If you're towards the top of the healthy BMI range....

[onlyconnect]

...do you think you're slim? I'm right towards the top, occasionally dip over then back just under and I feel as if I'm distinctly overweight- not by a lot but I'd be very surprised ( delighted though) to be described as slim.
Anyone else around this pint, how do you feel?

Really interesting question. I also feel really fat at the top of the healthy range, but I'm only a size 12. (I've been a lot fatter too - a size 20 this time last year). So i get told I'm slim quite a lot at the moment, but I think that's just relative to what I was.

The lightest I've ever been put me at a BMI of 23, and i just about felt OK then (size 8-10) but still didn't feel slim as I carry a lot of weight around my belly.

I'm certainly not fat and from the rib cage down look fine. But I have ridiculous cartoonish tits which make the rest of me look much bigger than I am. Ideally I could lose a stone - maybe some would even come off my chest though I'd still be out of proportion.

I wasn’t slim at bmi of 24, bit of a tummy, thighs a bit chubby, certainly not fat but not slim.
My bmi is 21 now, I look slim but not skinny, I feel fitter and lighter when I exercise.

I'm right at the top for my height and definitely feel fat at this weight. I have to opposite problem of PP I have tiny boobs that don't come out much further than my belly. I'm currently trying to loose weight. I'm generally pretty happy around the half way BMI point, I have been at the other end before and looked to thin.

I'm right at the top of BMI healthy - 5ft 7, 11st 3 and a size 12. I feel slim in clothes because I buy them to suit my shape and they fit well. I have to work hard to maintain my weight though. If I take my eye off the ball the weight piles on.

OneRingToRuleThemAll you could be me except I'm an inch taller and a bit heavier. It really takes huge effort for me to stay at that weight.

I'm right at the top of the healthy BMI for my height and no I don't feel slim. I'm size 12. I'm also really short so definitely don't look slim. I need to lose a stone (roughly BMI23) to start feeling slimmish.

I'm right at the top of the healthy range (bmi 24), size 10 and I guess I would describe myself as slim. But then I've always been a size 6/8 and this is the heaviest I've ever been. So I'm a bit concerned that maybe I'm not so slim anymore and I'm just kidding myself! I'm 2kg off being overweight.

I've recently started a diet to try and get my weight back down. I think I'm just shocked after checking my BMI recently. Only 1 year ago my BMI was underweight so I seem to yoyo a lot.

I'm always confused by posts like this, my BMI is just over 21 and I usually need a size 12 at least for my bottom half. When I was a size 8/10 my BMI was somewhere around 19. TBH I think I look as slim as I'm ever going to cause I know how to dress for my clothes, but I think that to be properly slim I would probably need to get down to BMI 20, which would mean loosing just over half a stone.

I am 24.4 and trying to lose some more weight. If I were at the same BMI but with a much better ratio of muscle to fat I'd be happy enough, but the body fat I'm carrying is too much.

I always felt on the larger size of slim at bmi of 24 but I think that’s because I’m naturally muscular and with big bum/thighs. I’m now bmi 22 and still feel similar to be honest although I can notice a difference - I’m just not built to be waiflike.

I have a BMI 22 and don't feel slim.
I'm a size 10 but don't carry weight proportionately. Since hitting my 40s I'm carrying excess weight on my stomach. I hate it but even when I was smaller my stomach was still out of proportion with the rest of me but I ended up looking quite gaunt.

I feel wobbly, but try and remind myself that I'm not too hideous.

Well, I've been overweight and when I skimmed down to top end of healthy BMI I felt slimmer. I would've said I didn't look fat anymore. However I've a small frame bone structure wise and I'm not hugely muscular. I'm at the low end of my healthy BMI now and still 26/27% fat according to me scales. I can see some muscle definition now but not loads. I've lost visible weight off my stomach but it's not flat, although you can see muscle definition starting at the sides. I run 10k everyday, walk 5k everyday and do resistance exercises several times a week. I also log all my food against my exercise to ensure a deficit (usually around 1000 cals)

I think muscle mass makes a big difference. I researched on YouTube and it seems to suggest that with greater muscle mass you look less fat at the same fat percentage as someone with less muscle mass. Soon, if I still want to lose more fat, I will have to gain muscle because I don't want to go below healthy BMI. Things like carb loading before a run and doing some weights are going through my brain. Weird for me to think about this stuff considering just over 2 years ago I was overweight with a bad back and just recovering from breast cancer treatment! I'm not complaining, though!

Sorry meant to say 25/26 percent fat. I've lost recently. Not that it makes much difference to anyone else!

Sometimes I look at this site and work out all their BMIs. If it is correct, a lot of celebrities are under/ low BMI. And waist measurements seem tiny!

I actually found the opposite in a way. I know I'm not slim, I'm thick and curvy but I think because I was a higher weight my body holds it better. I have a theory that the heavier you get, the more muscles you get in the lower half of your body to support your weight. Therefore when you lose that weight, at a smaller size you may well look better than someone of a similar weight who has always been that weight IYSWIM.

I see this kind of reinforced on the subreddit r/progress pics. Women of a similar height to me look objectively good at surprisingly high weights! Could also be that overweight people working down to that weight probably exercise more than people already at that weight, particularly if that weight is as you said at the top of the healthy BMI range. This effect is most likely diminished the slimmer you get as non fat people who are slim probably put around the same effort into being that weight as former fat people who are now slim. If that makes any sense at all??

I'm at the top end of healthy BMI, and whilst I'm happy with my figure, I wouldn't say it was slim neccesarily. I'm lucky I'm curvy in the right places.

As others have said, I have to work hard to stay here, and am now doing 5:2 to try and get a bit further into the healthy range before menopause hits

To clarify - I think you may look better due to increased muscle mass both due to muscles having to support a heavier frame and and possibly due to increased exercise undertaken to lose weight.

So basically I reckon there is a difference in body composition toward people on their way up to that higher BMI vs people who are on their way down from an even higher BMI :)

I was described as skinny at that weight, but wasn't.

I'm heading towards the "lower" end of healthy BMI now, and only just beginning to look slim really. I have some "vintage" medium belts from the 80s which now just about fit me

... So generally I think we've totally lost sight of what is big and what is small.

Well, yes if you look at vintage dress sizes Oxyiz, a size 10 has a 24 inch waist in 1975 (according to a Shirley Conrad book I have). If I really squeeze my tape measure (and possibly stretch it!) I can only just get it to meet at 24 inches. I am a size 8 to 10 in clothes. The waists are certainly not that tight, either!

I used to be a size 12 in the eighties at the same weight.

My bmi is about 20 and I look slim but not skinny, it was about 24 at the start of this year and I didn't look fat (I'm 5'8 so I don't tend to look 'fat' until I'm a bit bigger really) but I felt chubby and wasn't happy about it.

It does really depend on your build though, I'm broad shouldered and quite athletic so I don't look as slim as someone who might weigh the same but have a smaller frame.

I definitely wasn't slim when I was nearly officially overweight. I would have called myself medium-chubby.
I also had a waist that was over the diabetes guidance even though my weight was considered healthy and a really fat face :(

It does really depend on your build though, I'm broad shouldered and quite athletic so I don't look as slim as someone who might weigh the same but have a smaller frame.

mistermagpie , but a small frame is just that. I'd look very slim if I was more muscly. As it is I'm slight. I do exercise so I have got some muscle tone. However, if you saw me in a bikini you'd see a fleshy stomach rather than a six pack! I can't just lose weight and look slim. I need to make sure I'm losing fat without losing muscle and if I want to lose significant fat I'll have to build muscle otherwise I'd be underweight. I'm 25/26% body fat at a BMI of just over 19.