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 .

I'm 5.6 and currently 11.st 3 but have been 9.st 3, but under that I start to Iook gaunt. The reason for that is where I store fat. I am a pear shape so it goes on my hips first, so my face looks thinner which makes my neck look longer. Like some kind of Cluedo character. I think I am also quite wide framed so it is spread thin!

See it's funny though because I am technically underweight going by my BMI but I am 5 foot 4 and weigh just under 8 stone. I would say that I am thin but not overly so and in fact have a bit of a belly that I would like to lose. So basically, you cant go by the tables completely but also you have to judge it - I do think a lot of heavier people judge themselves as within normal range.

I was that weight in my teens and early 20s, and I wasn’t particularly skinny - I just didn’t have much muscle. I definitely didn’t have a thigh gap or anything.

Not everyone carries their weight well - my BMI is 26 now post-baby, and I look like the back end of a bus.

It's a lower limit not a target. Nobody who does not "naturally" have a BMI of 18.5 should be trying to reach it by weight loss. But someone who is that weight without special effort does not need to attempt to gain weight.

BMI needs to take into account a range of different ethnicities, when we go to DHs family party's (family from the Philippines) I am often the tallest woman there at 5'3".

I can imagine some of his cousins might have weighed that sort of weight as teens/early 20s. (They are all in their 30s with DC now so more average weights)

Age is a factor with BMI. 18 year olds are still building bone density and not fully physically mature, and yes, different ethnicities suit different ends of BMI too. There are is small proportion of adults who are healthy at the bottom end of the scale. That doesn't mean it's aspirational to all, just an acknowledgement that it can be healthy for some.

Over time, weight and the optimum BMI goes up.
I'm a bit taller at 5'2" but have a small-medium frame and wouldn't even hope to go down to the BMI I was at healthily as a student. My body has changed with producing and feeding babies, my bone density has increased, I've gained muscle. Still slim, but I sit better at BMI 23 than 20.
Becoming moderately overweight in middle-age is healthier than being overweight in youth and can be protective towards old age when people tend to lose weight (muscle mass/ bone density)

@Changechangychange

I was that weight in my teens and early 20s, and I wasn’t particularly skinny - I just didn’t have much muscle. I definitely didn’t have a thigh gap or anything.

Not everyone carries their weight well - my BMI is 26 now post-baby, and I look like the back end of a bus.

I agree that not everyone carries their weight well. I really don’t. My BMI is 26.8 which is overweight, but I’d imagine lots of people have the same. But I am really short and look like a barrel.

BMI is bad science - check out the Maintenance Phase Podcast on 'The Body Mass Index' here:
www.maintenancephase.com/

And most of Mumsnet would probably have a heart attack if they listened to their podcast on "Is Being Fat Bad For You".

There is a lot of bad science and commercial agenda associated with acceptable weight and weight loss, and Maintenance Phase is briliant at discussing this.

BMI is a screening tool and a very useful one.

It is not a diagnostic tool, so criticising it for not being what it has never purported to be, isn't really fair

Hi @Frostine I'm also 5 foot and at my slimmest was 8.10 and felt great. Currently 13.10 😱 but am working on it!

Doesn't mean that weight is good for everyone though, it completely depends on your build and body shape. I'm the top end of the BMI scale, but I carry all of my weight in my boobs and thighs, so I'm not concerned. My waist is considerably smaller than a lot of people at my height/weight and that matters a lot.