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 100% agree bluntness.

I can totally believe you're a size 10
I'm 5ft1 and when I was 10stone 5 I was a size 10
I've now dropped to 8stone 12 and I'm still a size 10 but 8 on the top

I'm 3st heavier than i was 15yrs ago (and i was still overweight for bmi then and nhs staff banging on about it triggered an eating disorder ) and i just BMI'd that and it put me at 25 - overweight. To get back to that now i would have to nearly kill myself, honestly, and i'd still only be grazing 'healthy'.

For that 3st, i'm only 1-2 dress sizes bigger. But i remember a huge variation back then too, being totally unable to get some 'size 16' clothes on but slipping easily into a 12. Same goes for today, sometimes a 14 goes on easy and other times i only jyst squeeze into an 18!? Thats even within the same shop too.

So yeah, i ditched BMI for the sake of ny sanity. Yes i'm slightly overweight now but no way am i going to wreck my life and health in pursuit of a healthy bmi anymore

MarilynSlumroe

The way you are attacking, and even goading, someone who has generously shared her history of mental illness is quite shocking and possibly worth reporting.

I presume you are defensive for some reason and am sorry for whatever troubles you, but you need to have a look at your posts and yourself.

You are still post partum so weight is a bit weird then. I was straight back in my jeans after having my 4th child but was generally more inflated. So my calves were a bit bigger, my feet, around my back.

Also, a few years back I lost a lot of weight. I found a clothes size was about 2 stone (from being tight to start with to fitting perfectly to being far too loose). So op could well be at top of size.

I'm 5ft 8 and have never as an adult weighed less than 10.5 stone. I was a size 10 everywhere at that weight. I'm currently really ducking fat and am a size 16 at well over 15 stone. Which is surprisingly small against my weight. But my face is fat, my arms are disgusting, my legs are fat the whole way down and I have gone up a shoe size. My torso has stayed comparatively slim (although I'm under no illusion that I'm fat).

You only had a baby 4 months ago so be kind to yourself! Weight can do strange things too after a baby. Waist measurement might be a better way to keep track of your individual proportions, as BMI is great for populations and clothes sizes can be pretty variable.

I have a BMI currently of 28. I know I'm wobbly and need to slim down.

I can run a sub 2 hour half marathon though, and a sub 55min 10k, so I think my cardio is probably OK.

I had to see my GP about an unrelated matter and he did ask how much I weighed and when I said "oh I know I'm overweight, I'm working on it", he looked me up and down and told me not to be so ridiculous that I looked fine. Is that just him being used to how fat our society has got (I'm 5'8" and was 12st12 - size 14 mostly) or is it genuinely possible to have "heavy bones"?

I was in my running kit as I was about to head out for 20k Run...

Hi is bullet a d dangerousl

I'm 5'6 and 9 stone - size 10 (I have one dress from monsoon that's a 8 and definitely vanity sizing). I have tiny wrists and hands (and an almost abnormally small head), so I guess I have a 'small frame'. The BMI healthy range seems like a good spread to me. I'd be very slim at 8'3, but I would look and feel 'fat' a long time before I reached 11'2. I guess those with a larger frame would probably have a higher 'normal' though.

OP probably is carrying a fair bit of extra boob, but there's no way I'd fit in a 10 anywhere if I was the same weight. Unless it was a style that was very, very, forgiving on the hips.

@Aridane - but I'm not 40. This is my screen grab.

I also think bmi is a crock of crap. I was 11st 2lbs and 5"11 before I got pregnant. I had lost 3 stone to get to that. I looked like a skeleton and was an 8-10. Everyone said I looked far too slim. But according to bmi I was 21.xxx so could of still lost another 2 stone and been in the healthy range. I would of been bordering on anorexic to be honest.

Now I have had the baby and need to lose the weight again! But it will be to about 12 stone.

Before I gained a shit tonne of fat, at 10st 5, I was an 8-10 because I was mostly muscle. So for those saying it’s weird, it’s definitely not.

And after doing a recent body compilation, even if I were to get to 0% body fat I would be 9st 4. So I agree, BMI is not a good guide for some.

www.change.org/p/eating-disorders-are-not-just-about-weight-dumpthescales

I'm 5'1, 8 stone 10lbs and size 12. I'm quite fit too, (long hikes and short runs) but I'm flabby round my middle.

I'd love to get down to 8 stone, I think I'd be a size 10 then.

BMI is a blunt tool designed for use at population level, not specifically for the individual, but I do think we are probably used to the average person being bigger than ever so those in the 'normal' range appear small.

@ladyflumpalot @Aridane

I've just done it at a variety of ages and it's the same bmi score as Aridane got.

If you type in 7.5 instead of 7.7 you'd get underweight as 7.6 is the cut off.

Age shouldn't affect it.

Are you putting. 5 to mean half instead of .7?

Ooooh, BMI is my total hobby-horse - I'm a physio.

BMI was initially brought in for use in the NHS due to the inaccuracy and pointlessness of height/weight charts. It was therefore initially a measurement we found by using measures of people's fat. We did this by using measuring calipers and measuring the fat folds at different places in the body, then carrying out a calculation that gave a BMI.

Then one day, some idiot came up with a calculation that linked height and weight to give a chart of BMIs - so basically a NEW height/weight chart - with all the problems of the original height/weight charts.

So people with very muscular bodies seem to be obese (Linford Christie, famously).

And in my situation (where I'm banging my head on a brick wall currently), people with neurological problems who have very little muscle mass due to hypotonia, are being fattened up by their carers as they are 'underweight', when actually they have massive bellies and folds of fat.

A far better simple measurement of likelihood of being overweight is waist measurement - it should be no more than half your height. This also gives a decent measure of the likelihood of fatty organs, as it is measuring abdominal fat.

I don't think clothes size means much.
I'm 5ft 3, usually 9 stone (more at the moment, after Christmas) and I can be an 8, 10 or even a 12 (usually things like blazers) or a small or medium.

Same with my feet, size 5 or 6.

In many ways, it's great, because I can't shop online. I need to look at or try on before I buy.

@Coldandfrosty and @Aridane

Ummmm. I might well be.

Whoops!

Sorry!

OP & most those complaining about not liking BMI still haven't posted bust-waist-hips measurements.

I'm 5'6", a stone lighter than you and I'm more a size 12 than a 10, find it interesting how different shapes and sizes fit clothes differently (I have got a generous bottom and hips though)

Bust 34
Waist 28 inches
Hips 38 inches
Bmi 27.5
Height 5ft 3
Weight 69kg

I'm 5'3" and a size 10 and weigh 8 stone, if I were a stone heavier I'd be a size 12, don't think their BMI chart is a one size fits all

I also notice that posters who don’t like BMI hardly ever respond to follow up questions about waist measurement, but for someone who gave birth so recently and is still BF it’s less relevant to the OP.

Thanks for the tip christmas!

Bust 38
Waist 32
Hips 43

5ft7 bmi 30+ 'woop woop obesity noooo!'