[Pandabear]

Okay So i know its just a guide line and that body type is not included but really?!?! heres a line copied straight from the BMI site" For your height, a normal weight range would be from 95 to 128 pounds." Okay.. I'd love to be 130lbs again cause I looked GREAT but this is the kind of stuff that makes people wanting to regain a healty life go wtf because at 130 i would still be "over weight" And this is why as a teen I had an eating disorder because i didn't understand that body type played a roll in a healthy weight! I was on the soccer team and the swim team and at 125 i was "border line over weight" grrrr... okay sorry I know that was pointless but I think teens should be informed and people all over the world that BMI doesn't count your body type. I might be 5'0 but even the Olsen twins looked terrible at 95lbs!

[ThicknPretty]

I know what you're saying. That's why it's important to never place too much importance on any particular set of numbers...or to make those numbers more important than how you look and feel. I don't really care so much what the BMI chart says now, but the first time I used one and learned that I was obese, it was definitely a wake up call and motivated me to get off my butt and do some work! Now that I'm more confident in myself and feel healthier, I don't fret so much over it.

[StephanieM]

I agree with the above! I'm glad that you know not to place too much on the BMI chart itself. I could see how it could cause someone to develop an eating disorder by promoting a weight that does not suit them.

It also doesn't take into account the muscle you have, so if your quite athletic it could show you as being at an unhealthy weight.

The only good thing that ever came from it is I realised I was not just overweight, I was obese and I did not have any muscle because I was not active.

[museumchick]

You are exactly right! The BMI chart badly needs to be updated. I hate going into the doctor's office to see it, because it also doesn't take your body frame into account. I've got a Swedish build from my dad's side, so I've got shoulders and hips...I'm anything but a willow. And yet that chart tells me that at my height I should weigh 135-155 pounds!! I'm sorry, but if I weighed even the top of those two numbers I'd be in the hospital!!

I wind up looking at the "male" side of the chart because those numbers are a bit more realistic for my frame. It's amazing the doctors still rely on that chart while any fitness expert will tell you that a body fat measurement is FAR more reliable.

[Pandabear]

Thanks for understanding i just think its dumb and outdated! lol

[zanheltangia]

Yeah, it's tough to generalize every human into one little "easy" chart like that. I just took information from it to pencil in to give me a starting guideline, and I figure that as I get closer, I can ink in my own "healthy"/normal weight range. Don't let it bug you like this, it's just a tool that happens to be rather inaccurate, like an old fashion spring bathroom scale after a few years of use.

[joyra]

I'm actually somewhat respectful of the BMI chart. If anything, I find it hard to believe I could be anywhere in a 35-lb range and be "healthy."

It's definitely given me something to shoot for. Without it, I would want my goal weight to be 105. I haven't been below 125 in my adult life and when I was there, I felt I had weight to lose (I wore like a size 12). So my new goal is 115, right in the middle of the BMI chart. I may want to lose more. I may feel 115 is too hard to maintain.

Just go off of how you look and feel. If you look and feel great above the BMI range, that's probably good enough for you.

[Krazy]

I don't like the BMI charts for the opposite reasons. I think the lowest weight someone can be is way off, and should be lower. I used to be 95 pounds 5'5" and I thought I looked really good, yet I would be considered underweight. My bones weren't popping out and my face wasn't sunk in. I looked healthy, IMO.

I agree with what others have said, just go by the weight you feel comfortable at.

[Tarisaande]

I'm going to have to defend the BMI, sorry. Not because I think it is oh so perfect, but because I think people's perceptions are dreadfully skewed by what they perceive to be healthy weight. In a country like the USA where 67% of people are overweight, there aren't really that many healthy weight people to compare to. It is likely that what a lot of people consider to be healthy when they look at someone is actually somewhat overweight.

BMI takes into account different body types, and that is WHY the range is large. A smaller frame would fall at the lower end of the weight range, and a larger frame and the higher. There is always wiggle room, of course, based on individual bone structure, but as a GUIDELINE it is VERY GOOD.

And yes, the bmi doesn't take into account people with a greater percentage of muscle mass, but please, lets face the facts, most people do NOT have higher than average muscle mass. That goes for ALMOST EVERYONE ON THIS BOARD.

My weight falls well within the range for my height, and I look "thin" to a lot of people. BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL OVERWEIGHT. It is all about perspective. My weight is too high to look slim. There is LOTS of fat around my stomach. And I am not devoid of lean muscle mass, so it ain't skinny fat either.

[Ciao]

I hate that teens girls get so
stressed over the media and grow
up thinking that you have to be tiny
to be beautiful.

Example?
I was watching an episode of
Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane.

Kimora kept eating unhealthy foods, saying
how much she hated exercising, saying
how she just wanted a cupcake, chocolate, etc.

And yet she did a photo shoot and looked
all glamorous and super tiny- definitely NOT
her body on TV. Things like that repulse
me. DO NOT alter your body with photo shop
to make girls think that they need to strive
for something that isn't, at all, real.

EDIT: I also don't pay much attention to BMI.
If I feel comfortable in my skin then that's
good enough for me. I don't need some website
on the internet saying what weight is for me.

[boots]

BMI is a generic guideline. It doesn't take body composition into account. Its a quick generic reference, it isn't accurate for every body by any stretch of imagination.

You can do a "pinch" test if its performed by trained people, (they measure the fat on your back and on your arm, the arm one always gets me, I pass the back one as if I were anorexic and the arm one like I'm obese!) or you can do a rough estimate with a measuring tape (the guidelines are online).

At one point about 6-8 months ago I was looking into going into the Nuclear program with the Navy, and my BMI was too high to be recruitable at that point (I had just had a baby and I also would have had to wait a certain amount of months to join as well). The recruiter told me to look online and check my body fat composition with a tape measure.

Despite my weighing 15-20 lbs higher than their acceptable BMI my body fat composition was 3% below the maximum so I could have still gotten in.


I've decided to do that when I graduate despite the nerd-appeal I have for the program, but the experience in comparing BMI to actual Percent Body composition was an interesting learning exercise for me.

Stephanie has it exactly right when she says thats what the BMI chart doesn't (and cannot) take into account for each and every individual.

Its generic guideline at best. Not specific for any one body type.