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 :)

This.

So yes, YABU to start yet another thread to tell us what most people already know.

I think they use it in combination with waist measurement now, if your waist is less than half your height then even if you BMI is over the healthy range you are okay.

An awful lot of obese people claim BMI is wrong!

This is exactly what my husbands says. He's got alot of muscle from being a builder for 30 years and though he's not skinny he's definitely not obese😂

Listened to a podcast recently about the history of BMI and it's terribly problematic really. Especially for women.
I do body scans at my gym to give you a break down of fat, muscle, water etc etc. even that isn't perfect but if you are getting healthier, getting more muscle, drinking more water these things all weigh more and will therefore increase your BMI.

Quite

My bmi has just hit 24.9 (from 43). I have discovered that bmi isn't brilliant for me. Or at least I don't think so. I'm 5ft 2, 9st 11 and a size 8 (with my top half being a size 6 sometimes). I've decided not to drop lower because I don't know where the hell I'd get clothes from. Hardly any physical shops stock a 6. And I lost weight to begin with because buying a size 20 in shops was difficult! I don't want a repeat but at the other end of the scale
I would think most people would not look at my bmi and think at 25 they'd be a size 8. Imagine if I got to the lower end. I'd never find anything smaller than a 4-6 which I most certainly would be below at 7st 3. So yeah, I don't think I fit in to the category (I weight lift also, but I also remember being 9st 6 at 16 and was wearing a 6-8 then 24 years ago, so it isn't vanity sizing or muscle mass or any other reason - I just appear to fit smaller sizes at the top end of the bmi).
My measurements for anyone doubting, bust 35in, under bust 28in, waist 25.5in, hips 34in.

Im size 14 and my BMI is 22.1, 5'10 and 11st. It's probably better for taller women like me

Of course you are right but you do have to be quite extreme for it not to apply to you.

My husband is one of those people. He is an ex international athlete and he has arms like Pop-Eye, legs like Chris Hoy and a stomach that you can punch. If I’m honest I find his legs slightly grotesque if he properly tenses up his muscles. (Thankfully he isn’t a body builder or a complete poser so he doesn’t normally!)

Even then he still doesn’t get crazy answers with BMI. I think his actual BMI is towards the top of the healthy range and actually he is probably pretty central. When we first met he was very slim (think sharp bones!) and his BMI was about 22.

28% and 30% are both comfortably average for adult women.

BMI is problematic for more than just being wrong for most people, it’s also got roots in racism.

It’s not an indicator of health. I do a lot of strength training with big, compound lifts so have lots of muscle. Hence my weight is higher than most people would think for my clothes size.

People talk about larger people being a strain on the NHS. Heavier women who strength train will have stronger bones and better in old age.

But yeah, just trot out ‘fat people don’t like BMI’ rubbish.

My BMI is underweight but I’m definitely not!

I’m the other way. i have a wide skeleton so I was anorexic at a weight where I still could lose another stone according to BMI. And be a few stone above the top end and still look slim. I don’t pay much attention to it now

My bmi is 24
my body fat is 31!
I’m a size 8

Actually and stupidly, it does. My right leg is an above knee amputation and my GP, and my rheumatologist use BMI. I weigh 9.5 stone, BMI 23 but according to the chart, I could weigh 11 stone which would be ridiculous. I am always arguing with them about it, daft system.

It's not that I don't like mine because I want to lose weight but I've always been heavier than I look. Even when I was very slim my bmi was questionable. No idea why, not in denial as working on losing my baby weight.

Where did I say they weren't?

Yes, we know, we all know, but the majority of people aren’t weightlifters or professional athletes and it gives a rough idea of whether you’re overweight/underweight, which is all it’s meant to do.

BMI is not super accurate but as a general rule of thumb the people arguing about it being highly inaccurate are usually not the bodybuilders but instead a few fat buggers who think they have big bones. My BMI is too high. I accept I am a fat bugger who needs to lose weight - I think it's useful in the context of my weight being quite evenly distributed and people saying 'ooh you're healthy - don't lose weight' when really I know it places me in the obese category!! (at a size 16)

BMI is a crock. At my height, I would still be ‘healthy’ at a 75kg. But my frame is so slight I would whoppingly flabby and fat at that weight. I weigh 25kg less than that and I’m muscled and strong and healthy.

I've been losing weight since the new year and have just made it down to the upper healthy limit according to BMI (sorry, very proud - had to share 😁)

Whilst I'm happy, I can tell that I'm still massive. I know that I'm not currently healthy weight and need to drop another stone ideally.

I think BMI is handy as one very rough measure, however people shouldn't follow it blindly.

I would have hoped that the widespread availability of Mounjaro/Ozempic would put a stop to the online fat positivity nonsense. Rather than posting about how "I might be obese but I'm really healthy", most people would be better just getting a prescription and jabbing their leg and they'll look great in a few months time.

I could understand fat people passionately wanting to defend their obesity back when losing weight took huge amounts of unpleasant willpower and effort, but the world has changed now

It definitely "applies" in the same way that any other measurement does. It is valid for screening for interventions on a population level rather than on an individual level.
So a high BMI doesn't mean that something terrible will happen and low BMI doesn't mean that it won't. But across a million people, people with low BMI will on average have less incidents.

Bones only account for around 15% of body weight so I don’t think brittle bones would make a massive difference to BMI. Usual “I’m not a doctor” disclaimer applies.

Everyone who has ever said to me ‘I’m in the unhealthy range for BMI’ has looked like they are. Sorry. It generally works, in my experience.

It’s a health metric, it doesn’t need to be loaded. It’s just a data point, which can be part of the puzzle.