To think I shouldn't be THIS heavy??

[Lotsofsausage]

So to start, I know I am no supermodel. Fairly tall at 5'8, size 14, smaller waist, medium bust. Fairly curvy arse/ thighs but toned. I am fit and strong and exercise 4-5x per week, including strength training.

Now I know measurements and photos are a better gauge than the scales, and muscle is meant to weigh more than fat (but I thought that was bullshit).....I am 14.5 stone! I have a friend with the same body measurements as me and same height and she is TWO STONE lighter.
Can some people just be 'heavy'???

I don’t want to post a picture as I don’t want to be identified. And I don’t like to idea of losing any control over the image once it’s online.

Rivers, you are clearly small built. You have got a very small rib cage and narrow shoulders. I do not. I am solid and curvy, with a clear waist. Good peasant physique. My shoulders are broad and my rib cage is a good size, just the bones before you put any padding on. Also big boobs.

I will never look the way you do. My frame is just too big. I can be fit, but I will never be dainty.

Your figure sounds very similar to mine.

Using this: www.livestrong.com/article/175491-how-to-measure-wrist-size-for-body-frame-measurement/

... my wrist measurement at 5'9" is 8.5"! The points of my hips are wider, the width of my shoulder bones, the size of my ribcage. An inch on your height only takes you up 1/60-70". An extra inch or two of width widens you all the way up and down.

I'm just a leviathan, though to be honest, my wrists and ankles do look dainty, because in proportion, they are!

This is before you even get to my honking great j-k cup boobs, which are wider than my ribcage behind them.

I'll repeat what I said upthread - having a large frame does make it easier to be in denial about your weight. I bear weight well, so it's much harder for me to notice or accept that I have a problem. But I really don't think it's reasonable for people to bang on about healthy weights without considering the above!

You look lovely, rivers, I wish I had your shape!

I've just been to that body gallery website and put in my height and weight (5' 6", about 150lbs) and most of the results look bigger than I thought I was. Now thinking I could do with losing about a stone. However my waist and arms are definitely smaller than most of the results and I have quite bony shoulders. Shame about the bottom half of me

You've mentioned exercise and lifting weights but what's your diet like?

Could it be that yes, you are fit and toned but you have built muscle up on top of fat?

My personal trainer used to say either go off weight OR measurements/dress sizes but you shouldn't try and go off both especially when weight training as you will be heavier weight training but still lose inches.

At the end of the day for me, I would rather guague my results on how I look and how my jeans feel rather than a set of scales.

OP what are your measurements?

thecats, I get you. You can starve and starve and starve yourself trying to be something like Rivers’ shape, but you are never going to attain it. Smaller built people can get bigger easily just by getting fatter, but you can only slim down to what your frame will allow. You can’t make a tall sturdy 5’10” person into a petite dainty 5’1” person. No amount of dieting will achieve that. I wish society didn’t make bigger framed people feel inferior and as if they are the ones with the problem. You can only work with what you’ve got.

And yes if you have got a bigger frame and are naturally muscly, you will be heavier. People seem to equate weight with fat and they aren’t the same thing. I used to have body transformations feed on my Facebook and there were cases where people went from fat to lean and fit and ended up heavier after their transformation. Please don’t conflate being heavy with being fat.

Paradise is that not why BMI has a healthy range though? Some people with bigger frames would fall naturally at the higher end. People with small frames would fall at the lower end. I’m happiest somewhere in the middle; I would struggle to maintain at the lower end. But I don’t think there are many people, serious body builders/athletes aside, that don’t have an ideal weight somewhere on that scale.

Crazyladee, this is my approach, too. I go by how I look in the mirror and how my clothes fit. I still wear size 14, but it fits me different to a year ago, looser. Although I managed to put on 7kg in that time. I am never going to be a twelve, my hips or my GG boobs aren’t going to fit in there. The best I can hope for is a toned, shapely, fit 14. Listening to the posters on this thread, one needs to be a fat munter to wear size 14. Not at all.

I agree that measurements and proportions are a better tool than a blunt weight/height.

Doesn’t medical research say that your best healthiest weight is actually in the ‘overweight’ range. The sweet spot isn’t BMI 25 and under at all.

When I was in my teens, starving myself and had a gruelling training regimen, walked for miles routinely, I was STILL just outside the ‘ideal’ BMI, I never hit 25. It is impossible to maintain such lifestyle long-term, even athletes only have so many years professionally in their sport, they will eventually go back to normal.

I can well believe Rivers can comfortably be within normal BMI judging by her build by just being sensible. You get that Olympic weight lifter slim down to BMI 22. Good luck with that.

I am not by far my leanest now at BMI 32, could lose 10-12 kg. I am a bit soft round the edges still, with a soft squishy belly and full thighs, but I am fit, strong and shapely. People tell me so. I have had men say they cannot see why I feel I need to diet as I have got a lovely figure as is. I can live with what I look like now, there’s space for improvement as always, but it is not terrible terrible obese at serious risk to health.

Sorry that was to evilharpy. Love your username :)

Paradise is that not why BMI has a healthy range though?

It is but people ignore that. I'm 5'1" and the healthy weight range goes from 7st to 9st5lbs. That's a massive weight differential. The lighter person could increase their body weight by 33% and still be in the healthy range!!!!!! That absolutely takes into account the difference in frame, bone density, breast size, muscle mass. In some very few instances someone with a naturally larger frame, heavier bone density, large breasts will have built fantastic muscles and that will push them into the higher BMI level. That's rare but not unheard of. Though for a woman to have a BMI of close to 30 due to muscle mass would be very unlikely.

This chart shows normal BMI ranges for most heights. My range is over 2st apparently!

www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/diet-physical-activity/body-weight-and-cancer-risk/adult-bmi.html

Doesn’t medical research say that your best healthiest weight is actually in the ‘overweight’ range. The sweet spot isn’t BMI 25 and under at all

On that topic...

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-being-overweight-means-you-live-longer-the-way-scientists-twist-the-facts-10158229.html

But no one of my height (5'8) needs to weigh more than the upper limit of healthy BMI, which is around 11 st 10 at my height.

Sorry I disagree. I didn’t say all my extra weight is muscle, I do have some flab. I have been doing weights for over 3 years and now lift much heavier than my DH. I am the ‘mesomorph’ type who are naturally broad shouldered, have strong leg muscles and build muscle easily.

A large proportion of my weight was always muscle, even in high school a TOFI friend came in at over 30% fat while me, two sizes bigger, came in at under 25%. And there are women with bigger frames than me still - my swimming instructor. She is not fat, you cannot pinch an inch anywhere on her. But she is not small and likely heavy.

I completely agree with the meta analysis type article upthread. BMI is meaningless, well, wrong actually, as greatest health is reported in 25-31 BMI range.

I know I still need to lose a few kilo of fat and can definitely improve my fitness further. But it is so far from doom and gloom anybody would have you believe.

earslaps I've looked at the Navy body fat calculator, I liked it because it said I'm fit.

LOL to the poster dismissing our idea if being too skinny at a 'healthy' bmi as bollocks - as a teen i starved the shit out of myself. People complimented my figure on the street, everyone i knew said how gorgeous and slim i looked. Still overweight according to bmi.

And as though nobody has honest friends or brutal mothers who will give you a realustic assessment of your weight.

Very recent BMJ study on mortality & BMI: depends on sex & smoker status.... and genetics, I think. Am not pretending to understand, but I think they are basically saying that the purely-BMI influence may be masked by unmeasured confounders.

Gosh that guy Malcolm Kendrick is not afraid to be inflammatory. People who dislike his style are 'mouthpieces' for forces he disapproves of. Cites meta-analysis as gold standard when it suits him, but ignores systematic review methods when they don't. Coauthor on MA with questionable methods. Writes articles about scientists who "twist facts", keen to label 50+ yr old research not merely poor quality by modern standards, but downright
'fraudulent'. Insistence that reducing LDL or taking statins doesn't reduce CVD.

Implying higher alcohol intake has no proven link with ill health. On the barricades with Zoe Harcombe no surprise there I guess.

Kenne, I agree with increased risks where obesity is dictated by excess body fat. Nobody seems to overly concern themselves with the health of rugby players who are obese by their BMI, or those terribly heavy people who do weight lifting. There are no light BMI 20 types there. They need to be big and stocky and probably choose their sport based on their physique, same as athletics people tend to be light-weight. Understandable, as it is easier to lug around 8st than 14st.

If somebody of your frame or Rivers’ frame got themselves to size 16, I agree that would create a dangerous situation health-wise. But somebody of my build, I really wouldn’t worry at that size. Size 14 is normal for me, it can feel tighter or looser, but whatever I do l, I wouldn’t go under that. Somebody taller would even be able to go to 16 and be fit and healthy physically.

It really should be looked at individually. The dangerous fat is visceral fat, and sadly, thin people with excellent BMIs aren’t immune against it, it’s that just nobody can see it. Obese people can be metabolically healthy (and some are, this is an hot topic of research) while normal weight people can develop diabetes type 2 if they carry high amounts of visceral fat. No guarantees either way, I am afraid.

LOL to the poster dismissing our idea if being too skinny at a 'healthy' bmi as bollocks - as a teen i starved the shit out of myself. People complimented my figure on the street, everyone i knew said how gorgeous and slim i looked. Still overweight according to bmi.

Well, clearly lying OnlineAlienator. There is no such thing as a healthy and good-looking person with an overweight BMI. Diet harder or slice a third of your skeleton off. It can be done.

There is no such thing as a healthy and good-looking person with an overweight BMI.

It’s actually very common in muscley men. My DH plays ruby and has that kind of physique, no fat - overweight according to BMI. A friend of mine who used to be in the army - obese according to BMI - as he has so much muscle.

It would be more unusual with women, but not impossible if they were tall with big bones naturally.

Sorry my post was very tongue in cheek.