Are some people really heavy or am I kidding myself?

[Ellessdee]

I know I'm a bit overweight. I'm a solid size 12. I weighed myself and did my BMI out of curiosity and it's telling me I'm obese. Is BMI wildly inaccurate or am I in denial re my weight? I used to weight train and do have quite a bit of muscle but also a layer of fat on top! Anyway, trying to pose weight, just wondering if I should be worried!

Vast majority but not all. I'm super heavy for my size. Dense bones and a lot of muscle mass. I strength train. I am not fat. I weigh like a tanker.

Son who is a rugby player comes in as morbidly obese. He's not.

Friend who is the same height as me and wears the same clothes size but looser weighs as underweight.

So yes. BMI broadly works for most people but there is a significant minority for whom it doesn't work. Here lies the problem. People with a little knowledge but no common sense get hung up on BMI and can't use their eyes to see when it clearly is not working for some individuals and start telling healthy people that they need to lose weight etc.

It's people with big frames not small frames that get told they are overweight. People with small frames can have too much body fat but the BMI still comes in as healthy

High muscle mass like a sports person has not have any of the issues high body fat does. You are talking nonsense. Sure those crazy steroid taking body builders have unhealthy levels of muscle mass but natural muscle mass is never a negative. There is no negative effect that BMI is dealing with related to high muscle mass

We’re definitely used to seeing bigger people now.

About three years ago, I was horrified to see bmi showed I was just under ‘obese’. I knew I needed to lose a few lbs but genuinely thought I was fine, and seemed fitter and healthier than most of my friends.

Now I actually am several stone lighter and so much fitter than before, I realise I was indeed very overweight and had no idea how full of energy I could really be.

I’m that height and weight and I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of weight on me everywhere! I don’t think many people would consider me to be overweight either (it’s top end of healthy BMI range). Ok, I’m couple of kg heavier than I’d like to be and currently in limbo between size 10 and 12 trousers but I don’t have fat on my back or arms and my legs are quite toned. Most of my weight is round my middle and stomach. But I work out and lift weights. Last time I went for a pre-op the nurse was shocked at how much I weighed for the size of me.

Although at 5'9" size 12 the OP doesn't sound very overweight by any measure

I’m overweight now before I put on weight I was often around 9 1/2 - 10 stone

I’m 5’2 and have a small frame so was considered overweight and in 10-12 clothing. no one (even my gp) believed me as I was slim and most were shocked I was size 12 (this was bottom half of me)

it’s strange how weight can be carried

BMI is not useless but it is a bit of a 'blunt tool'.
It's more useful at a population level than an individual level, for epidemiological/stats purposes.
It is but one measurement for the individual. It doesn't account for muscle mass, or fat distribution but it isn't entirely useless.
Fat distribution matters because central adiposity is reflective of fat stored internally around vital organs (liver etc.) i.e. visceral rather than subcutaneous fat.
Waist circumference (for men and women) and waist-to-hip ratio (for women) are more useful.

More importantly OP, you know what is normal for you. Has your weight crept up slowly? Is it rapid weight gain? What are your activity levels like? What (hormonal) stage of life are you at? Can you account for your weight gain? How's your blood pressure? Cholesterol levels? Energy levels? Appetite? Eating habits? etc. etc.
If you have any concerns, see your GP (good luck).

If you're actively trying to lose weight, then keep an eye on your weight and body shape. You know how your clothes fit. Your height isn't going to change any time soon so I would suggest that calculating your BMI going forward isn't going to be of much use. If the scales are moving, in either direction, you know your BMI is too.

Don't fixate on which BMI 'category' you're in. I'd much rather be 'solid' and have good muscle definition & good energy levels.

How tall are you and what size do you wear now?

Bone size has nothing to do with it. Bone doesn't weigh enough to make a difference and skinny people can have large bones and fat people can have delicate bones. Trinny and Susannah used to use themselves as an example. Trinny has larger bones than Susannah although Susannah was plumper. I'm small boned (slim wrists and ankles) but I'm not skinny and I gain weight easily.

Size 12 and 5'9" does not sound obese to me. If anything you sound 😍

I'm 5'7" and also a size 12. My BMI says bang in the middle of a healthy weight.

It's a blunt tool.

I've talked about this before but there is an episode of tales of the unexpected about a woman who goes to a dieting club. The general gist is that she is very overweight, unfit etc. Her weight is 10st something and people are shocked at how she's let herself go. Although it was naff TV (and previously books, I know) there is an element of social history there. Perceptions have changed hugely in the 40+ years since it was made.

At your height and dress size I’m surprised it’s obese. I’m 12/14 and shorter than you and last I checked I wasn’t even overweight on bmi. Are you comfortable sharing your weight?

I think in regular speech people use “obese” to mean grossly obese, like need a wheelchair to move about.



BMI is not as accurate for black people who have more muscle and higher bone density. So provided you are healthy and active I wouldn’t worry about being a bmi 25-31. Anything beyond that I’d probably want to fix.

Track your body fat percentage regularly and stop listening to randoms on the internet.

Trying to post an image to show body and shock anyone who thinks BMI is accurate but MN having a problem with photo uploads. Sigh

To be getting an obese BMI at 5ft 9, you would have to be around 14stone 7lbs.

I am 5ft 9 and weigh 9st 8. I'm a dress size 10. I would expect to be far larger than a size 12 if I were to gain 5 stone.

As previous posters have said, dress size isn't a great indicator as it varies from shop to shop. BMI does work for the majority.

I think as a country/culture, we have lost sight of what a healthy weight looks like.

And yes as others have said, BMI is particularly inaccurate for anyone who isn't white. It generally over estimates fat in black people and underestimates it in Asian people due to the average body composition of different ethnic groups

I'm a bigger than average frame. Big shoulders, small waist and big hips, bum and thighs. I swim well, I have great endurance, I can lift heavy but I cannot run and find the sensation physically unpleasant. At 5,7 when I have been in the 8 stones my period stopped but my bmi was not even that low. I think between 10.5-11 st I look and feel the best. But bmi wouldn't agree.

Sadly the world has told me I need to be much lighter and much smaller physically since I was about 8/9 years old. So I haven't eaten properly for decades. I've even had salivary glands removed because I starved myself so much that I got salivary stones. I was probably anorexic in behaviour but never got the weight down. I know how much nicer people treat you when you're smaller.

I'm now bigger than I'd like but trying to build a happier connection between my brain and my body. I wish a wider acceptance of body types was more prevalent. There was nothing wrong with my body - it just didn't fit the 90s ideal.

Some bodies are bigger and that's ok (if there's not too much around the waist.) But this "eat less, move more" fat shaming is really unhelpful. Metabolism is individual and some people have to take more action to be smaller. I think gut bacteria will be key to weight loss in the future and type of food eaten - not calories

@ReneBumsWombats not large bones. Dense bones. Something most people won't know they have or not unless you've had a bone density test. Which I have. Hey, it's a great thing, osteoporosis ain't ever happening to me!

There's this.

BMI is a blunt tool, and some of the pictures here are very contrived. It's also not a measure of attractiveness. I think a lot of the people here are very attractive, although I can't deny they're visibly overweight.

It isn't total shit, but you need to look at it in context. It was devised as a statistical tool.

I’m 5’6 and a size 12 I’m in the middle of the BMI band. How can you be obese and a size 12 at 5’9?

I live abroad (Europe) and when I come back to England I always notice that clothes are sized much bigger in the UK than in the rest of Europe. I wear a size 8-10 in England but would be the equivalent of a size 12 in Europe. So might answer the question of why people have a BMI at the top of normal or overweight but wear a UK size 8-10! My BMI is at the top end of normal

My Mum always said that some people have heavy bones. I always laughed but maybe there is something in it.