Did you get to a healthy BMI/is that your aim?

[eatyeateat]

I started just under morbidly obese, have lost 2 stone, still got a BMI of 35. According to BMI the top end of my healthy BMI weight is 11 stone! I don't think I've ever been 11 stone and I was a size 8 as a teenage!

Is that really what I need to get down to to be healthy? My primary aim is improve longevity (I am a slightly older mum)

I was just looking at what my healthy bmi should be and like you I would need to weigh just under 11 stone. At the moment my bmi is 27.8. Not sure I’ll ever get that low. In fact I think I’d look a bit gaunt if I lost another 2 stone.

I don't think I'd ever get to a normal BMI, but I'm losing weight for my health and anything lost is good. For perspective, I've lost 20kg, but I'm still 134kg, so its barely scratched the surface tbh

that’s an great amount to lose …..keep going 👏

I think goals are very dependent on your age and history, including how long you have been overweight.
Some people who are still quite young and who were at a weight they were comfortable with relatively recently aim to get back there.
If, like me, you are older and have had a couple of decades of being obese, you don't really know what your ideal weight is (other than using BMI). So I keep seeing people getting to what they thought was their goal and then deciding to go on because they still have flabby areas they're not happy with. A few others I've seen have felt comfortable with where they are and are worried about getting gaunt even though their BMI is overweight.
Being very slightly overweight in your sixties (as I am) is actually associated with better health outcomes, so I may well decide to stop losing and maintain above 25. But it will depend what I look like when I get there!

Thank you, I'm feeling really positive about it and MJ is helping so much!

It’s hard being normal bmi late 40s/50. Just about in it I don’t eat until lunchtime so 2 meals a day use smaller plates minimise snacks and exercise daily.

My bare minimum goal gets me to a BMI of 35 and a comfortable size 16-18. If I get there and the medication isn't working any more, I'll still be happy with my progress. Not ideal, but I'll have lost over 100lbs so the health benefits would be enormous.

Overall, I'm not aiming for BMI 25 or below. The last time I was that size it required disordered eating and was not maintainable. I also think it made me look a little too thin back then and wouldn't look great with the loose skin now.

My goal is BMI of 30, which would put me as a comfortable size 14. I'm never going to have a slim and super hot body, I'm content with healthier and able to shop easily on the high street.

Have a look at https://www.smartbmicalculator.com/
It builds on bmi but also takes into account age and sex aswell and shows the impact of weight on health. It's really helpful to get a better idea of what a healthy weight might be especially for older women.

I was going to mention the smart BMI calculator. I think it gives a much more realistic view of weight vs health.

The Smart BMI calculator was very interesting. It suggests I only have a very little way to go for health. However, my fat is not evenly distributed and I feel I have much more than a few pounds of belly fat sloshing around in a very unsightly way!

I started at bmi 40 and am currently bmi 25.3. I've lost 5st 7lb.

I originally thought I'd probably stop around bmi 27 but I'll keep going for a few more pounds. I have no intention of dropping much further even though I'm not 'thin' and probably could stand to lose another 2st and still look ok.

I have to be under 10st to be within a healthy weight which I thought would look awful, but I still have plenty of spare weight on me.

If it's for health purposes, I'd be tempted to set a rough goal weight and then when you get near it switch to height/waist ratio. More important for overall health, but unfortunately there is no way to predict what weight you will be when you reach a healthy height/waist ratio so you just have to keep going until you reach it. Top of healthy BMI is a good starting position to aim for though. Your height/waist ratio may or may not be healthy at that point but getting there is the only way to know!

I’ve got down to a BMI of 23.7 so far and to be honest I’m still not ‘slim’… I’ve got a lot of fat round my middle still. I’m a size 10-12 now. I’m aiming to lost another 10lbs which will take me to a BMI of just under 22.
I guess it depends on build/height etc. I’m 5ft5 so not particularly tall, so at 10 stone I’m not massively slim.

I love that. Says I'm healthy 😀

Thanks! That was quite reassuring!

I think you have to just keep going and wait and see. My DH used to say that he’d look ridiculous at a weight low enough to have a healthy BMI but when he got there, he didn’t. He just looked a healthy weight. I think he’d just got so used to being overweight that he couldn’t imagine being 4 stone lighter!

In 12 weeks I have gone from a BMI of 29 to 24. I definitely feel slimmer, but I still have revolting blubber around my middle so I am going to keep going.

At my heaviest I was around 49 bmi and am now 36.7. Still have around 30 kgs to go, but feel so much better already and can do so much more.

Healthy BMI for me is 10 stone 5 and I was last under that before I had a baby 16 years ago. I doubt I could maintain that weight for long so no it's not my goal. My goal is to stay comfortably on the low side of overweight, probably around 11.5 would be manageable. I'm down to 12.5 now.

My ideal weight is 8 stone. LOL. I will never be that again. On the traditional BMI I am still obese but the one linked upthread gives me a moderate risk.

I work with my GP on all the markers like cholesterol etc etc and they are all good. I am diabetic but my HbAC1 is in the non-diabetic range and has been for years. I'm OK with it, sometimes I'd like to be a size smaller but am not putting the work in so it's not going to happen.

I'm keen to be out of the obese catorgery -BMI now 31 so not long to go now hopefully.

To be a healthy weight I'd need to be just over 11 stone. But my goals is 12 stone as when I was last at that weight a size 14 was a bit loose and that's where I'd be happy. Have currently lost 2 stone and 2.5 to go.

The top end of the healthy range is where I'm aiming. I'm about a stone and a half away with a current BMI of 28 (started at 38) and should reach that by Christmas.

But... I'm actually quite comfortable in my body now (for the first time in such a long time) and wouldn't be devastated if I didn't lose any more. Like other PP have said, I think maybe I would look too thin. Or is that just because I've been fat for so long I've lost sight if what a healthy body should look like? I don't know.

I am just going to keep cracking on though.

I’ve lost 3 stone so far this year, bmi dropped from 38.9 to 31.7. To be a “healthy” bmi I need to be below 10st 5, but I feel that would be too low - I haven’t been below 11 stone since I was 16, I cannot imagine being nearer 10 stone in my fifties! I’m aiming for 11 stone (over half way there 😄) and will aim to maintain there for a while while I get used to it, then see if I really want or need to lose any more.

I'm aiming for a healthy BMI. I'm losing slowly but I have few side effects and didn't expect to lose quickly at my age (56) and activity level. I was always effortlessly between 8.5 - 9 stone, (BMI 22-24,) and never worried about my eating, until my mid thirties, when life got too busy and I stopped making time for exercise.

I have lots of time now but struggle with (slowly improving) chronic fatigue, so I'm gently active most of the day, rather than being able to do the vigorous exercise that I enjoy most, hence the slow loss.

I started at BMI 42 in May and I'm now at BMI 38, with a 12.5kg loss. I want a low BMI to to feel 'light' again, more because I like feeling like that than for any other reason. I may change my mind as time goes on, but right now I'm enjoying aiming for the stars. :)

This has me as overweight rather than obese 😀😀😀