To think someone that’s 7 stone and 5’4 is tiny

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And to be worried d

To me elite means representing your country, whether professionally or amateur.
I mean something like the top 1% (or less) of people who compete - so our Olympic weight lifters and gymnasts. Amateur or professional is only to do with how/if they get paid for doing their sport.

I'm pretty sure BMI works well for security service people and those in the armed and emergency services and that they should act upon a BMI outside of their healthy range.

My daughter is 7.5 at 5ft 6. It’s slim but she’s only 12 so her frame is still quite narrow. She doesn’t look unhealthy. I’d say on an adult woman it would though

Fitness enthusiasts should not be outliers in BMI. They are not that size because they are fit.

a supermodel, or ballet dancer may have a BMi under 18. They are not healthy people.

This is not about being at the top of your sport, it’s about your frame and muscle mass.

You seemed to have missed the point that all the types quoted may have undertaken programmes to work our and build their bodies.

As has been covered ad nauseam if your muscle mass and your build is large you may register as a high BMI despite low body fat, so how exactly do expect these people to “act” if their BMI falls outside the expected range?

You may.

that is not the same as a healthy person measuring underweight by BMI though.

youre taking a situation which can be healthy (even being an overweight bmi can be perfectly healthy for most) and applying it to one that is very rarely healthy.

being a BMi under 18 isn’t comparable to being a bmi of over 25.

And you are missing my (and many others') point.

Regular working out and training programmes by people who work in emergency services should not put their BMI into the "I'm not overweight, I'm just very muscular" category.

People at the top of their sport often have BMI outside of the healthy range because they have worked physically to the extreme (combined with their genetics) - way, way more than most of the population.

And again, just to reiterate the difference between BMi measuring overweight vs underweight- A bmi of 12 (6 under the BMI number that dictates under weight) is almost certainly fatal.

A BMi of 31, 6 over the number that dictates overweight is not only nothing like fatal, it’s likely to be perfectly healthy for most people, at least for the first decades.

They are simply not comparable because the risks are not the same. A bmi of less than 16 is dangerously low, the risk of death and permanent damage is high.

A 5ft 4 white woman who is 7 stone has a BMi of just 16.8

As evidenced by the thread there are plenty of men and women at a lower BMI registering as underweight who are perfectly healthy.

If people generally were as afraid of the high BMIs associated with high body fat % as they are of lower BMIs we would might not be spending billions on the societal impact of obesity.

What's your point?

That claim is baseless. I’ve given the example of my brother who has high BMI with low body fat due to having been in the armed forces when he was younger.
He’s not noticeably massive, he doesn’t look like a body builder or a security guard.

So the same pattern will apply to many people - but you wouldn’t be aware as you wouldn’t know their BMI.

Equally a female friend, who was very sporty, but never been a pro athlete but is very strong and fit, and done a lot of cycling, fitness training, mountaineering, taken part in the Survivor show - she was told by her doctor that her BMI was high, but when she showed him her body fat % (v low) and her waist measurement - very slim - and her volume of muscle he agreed that the BMI was simplistic.

There is absolutely no evidence of that in this thread
please don’t take underweight people’s claims that they are healthy at face value. It is extremely naive to do so.

My point is that the poster above keeps talking about fit people measuring overweight on bmi (which is unlikely related to their fitness anyway) as a comparator to justify BMI not being applicable at the other end, the underweight end. They are not comparable.

This is roughly my mum, or was when she was younger, for most of the time. It was just the weight she was, she ate normally and was healthy, 3 meals a day and crisps or cake in the evening. She was never one for overeating or lots of snacks.
Her weight did drop lower than that once, and she turned out to have an overactive thyroid, but that was resolved.

One of my DDs (age 26) is 5'5" and 7 stone. She's petite (size 6) but I wouldn't say 'tiny'. Her bones aren't sticking out, she just has no fat on her body. She's been petite since a child but you should see what she eats! One of those people who has a fast metabolism I guess. I only have to look at her plate to put on weight.

Depends on the person.

My mum, up to the age of about 35 was 5"4 and 7 stone pre-babies. She was way off the bottom of the chart for tracking weight for both pregnancies.
Her sister, and her sisters 2 daughters were exactly the same. Just naturally very slender.

My mum is 70 now, and despite being 3 inches shorter due to osteoporosis, has sat around the 9 stone mark for years.

With the exception of the osteoporosis, she's the fittest and healthiest person I know. Walks miles cross-country every week, swims 60 lengths every Saturday morning, and catches about one mild cold every 18 months.

There’s plenty of evidence you’re just ignoring it in favour of your own prejudice/agenda. And essentially calling posters liars.

Do you know what evidence is? Evidence isn’t what a stranger tells you. It’s not even what a known person tells you 😂

if there is actual evidence on this thread I’ve missed it, but happy to be pointed in the direction (not the bollocks about the bmi chart in Singapore though please)

people who have disordered eating are delusional. It’s not really the same as lying.

I’m not the one struggling to grasp why a healthy BMI is given as wide range and not a finite number.

You still haven’t given a plausible explanation as to why the official recommended lowest healthy BMI for Asian populations is not under 18.5 despite the higher limit being significantly lower.

I specifically referenced anecdotal evidence on this thread. I know scientific literacy on these forums is not high but I expected you to be aware you’re not in laboratory conditions.

You’re essentially now accusing every single poster on this thread who has, or ever had, a low BMI, or is related to someone who does, of being delusional liars with eating disorders.

Can you imagine the outcry if you accused everyone with a high BMI who said they were actually fit and healthy of being compulsive eating obese liars?

There is clearly no rational discussion to be had with you, and I think ends the matter.

Until I was post-menopause, I was 5'5" and 7st! I just did not put weight on, and got sick of all the comments which were really rude! "You need a good burger" etc.

Someone's weight may be perfectly fine; I have always loved food (and plenty of it), and was always in peak health and never had any ailments, even viruses (beyond toddler colds!), until I was 55. I am still really fit and well but now 10st! It all piled on when the menopause came, and I need to lose a stone as it is all around the abdomen.

scientific literacy on these forums is not high

Evidently.

There is clearly no rational discussion to be had with you, and I think ends the matter.

Oh, come now. I still want to know why you think you know better than the WHO and multiple Asian health authorities.

@Aluna you’re hysterical. You’re not even reading the posts people have made. What on earth are you getting out of this dogid refusal to accept that being underweight (not sure what you mean by low bmi) isn’t healthy?

They know better because strangers on an internet forum said and that is EXACTLY THE SAME as evidence. Time to call the WHO

Btw you didn’t once reference the evidence in the posts being anecdotal I’ve just checked.

It's not necessarily a worry. It depends on the person. Some people are officially underweight their whole lives but feel fine.

In other circumstances such as rapid weight loss or indicators of disordered eating, or health impacts, it would be a worry.