Should I be happy with my weight?

[Nananananahh]

Am 5ft5 and 11st 6lbs.

My BMI is 26.6

Ive lost a lot of weight and have naturally settled here.

Nothing I do makes me lose more (and if I do lose a few lbs it creeps back up to around 11.6)

I am alright with how I look in general but I am still very round of belly (that could be due to excess skin too)

Should I just accept this as my weight?

My goal was always to me a 'normal BMI/<25'
26.6 is overweight still.

Nananananahh ignore the absolutely nutty responses on this thread.

You've worked hard congratulations, it's a fantastic achievement. 👏

I wouldn’t worry too much about BMI, but I would be worried about visceral fat, which can have implications for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other “lifestyle” diseases.

You probably need to change your body composition i.e more strengthen training to build muscle to become more efficient at burning calories. As you get older, you may feel weight is harder to keep off due to declining muscle mass ( aware of this in my mid-40s now).

I would look into weight training and potentially intermittent fasting.

congratulations on the weight loss!

Excess fat around the stomach is an issue.

Why do people always have to bring athletes into it?
The vast majority of people are not athletes. The high BMI people I've met irl that say this think living a sedentary life is ok just because a rugby player has a BMI over 25 as well.

I really used to enjoy weight training but I've lost so much confidence that I only do the treadmill at the gym. I really need to get back into a proper workout.

Try get back into the weight training, it'll transform the bits you dislike.
I know it's hard I'm completely unmotivated to return myself.

I think answer would be are you happy?
I'm same height and losing weight from being a 20+. My max healthy weight for my height is 10st 10lb. I'm 12 st 6lb at moment and debating if I want to go down that far as iv always been about 12 st.

I did have a panic about how awful my body started looking in underwear but using weights machine has helped massively with that. Even just twice a week with heavy weights.

Perhaps vary exercise- cross trainer etc so more whole body.

Theres some interesting articles about resetting your body's weight set point when you have plateaued

I stopped bothering about BMI, since it tells you very little that your eyes can't. Check your body fat % instead, and see whether it's within range for your age band.
I had a similar problem with disparity between my upper and lower halves. I went onto a high-fat, low-carb diet and that fixed it (but you really do have to stay away from those tempting carbs). I may not stay on high-fat for ever, but if it keeps my body fat in the 'Ideal' range, I just might stay on it most of the time.
(Probably best to check with your doc - assuming you can get an appointment nowadays! - to see if this would be okay for you, at least for a while.)

Really op you look fine.a healthy young woman .it really annoys me that women are made to feel they need to lose weight. Men Don't have this pressure. Y

How do you check body fat?

How do you check body fat?
I use a decent set of electronic weigh-scales. (Lidl - £24). It gives weight, body fat and water percentages. If you always use the same set of scales, you mightn't know your exact body fat, but you'll see over time if it's decreasing.

OK so I have body fat scales!

At 17st+ it says my body fat % was 41

Ive lost 6 stone and it says my body fat % is now 35

How is that possible? Losing 6 stone has only taken me down 6%?!

How am I supposed to get to the recommended 25% then?

That's another 10%!!

And 6 stone was 6%

I don't understand

"How is that possible? Losing 6 stone has only taken me down 6%?!"
A brief explanation might be:
When you lose 'weight' some of it is fat, some is water and - if you lose it too quickly - some could be muscle (which is to be avoided if possible).
Assuming you use the same device for your start and finish statistics, you could get a more accurate indication from a calibrated device in a clinic or similar.
** Just another check to make - my scales set has 4 settings (for up to 4 people) and my OH often leaves it on another setting. This led on one occasion to my thinking I'd lost rather more fat % than I'd anticipated. I've since indicated (forcefully) that the device is to be left 'as found' - or else!

Nobody else in the house has ever used the scales. It's linked to my phone with a single profile.

I find that astounding.

Just to give you an example, when I tracked my last loss attempt, I got:

Total Weight loss - 14.3 kg (31.5 lbs)
Water loss - 4 kg
Muscle loss - 1 kg (damn! - but hard to avoid)
Fat loss - 9.3 kg

The odd part was that my body water went from 53.8% to 60.1%.
The great part was that I could once again get into my favourite jeans (which had been unworn for so long that they'd come back into fashion!)

It think you have done amazingly well OP. Congratulations to you.
I think BMI is a good measure and that it is good to be within BMI range, but if I was you now I would be more than happy and focus on maintenance and also letting your skin catch up a bit with your new size.
If you feel like losing more weight later on you can, but you might find that just adding a bit of exercise gradually will get you there anyway.

Thanks. I just feel a bit gutted now.

I thought I was so close to being healthy but seems not.

Any ideas on exercise to get rid of belly fat?

I am not sure how accurate the scales you can buy online are ? I imagine most will have margins of error when it comes to calculating body fat, being bottom heavy/having a large pouch may also skew the reading somewhat ?

You can't spot reduce fat I'm afraid. It goes from where it goes and there's not a lot you can do about it.

You're healthier than you were and that's a good thing! Just keep going it's a marathon not a sprint and all that...

That is quite heavy for your height. I'm the same size as you and definitely look and feel too big at that size. A stone less would be better.

This comment made me sad. Be so proud of yourself OP if you're happy in your body be happy. You may not be the optimum weight but like someone else said you're in a much better place than you were and from the pic you look good. Big hugs if you choose to lose more don't forget you're flipping amazing already ❤️

A ‘normal’ BMI used to be up to 27. It was changed because the diet industry thought 25 looked better. Everyone on Mumsnet is 8 stone and only eats 1200 calories a day (the nutritional needs of a toddler) so don’t expect any sense here. If that is the weight you maintain without effort and your not hugely obese then that is your natural weight. Fighting against my natural weight is what led me to years of eating disorders and ultimately becoming fatter.

I'm 5"10 and a healthy body fat percentage for me is 32%. Are you sure yours needs to be 25%? Are you confusing that with BMI?

Congratulations btw fantastic achievement

And to the 9st 5 5"11 previous poster you are boarder line underweight so I think we can ignore your exaggerated horror

@Fluffygreenslippers thats fascinating I just googled did normal bmi used to be 27 and found this interesting paper - www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/obesity/57821

Sorry just realised that 'normal' bfp for women is 25-31 so that's where 25 came from. I'm not going to check what my weight would need to be for me to be 25% fat 😮