly anything.

It's a weight for very, very petite people I think and also those under the age of 20 🤣 I'm neither of those and would just be bloody happy getting down to 8.5 stone tbh!

It very much depends on your frame - I've been underweight according to BMI yet menstruating; I was very thin but not entirely unhealthy. I'm at the top end of a healthy BMI now, and size 16 which people find hard to believe, but my bones are slender and narrow (very much unlike my abdomen....). I guess that's why BMI is a range.

@PurpleDaisies

Moving on from my total misreading of the figures…

It is the very bottom of the range and not a target. For me, it’s more shocking how much I could gain and still be considered a healthy weight.

Yes, me too - ideal BMI is 19 because I have a very narrow frame and no bust or bum to speak of. Even at 21 I look chunky, at a BMI of 24 and 74kgs I'd be huge and certainly not look healthy. Of course it's not the same for other people with wide frames.

I'm about that height and my slimmest weight is about 8s10 and while no one would accuse me of being skinny, I'm a slim petite 8 at that weight. However I am late 30s and have had 4 pregnancies.

A slightly built 5ft 18 year old girl could be very healthy at just under 7 stone.

I’m 5 ft 7 and I think the lowest weight I could be is around 8 stone which is just ludicrous. As an adult the lowest weight I have been is 10 stone 8 and I looked very, very slim at that weight. I had B cup breasts and lost my hips and bottom. If I lost even another stone I would be sick.

I had to work incredibly hard to be that weight, I was running at least 5km 5 times a week and working out as well, I never had a day off tbh and I ate healthily 24/7.

I'm always shocked by the suggested lowest weight for my height.
I was that weight a few years back when I was depressed, it's very skinny. Not my cuppa tea.

@busyeatingbiscuits

It is possible to be very slim and still healthy. Just as it is possible to be well padded and still healthy.

It is, but I think it's more dangerous to be right at the bottom end of the weight scale than right at the top. People can survive for years when they are two, three even ten stone overweight but it doesn't work in the opposite direction. If you had flu or food poisoning and dropped half a stone you could be quite weak if your normal weight is at the bottom of the scale. Better to have a couple of pounds in reserve.

Frame size is a factor that isn’t taken into account for BMI. I have a large frame (wide rib cage, big wrists, large feet) but am short (5ft 3). The optimum weight for my height according to BMI is between 8.5-9 stone. The last time I was at that weight people kept asking me if I was all right as I looked so bony. 😂

Some of us really are ‘big boned’

Nope, tell a lie, I just checked. The BMI suggests a whole stone less than I was.

7stone 13 is the lowest for 5'5"