To be surprised I'm overweight?

[overweightcat]

I don't know why but it's really knocked me for six.
I went on the NHS BMI calculator and found out I'm classed as overweight.

I'm 26 and weigh 74kg at 169cm height. Looking at it writing it down I realise it's quite a big number (weight) and before even going on the calculator I knew I'm carrying some extra weight and wanted to loose some to feel a bit better about myself but didn't realise I'm overweight.

I don't hate my current body, my stomach isn't flat but not huge, I've got some stretch marks and a bit of looser skin from 2 pregnancies, my thighs and arms are a bit bigger but I didn't think it was excessive, I've got a good bum and ok boobs all things considered and I'm curvy(ish).
I'm also quite strong and I know some of it will be muscle but definitely not all I'm not silly enough to think that.

AIBU to be really surprised I'm classed as overweight?

For some reason it's really shocked me and I'm feeling very self conscious since finding out.

It is NOT hard to maintain a healthy weight. To say that most people need to smoke or be ill to be a healthy weight is utter rubbish.

Not most people, but some people definitely yes. Only a third of the population are normal weight, so it's clearly no longer the default. We live in an obesogenic society. That's not to say being overweight/obese is fine or healthy, but it is the new normal. We need to change society (eg more junk food taxes) to make it easier for people to stick to a normal weight without having to try, but that's off the point.

This isn't something I've made up, it's Dr. Michael Greger, the leading nutritionist, explaining away those studies that show higher BMIs are the lowest risk of mortality. They are flawed because some people are only a "healthy" weight because they have an undiagnosed condition.

Maybe you could keep a record of everything you eat and drink plus the amounts in a day or a few days and then add the calories up, you may feel less surprised when you realise how many you're eating and how the weight is being gained and will continue to be gained if you don't start eating at a moderate calorie deficit until you're a healthy weight that you're happy with. Personally I wouldn't be surprised that you're overweight, that's about 11 and a half stone at only 5 foot 6.5... I cant imagine that looking fit or slim or feeling very healthy either

Ah here we go, I found the excerpt from that book about it - he explains it better than me.

books.google.co.uk/books?id=OASbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT37&lpg=PT37&dq=michael+greger+obesity+paradox&source=bl&ots=3FKSIziIEk&sig=ACfU3U1ZJZ-4eo7ECiFNI2u9W44enw9DHA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj74aW_ueXoAhWQecAKHcDjCz8Q6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=michael%20greger%20obesity%20paradox&f=false

The difficulty of being around the threshold of overweight BMI by your mid-20s is that over time (as OP has noticed), your weight sneaks up, first because it's very easy to eat marginally more than you need, and also because over time your metabolism will slow down and assuming your lifestyle remains consistent, the surplus will increase as your body burns less fuel.

The reality is that while any health effects of being at that threshold now are pretty negligable, there will be a long term choice of gradually gain weight or have to conciously adjust your lifestyle, which is easier to manage in the early days by establishing better habits of food choices/ portion control/ exercise.

I tend to set myself my comfort zone (about BMI 23, I have a small frame and carry my weight in my thighs and glutes) and take gentle management to keep it in that target zone. Mind you, being stuck in the house with a ravenous family and losing a lot of daily activity is blowing that strategy for now

No wonder we have what’s called an ‘obesity crisis’ in this country. People in massive denial about BMI or convinced that to achieve a healthy weight BMI you need to smoke or have cancer... people outraged that size 18 could be considered obese... people thinking that of course you can’t be the same weight and size you were at 26 that you were when you were 16 ... I’ve heard it all now the level of delusion and self denial on here is embarrassing.

BMI is a good indicator as it includes a wide range of weight. Everyone should aim to be within the normal range. After that you need to measure your waist to ensure it is 80cm or under. If it is over then you need to lose weight even if you are in normal bmi. After that you need to check ratios to see if healthy. If not then you need to lose more weight. Thats the health guidelines. After that you can be slimmer if you want but eating healthy is v important. Eating deficient calories, diet coke etc to be slimmer will not make you healthy.

People in massive denial about BMI or convinced that to achieve a healthy weight BMI you need to smoke or have cancer...

Again, this is NOT what I said. There is a proportion of people who are only healthy weight because they have underlying health conditions (including undiagnosed illnesses such as hidden cancers, depression etc), and this is enough to throw off the mortality stats making people wrongly think higher BMI = lower mortality.

I believe that the ideal BMI is 20-21. My normal BMI was about 22-24 as I never quite achieved that "ideal" weight. After having a baby and a huge amount of weight gain, my current BMI is about 31. I do not think this is healthy and am working on getting back to a healthy weight. I'd still like to be BMI 20-21 ideally.

And are people seriously denying that it takes some effort to be a healthy weight these days? With so much crap processed food and sedentary jobs? It is worth the effort but it is something that most people have to consciously think about if they want to get to a normal weight.

@JohnFinlaysNewTeeth Thank you! It's lovely to have my common sense appreciated every once in a while (insert sarcasm here).

People need to stop pointing the finger at society and learn some basic self discipline. I'm not saying it's easy - but the solution is that obvious. The person I was responding to seemed to believe that a fair proportion of people of a healthy weight were either smokers or ill rather than people that simply have healthy balanced diets. You might think it's obvious, but clearly some people are a little delusional.

I've never understood why the BMI chart is the same for men and women. Can anyone explain it to me?

If you know you have a few pounds to lose, then you know. I’d maybe look at BMI as a guide, but that’s it. I think there are far too many situations where BMI cut-offs need shifting/don’t apply.

I’ve finally reached a ‘healthy’ BMI after starting off as morbidly obese. I’m just into ‘healthy’, by 1 point! But I’m told I look gaunt, and you can see every one of my ribs, on both my sides and my chest. I don’t know where I’m supposed to lose more weight from!
(Except if I got surgery to excise a load of loose skin, I guess).
So now I’m stuck because I’m told I look unhealthy at this weight (& even my blood work is not great), yet if I put on even a couple of pounds I tip into ‘overweight’ and get told I should lose weight.

This is why I always have an argument with mumsnetters who say that nobody should ever tell a close friend or relative that they've put on weight because they'll always know it already. This is a good example of someone not being able to see it for herself.

@Pinkblueberry Horrifying isn't it? Unbelievable how many people think being overweight is fine and dandy. Being slim as a woman has become something which apparently after your teens and early 20s is an illusion and totally unrealistic. Bonkers.

"My sister has been using her exercise period ( during lockdown) to walk for an hour ( five days a week)
She has lost 9 pounds in three weeks and has only made slight changes to her diet"

She must have been incredibly inactive before lockdown!
Before lockdown I was walking 40-60 minutes every day to the train to and from work and some evenings to the pub afterwards, walking a couple of hours around the shops on the weekend AND walking around at work all day. It's much harder to move much during lockdown and for most people an hour a day outside while only moving from one room to the next during the day is not going to be enough to make them lose weight.

I had the same recently too. I’m 5 ft 4 and I’ve never been troubled by my weight, always thought I was fit and healthy, always been to the gym etc. Then I weighed myself for an assessment and discovered I was 10 st 3 with a BMI teetering on the healthy/overweight boundary.

I don’t think the 2000 calories per day for women line that is often given is very helpful. When I calculated how many calories I should be consuming for my height and weight it’s a lot lower than that.

I’ve now set myself a target of losing a stone and have restricted my calories quite a lot until isolation is over and I can move a bit more. It feels really weird because I’ve never been on a diet in my life but being honest with myself I have got a lot ‘rounder’ in the last year or so and I’m sure I’ll feel better once I lose the weight.

It is harder for some than others though. Some people have lifestyles that enable them to move around loads but so many of us spend hours just sat, in a car or at a desk that one hour in a gym doesn’t make up for.

Set yourself a goal, with some mini milestones. Find our your recommended calorie intake to lose weight (1lb a week is what I’m going for) and then use My fitness pal to meal plan. YouTube has some great workouts for isolation but just try to keep moving if you can. We will get there!

I’ve finally reached a ‘healthy’ BMI after starting off as morbidly obese. I’m just into ‘healthy’, by 1 point! But I’m told I look gaunt, and you can see every one of my ribs, on both my sides and my chest. I don’t know where I’m supposed to lose more weight from!

@FishOnPillows I think if you used to be morbidly obese and are now a healthy weight then that’s quite a drastic difference - people who have known you for a long time maybe uncomfortable with it or even jealous. Or perhaps worried that you keep losing weight to the point where you BMI would be too low. Whether or not their intentions are good I would be very wary of anyone calling you ‘gaunt’ - which is quite a loaded and unkind word - when you’re at the top end of a healthy BMI.

I think the key is focusing on weight maintenance at a healthy weight.

Those who are overweight will have passed through a healthy weight at some time. Getting the message out there that it’s important to maintain a healthy weight and how little changes over time can add up to pounds gained (or lost) is vital. It sounds like the OP has slipped into being overweight and for most people this is because they overestimate their energy needs an underestimate their calorie requirements. I’m not saying that those who are overweight/obese shouldn’t be encouraged to lose weight but I think that there is too much focus on that, when it can be quite a hard thing to do without support of which there is often not much, and too little public health messaging that would support weight maintenance.

I've lost 20kg in the past 8 months. BMI I found very helpful in identifying how overweight I was. When the weight creeps on slowly, it's very easy to make excuses and not notice. In the mirror i saw somebody "quite overweight". I was honestly surprised to find out that I was obese when I calculated BMI. My perception of normal weight is skewed by what i see around me. In fact, when my BMI was 30 two doctors commented that I was "slim" from looking at me!

When i started losing weight i thought my BMI must be wrong somehow, there was no way i could actually be obese. 20kg down, i am now BMI 26 and i can see that i still have a bit to lose. Holding a 20kg weight i can't believe i carried all that weight around! So my rose tinted glasses had well and truly been on.

In my 20s i could eat whatever i wanted and stay under BMI 25, sadly that isn't the case now. I will aim for around BMI 23.

It's true that BMI isn't everything - there is also waist measurement, body shape, how much weight different people store around their internal organs, muscle and bone mass. But for most people it is a useful number.

I’ve finally reached a ‘healthy’ BMI after starting off as morbidly obese. I’m just into ‘healthy’, by 1 point! But I’m told I look gaunt, and you can see every one of my ribs, on both my sides and my chest. I don’t know where I’m supposed to lose more weight from!

I'll bet you don't look gaunt at all, especially if you're only just into healthy by 1 point but these people will have been used to seeing you morbidly obese, so the change will take a bit of getting used to.

Oh and there's nothing wrong with seeing a rib cage.

@TippledPink

No no, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong! Definitely wrong here.

I think you are in the minority though. I know a number of overweight people and none of them would consider themselves as such. A close family member was a size 24 and enormous and it was a very long time before she realised it. She told me once she looked in the mirror and just saw herself as slim/how she used to look. Her BMI was obese/morbidly obese (can’t remember) and she was advised to lose weight for medical reasons and STILL couldn’t see it was an issue. Everything revolved around denial - the BMI was wrong, the doctors were exaggerating etc.

Being fat and being in denial go hand in hand more often than not.

I am usually 54kg. My first pregnancy I was around 75/80kg. Ok my baby was 4kg but still! Huge weight gain. I just didn’t see it. I lost the weight in 6 months but it was very telling how I looked in the mirror and saw someone in shape, but look back at photos now and cringe at how huge I actually was. I can fully understand how it all happens, particularly if you don’t track your weight/subscribe to silly theories about it being impossible to get back to pre baby weight or be the same as when you were 18.

I don’t know. My psychologist is keeping an eye on me because she thinks I’m looking unwell, and my DP made me promise not to lose any more weight because he was worried. I met him after I’d already lost 9 stone, so he’s never known me when I was much bigger (I’ve lost another couple of stone since meeting him). He keeps saying the number on the scales includes all the loose skin (& there’s a LOT of it), so isn’t really representative. I started a new job a few months ago, and people were horrified and even concerned when I said I was trying to lose more weight. Plus I genuinely have a large build (eg I largely make my own dresses because the shoulders are always too narrow by at least a couple of inches each side - and my shoulder bones stick out so it’s not weight!)
I just don’t know how to feel about any of this. I want to lose more, and I was trying - I want to be definitively in the ‘healthy’ range, but then I have people telling me losing more weight would be unhealthy, and if anything I should gain a few pounds. It’s actually seriously screwing with my head.

I started a new job a few months ago, and people were horrified and even concerned when I said I was trying to lose more weight.

It sounds like they're fucking with your head if you're literally just out of the overweight category.

I'd see your GP about it if I were you, after lockdown/restrictions are over.

Don't be bloody ridiculous! I'm the same height and more than 3 stone lighter and don't remotely resemble a skeleton.

So am I. I'm a 53 year old bodybuilder and don't look remotely skeletal

So am I. I'm a 53 year old bodybuilder and don't look remotely skeletal blush

I do heavy weights too. I find it helps me manage my zimmer frame.

You have to be very muscular for it to skew BMI

You'd have to be hitting the steroids like they were going out of fashion!

I do heavy weights too. I find it helps me manage my zimmer frame.

People don't half post some rubbish on here.

Keep lifting. There are few women who compete in my category: we need more!