To think that you can be too thin....

[foreverondiet]

I'll probably get flamed but am a bit at a poster on the diet board, saying that she was depressed by how chubby she was, when she gave her measurements her BMI was 21, and her target BMI was 18.6.

I've been dieting for months, was a size 16/18 with BMI of 30 now 8/10 with a BMI of 20.5, and now feel about right although am being told by everyone that I am getting too thin, which is fair enough, I don't plan to loose more weight.

I know its personal choice (ie some people will be very happy with a BMI of 25 or 30) but is it not a bit alarming that there are those who want to get their weight right to the very very bottom of the "healthy" zone.

Of course you can be too skinny but as BMI is only a guide, I couldn't possibly comment without seeing a photo of the person in question.

However, your comment...but at the same time I think we as a society have lost touch with whats healthy and normal...certainly works both ways since so many parents on MN think that a fat/chubby child is healthy and normal.

I think common sense and reality wins the day here. Using our eyes and honesty is the best way to gauge whether someone is too fat or too thing.

Or thin even!

YANBU to claim that you csn be too thin, but YABU to say that the lower range of healthy is too thin!

Assuming we take BMI as a viable benchmark (which we know it isn't, really), then here's nothing wrong with being at the lower end of the healthy range. It's still healthy.

Assuming we acknowledge the faults inherent in BMI, then there's even less reason to worry about someone at the lower end of the healthy range, since there are so many variables he BMI doesn't take into account.

Plus, even someone in the underweight range is probably OK - just as someone who is in the overweight range is probably OK. I mean, you have to be seriously under or overweight for it to actually impact on your health and life.

I am in the upper range of healthy and could do with losing a few pounds. Really - someone at the lower range of healthy is just fine. :)

I agree with the OP. It is sad that someone should be depressed and thinking they are chubby if in truth they are of a normal weight and should be getting on with their life and not thinking about losing weight/dieting any more. I know that I am lucky in being tall, relatively active and from a family that tends to run towards thinness. But I've met a lot of people (both thin and fat) who have a very unhealthy attitude to food and it's sad to see how much it can dominate people's lives and make them very unhappy.

And you can definitely be too thin - my ds's BMI doesn't register because he is so skinny and he does have a tendency to get very tired and also very cold. No dieting though - he eats a ton and always has done, just a combination of genes and high levels of activity. I think we'll be encouraging him to do weight training when he is a bit older just to gain a bit more bulk.

I get your point op, yes.

Yanbu.

We have a totally fucked up relationship with food/weight in our culture.

Loads of obese people, lots of people who describe normal as 'thin' and people who are already thin enough wanting to be too thin.

I am bmi 21 and am often described as skinny. I am not skinny. I am normal! Just as I was normal when my bmi was much higher too.

I think it is the relationship with food which is important.

nooka just made the point I was trying to make, only with eloquence.

I don't know, I was just thinking that you made the same points much more clearly

Well yabu to mention another person's specific bmi but I do agree with your general viewpoint.

But and its a big but - I'm not happy with my weight when my bmi is 20 and much prefer being the half a stone lighter that puts it at 19. I'm only 5ft and half a stone makes a big difference to me.

There is definitely a pressure to be thinner now I think - I mean look at the super-models from years back eg Cindy Crawford and she was slim of course but not as emaciated as models today. Also coverage of Cheryl Cole being told to lose weight to be on US X Factor. I suspect in the flesh she's pretty teeny tiny.

I know someone who weighs The same as me and is my height, and she is miserable as sin, as she reckons she has let herself go. I am not over weight, and don't like scrawny! If I lost anymore, my face would sink!

She would look better if instead of buying 4th hand washed out designer labels at car boot sales, she spent her budget in primark, she is self obsessed with what she hasn't and won't have!!

I just worked all this out relative to me. My current BMI is 19.1. This is the size I have been all my adult life. Regardless of events in my life which have made me lose or gain weight I always return to this weight in time. To be 18.6 I'd need to lose only 3lb. Barely noticeable. I start to look too thin at about a BMI of 18.2.

To be 21 I'd have to put on another stone which would not look and I would not be happy until I was back to my normal size. Perhaps the woman you are describing has the same situation.

It's all relative. My BMI is 22.9 and I am overweight compared to what I usually am and am confortable with.

22.9 might not seem high but I have a very small frame so lots of chub on me. My thighs rub together and I have a double chin and fat arms and a tummy roll. As soon as my thighs start rubbing I know I am too big as that can never be right!