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?

I think with 'big bones' people mean a big frame.
for example me and my sister are the same height. my sister has wider hips, so at the same weight she has a flat tummy whilst I have some wobble.

I’m 11 stone and 5”3, I am 10 on top and 12 on bottom. I have to wear a belt on my jeans to stop them falling down - my waist is a size 10 but legs and bums definite 12. I am quite muscly,especially my legs. On the scales in the gym it says 42kg muscle mass (don’t know how accurate this is)

I'm 5'2'', 8 stone 10 currently and a size 10. I've put on a bit 1/2 stone recently and my older size 10 trousers were a bit big so went shopping. I bought two new pairs, size 10 and both have turned out to be too big. Looking at me, I'm no way small and I need to loose that 1/2 stone.

Personally I think the way you look and indeed your waist size says more about whether you're overweight of not. Saying that, I've friends and colleagues who moan that they are definitely not overweight and the bmi is lot of rubbish but looking at them, I would classify them as overweight so it's also a matter of perception of what looks overweight.

Frame size definitely makes a difference. My frame is small so I can be heavier and wear the same size as someone lighter with a narrower frame.

For example paranoid mum, longish journey for newborn = adult between car seats. I am 7 weeks pp, just into the obese range for 5'6 and fit between the seats. DH at 12kg lighter and 6 inches taller did not because his pelvis is wider.

I have a 28 ribcage measurement and always need links taken out of watches (or the smaller size bracelet), ring size J etc so am much more overweight for my clothes size than someone with a bigger frame. Dealing with that is my mission for the next year...

I’m 5ft 3 and 9st 9 and wearing a size ten but there’s no way I should be. I have lots of wobbly bits. If I was your weight I’d be a size 12. I know my size tens are vanity sizes. I’m looking to tone up and lose a couple of pounds. I’m not overweight though just wobbly

...and my frame at 5.9 means that even if I were to be underweight, I would (probably) never fit a size 10

Your an inch shorter than me. I’m 10.4 and just slip in on the healthy weight range. A few pounds will push me into overweight

I’m a 12 generally thx to big tummy from 2 c sections

You’ve just had a baby so stop stressing. A few pounds in nothing.

I’m a pear shaped 5’4” with a BMI of 25ish. Most of my clothes are size 10 because I buy A-line styles that skim my arse and I don’t carry much fat on my upper half.

BMI is a useful rough and ready measure but a) doesn’t work well for everyone b) the cutoffs are somewhat arbitrary and their relevance varies by sex, race and age. A BMI of 25-28 is probably not going to have negative health consequences for an adult woman unless a) it’s a step on the road to obesity or b) it’s all carried on your waist.

Whenever a poster says that BMI is crap because she’s got a BMI of X but she’s definitely not fat then I say “yes possibly not a problem for you, what’s your waist measurement? if it’s smaller than the lesser of 31.5 inches or half your height (or as appropriate if not white) then you’re probably fine”. They never come back with their waist measurement. However since the OP is only shortly post parting and still BF that’s not necessarily appropriate. I certainly found that I stored residual reserves of fat on my waist while BF which I then lost when I stopped.

BMI does have it flaws, it won't be accurate for outliers - the very muscle bound but for the average person it's a pretty good measure - better than a arbitrary clothing size that has no standards.
I'm 5'3 and at over 10st I'd be and look overweight. At just under 10st I can fit into size 10 and be just into the overweight category on the BMI scale, but it's a vanity size, I'm still carrying excess weight on my hips and thighs. I think to be classed as "normal" I need to lose another 5-6 pounds, and to look in my eyes like I don't need to lose more weight, about 9st.

To all the people saying that you can't be a size 10 at that height and weight: ODFOD. I have had a catastrophic weight loss this year for reasons as yet unknown, and I am not smaller than the OP, but at her weight I was size 8-10 in Uniqlo, H&M etc. I have had a bone denisity scan (due to prolonged corticosteroid exposure) and I have unusually dense bones. I am also muscular from regular exercise (though less so than I would like to be). THIS is why the BMI is rubbish. When I was seriously ill with a long term health condition I was still at a normal weight, despite all my ribs being countable.

I am 5 ft 3 and a size ten at the same weight as you. However, i reckon it is vanity sizing as I couldn't get into a size ten at French Connection or any boutique fashion places. I am just a size ten on the high street. I do have no hips to speak of though and very skinny legs.

Just use a mirror. You know if you’re fat or not. Don’t fall into the trap of basing your “health” on mostly meaningless numbers such as BMI and weight.

It’s ok to critique BMI but it is incredibly suspect to include vanity sizing in your assessment, ‘it’s crap because an arbitrary method of sizing clothes says different’ is just plain silly.

I don't believe fitting a certain dress size indicates that you're slim. When I go shopping in the U.K. I need to select two sizes down from my own size. This was different 20 years ago. I'm not short either, I'm 5'8".

I don't think bmi is total shit. Buy even scientist agree its a pretty shit broad measurement.

It literally tell you a mass to height ratio. Doesn't tell you anything about density. And anyone that has ever seen a kg of lead compared to a kilo of aluminium will know that mass doesn't determine size. Density does.

What bmi does is give a standardised mass to allow very rough comparisons across different heights.

Vanity sizing is mostly a USA thing. Hence why you have to go up 2 sizes if shopping in the usa. Yes it happens to a degree here. But the huge leaps you are all talking about here are based on USA data.

You also need to recall that human bodies are evolving. Better access to nutrition in the early years means we are bigger (taller/bigger feet etc ) than we were when nutrition was scarce.

Weight is a complex topic. And women are meant to carry some fat reserves.

So yes we have all forgotten what normal looks like...as the only real body images we.see are those that have been highly edited.

2 websites I really like are
www.mybodygallery.com/
Which allows you to put a height and weight in and see what people look like. a

And
sizes.darkgreener.com
Which allows you to input your dimensions and see what clothes size you should buy.

Just use a mirror.
That isn't true...I see the same in the mirror as a size 10 as I did a size 26. We are very good at not seeing ourselves as others see us

I'm 5'3, 10 stone (maybe a little more after Christmas...) and a size 10.

I think BMI is good indicator. There has to be something relatively simple to highlight if there's a problem. I know people who will say 'BMI is rubbish as it says I'm morbidly obese when I'm clearly not' when actually they are massive but don't see it. I can imagine many people say BMI is rubbish because they don't want to face reality.

I am fat, I am at the high end of 'overweight'.

Dress sizes are all over the place.

I'm 5'4 and weigh 11st and over the last couple of weeks I've bought a size 10 dress from Phase 8 , a size 12 dress from warehouse and a size 14 from Gina Bacconi. In Coast dresses I always take a 14.

My size 10 Next jeans are always falling down and only fit nice and skinny when they have just come out of the wash. Most of my Next clothes are a size 10 as they come up very big.

My Seasalt coat is a size 10 but my Barbour one is a 14.

Dress size tells you nothing about a person's actual size.

I also know that I have friends who weigh less than me but look bigger and friends who weigh more but look much slimmer.

I really don't get the fuss about vainity sizing, what difference does it make if decades ago she would be a fourteen. She's talking about the here and now.

The only relevance is the difference between shops and clothes styles. A ten or a twelve in one shop can be a fourteen or a sixteen in another.

And pair shape can make a huge difference depending on style of clothes, because it's a small waist, larger bum/thighs. So if you go for clothes that are loose round that area ie an a line skirt, then a pear could easily fit in a ten, but if they wanted skinny with limited stretch jeans, it could be much bigger as it needs to fit the bottom and thighs. The waist becomes less relevant.

So the shop itself, and whether their clothes come up big, small or true to size and the style of the clothing, is more relevant than what it would have been twenty years ago,

FFS @babyarz is fine, she's not long had a baby and being 10 stone 5 after giving birth is bloody amazing, I was way more than that!

I'm the same height as you, 9st and a size 10, and I'd consider myself pretty much a healthy weight. I can't imagine carrying another stone and a half and fitting into the same clothes.

But - BMI is meant as a population tool more than anything. If you're comfortable in your body and are healthy then that's the main thing. If you're breastfeeding you're likely to be carrying more fat reserves than pre-pregnancy so your weight distribution will have changed