To want a BMI of 19?

[user3459859083590890]

I had a BMI of 19 all through my teens and twenties.

Am I wrong to want to get back to that in my 40s?

I can only try, right?

I used to be about that and am a couple of stones heavier now in my 50s. It was fine when I was young but as said above, a bit of fat is better when you get to menopause. I don't think I would look good at that weight now - I used to look a bit like a skeleton then but youthful liveliness lets you get away with it - I would be too near to being a real skeleton now

Getting out of the obese range, and feeling happy and healthy whilst doing it are probably the best first aims.

Not at all User, that's my goal too/ideal weight. And nothing wrong with it as a bmi. Would need to lose a stone to get there, so shouldn't affect the skin too much with exercise too. Now to find motivation. Gah.

It's not all it's cracked up to be if your not toned. I just look scrawny and Ill half the time. When I put on weight people comment how nice I look.

You need to set a realistic target.

When I started losing weight I had a bmi over 40. It's now 24 and I am a size 6/8 in clothes (5ft 2) if I was to get anywhere near 19 that wouldn't be a healthy BMI for me!

At 5'5 I'd have to be 115 pounds to have a BMI of 19

FWIW I'm a size 8/10 at 137 lbs.

I'd look awful with 20lbs off.

I think it's also harder to lose weight when you're older and harder to amintain it. That is just my opinion based on zero science but my mom always said it and now i'm 50 40 I realise she was indeed wise

I'm 61 and have a BMI of 20 I am not scrawny and I feel (and look) better than I did when I was 2 stone heavier. I am also more likely to take part in active sports such as cycling and, therefore, am fitter than I was before I lost the weight (more than 5 years ago now)

You realise being very thin in your 40s looks very different to being very thin in your 20s?

This, as Geordie has said. ^

A build that is lissom at 20 can appear gaunt and ill at 40. Our skin has stretched and sagged more than we realise, and rarely has the elasticity to resume the slenderness of youth.

If I were you I would work at losing weight and achieving fitness and when you reach a weight at which you look really good - then aim at keeping within a few pounds of that.

BMI is not a straightforward measurement of health - it's more very loose guide.

My BMI is 19-point-something (anything between 18.5 and 24.9 is healthy according to the NHS).

I lost a lot of weight over the course of 2016. Target was BMI under 25, then adjusted downwards as the new shape emerged. I'm over 50, and my peri-menopausal synmtims have been mild.

Do agree about the skin elasticity point though. But you'll only find out what it's like for you by doing it. And yes it can be done.

The things that helped me most were joining a congenial MN weight loss chat thread, starting to use MFP and cutting out the booze in the active loss phase (both to save the empty calories and to avoid the erosion of will power which meant nibbling when glass in hand)

I was going to suggest that it makes you a "high risk" pregnancy but if you're in your 40s you may not be worries about that.

Watch for your face getting more haggard before your body has lost the weight though.

what height and weight are you?

Be careful. Being slim or even thing in your younger years, when skin is all plump and glory is one thing; in your 40's (with 50's looming) it's quite another. Haggard and tired looking springs to mind. Up to you really, OP. I need to lose weight having gone from a 12/14 to a well padded 14/16 and no, I don't much like it but....after Xmas, I wasn't well and the first place it showed was my face and neck. It still hasn't recovered!

Christ this fucking iPad! Thin not THING. GLOWIE not Glory

A BMI of 19 isn't underweight, my BMI is 18 and I'm a healthy size 10 in my mid-30s, technically I'm underweight according to the BMI charts but I'm perfectly normal and healthy.

I am 48 and have a BMI of about 19.5. However I'm not skinny - I do have a fairly, ahem, comfortable layer of fat, a rounded belly, fairly large (for my frame) breasts etc. I don't look haggard or anything, quite the reverse,. However, my (natural, not dieted ever) BMI when I was in my twenties was between 17 and 18. Based on this and the fact that I look better now than I did then (figure anyway, if not the wrinkles) I'd suggest aiming for a BMI a few notches above where you were when you were very young - 23 or 24 would still be slim and healthy (and probably far more achievable).

That's why it's just a rough guide User2468.

People's build, shape and fat:muscle rations vary wildly so it just gives an idea of whether you are likely to be healthy.

Why 19 op? It's good to be motivated to get healthy, but what suited you in your 20's may not suit you now.

I was always skinny pre-dc. But now I weigh about a stone more than I did then (my bmi is about 22). I did manage to get own to my original weight at one point but my boobs disappeared and my face looked ten years older - so I happily put a bit back on.

*ratios, not rations

My mum has a BMI of 18 at 75, she looks like a sultana (sorry Mum)!
My 16 year old son has the same and looks slim but healthy.
I would aim for 22/23 or you will have too much spare skin!

My BMI is 19 and my dr says it's perfect. I am over 60 which shows you don't have to turn to lard post menopause.

I know lots of slim older women and they look great.
I suspect they are the women that have mainly stayed the same weight most of their lives.

On the other hand, If someone has spent most of their adulthood being overweight and let their face balloon from putting on weight, then it stands to reason that if they loose weight their face will have that deflated look. The skin will have been stretched from being fat for so long. When you lose the weight you end up with saggy jowls.
So there is some truth in remaining large if you've always been large.

So, to have a generalized 'women over 40 should let themselves get fat, because to be slim is ageing' is completely misleading and is often a poor excuse to remain fat.

I understand the feeling op
I miss being tiny though tbh I was official,y underweight

But I think it would take so much dietary restriction I'd be unable to lift weights, as it is I can tell I need more food on a weights day

My mum went back to being tiny after menopause so I hope to follow the same pattern. I never knew bbmi though, I stick with measurements, so not sure... I think mine might have been 17 because the doctor was flapping in case I wanted kids (which I didn't).

I am thin.
My BMI is usually around 23.
I don't see that '23 is good but 19 would be better' because BMI is an indicator of a healthy weight.

You are not 'better' being 19 than you are 23.

Good luck with your weight loss.

BMI is BS - if you're happy with how you look then that's all that matters and what you should focus on, not some arbitrary number. Same with weight.

I've gone from BMI 28 to 23 in the last 14 months. People tell me that I look great and I feel good in my clothes too - down two dress sizes. However that is with two or three sessions at the gym a week as I don't want to look 'scraggy'. I have an athletic build and make muscle and shape easily with exercise. Apparently there is a gene for this which I must have!
I do look very tired, but that's not weight, its the horrible time I am having. I hope to look better once some of it is resolved.
In my opinion unless you have always been slender and it is your natural build you could end up looking very worn out and undernourished with a BMI of 19.