bmi

[DogStinkhorn]

Am I deluding myself or do some people have a heavy frame? I'm 5'8 and size 14-16 ad I have a bmi of 27. Even when I was a size 10 I had a bmi of 20. How come I seem to weight so much more than other people of a similar dress size and height? I do have massive hands and feet and huge norks, must be a half kilo each

BMI is a rough guide. A muscular athlete would have a high BMI. It also depends where you carry your weight - I'm a smaller dress size than my bmi might suggest because a lot of its on my thighs.

I'm not sure what the confusion is. At size 14-16 you are overweight, at size ten you were at the lower end of a healthy weight. What would you expect to be? Do you think you are a healthy weight at a size 14-16 because I wouldn't have thought most people would be. (I am a size 14 and at weigh at least half a stone more than I should do to be a healthy weight.

You may find this thread interesting.

My BMI is 24, so I'm just within the healthy range, and I'm 5'10 and a size 12. If I was to go down to a BMI of 20 I think I would look skeletal!

Sorry, but i dont think some people have heavier frames! Size 14-16 doesn't sound big for someone 5'8 but actually means very little as dress sizes vary wildly between shops (as many threads on S&B will confirm!)

Grimma is right, bmi is a rough guide, but it works for most people. A bmi of 20 is pretty low (and if you were that bmi once, what happened to your "heavy frame" . If you have a bmi of 27 now, it probably wouldn't hurt you to lose a few pounds...disclaimer-unless you are a serious athlete with a very high muscle %age.

My point is that my bmi was still 20 when I was at uni, and not eating properly, and when people see pictures of that era they say I looked unhealthily thin. But at bmi 20, that would be considered a healthy weight. So my weight then would still seem to be disproportionate. I would love to be a size twelve, but don't think size 14 at 5'8 would be overweight. But maybe I'm deluded as I said, though, clutching at straws,patacuti seems the same.

I am also 5'8, and my BMI just before I got pregnant with my second baby was 20 and I weighed 9 st 8 and wore a comfortable size 10. I am guessing if you are a size 14-16 you must be quite a bit heavier?? I don't think it depends on what dress size you wear as they vary from shop to shop and it also depends on where you carry weight. But in my opinion I felt over weight when I had my first daughter and weighed 11 stone- but everyones opinion on this will be different.

Yes but 20 is only just within what is considered healthy. Tbh unless quite petite, with delicate build I think most people would look thin rather than slim with a bmi of 20 - so you may well have been verging on unhealthy...just as at 25 or over you are likely to be.

Did you read Casmamas linked thread? Dress size really means nothing...weight/bmi is a much more accurate indicator-but an accurate body fat measurement would give you the most important answer if you are unconvinced.

BMI is a rough guide but the healthy/under/over weight ranges are not exactly small. So you are fine if between 20 - 24 (or something like it, can't quite remember). People who go on about it not being accurate are (in the vast majority of cases) deluded or trying to kid themselves. Yes an athlete would have a diff BMI but not so massively different that they could jump categories by much. If BMI was not that reliable all the health professionals wouldn't use it.

It's no good trying to avoid the issue of weight by saying BMI is a rough guide- for a tiny minority of people it is, but for most it works!

For instance, athletes and people who are very fit tend to have higher BMIs as muscle weighs more than fat- my son for example is about 5 '9, weighs about 11 and a half stone, but has a fat % of about 10- because he is very fit, does weights and goes to the gym/runs every day.

What is important is your fat/muscle ratio- so you can have this assessed using "fat scales" which you can buy- they are not 100% accurate but you can measure increases and decreases as you lose weight. Women's total fat should not be more than upper 20s- mine is 23% and I weight just under 8 stones and am 5'3.

A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25. Preferably at the lower end. Mine is around 19.3.

so unless you are a boxer, or an athlete you'd be well to take note of your BMI and get your weight down.

p.s. all this puzzling over dress sizes is a nonsense. dress sizes have becomemore generous over the years- to account for the rise in obesity.

When I was in my teens a size 10 was always a 24 inch waist. If you look at measurements now for a size 10 (try Boden for measurements guide!!) a size 10 waist is anything from 29-30 inches !!!

My mum wears a size 14 because she has a 34E bust- but she is 84, weighs about 8.5 stones and is slim.

And the other thing is that dress sizes vary hugely between brands.

I'm sorry- but I get a bit when people try to make excuses for being overweight!

Take a look in the mirror- naked. if there are folds of fat round your middle, or you don't look trim with defined muscles in your legs and arms, then you need to lose some!

I agree that dress size is a red herring these days in the discussion about whether anyone is overweight. I think the latest research points to the optimum BMI in terms of longevity as being in the range from 22.5 - 25. Also, it is a fact that people do have different sized frames. We are not all made the same.

so unless you are a boxer, or an athlete you'd be well to take note of your BMI and get your weight down

Disagree, I am a normal woman who has been going to the gym four or five times a week for the past year (mainly conditioning type classes using weights)

I have dropped an entire dress size, have lost inches and everyone comments on my weight loss. Actually, I weigh the same as I ever did!

My BMI is 20 and I'm a size 8-10. Am 5 foot 4 and 8 stone 7 and I think quite thin. Agree though that healthy is 18.5 to 25 and so it could well be that I weigh a bit too much. And reading some of the other posts I don't have well defined arms or legs and there is probably a bit of fat around my middle although more on the hips.

annoying- you haven't digested the whole of my post- in which I said that muscle weights more than fat- so yes, you can tone up and build muscle and weight the same or even more.

I thought I'd made that clear by using the example of my son? it's not just about weight - it's about body fat ratios.

ameliagrey, I've just been having a look at analyser scales. Do you have any particular recommendations?

Yes, sorry hadn't read your post properly. Am just fed up with people saying you have to be an athlete for BMI measurements not to be accurate, when acutally they are also inaccurate for those of us who exercise frequently using weights (and I would never in a million years call myself an athlete!)

I'm 5 foot 8 and go between 9.10 to about 9.12 pounds, I just looked up my BMI and that makes me 20.8. I certainly don't look underweight, am usually a 10, sometimes a 12 although agree that sizes are getting much bigger as I used to be a solid 12 at this size. I haven't been exercising regularly since I had my daughter though and I know when I exercised more regularly I was slightly heavier at around 10.3 stone and I think I looked slimmer then.

So I think a little bit more muscle def makes me a little bit heavier but look a little bit slimmer.

At my slimmest and fittest I had a BMI of about 20 - I used to run a lot and was very fit and toned. I don't think I looked too thin, I looked healthy.

However, for me, personally I think I look better with a BMI of around 23 - when I was slimmer my boobs shrunk to an A cup (usually a C) and you could see all the bones in my chest - I looked like a xylophone! But I wasn't too thin, still had fat around my tummy.

BMI measurements, I thought, are about defining a healthy range within which you have lower risk factors for certain conditions - guessing things like osteoperosis at the one end and diabetes and heart disease etc at the other end.

They're not a definition of what is 'fat' and what is not.

This has been said on other threads, but the idea of what is 'normal and healthy' has totally been skewed. People (usually women) look at people on telly and say, 'ooh, she is too thin/skinny' etc. when actually they are not at all. And say that a size 16 is average now - its may well be average, that doesnt make it normal. And all this talk of a woman being 'curvy' when in fact she is just fat! No wonder this country is experiencing increasing problems with obesity.

And I also agree about vanity sizing - I was a comfy size 10 pre pregnancy (trying desperately to get back there!), but I always imagined size 10 to be super slim - There is no way anyone would have looked at me and thought 'she is a size 10' but there it was in the label!

OP I think you'll find that being tall you can carry a lot of surplus weight in propoirtion before it is so noticeable. I'm 5'8", curvy, weigh somewhere between 11.5 and 12st (say 25 BMI for the sake of argument) and people never believe I weigh that much. I would like to get back to 11st again one day - I felt superslim and fit then but still 23.5 BMI.

stroperalla- mine came from John lewis- at the cheaper end of price range-around £25, but i think you get what you pay for. Mine shows calories needed at rest, per day, body fat%, water content, and BMI. you program it for each person by putting in your age , height and sex.

www.johnlewis.com/150943/Product.aspx

this is the types of thing stroparalla

Thanks, ameliagrey. I'm now eyeing-up something similar on Amazon and just wondering whether it might encourage my obsessive tendencies...