To think the NHS BMI is a load of s#!t

[babyarz]

I gave birth to my beautiful DS 4 months ago.

Although I am losing weight as ebf I thought it would be good - after Christmas - to cut down on the chocolates and eat healthier.

I am fitting into all my size 10 clothes pre pregnancy and thought I'd weigh myself today to see what I am. Once I did this I looked my bmi score at it states I'm overweight!!

I'm totally ready for being told I'm BU but at 5"3, 10st 5 and size 10 I honestly didn't think I'd be classified as overweight!

What's your thoughts?

Lucky you OP. I doubt there are many women with your stats fitting into a size 10. I’m only a little shorter than you and I’m into a 12 if I go over 9 stone!

AnnAbbieLian
The BMI underestimates overweightness for shorter people and overestimates it for taller people
What is this based on? I’ve never read that before. It’s a bit depressing ( as I’m short!).

I'm the same height and weight as you. Also a size 10. And yep, I still look very slightly overweight. BMI is useful for the average person like you and me.

Did you weigh yourself before or after a feed? If you are breastfeeding, especially if you are in the early days, your weight can fluctuate pretty significantly based on how much milk is in your body at a time. I could vary by 6-7lbs before and after a big feed.

Er.. I also am pear shaped and consistantly wear 10s and 12s at New Look and Boohoo

Oh, do they come up big? I assumed the opposite. Sorry.

I could vary by 6-7lbs before and after a big feed

Huh? That can't be right? You loose half a stone feeding your child once?

it's a good measurement for most people. but not the only one.
how do you do with the string test? (your waist circumference should be less than half your height)
how is your cholesterol and blood sugar?

You must be muscular or shopping somewhere with really generous sizing because I'm an inch taller than you and at 10st5 I can just about fit into some size 12s.

BMI is not the best way to determine if you’re overweight or not as it fails to take into account factors for extra weight like muscle, boobs etc.

My DP is an athlete so obviously very fit and his BMI categorises him as obese. Many rugby players I’m sure would be considered morbidly obese according to BMI.

However it can be a useful indicator for the general public if not entirely accurate.

The most important thing is getting your body to what you feel happy with and focusing less on the numbers BMI, scales, clothes sizes etc, which often mean much less than we think they do.

I have very similar stats to the OP - I'm usually a 12 in jeans though.

I'm built like a shetland pony.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the BMI calculator as a guide, but don't get hung up on it.

@redsummershoes

Never heard of the string test before. Will measure tomorrow! X

I would say you're overweight going by your height and wonder how you can be wearing size 10 clothes. I know BMI is accurate as far as my weight/height goes. I think a lot of people just don't like to believe they're overweight.

@redsummershoes

Sorry should of said everything is fine (blood pressure etc). I did a lot of dancing before I fell pregnant with DS and used go to go to many exercises classes.

Have you checked the accuracy of your scales, OP? And where did you buy those size 10 clothes? I’m 5ft 3, weigh 10stone 1lb, and my
size 12 trousers are a little on the tight side! I’ve had to up my exercise and cut my intake, aiming to drop a couple of pounds and get back to a healthy BMI.

I lost a lot of weight very quickly last year due to serious illness and was hospitalised and not eating for weeks. It got to the point where I had no fat left in my legs so every daily blood thinner injection etc hurt. Yet according to the bmi calculator, despite massively reducing my body fat (which wasn't huge to begin with, I started at a size 14 at the start of the year), I was overweight and needed to lose another stone to get in the healthy range. So, lopping an arm off then?

What I'm saying is that helped me realised what a crock of crap it is. Use other ways to measure yourself, not this.

Pear shape is small boobs so they can’t weigh that much.

I'm 5ft 3", about 8st 3lbs and most of my clothes are a size 10, although an 8 in some shops.

I think it depends on the style of clothes too though.

How do people accurately know how tall they are?

Easy to check your weight with a digital scale but it seems tricky to get an accurate height as tilting your head up even a bit or slouching can throw your height off by an inch or two and that seems to make all the difference to BMI calculations...

@Tippexy - if she’s a new look or boohoo 10/12, she probably has at least 38-40 inch hips (maybe bigger), as long as her breasts are smaller she could be pear shaped and bigger busted.

It's balls, i'd be ill if i even got down to their normal range. Apparently im obese but nobody would say so to look at me, im a bit podgy, thats it.

@redsummershoes

how much less than half your height? I am a watermelon shape and I haven't given birth

UK dress sizes must have changed a lot over the years. At 5 ft 6" and 9 stone 7 pounds, I wore a size 14 wedding dress in 1982.

I only wish it still fitted!

I’m 5’4 and 10st, just in a size 12! I was 9st when I was a size 10. I find my bmi is usually about right though, it’s a helpful guide for me.

Running against the Project Fat Fear posters here to point out that as a measure of health, BMI is finally being acknowledged as... too low.

It's an international standard, and a lot of the surveys that come from abroad indicate that people who are about 4kg above their max BMI live longer.

The argument that 'people were thinner in the old days' as a measure of health is bollocks, to use the technical term.

Body weight shot up in WW2 because rationing finally ensured almost half the British ate enough. Before WW2, in the 1930s, a third of children in East London had malnutrition. Even after WW2 people still died of starvation in quite decent areas.

Fat is a scapegoat for a lot of illnesses - weight alone doesn't make that much difference, unless you're vast. Diet, however, which is not the same thing as being fat, can be more of a trigger - as can, most of all, lack of physical exercise. But all these factors are 0 compared to genes, without which no one can get a 'lifestyle illness' even if they're all out begging for one.

I'm totally ready for being told I'm BU but at 5"3, 10st 5 and size 10 I honestly didn't think I'd be classified as overweight!

Sizing is weird. I'm 10 stone, 5'8, and a size 12....

Huh? That can't be right? You loose half a stone feeding your child once?

Yes, though I had a massive oversupply and essentially produced and leaked milk on a constant basis for months. If I had expressed milk the day before, then missed a couple of feeds (the ones the expressed milk were for) I'd be carrying 30-40oz+ of milk. Engorged doesn't even cover it. I wasn't gaining or losing body fat but the milk itself has mass and that can make weighing yourself highly misleading. I tested the weight difference a few times and learned to only ever weigh myself after a substantial feed where my breasts felt normal/empty. If I felt like I was carrying milk, my weight was always higher.