AIBU about estimating bmi?

[bmi]

Just received this letter and it's made me a bit.. meh
History of disordered eating which he would know if he had asked
My BMI is 35... are we just looking at people and estimating it now?!

Just reading the thread… you say your frame is large… so you’ll likely never get to bmi of 25. But if you’re exercising l, careful not to go cardio crazy as that can cause extra cortisol which pushes up oestrogen… better to do weights and walking..
I still think you’re in proportion and your frame is larger.. you are not flabby at all

This is difficult to read and I understand why you are sensitive to your weight being brought up. And it’s easy to fixate on a number. The letter does say “likely to be around x”

I think the doctor would calculate where they feel you’d get the best medical outcome, and if 40 is the medical cut off they have referenced the number to alert the next clinician in the chain that BMI is a consideration.

However, I assume a proper calculation would be done before treatment options are offered. A friend recently had a similar situation in which they needed to lose weight to be eligible for a surgery.

Please don’t confuse a clinician’s objective medical opinion for a judgement on your weight. And don’t let it set you back.

Eat more protein.. I lost a lot of weight doing the Harcombe diet which is basically meat, fish, eggs, veg, salad and a few oats and yoghurt for a week. As much as you like but it’s boring and nobody over eats tuna when it’s got no Mayo in it.. day 3 was awful but after that I kept going. Lost 18lb in a month and never felt better from an endo perspective too. After a week you can have berries, fresh cream, rice, wholewheat pasta, cheese, red wine, dark choc and olives. But don’t mix carbs with fats… basically again nobody overeats bread with no butter on it.. worth a try as it’s not faddy and does work

That's not what I meant, sorry
I meant if someone described me as morbidly obese (or even skinny or malnourished) in a medical letter I'd feel offended but estimated BMI of X would feel more 'medical' and more like stating facts affecting health rather than a judgement.

'I did not weigh pt X but she would likely fall into the morbidly obese category' would be more correct but would be more upsetting.

@bmi I’ve just seen your photo. Big boobs skew things. Mine make me look two sizes bigger if I wear round neck jumpers or any thing baggy.

I’ve lost 2st so far and it was very recently that anything at all started coming off the girls. It’s a stubborn area to lose weight from.

You do look a healthy weight so please don’t worry about chairs and MRI machines. If this is really something you think about it may be worth speaking to your doctor about your ED to get it on record and discuss whether body dysmorphia could play a part. You are a long way from needing a reinforced/oversized chair.

You don’t look like you have a BMI of 40. BMI is difficult to predict. My BMI is 26, but I am super fit, slim and a size 8.

Yeah I asked him if I would fit in the MRI machine and he said he thought it would be fine (I've gained a bit since my last one)

And yes... polo necks make me look awful! I try and wear v neck and emphasise my waist as it's the smallest bit of me

My mum would always say how fat I was and ugly and make comments about how much prettier a friend was or how big my shoulders were etc... she wanted a petite pretty blonde daughter and I wasn't that

I agree I don’t think he should have estimated your bmi people can be very deceiving weight wise.

How does this all work!?

You say you’re a size 16 with a BMI of 35

I’m a size 12 (uk) with a BMI of 22, mostly muscle as in the gym 3-5 times a week.

Genuinely confused. (Not being critical).

I'm dense I guess? I've always weighed heavy
It also takes me a good 3-4 stone to lose a dress size

God, that is awful. I had a BMI that was 15 points higher than someone the same dress size, it's totally inappropriate for use on an individual basis..

I'm 5'9. Waist 28. Weight 68kg. Size 12 in modern sizes (14 in my clothes from 25 years ago- tops and jeans/shorts) Bmi is, I think, 23 or 24? I look similar to op from that picture, so I really don't get how her bmi is 35, let alone estimate 40. If you're tall, people usually tend to underestimate how heavy you are.

I mean I look different in every photo so it's prob not helpful but I'm 18 stone and 5ft 10

My BMI is 26 and we look v similar! 🤣

40 is wild estimate for you.

Just jumping on with nothing unhelpful to add, but to let you know you look fab!

sorry to hear about the endo. Hope that you do manage to get the best treatment for you. Seems like you will have to do a lot of badgering them!

It really annoys me when people post ridiculous comments about how the OP can’t possibly be a certain weight because they are a size x and have a BMI of x. Surely it just proves that BMI is outdated and should only be used as a guide? My BMI is around 35 but I’m a size 14-16. However, I am slightly obsessive about exercising and my boobs are huge and very heavy. I have friends who are taller and than me and weigh less but are a bigger dress size. The doctor should not have written that comment especially when it might affect treatment options.

But it’s BMI (specifically high / obese) that is linked to negative health outcomes rather than random dress sizes which have no consistency and often feature a large amount of Lycra so as to make them irrelevant.

Agree you look fab, I’d be irritated too. Don’t assume that every health practitioner can estimate accurately though.
I recently had a day in A&E for a spinal issue. The letter sent to my GP stated my approximate weight as 90kg. It’s 65!

Ridiculous for the consultant to write that in the letter as a guess.

Gently, I think that (probably because of a history of disordered eating and painful comments from your mother) you are misapprehending the medical problems caused by being obese. At a BMI of 35 you are well into that category and you will take years of your life if you don't sort it out.

It sounds like the doctor was just providing relevant information for the next appointment. There's no point in them testing your BMI now because presumably that might fluctuate before the next appointment. It makes more sense to be accurately assessed at the next appointment, when the treatment options would be decided.

It therefore seems reasonable to draw attention to BMI as a potential issue. They could have said morbidly obese but people don't like that term either. It also sounds like what you were wearing made you look much more overweight than you actually are, so more morbidly obese than obese. In your photo you hardly look obese at all but because of your large breasts clothes probably make you look larger than you are. I have very large breasts and have the same issue.

I know people don't even think weight should be discussed by medical professionals because of hurt feelings/potential discrimination but in some instances, as it appears here, it is directly relevant to the treatment. In your case it seems that the doctor miscalculated but that doesn't mean they were wrong to draw attention to a potential medical issue.

DH has this issue. He is overweight for his height, and doesn't fit into an MRI, he has a high BMI. He has turned up for procedures and medics have pronounced he needed special care, extra anesthetics etc. It's really dangerous actually. He gets undressed and then they all come in to check him, and apologize. He is just very wide, and very fit, although with a tummy, he has a lot of muscle.

DD is considered overweight by BMI. She is actually trying to put weight on to get into a higher class for deadlifting. She is tiny with a 26" waist, and a size 6.

BMI is not very accurate, just an indicator. Big boobs and muscle mass are not taken into consideration.

I know I'm obese. I do also exercise
TBH the thing that runs in our family is dementia/Alzheimer's and I would rather take years off my life than live with that especially as my mum died with early onset

I've had an email this morning thanking me and saying they will get this changed on my record asap

I came back to update as I forgot to! I had the surgery and it was huge. A full day in theatre, endo surgeon then bowel surgeon operated for another 3hrs, 7 incisions and a whole mess inside. She said it was the longest operation she had done that year. Appendix came out as covered in endo, removed it from bowel, bladder and 6 cysts taken out as well as restoring my bowel due to it being folded in half

no complications, home about 18hrs after waking up and back at work after 3 weeks. My BMI was also altered on my notes and an apology for estimating it

It’s a bit ridiculous they didn’t just actually work it out, it’s not something they have to send off to a lab!!!

edited to add congratulations op, hope you feel better soon