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'???

It’s hard to tell on here, there are some very odd attitudes.

In a nutshell - the only reason that the BMI range of 25-29 shows better outcomes is because people who are ill for other reasons tend to lose weight, so someone who is terminally ill is more likely to be low weight - not BECAUSE they are low weight

Exactly the reason that a BMI of less than 18.5 is regarded as unhealthy. People get ill, lose weight and die... with a BMI of less than 18.5.

I'm afraid I dont have the time to RTFT but... i think you are packing a lot of muscle because i weigh 86kg (so less than you) and am a size 16-18. Albeit i have really big boobs, a monster fibroid and am slightly shorter than you by half an inch.

I am definitely overweight though. I'm best at about 73kg. Which is the upper end of the normal BMI range but good for me.

Sod all the people telling you to lose weight, OP!!

The whole 'BMI' obsession was something I battled with for years as a teenager and even my early twenties... I'm just over 6 foot tall and yes I'm NATURALLY heavy, and even with healthy eating and plenty of exercise, I find it extremely hard to sustain a "healthy" BMI (between 11 and 13 stone). So of course I was constantly yoyo dieting and trying to fit into the 'norm', and if I'm honest I still struggle with body image and food obsessions because of this.

Has taken me years to come to it that if I weigh between 15 to 16 stone, I actually look 100% normal, and if I'm healthy and fit at that weight, what is the big deal all about???

On the other end of the spectrum, my husband is extremely slim built - he is an inch or so taller than me, and weighs 10 stone. Literally cannot gain weight if he tries! (I mean, if he had time to do intensive weight-lifting and drink protein shakes, maybe that'd make a difference, but... 🙄 )

And also... A healthy weight means that you will look thin. You are supposed to be thin.

Seriously?! Was that a joke??

On the other end of the spectrum, my husband is extremely slim built - he is an inch or so taller than me, and weighs 10 stone. Literally cannot gain weight if he tries! (I mean, if he had time to do intensive weight-lifting and drink protein shakes, maybe that'd make a difference, but... 🙄 )

This is the thing that trashes the whole 'if only fat people could control their urges and not overeat' rhetoric - the skinny people eating trash, constantly. My husband was bordering unhealthy thin, always told to gain weight by doctors. Ate like a horse tho, everything i ate and some, plus things i cant touch like biscuits! We had very similar workloads. I also had a friend taller than me and fully half my weight - LIVED on junk food, could eat whatever she liked, loved crisps, rarely saw her without a packet

I do think some people are naturally slender not only on account of their body type but also because they don't take comfort or particular enjoyment in food.

I try hard to be a healthy weight but I LOVE food and drink and it is one of my main pleasures.

My ex is a rake. Partly because he was raised not to fold to his appetite and fed on meagre portions but also ... he does not love food. He just doesn't. It baffles me!

I'm overweight according to my BMI. No, I don't think I would look gaunt or too skinny if I lost a few pounds, I'm trying to. But I don't think I'm horrendously unhealthily fat either.
Or deluded and should get some better friends who would tell me the bitter truth?

@g500 you look ace. Ignore the naysayers. I'd give my hind leg for a body like that.

G5000, I look very similar to you, just slightly thicker middle - a result of three children and the reason why my BMI is 32 and not 27 (ideal weight for me). I also can only slim down to ‘overweight’ BMI max. This is my absolute best and leanest.

By the way, you don’t look in any way overweight, G50000, even if the BMI says so. Great figure.

I suppose your shape is my aspirational goal, when I finally get to that BMI 27 and manage to tighten my core muscles, trashed by three lots of pregnancy. Watch this space :)

I think it is definitely because you exercise, are toned and have muscle that is the reason you are heavier.

There has got to be some truth in the idea that muscle weighs more than fat, even if it's around tissue being more dense, or whatever.

A colleague at my work is the same height as me. She wears clothes 2 sizes smaller but weighs 2 stones heavier. The difference between us is that she does running and strength training, goes to gym most days. I sit on my bum and eat chocolate

I think it is definitely because you exercise, are toned and have muscle that is the reason you are heavier

That can't be the whole story though. My wife exercises, spends around an hour most days in a gym lifting weights under supervision. Is toned and has muscle. Her BMI is 19.

That said, her 5k time is 24 minutes, not 20.

A colleague at my work is the same height as me. She wears clothes 2 sizes smaller but weighs 2 stones heavier. The difference between us is that she does running and strength training, goes to gym most days. I sit on my bum and eat chocolate smile

Yet the received wisdom, Apples, is to warn your friend of heart disease risk, stroke and cancer because she weighs in at 2 stone more at the same height at you. As to you Apples, do continue to sit on your bottom munching your way through a chocolate bar, you are all right. BMI says so 😂

Utter load of tosh. There is a poster on a sugar addiction thread who is and has always been good weight, but has recently been diagnosed pre-diabetic. At least people who have visible, subcutaneous fat know they need to watch it, so don’t feel lax about their diet.

What sort of frame does your wife have though, Rottnest? If I remember the video, she is thin and small-framed. Not everyone is small- framed. My shoe size is 7, 8 in winter boots. The rest of me is similarly non-petite. I can’t possibly expect to weight the same as your wife at a similar level of fitness (which I am not yet).

Definitely small. Bigger than average boobs for her size though (28FF/G). Can it make that much difference? I mean, 19 to 32?

dance mom is exactly same height as you and wears size 8 but weighs 8.5...going down to 8 if very busy and active.
It's difficult to know how that works.
I am size 14..at 5ft 6 and weigh 12 stone.

It's difficult to know how that works.
I am size 14..at 5ft 6 and weigh 12 stone.

I am a size 14 at 5ft 6, but I weigh 13.6st (86.6kg). That is 1.6st difference! But we fit into the same clothes. So if I were fatter, surely I wouldn’t be able to squeeze into the same measurements as you.

Definitely small. Bigger than average boobs for her size though (28FF/G). Can it make that much difference? I mean, 19 to 32?

Mine are 34GG which gives you an idea about the size of my ribcage.

Boobs can be heavy as testified by the back ache of particularly well-blessed ladies. But not heavy enough on their own to take one from BMI 19 to BMI 32.

It’s what the boobs sit on

When I was doing a lot of exercise I was at my lowest weight. I purely ran though. 50 plus miles a week depending on what I was training for.

Now I only run for fitness and do kettle bells I weigh more but the kettle bells have given me a better shape I think. More defined.

No way Adele runs 5k in under 20 mins. It took me a lot of work to get mine to under 19 mins and I was super skinny and trained like a beast to get there 😂

So, Paradise, if you ate less than your TDA of calories but it was all carb, would you gain or lose weight do you think? I think I might have a tendency to IR (there for sure is in my family) but if I eat less than my TDA cals I lose weight regardless so maybe not.

I'm super heavy , 5 foot and size 12 and 12 stone pretty much .. I'm hourglass with big boobs so not sure if that makes you heavier .. I know apple shaped bigger people who weigh less than me

My best friend is exactly the same size as me, we can swap jeans. She weighs 20 pounds less though and has a normal BMI. I work out most days, she never does - but apparently I'm the unhealthy one.

OnlineAlienator
Yes that's the thing. My in-laws are pretty much all slim and clearly have extortionately fast metabolisms, but boy do they eat junk!!!

My husband eats a lot better since we got married 😉 so I think he must be healthier overall, although it hasn't changed his weight or figure or anything.