to think BMIs are ridiculous?!

[HairTodayBlondeTomorrow]

I'm 5 foot 4 and after my kids ended up at 13st 9lbs,

I'm now down to 12 stone.

When I got married I was 11 stone and was in a size 12 dress and I think I looked lovely.

I'd like to get back to 11 stone. but according to the NHS at 11 stone and still be in the 'overweight' catagory.

Infact at 10 stone 7 i would be classes as over weight?

Surely it can be healthy to pus that on people?

I mean if i was 10 stone 5lbs i would be jussssst out of the overweight category.

And to be directly in the middle of the healthy range I need to be 9 stone?!

Have I just been over weight too long to remember what healthy is or does anyone else feel BMI is unrealistic?

Ah itdoesnthurt - it was bottom sizes that I was thinking of, actually yes in tops I am a 6 now (used to be a 10 - have upped my weight ) but in bottoms I am somewhere between an 8 and a 10 (decent thighs and hips, small waist, so fitting trousers but way too big waist band. So annoying)

If you are toned and with actually muscle, that weights far more than fat too so added weight wouldn't surprise me with that either. I put on weight when I was working out and doing a daily ab workout - had me a six pack :o I really should start again...

I think shop sizing is ridiculous and that BMI is overly generous. I am normal BMI but have a huge wobbly gut.
I agree with the people who compare their sizes with their social group to gauge whether or not they are ok but vanity sizing has a lot to answer for.
I'm surprised that 11 stone can be a size 12. I am 5 foot 8 and was wearing modern size 14 (size 16/18 in the past?) at 11 stone and definitely did not look good.

i think it's silly to rely on BMi alone especially when other factors draw different conclusions. yet there are numerous people on this thread who insist that anyone with a BMi over 25 and who doesn't consider themselves overweight is deluded.

32,26,33 but my bmi says i'm overweight - must be true

Tyler how tall are you? You measurements aren't enough. If you are five foot or under for example then your measurements wouldn't be that slim but if you are 5 7 then they would be. Plus, though your ratio is good, you could just be someone that puts weight on boobs and ass first (this is just an example, I am NOT saying you are overweight)

The BMI range of healthy is pretty wide, it covers other factors. If your BMI is over 25, you ARE overweight. The fact that you disagree does not change that.

i've already posted my height, 5 foot 4 and there's a photo on my profile.

i'm not trying to argue i'm slim, but i'm not overweight

you're 5'4, but what do you weigh?

You look like me.... My weight is nearly in the underweight category.

You'd have to be 10 st 10lbs to be overweight... are you really as much as that? Do you have dodgy scales? Are you SURE?

69kg

been this weight for years on a variety of scales, last weigh in was part of a pre-op

I weigh only a little more than that (71kg), and am 3 inches taller than you. And I'm definitely a bit overweight.

Old photo?

I suspect the truth is, that with your height and weight, yes you are probably overweight, but not horrendously, seriously health-threateningly so.

I'm afraid I think there's nothing wrong with the BMI tool but there is plenty wrong with people's attitude to it. A high BMI seems to entitle other people - including professionals who should know better - to cruelly criticise the body of the person being measured, insult their character and rave about taking irresponsible health risks.

Being overweight doesn't significantly increase your risk of heart disease or cancer. Being HUGELY obese does elevate the risk of joint and organ failures, including the heart. It is wise to stop gaining weight before you get to health-risk size. It is unwise to use BMI as an excuse to bully people.

I was eating-disordered for a third of my life and it still shocks me that everyone (bar 2 individuals) praised me for getting thinner and thinner. I was flaking out from malnutrition, but nobody said "Eat!" It's likely that decades of starvation contributed to my present illness, and almost certainly to my infertility. Fat women are more fertile, on average, not less.

I'm overweight now - quite a lot, actually; with a BMI of 29 I'm on the border of obese. I am not a wobbling lump of lard (though I have some lardy lumps!) and, more to the point, my doctor says I'm fine. There are reasons for the gain. During my exercise-disordered phase, I had an overweight BMI of 25.5 and an underweight waist measurement of 54cm.

Without disorders, Peaceful's Swedish rule of thumb works spot-on perfectly for me, but then I've got a Scandinavian body type. It doesn't work if you're under 150cm.

tyler you certainly don't look overweight in your picture, or measurements.

Tyler my BMI is 20 and from what I can see in that pic you are about the same size as me but with a much less flabby tummy!

At the top scale of my "healthy" BMI I was a size 16 (at 5'6) and really quite fat. Today I'm a 10 but flabby, curvy and frankly still what you might call fat if you saw me without my clothes on. I eat cake nearly every day and don't do enough exercise. I could EASILY lose a stone of pure fat and not be skinny.

I can only put my "healthy" BMI down to not having loads of muscle and having fairly skinny long legs (for my height, I'm not Gisele unfortunately...)

Tyler have you checked your body fat on scales? You look toned is it muscles? There is no way I would imagine you weighed 69kg from your picture and measurements.

So you are BARELY in the overweight category. So much so that you would say you are normal....

Having looked in the mirror you don't actually look as slim as me (I don't see myself as slim til I look in the mirror ) but you don't look massive amounts bigger, but I am taller too.

I think only being tenths of a BMI point above normal pretty much puts you in normal and you shouldn't be too sensitive about it. There is a 5 point range after all which should fit most people.

Also your chest measurement is slightly smaller than mine yet your boobs are bigger....

YANBU. I am right at the top end of normal but am a size 10. At size 12 it would class me as over weight. I think my muscly calves skew it somewhat. I don't think it takes any kind of muscle tone into account.

Remember the Special K if you can pinch more than an inch advert.

i'm not sensitive about it, perfectly happy with myself. But on light of others giving similar measurements i thought it was worth the illustration.

I do worry about my daughter's teenage years, and the message that might be given to her if she follows my shape

I'm the same height as you and in the obese range. I have been 10 stone 5 and below, not long ago and I certainly don't think that the healthy BMI range is too small for our height. It's like others have said, we 've just got used to seeing fat people around us (and fat kids too) so we think it is normal.

Peaceful's Scandinavian scale says I should weigh 7.5 stone! Wow. I thought 9 stone would be good. I'm 5'2" and currently 10 stone 12. I know I'm too fat. My twin sister, same height, similar build (I have smaller bones and feet), is 9 stone. She wears a Topshop size 8.

However, take the example of Jilly Cooper's Riders, written in the early 80s. Small, slim Fen weighs 7 or 7.5 stone (don't have my copy to hand); tall, big-boned Tory weighs 10 stone and is described as "hugely fat"; Janey, tall with big boobs, aims for 9 stone. In Rivals, Rupert winces at 12 stone 7, despite being 6' 2". He was 11 stone as a hugely fit Olympic athlete.

NB: I know Jilly Cooper is fiction! However, my point is that her idea of healthy weights was very different to ours.

Isn't that healthy weights for, er, Riders? As in jockeys? Not exactly a basis for comparison, they do tend to be very light.

Only Fen and Rupert are riders - and no, they're show jumpers, not jockeys, and some of the other riders are described as fat. I think JC was trying to create sympathetic characters, using weights that seemed appropriate to her at the time.

so the heavy bone myth was addressed and now its the heavy boobs excuse

the BMI allows for that, I have enormous boobs and have been to the lowest point of my healthy BMI, and if you're at the top or above you are probably storing excess fat in them too! what do you think they are mostly made of? its not all glands, if you have big boobs you don't have more milk making capacity in there, you have as much as anyone else

and to the claims that you are not gonna have health problems unless you are properly obese, sorry not buying that, also if you are overweight your children are more likely to be overweight or obese, lets not tip toe around the issue any more with talk of "curves" and "being happy with yourself" - the country is in trouble! I think for HCPs to not pull people up on BMIs till they were properly obese would be wrong, by that stage its much harder to reverse!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is HUGE SCOPE for each height in the BMI, yes you can have a healthy BMI and be unhealthy (WW I'm talking about you and your "avocados and nuts are bad, choc chip merangue nests and diet coke on the other hand - GO FOR IT! ), but its a start, however NO just because you exercise doesn't mean you are healthy despite an unhealthy BMI - its means you obv have unhealthy eating habits too!