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?

Not necessarily name change you could never truly see my ribs until I was a BMI of 22 (that was the front one so in my cleavage). My collarbone never really shows up until my BMI was of like 24 or thereabouts.

" it does help to make sense of all these posts saying "I look ill and gaunt with a BMI of less than 25.""

I do think collar bones can easily look too prominent. Mine to when I'm at a weight that makes the rest of me look good, probably because I'm pear shaped. To get the lower body to a nice weight, my collar bones have to look a bit like coat hangers.

Im 5'3 and 11 stone and I am definitely overweight. I am a size 14 possibly 12 in next who are generoua but no way would i fit into a 10. I would suggest you weigh on different scales as it seems odd.

NameChange84 depends where you carry the weight. My DH has to practically underweight before you can see his ribs. You stop seeing mine at a BMI of about 27.5.

This thread is drifting into pro ana territory.

I'm sure you'll all just say I'm just a fat jealous cow who's lost sight of what a healthy weight is blah blah blah but honestly it reads like a top trumps of who can prove they're the thinnest.

Just waiting for someone to pop up and say that anyone who isn't on the brink of severe malnutrition and starvation is a fat bastard.

Well on a completely seperate note
After a week Plus of a tooth abscess , little food and no booze I have lost NO weight
Like NOTHING
Fuck me being a late 40 something sucks
Anyway . Sorry 😐

I think you sound heavy compared to your measurements. I believe you that you fit in size 10 based on your 27inch waist and 36inch hips. I have similar measurements at the moment but only weigh 8 and a half stone. It does seem weird you weigh 2 stone more with the same measurements.

“Seeing ribs” is an interesting phrase.

You can ‘see ribs’ on a slim but healthy weight person. That is, you can see the faint outline of the rib cage when standing normally with more definition of individual ribs in other positions (reaching up, twisting etc).

You can also ‘see ribs’ in a much more defined way on a worryingly underweight person, in that you can see each individual rib etc.

There’s definitely a sliding scale of ‘seeing ribs’ and not all of it is unhealthy or ‘pro-ana’.

Collarbones are less of an indicator, I think. Lots of people have ‘sharp’ collarbones even with decent padding all over the rest of their bodies (me included).

We should have clothes measured in inches, not "sizes".

Pro ana territory? Where? I have seen no posts saying that a BMI over 16 is positively fat and that hop bones should be prominently jutting out to be considered slim.

Britain is the fat man of Europe and is heading towards USA standards where 75% of the population is overweightt or obese. People really have lost sight of what is a healthy weight and the COVID-19 crisis should really have been a wake up call for many that being heavy is not something to encouraged. There is no such thing as "heavy bones" - not in the sense that people excuse being on the heavier side for. Perhaps a couple pounds here and there - not a stone or 2 difference.

@burdog

We should have clothes measured in inches, not "sizes".

Agreed. Sizing is not a good indication to measure health.

I said previously that in Next I am a 6, Gap a size 0 and H & M a 14. (I am 5 ft 7 and 9 stone and have a 30” waist).

If the average female size is 16 that could easily be a healthy weight in H and M (whose sizes are small) or obese in Next (whose sizes are very generous).

Even when my BMI was 20 % and visceral fat around 1 % you couldn't see my ribs and I was a totally healthy weight range (or under if anything).

Yes to pp - I'd love to have sizing in cm or even inches - I can convert!

They have started to list the lengths of tops in cm, which is something, but waist and hips are my problems.

I don't think sizes are necessarily a bad idea to gauge weight loss or weight gain as long as it's within a.shortish period of time.

So for example fitting back to size 8 (from a bigger size would imply fat loss).

Maybe instead of a BMI there should be standardized measurements for our diffy body parts. (I know there's one for waist, but maybe add arms and hips).

I also don’t think sizing is necessarily bad to judge weight, I do it and don’t use scales, I can judge clothes by seeing them, Ie if they look big or small.

I’m five eight and a size ten to twelve, I one hundred percent know that if I was a fourteen or sixteen I’d not be able to get into them as they are form fitting and not loose with stretch. I’m also generally a ten or a twelve where ever I shop, unless I buy things like jumpers, t shirts, jogging bottoms etc which can be very big made, and I have to go to a small or extra small.

But in fitted clothes with limited stretch I know exactly where I am.

I also really don’t get some folks fascination with well fifty years ago you’d have been a sixteen, I seriously don’t give a shit what I’d have been fifty years ago other than a mild point of interest.

The ops measurements and weight/height are unusual, if she’s not carrying her weight on her thighs/bum etc, but everyone is different.

Even when my BMI was 20 % and visceral fat around 1 % you couldn't see my ribs and I was a totally healthy weight range (or under if anything).

That's why I said the vast majority of people. There is variation based on skeletal frame. When I was borderline obese you could still see most of my ribs and my collarbone was still prominent. I'm very short with a proportionally wide frame. It's one of the reasons I suspect I was so fooled about just how overweight I'd gotten. At a healthy weight, my collarbone is so pronounced I look like a Cardassian. (The aliens from Star Trek, not a misspelling of the reality tv people.)

I'm 5ft5 (and a half), and weigh 10 stones. I look a lot lighter, it I work out a lot, weight train nearly every day, and do HIITworkouts. Im a loose size 8, and at 11 stones I'd probably be a tight size 10.
Do you have a very muscular build OP?
If so I wouldn't worry too much. I have a friend who is naturally very muscular, has a 14 inch difference between waist nd hips, and high bone density, and is overweight according to BMI charts, but her go is not worried, because she's actually very trim