AIBU to tell you that BMI doesn't apply to everyone!

[Randomuser456]

Foreword I know it's a blunt tool, etc, etc ,etc... and I DO exercise more than the average person (don't really ift heavy) but I've always thought my clothes size doesn't match my weight.

Anywho according to the Navy Body Fat formula I'm around 27-28%

A BMI extrapolation would put me at 38%. By reversing that calculation someone with my BF% is around 15kg lighter than my current weight.

Anyway just a public service announcement :)

What about me with my healthy BMI, but obese body fat. Am I healthy weight or obese? If you say that body fat trumps all, that's very bad news for me...

What would you prefer them to use in the absence of people being able to just see that they're fat?

It really much depends on your fat distribution. If it's all around your stomach yes, it's definitely bad news.

Yes, I'm unfortunately straight up and down for a woman. However, I'm not quite apple shaped yet - I guess that'll happen after menopause and I don't look like a rolly polly...

Yes, it is..! As I said, I'm roughly an 8-10. Size 6s in some shops are big on me (generally shops aimed at an older market).

What? Its not a lot for a woman to weight at all. What a strange thing to say? Women are all different heights and shapes. For some people 10 stone is very little to weigh.

It's not a lot for a woman to weigh. I'm 5'8, how am I going to ever be less than 10 stone?

Agree I am 5’7 (& a half 😂) and I will never weigh under 10 stone and if I did I would look awful

I an 5'2 and over ten stone and according to reactions on here do not look overweight. BMI says I am.

I can't imagine being under 10st at 5'7! Of course some people have a very slight build and would be fine but others I would think would be painfully thin.

I am also 5ft7 and agree. I'd look genuinely ill.because I'm pear shaped. I can't do much about my thighs. If I lose weight it comes off my top part first to the extent I'd look emaciated. When I was nearly 11stone for my wedding I fit in a size 8 dress. That's the lightest I'd weigh personally even tho it's top end of healthy weight according to bmi.

I’m equally bemused. I’m 5’2 and a size 8 at around 8 stone, I don’t wear a size 6 until I hit 7 stone 10 or under, unless it’s in shops like M&S that vanity size. The idea that I could put on 2 stone and not go up a dress size seems crazy. I understand variations in frame and muscle mass but that seems extreme.

Not suggesting PP are lying just mind blown!

I posted the same thing about my shape earlier in the thread. It’s v annoying as I am bony between where my boobs used to be but have plenty of flab on my thighs. I am looking at trying to do body recomposition as I already do loads of exercise, but the calorie counting and macros look like a hassle, so may just accept being healthy and wearing things that suit my shape.

Totally get it! My sister is exactly the same as you (around same height and weight)...

Me? I've never been able to get to that weight, but her clothes were too big for me at that point. (As kids we'd always bicker that she could wear my clothes but I couldn't wear hers because of the size).

Agree, I was a 10 as a teenager, and depending on the shop might even have been a 12. I'm more or less the same size now and 8s are big on me. The last pair of jeans I got are a size 0, American sizing but still! (Hollister)

10 stone is a lot for a woman to weigh. we’re not talking a few pounds here and there, which accounts for the difference between muscle and fat.

Oh is it? I didn’t realise that you were such an expert on this stuff.

And yet I was a 12 as a teenager and a 12 now. Still have my jeans from 2000 and they fit. Go figure. Odd how there’s all these people who were a 14 and are now a 6 due to vanity sizing. Where do the people who were a 6 in the past and must now be a zero shop?

I still have my jeans from when I was a teen, they're size 14 and are huge (yet I'm the same weight!)

My DMs clothes size 14 (from the 60's!) are too big too.

I'm not saying that vanity sizing doesn't exist either. I'm probably a true size 10.

Although I bought this beautiful technical skirt from Columbia (the activewear company) and I thought the size looked small for me but it fit, I was a very happy camper :)

I have put my measurements in to what size am I calculator, and as you can see, the results are below. I'm definitely an 8.
Despite being a bmi of 24.9!

Funny how these PSA type threads supposedly about healthy weight always descend into a dress size contest... OP, you've been making these threads for years, work on your self esteem.

It's a useful indicator for most people but I find for me it's a bit off. Currently I'm sitting around 22.5 weighing about 8 stone 5, height 5'1 and I look pretty normal with clothes on.

However, when I use the scales to measure my fat % I'm about 32/33%.

I already do everything "right" I lift heavy (as heavy as I can and progress each week) 3 days a week (them usual big compound exercises with isolation ones thrown in) I'm currently running 3 days a week building back up to 4 due to an injury, I do half an hour in to an hour or cardio on top of the 3 days to make up for the lack of the 4th run. I walk 20,000 steps usually most weekdays excluding running. Weekends I struggle to hit 5,000 but that's when I do the long one and one gym day as well as relaxing/getting jobs done.

I already struggle to fit everything in around the kids and just life in general without getting up at the crack of dawn and any more lifting sessions would burn me out and I would never be able to race.

My weight is all on my lower half, mostly legs and bum with a bit on my lower stomach where I've had 2 c sections. I look like 2 different people have been stuck together and as soon as I gain a bit of weight it all goes onto my legs and they are like tree trunks when you compare them to the rest of me. Then when I lose weight it all disappears from the already small top half and I get people asking if I'm ok. Eventually it goes from the lower half but it takes ages.

The problem with any of the body fat percentage estimates is that they are pretty inaccurate. Have a listen to BBC Sliced Bread on Smart Scales - they just aren't very useful.

The podcast said they had a margin of error of 10% the Navy one (different source 3-4%).

On the podcast they mentioned about waist circumference, which I do pass, hooray! Has to be 80cm or below

10 stone is not a lot for a woman to weigh. For someone who is 5,4 it would be perfectly healthy if towards the upper end of that range. With good muscle and low fat you could look really petite at that weight.
it sounds like you are living in a different age when women weren’t expected to be strong or take up much space.
Again, if your body fat percentage is in the ideal range or lower- below 28 for a woman,you cannot be fat because you dont have much fat!!! The rest of you will be bone and muscle
The op says she can run a Boston marathon qualifying time. I’m guessing c3.15. To do that you absolutely cannot be fat - although you might weigh a lot.

how are you ever going to be less than 10 stone at 5ft7
Weren’t you less than 10 stone when you were 20? 18?

yes we’re all older now and you gain weight as you get older. But we’re talking about clothes sizes, and shops sell clothes to size 6 women whether they are 16 or 46.

The idea that it’s so impossible to get under 10 stone you couldn’t even do it at 18 years old is bonkers.

5'8, not 7. And no, it's not impossible. I could starve myself back to my anorexic teens and be under nine stone and be rather ill, if you like?
Apologies, I assumed it was obvious that I meant how would I be under ten stone and be healthy as a woman if a certain age. We're not talking about children's weights here, we're mostly not in the first flush of youth on MN.