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Original poster

BMI of 15.1

28 replies

IncessantNameChanger · 09/09/2025 22:33

A relative has a bmi of 15.1.

They are 8lbs heavier than my ten year old. They are almost 2 stone lighter than my 21 year son who weighs 7.13 and who my friend repeatedly asks if he is balemic or anorexic. My son is extremely thin.

Yet they look OK to me. They have always been thin. I'm just shocked. This is quite underweight isn't it?

I feel I have somehow lost sight of them being very very slim because it's just them. Some sort of reverse body dismorphia?. I'm also shocked when my friend asks if my son has a eating disorder too. For reference I'm very fat.

OP posts:
HappyNewTaxYear · 10/09/2025 09:10

PinkFlloyd · 10/09/2025 00:13

My bmi is 16. I am not anorexic, nor do i have an eating disorder.

Yes but you are tube-fed, so why are you commenting here?

IneedtheeohIneedtheeeveryhourIneedthee · 10/09/2025 09:26

IncessantNameChanger · 09/09/2025 23:34

My son is 5,7 or maybe 5,8. His bmi is 17 I think off the top of my head so just under normal range. He eats an incredible amount of food and quite inactive and not very strong. He is normally very covered up in baggy clothes.

Can you be anorexic just on bmi?

This other relative I have always thought slim but this news is eye opening. I just saw them as slim. Not unhealthy and I'm struggling to wonder why I can't see it?

I had a friend who I did think was anorexic. But it wasn't just her very tiny frame. It was her eating habits and constant talk of her unexplained weight loss. So she would tell me she was being investigated for mysterious weight loss while eating half a finger roll. I felt uncomfortable eating around her so it was more noticeable.

Anorexia is a mental health illness, characterised by restricted eating. A very low BMI does not automatically equal anorexia. A person may be extremely light with a low BMI caused by another illness. Your son has a low BMI but is not anorexic as he eats. Your friend is a different matter as she restricts her eating.

Original poster
IncessantNameChanger · 10/09/2025 09:51

ObsidianTree · 10/09/2025 09:07

You can get private Thyroid checks to see what's going on. It doesn't sound right if he's eating 6000 kcals, sleeping all day and weighing that little. I think it could be an over active thyroid also.

Thanks I'm going to put it my diary to book that in. I did say I'd pay for private TB and meningitis jabs for him and forgot that too

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