BMI- do you follow the BMI guidelines or do you think it rubbish?.

[cherrypiepie]

I had to get my BMI to below 30 for Medical reasons. BMI is also used in pregnancy to guide how you are cared for.

I'm pretty happy that BMI is an accurate representation for me; over 30 and it's not good. Under 30 I feel and look better (obviously a gradual shift. I have never been lower than 27 so can't imagine if I got to BMI 25! )

Lots of people think BMI is rubbish and pointless. They think its not accurate and they totally ignore. A few get annoyed that medical care is sometimes governed by BMI.

I understand it not accurate for those with high muscle mass (elite sport or weight trainers).

But are these other people right an I have got the wrong end of the stick? Are these other people correct and I am in cloud cuckoo land for wanting a BMI below 25?

Should I ignore the BMI?

It has always seemed accurate for me, and I'm short at 5ft3. Because I'm short, I look overweight really quickly when I get to the top end of the healthy range for my weight or over. Currently in the overweight range and it really shows.

BMI is actually over-generous to me as a measurement. I'm curvy but 5'2 and small-framed, and actually definitely start looking overweight at well within the "normal" BMI range. I found the frame approach, where you look at your wrist circumference, was a harsher but more accurate measure of where my weight should be.

If I put my thumb and index finger around my wrist, they touch, but hers didn't.

Maybe that’s just her body / build, and nothing to do with her race.

I’m white and can put my thumb and index finger around my wrist - they touch with a gap.

I think it is fairly accurate. I am size 10-12 with big boobs, 5'2" and 9st 6 so at the top end of what is healthy, bordering on overweight and it shows. I am far too squidgy around the middle!

I'm 5'2" and 9st5 is pretty much my perfect weight but I swim and do yoga regularly so am reasonably fit which probably has an effect. I need to really work at it to maintain my weight any lower than 9st and it's not worth it to me, around 9st5 I can maintain easily without any sense of deprivation when eating. Lockdown meant I wasn't swimming and I put on weight but as soon as the pools opened my weight started dropping again.

Oh, forgot to say, my boobs start getting bigger as my weight gets closer to 10st though so if you have big boobs it might well be that your ideal weight is lower in the healthy range than mine.