NHS Bmi calculator says I'm overweight

[carrottbaton]

After 10 years of not weighing myself Ive this evening weighted myself and I'm 11 stone. Checked on the NHS and I'm officially overweight.

Im a size ten and I genuinely eat healthily. I actually struggle sometimes to eat three meals a day because I'm not hungry/too busy, whatever. I exercise most days - mix of cardio and weight lifting both freestyle and classes. I love exercising.

I feel really demoralised and upset. I don't exercise to lose weight but I'm upset that I'm classed as overweight.

BMI is treated like science, but it isn't! It's a tool used by insurance adjusters. It would classify every athlete competing in a weight category like boxing, weightlifting or wrestling as obese and high risk.

BMI calculations were initially based on the body of a white, European man. You're definitely not a man, even if the other two characteristics apply. There is now a scientific concensus that the BMI calculator is a poor indicator of health. Ignore it.

Size 10 where? Vanity sizing is a real issue these days. I’m 6ft tall, 11.5 stone and size 10 when not vanity sizes - M&S, Next etc I’m an 8, H&M a size small, so many places have crazy sizing these days.

@3WildOnes

29.5inch waist is a size 12. 27.5 is a size 10.

Back in the eighties, I had a 34 AA bust, a 25” waist and 38” hips. I wore size 10 tops, size 12 dresses and skirts and size 14 jeans. This was pretty much universal sizing.

Don't think I want/ need to exercise more.. I exercise for an hour/ hour and a half maybe 4-5 days out of 7.

I promise you I wear a size 10 in most shops, somewhere like m&s a 10 would be on the roomy side. I tend to go by how my clothes feel - getting tighter and I lay off the wine, sugar and drink more water.

30 waist seems a bit big for someone who is a size 10?
I’m 5ft 7 and last time I was size 10 (pre-lockdown ) my waist was 26.

On these threads, people seem so often to boast about what size clothes they are wearing, whilst arguing that BMI is a useless way of measuring whether or not they are a healthy weight.

Clothes sizing is almost completely irrelevant. Manufacturers know that they will sell their garments if they can persuade someone with a 32 in waist that they are a size 10 rather than a (modern) size 14. Whilst BMI is not perfect for genuine outliers - and there are far fewer of them than you would think - most people with a BMI of over 25, could almost certainly do with losing a bit of fat or at the very least, can't stand to put any on without becoming overweight.

I always find this genuinely fascinating re weight and clothes size.

Me and my friend are both the same weight and height, she's a solid muscle 10 with a small waist, I'm a flabby 14 with a chunky build. It can happen!

We're both 5ft 5.

Back in the eighties, I had a 34 AA bust, a 25” waist and 38” hips. I wore size 10 tops, size 12 dresses and skirts and size 14 jeans. This was pretty much universal sizing.

I’m pretty sure I remember a size chart from Topshop in the late 90s / early 2000s (back when I spent every Saturday and most of the wages from my first job in the Oxford Street branch) and the measurements for a 10 were 34-24-34. My BMI at the time was 17.5 (I was in my early 20s and thought a bag of Skittles and a triple vodka constituted an adequate dinner) and even then I couldn’t fit into their size 8 jeans.

"30 waist seems a bit big for someone who is a size 10?"

I was able to fit into a size 10 at Next with a 32 inch waist that should really have been a size 16. Size inflation or also things like wearing dresses instead of trousers.

Just sticking my head in to say that I’m also 5’5”, just under 12 stone and a size 10. Bodies are different - people carry weight differently. I have always been a lot heavier than I look and it seems that OP is the same. It’s just how it is - no need to disbelieve her.

*sorry, just under 11 stone that should say.

@DrDetriment

11 stone at 5 ft 5 sounds overweight to me I'm afraid OP and I work in health. Do you do much exercise? Perhaps look at eating more consistently and upping the exercise? You are only slightly overweight though and unless you're a body builder BMI is pretty accurate.

There goes a poster who didn't even read the OP.

OP does lots of exercise.

@Mischance

How could anyone who is 11 stone and 5'5" be a size 10???!!

I am the same weight and 5'7" and wear 14-16.

Makes no sense at all.

Well I'm 5'4, possibly less these days, and also 14-16 at 11 stone. I don't have a great deal of muscle mass, so the same probably goes for you.

Currently 9st11 and a 14 feels a little loose unless it's cut slim in the waist.

@Mrsfrumble

Back in the eighties, I had a 34 AA bust, a 25” waist and 38” hips. I wore size 10 tops, size 12 dresses and skirts and size 14 jeans. This was pretty much universal sizing.

I’m pretty sure I remember a size chart from Topshop in the late 90s / early 2000s (back when I spent every Saturday and most of the wages from my first job in the Oxford Street branch) and the measurements for a 10 were 34-24-34. My BMI at the time was 17.5 (I was in my early 20s and thought a bag of Skittles and a triple vodka constituted an adequate dinner) and even then I couldn’t fit into their size 8 jeans.

But the numbers have changed. "vanity sizing" is a, red herring. There are posters on here who weren't born in the 80s. It's the same as telling me what the sizes in the 50s were, as I wasn't born then, never mind wearing adult women's clothes so why would it be relevant to me?

I'm the same height and 11stone is very heavy on me, I need to be under 10st, ideally closer to 9 to look and feel slim. That said, I didn't fit into a 10 very easily at 11st, 12 mostly, although 14 if I was being honest with myself and actually buying what fitted! So I guess body shapes are different.

My waist was closer to 33inches at 11stone (which wasn't healthy)

I agree, clothes sizes are a useless measure, for all sorts of reasons.

You need to look at your overall health - you've said your body fat is at a healthy percentage so that's a big plus - is your blood pressure OK, is your heart rate healthy, what's your cholesterol like? That's more important than being a few lb over the NHS-defined healthy weight.

Clothes sizes mean nothing, as others have said - but they make it easy for us to stick our heads in the sand.
Not saying that's what you're doing, OP, as I don't know you or how healthy you are. But in my own experience, when I was overweight I spent years kidding myself I wasn't l, purely because I could still fit in a size 12. And if you're looking for it, you can find a lot of validation that a size 12 isn't "fat."
It was hard for me to face up to the fact that height and weight meant more than labels on clothes, and I had to do something about it -, which in my case meant upping my exercise, cutting out alcohol and eating better.

I'm now a size 8 in most shops (though often a 10 in Primark and a 6 in "roomier" brands) but I'm certainly not what you'd call thin. Which still feels strange because in my head a size 8 is still a 90s size 8, a la Kate Moss. When my MIL tried to lend me a vintage size 12 dress fairly recently, all structured and made from taffeta, I couldn't even fasten it up...

There's a reason you haven't weighed yourself for 10 years.

Look you're a size 10 with a

Top end of bmi for 5.5 is 10 stone 10 so you aren't far off. I was this weight for years at that height and size 14, I've probably put another stone on since then and am now creeping into a 16. I'm trying to do something about it though.

If you are a size 10 and 11 stone, at that height I honestly wouldn't be worrying. You will carry it well.

I find BMI frustrating and potentially unsafe as like many on here have said, it takes height and weight but not body shape or skeleton width etc.
This is me at 5ft 7 and 11st 7 and a size 12. According to BMI I am overweight. My healthy range is apparently 8.5 stone to 11.5 stone.
I don't feel overweight.
I've been 9 and half stone before and I had bones sticking out all over the place. I couldn't lie in certain positions or sit down for long, I was always freezing and my periods stopped.. everyone said I looked like a walking skeleton. Can't imagine being 8.5!
I have a wide frame, big shoulders etc.
I've had hospital appointments recently where they've taken my BMI and told me to ignore it!

Hopefully this will attach, have taken a photo of myself to try to show my shape. This has been very enlightening discussion though.

It's up to you to decide if you like your body.

Being honest with yourself, looking at the photo, you're not a true size 10. Many shops have generous sizing now, so we're perhaps more generous with ourselves in what we see as a size 10.

But really, if you're happy as you are I wouldn't pay much notice to the BMI. Most GPs only use it when they have to, for referrals where weight is relevant.