BMI for more "athletic" people

[Purpleandteal]

When I look at myself in the mirror I don't see someone overweight but according to my BMI I am. I know it's not the most accurate thing as even when I was marathon training and looked borderline underweight (you could see my ribcage) I was still just bang on in the middle of "healthy". Is there anything else I can trust? Photos for reference. Forgot to mention I'm doing strength training and next to no cardio at the moment.

Photo!

How tall are you?

BMI is very “strict” for taller people, and very lenient for short ones

My coach says I have an “athletic” build, I don’t have much body fat yet my bmi is never below 23.5/24

Not going to post pics, but wear size 12 and am just over 6ft

BMI is a rough tool, not a personal goal

Forget about bmi. You KNOW if you’re in good shape

I'm fairly short 5ft3. ATM I'm between a size 8 and a 10.

I doubt you were actually borderline "underweight" if your BMI was in the middle of the healthy range. That was your own perception. Are you looking for something (or someone) that will tell you that you are not overweight?

I do a lot of strength training but I also do some cardio. Despite having an athletic look my BMI is 18.5 (Height 5'6").

www.mumsnet.com/uploads/talk/202006/large-126206-445677.jpg

Just forget about bmi, it’s an MN obsession and a “measure of success” on this site, but it should not be:

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/bmi-stop-measuring-weight-height-health-measure-fitness-fat-a7894951.html

You'd get a more accurate representation if you used the body fat calculator online or a body fat scale. It gives you categories of what % body fat you are using your body measurements such as wrist, forearm, waist and hip. I'm 5'2" and wear 8-10 but my BMI is in the middle of healthyweight.
*
Description*
Women
Men
Essential fat
10-13%
2-5%
Athletes
14-20%
6-13%
Fitness
21-24%
14-17%
Average
25-31%
18-25%
Obese
32+%
25+%

Sorry I copied and pasted a body fat % chart but it is all jumbled so here's the link instead.

www.calculator.net/body-fat-calculator.html

I looked borderline underweight. (not that I was scales said something else). And I did develop amenorrhea. That's a photo with clothes. Without them I did look a lot more extreme. In that photo I had already regained some weight.

phone I definitely looked skinnier than that (not great as I was underwater but you might get an idea).

I don’t think you look underweight in those pictures. It’s normal to see ribs at a healthy weight.
But don’t forget BMI is a blunt instrument. My BMI hasn’t been below 24 for at least a decade. I run marathons and live an active lifestyle. If my weight creeps up I am mindful of my BMI and cut back a little. Having a BMI of 20 doesn’t make you healthier than having a BMI of 25 though

BMI isn’t particularly useful, I’m six foot tall and weigh 96kg which puts my BMI at 29.

I’m a rugby player with around 10-11% body fat. So while my BMI is high I’m not overweight as I do not have excess fat.

Our perceptions of weight are also skewed, if someone has low muscle tone when they lean forward their ribs should be visible when looking at their backs. If they stretch up really high their lower ribs should be visible from the front. Seeing ribs does not make you underweight.

I also have a large frame and bone structure. I think we associate being very overweight/obese with lots of visible loose flab meaning that we might think that we’re not overweight if we don’t have that. In my photo below I am 14 and a half stone and well into the obese range, 2 BMI points from morbidly obese, and three stone heavier than the top of my healthy BMI range. I mean it’s very obvious from the picture that I am overweight but it still didn’t compute to me that I was so obese until I weighed myself. And it’s only now that I am losing the weight (I am down over half of what I need to lose so far) that I can see how skewed my perception was before. There’s definitely 20 kg extra to come off in that picture, even if my fat was firm rather than loose. Yet if you’d asked me when I was still in denial, I’d probably doubted that I needed to lose that much because in my head I looked ‘normal’ and could feel my hip bones etc.

You dont look underweight in those pictures and you dont look heavily muscled either or particularly athletic.

It may be worth investing in some body fat scales to see what’s really going on.

You don't look even remotely underweight in those pictures. I am fit and train regularly and I look a lot skinner than you - but I am a healthy weight and very happy with my figure (BMI ~20/21). You have lost sight of what normal looks like.

www.freedieting.com/true-frame-size

Here you can work out what your frame size is by measuring your wrist or elbow. Mine is definitely large. If you’re large you should apparently aim for the top of the BMI range, middle for medium and lower end for small frame.

I also don’t think you look remotely underweight, I’m afraid! BMI is generally a good tool, unless you are an Olympic level athlete.

BMI is more a population tool than an individual one and weight, particularly for women, fluctuates due to a lot of factors (and photos, even more so). If you developed amenorrhea through athletics, I'd advise seeing someone knowledgeable about female athlete triad.

Personally, while I weigh myself every few months or so, I mostly stick to monthly size measurements.

I'm the same height and when I was marathon training my BMI was 18. I was skinny. But I had muscles.

I've been out of action for a bit and it's now 20 as just worked it out. I think it's pretty accurate

Chesney would you say you were a similar size as me? I was never lower than 21.

I don't have a photo at my lowest weight. This is me at 7st 10lb ish.

I don't carry weight well though. I know people my height who weigh a stone more and look fabulous! Amazing figures. Whereas I wouldn't. Annoyingly it always goes to my hips and thighs and sticks there like glue 😂

Chesney just wanted to say that you look amazing! Makes me wish I had a smaller build because no matter how much I dieted, my giant rib cage, hip and knee bones would stand in the way of me looking like that. You look slim but really healthy and proportionate!

Your legs are much longer than mine!! Here I was 8st8 or there abouts.

Purple I think that photo shows that you probably have a larger bone structure (from the look of your shoulders) so you may well look much more ‘boney’ than someone who is lighter than you.

@Shedtheload ah thank you. I don't look like that now! I've been poorly and no exercise but I hope to look like that again soon. Although my treatment has put me into menopause at 41 so it may be an uphill battle 😂

@Purpleandteal I think I have long ish legs for a small person. But a stumpy body 😂