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'???

BMI has a broad enough healthy range for it to be a good indication of healthy and unhealthy weight.

It doesn’t take that much to top into obese range (the word obese conjures up bigger images)

the barometer by which sedentary females should be judged, but it's a massive delusion

Did you miss the bit about running a sub 20 minute 5k and deadlifting twice her body weight? There's a fair amount of training that goes into those achievements. Only a relatively small percentage of women can manage either, and certainly not sedentary ones.

I always find these fascinating! I'm 5ft 9, weigh 12.5 stone and wear a size 16. To wear a 14 I'd need to be a stone lighter.
If I was to put on 2 stone, God knows what size I'd wear!

If you can run 5k in 20 minutes and deadlift nearly 30 stone on a regular basis, I suspect you are as healthy as you feel

I find it fascinating too! Obviously the OP is fit and powerful, but I'm not sure that negates the health problems that come with being so overweight - or maybe it does, I don't know enough about it.

I find this strange too, but the other way - I feel like I should weigh much more than I do. I'm 5'5, size 8 and whilst slim, not ridiculously so (no boobs, but size 26 inch waste, curvy hips and bum). I'm under 8 stone and classed as underweight.

falcon you are exactly the same size as my 12 year old.

OP is clearly much fitter than most of the population; BMI is not bullshit for the vast majority of us who are less fit than she is.

You're supposed to be able to see a bit of bone. I'm not talking the horrors of concentration camp style but collar bones, hip and rib bones can be sometimes seen on someone with a normal and optimal weight. Yet we use words like 'gaunt' because it doesn't match what we have conditioned ourselves to expect

True.

F**k Fazackerley, that's not good :(
I did make a conscious effort to bulk up a few years ago - lots of weight training and protein. It worked for a bit but as soon as I got stressed with work and eased off the training, it all came off again....

I'd also be extremely wary of judging our weight by clothes size. Every few years clothing companies adjust their sizing slightly as consumers are more likely to buy clothing if the size label makes them feel good about themselves. Last year I was in Primark and literally dropped a dress a size in 2 minutes. I was a size M in the clothes I picked up from the clearance section and a size S in their new range of "improved sizing" clothes. I have a few different pairs of size 10 jeans from 15 years ago that are smaller than size 6-8 jeans I bought recently. That's not an anomaly, it's true of whole boxes of clothes I took out of storage recently compared with newer clothes. I can put clothes bought over the years together and track how sizes get more 'generous' roughly twice a decade.

All through my mid-late 20s I was very clearly putting on weight and staying a size 10 because the new clothes were growing with me. And as intended I stayed in happy denial because of it. I'd grow out of my old clothes and go to buy new ones with trepidation and end up feeling boosted because I was still a 10. Which doesn't sound so bad but I'm 5'1" so was getting increasingly unhealthy but encouraged into delusion for someone else's profit. At 39 I was close to medically obese and still squeezed into jeans claiming to be size 12. I'm naturally big boobed, wide hipped, I put on weight evenly so still had a reasonable hourglass and I do have dense bones, I have a strong back and legs, so it was very, very easy to blame all of those factors for what seemed like a teeny weight gain and an overweight BMI. I'm so, so, so glad that I was able to finally see through it and admit that I was not just overweight but I was continually gaining.

The big, big thing for me to accept was that I was eating too much, far far too much and largely the wrong stuff. I quit processed sugar completely for 6 months and let my appetite readjust. I have way more energy, I'm significantly more active, I'm still eating an absolute fraction of what I used to and I've almost stopped losing weight because what I actually need to eat is so, so, so much less than I thought it was. For all that I genuinely do fall on the genetically heavier physical body type and am quite muscular now my BMI has dropped to 22.4. And even still I can tell that I need to lose some last few lbs of fat though as I'd like to build some more muscle I'm not sure if I will lose any more weight but even if I build muscle intensely, the only way my BMI will increase by 8 points is if I gain fat back too.

I'm a healthy BMI and regular runner and have never managed a sub 24 min 5k, and that was years ago. Fair play to you OP.

Could another aspect of the size thing be how prepared people are for their clothes to be tight? I cant believe I really weigh more than IfYoureGonnaTakeAShotAtTheKing who is 5ft 9 and I am just under 5ft4 but the same dress size or smaller. I bet I wear clothes that are too small for me/vanity sized.

Yes well done 20 mins for 5k is amazing - who cares what you weigh if you can do that - you are obviously light in the way that matters.

Stretchy clothes have a lot to answer for!

And posters rarely give actual body measurements, just clothes sizes which are fairly meaningless.

'was 11.5 stone/size 14 when I met DP (he was quite a bit lighter too!!) and although I looked better in clothes, when naked I was really embarrassed about my lack of boobs. I know he prefers them now too.'

Really? You'd rather be unhealthy and obese with 'boobs' than a healthy weight with a flatter chest.

I wouldnt fat shame anyone, but honestly get your priorities right. There is nothing 'embarrassing' about a 'lack of boobs'.

The size 14 is meaningless though and I say this as someone who has lost 2 stone from 14st to 12st and stayed a size 14 and I am wearing the same clothes as before. However I look better and the clothes look better too. I am 5’10.

Why don’t you see about getting you body fat measured? I actually work with a female body builder but despite how big her muscles look she is actually very neat and is slimmer than most of the other women at work, even when she is bulking up.

I'm 5'6", weigh 9 stone and have a body fat percentage of 19 (measured with calipers). I don't think the fact that you can see my hips and ribs does not mean I am underweight or look ill. There's an abundance of credible research that shows being too fat is not good for you. I don't know if the op is too fat or just muscular so I really can't comment.

Takes deep breath... BMIisapopulationlevelstudyanddoesn'tnecessarilyapplywelltoindividualphysiquesandNO,that'snotnecessarilybeing'indenial'

... and breathe in.

OP, I'm the same. I weigh heavy, and look fucking fantastic at 14st. Like a proper, gorgeous pin up. I'm 5ft9, and my waist when I was last 14st was 28" (so much less than half). Natural hourglass with big natural boobs (J cup), wide hips, well developed muscles since I was very young. Athlete like heart rate, perfect blood pressure, my official BMI laughed off by my doctor because she could see my abs.

But it has been a bit of a curse, because when I started to gain weight, I naturally continue to look good up to a certain weight - my frame bears extra pounds very well. Then stress and pressure and sedentary life took its toll... I went up to 21st. I'm now down into the high 16st range, working my way back to that level. I might go down as far as 13st7, but can't really see myself going futher, and frankly don't care what the armchair doctors on this thread think. I know my body, I know how it looks and performs, and will be very happy to reach that.

OP I am totally in awe of you - 5km in 20 minutes AND you can deadlift double your body weight! Respect.

I am same weight and size as you and I am 15 stone. Solid thighs tho. I do a lot of hiit/weights training too. I do have over 50% muscle on my composition and I'm not very flabby (though my body fat percentage is also quite high)

Some people are heavier. I am 5'6" tall and at 11 stone verge on a size 8. At school my friend and I could wear the same clothes and were the same height but she was a stone lighter than me. I do think it very much comes down to muscle versus fat so the more athletic and toned you are the heavier you will be.

Meant to say I'm not currently 11 stone :-) would like to get back to 11 1/2 though!

I'm a lot heavier than I look. Im very tall but my BMI is higher than it should be. However I raised it with my GP who said ignore BMI as it's a crap measurement of health.

I'm tall and very busty, don't know if the boobs make a difference???

I think how heavy you are perceived to be completely depends on your build.

I am a 'heavy' person too and I have always been surprised to hear that people who wear the same dress size and/or look similar to me are actually about 2 stone lighter!

I think it just depends where you hold your fat. I've always been someone that gains weight equally across my whole body so I think that makes a difference as I don't look heavy (or as heavy as I am, anyway). Whereas my sister is actually lighter than me, but looks bigger as she tends to put weight on on her top half only.