To think I am not overweight?

[orangegerbil]

According to BMI, I am overweight with a reading over 27. I am 5'3 and weigh almost 11 stone. I haven't weighed myself in years so I am a little shocked.

I could do with losing a bit around my tummy, but I am a size 10 so I can't be that bad surely? I do have quite a big chest but that can't be the only reason for my weight.

The NHS uses BMI calculators so I am slightly concerned about it as it must be a trusted way of measuring things. Is it possible to have a high BMI but not be overweight?

I’m in a size 10 at 9 stone. I’ve been 11 stone many moons ago and I was a size 14.

Why the ‘Get it?’ That just makes you sound rude, @formerbabe isn’t the only one that read your comment that way.

I am just telling you what I saw PablosHoney. I am not saying no Italian is fat, but it was very noticeable the difference in body size walking around Sienna than walking around the UK, especially the West Midlands. The fact is that in different countries, and different parts of the UK, you will notice differences in the fatness of the population. And where there are lots of fat people, I strongly suspect people start to lose sight of what is a healthy weight and what is fat.

We are a nation of overweight people. Fact. As a PP said, you can really see it when you go to Europe. On holiday in Italy a few years ago, and was really struck by how I didn't really see fat Italians - some middle aged women and men with normal middle aged spread - but that was it.

And yet more recent statistics show 1 out of 3 Italians are overweight, and 1 out of 10 are obese.

Obesity is an epidemic that's spreading rapidly. Yet for many, weight is still a 'taboo' subject.

Your waist is tiny! I'm 5ft 3 ins, weigh 9 stone and my waist is 31 ins. I'm working on getting back closer to 8 stone which is my best weight.

I don’t think clothes size helps - different clothes vary, as does the sizing in different shops! Bluntly - at that height and weight, the OP is overweight. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t look really nice/attractive - but she is overweight.

BMI is a pretty blunt tool, sure - but it allows for a pretty wide range of shapes and sizes for any particular height. I’m a similar height to the OP and I reckon 19-25 BMI would take me from being unimaginably thin to being way too big for comfort (for me, at least).

When the Corona virus ran roughshod through the village in Italy and we were shown images of people on ventilators there everyone of them was overweight, middle aged spread isn’t separate from being overweight, the OP is overweight not obese.

I’m finding the comments about Italian people being slim hilarious...I genuinely have no slim Italian friends or relatives, they all struggle with their weight!

This website is always good for this type of stuff, people carry weight so differently

app.mybodygallery.com/#/?height=165

No you aren't! Your BMI is 23.9. You might want to lose weight but you aren't clinically overweight. Maybe look in to body dysmorphic disorder?

To be fair, she didn't say clinically overweight.

According to my BMI I could gain another 1.5 stone and remain 'just' in healthy weight category but I would most definitely be overweight for me.

Remember BMI is a tool, not an exact science tailored to individuals.

When the Corona virus ran roughshod through the village in Italy and we were shown images of people on ventilators there everyone of them was overweight

Fat people are more likely to become very ill from corona virus. The healthy people were more likely not to need ventilators.

Yet for many, weight is still a 'taboo' subject That is because we have developed a ridiculous culture where you are a bad person if you say something that someone else does not like, disagrees with or may upset them.

Exactly @TurnOffTheTv

I'm 5'3 and weigh 11st. I bought a new dress last week- size 10 from river island. Wore it last night and it fitted perfect. I still have about a stone to lose in weight to get to my ideal . I've been 9st and looked too skinny and had many comments from friends and family saying so. I still wear a lot of the same clothes though that I wore when I was just over 9st- I don't know how but I do! I am muscly btw and have big boobs.

Yes I realise that but there were a hell of a lot of them.

So not such a great example of a slender nation

I'm 5.7 and 9 1/2 stone and a size 10 what shops are you getting your clothes from seems way off

I am not saying no Italian is fat, but it was very noticeable the difference in body size walking around Sienna than walking around the UK, especially the West Midlands.

Where in the West Midlands? Mostly caucasian or non-caucasian? The BMI cutoff for South Asians is lower for various interesting reasons - BMI 23 crudely marks the point above which they're categorised as overweight.

www.diabetes.co.uk/south-asian/bmi-values-for-south-asians.html

Based on this - which talks about the variation even within people who share South Asian heritage:

www.who.int/nutrition/publications/bmi_asia_strategies.pdf#:~:text=Asian%20males%20%28except%20rural%20Thai%29%20have%20a%20lower,from%20%E2%80%930%C2%B79%20kg%2Fm2%28Japanese%20males%29%20to%20%E2%80%932%C2%B77%20kg%2Fm2%28Indonesian%20males%29.

Caucasian.

Clothing sizes are pretty meaningless as a measure of anything.

In my head, size 10 is still what it was in the '80s, with measurements of 32", 24", 34".

I remember my mum being tall and slim. She was 5' 7", less than 10 stone and a reliable size 14 in M&S.

I doubt you’re overweight! The BMI calculator is a load of bullshit and doctors will tell you the same, despite having to go by it. Nobody here can tell you that you are overweight because they haven’t seen you. I’m 5’4 and 15 stone and am most definitely overweight and a size 16. But I have just had a baby and gained four stone during pregnancy and am trying to lose it.

However, when I was 11 stone I looked great. I was a size 12 in jeans and a 10-12 in tops. The BMI calculator said so, but I wasn’t overweight. I had a flat stomach, small arms, a small chest, but I’m curvy with a small waist and a big bum. Please don’t listen to people telling you you must be lying about your sizes. And don’t let this thread make you feel bad.

@WoodliceCollection No you aren't! Your BMI is 23.9. You might want to lose weight but you aren't clinically overweight. Maybe look in to body dysmorphic disorder?

The BMI is a guide not a definitive tool. It shows the healthy range that people of all sorts of body shapes can fall into. There is a 2 and a half stone range between me having a BMI of 18.1 and 24.9. If my BMI was 18, I would be unhealthily underweight. It doesn't matter that someone else my height would be healthy. I have a fairly broad frame and naturally big breasts and hips, I'd have to be malnourished for my BMI to be that low. Equally, with a current BMI of 23.5, I'm carrying too much fat on my stomach, for me. Someone else my height but with a wider frame and bigger breasts/hips would be the perfectly healthy at this weight. I'm not massively, unhealthily overweight, but I do have too much fat and not enough muscle to be at my peak and for my body to easily do what I want of it.

When people say that BMI is a blunt tool that shouldn't be rigidly adhered to, they are right. But usually in the opposite way of how they mean. The healthy range is wide, so it's a blunt guide that will almost certainly be correct if it puts you at overweight or underweight. But in terms of being the best correct weight for you personally, you may very well be in the healthy weight category but still under/overweight for your personal shape.

I'm 5'6 and my weight had crept up to about 11'4, which I think is a BMI of about 26 or 27. I have quite an hourglass shape though, so my waist was about 31 and I generally wore a 12.

Covid has inspired me to lose weight, and since February I've lost just under a stone, so I'm now hovering just under 10'7. My shape hasn't noticeably changed that much - my waist is now 30 and I've lost a bit off my bum and thighs. But what I actually notice is less 'padding' all over - so there's now no 'roll' on my back if I twist round, and if I touch my shoulders I can feel the outline of the bone more easily, etc. I think I've now gone down to a 10-12 in clothes probably, but I've just bought a pair of supposedly 27" Gap jeans and they fit perfectly, so I'm definitely not relying on clothes sizing as a good guide. My aim is to get down to 10 stone and then I think I'll be happy - with big boobs and a relatively big frame, I reckon that will feel comfortably 'slim' for me. I love my food too much to ever be 'skinny'.

There’s a huge variation. That body gallery shows it!

These women are all the same height/weight as OP.

Not read the thread but the OP is very overweight. I’m the same height and I weigh 49kg (7.7 stone according to google). You weigh as much as my DH who is 5 feet 8

2/3 of adults in the UK is overweight. So don’t say you look average so you are not.