[lizziep]

wow after looking at all of these pictures i can't help but think my real goal is overweight - not normal. i guess i have chubby eyes too.

and i don't care -chubby wonder woman was hot! she didn't seem morbidly obese at all to me. obese but morbidly?

[BerkshireGrl]

Mazza, I agree with Azure too Body fat, I think, is the best measurement to go by. Everything else is a roundabout speculation. I mean, my waist-to-hip ratio is pretty close to .70 (.76 in my case, 41" waist, 54" hips) but I'm definitely not fit, heh! If I lost 3" off my waist, I'd be good to go? Nah. But I'm like 50% fat going by my rough estimate Tanita scale. I guess in my case, BMI is a good guide, but then, I hardly have any muscle right now

sidhe, that Moxie character shames the name of cats everywhere! Obviously needs to play more and snack on kibble less

lizziep, I thought Wonder Woman was looking smoking, myself! Gads, I hate that term "morbidly" obese. Obese I can deal with, but morbidly just sounds so *shudder* I mean, check out the dictionary definitions:

Morbid:
1. suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude; unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive, extreme, etc.: a morbid interest in death.
2. affected by, caused by, causing, or characteristic of disease.
3. pertaining to diseased parts: morbid anatomy.
4. gruesome; grisly.

GRUESOME!?

[anastasia]

i had a similar response. some of them, ok they do look ovrweight but come on, quite a lot of them look fit and healthy and yet their BMI says they are overweight.

[srmb60]

I just have a couple of observations (for whatever my opinion means )

If you look at them again keeping in mind the musculature (Arnold Schwarzenegger) thing ... some make more sense.

They're counting folks who are right on 25 as overweight. A bit dehydrated and these folks would be fine. But I guess they have to cut-off somewhere.

Golly, some folks dress funny.

One woman was obviously done in my her large bossooms.

It's a tool. One, I think, is well suited for starting out or setting longterm goals. It's probably not the best tool for defining fitness at near-goal weights.

Oh I thought of something else. Try not to compare yourself. Our self-perceptions are notoriously off-kilter and people come in such an amazingly huge variety of shapes and sizes ... as you can see by the shear number of photos in that site.

[lizziep]

wow - i never really thought about the definition of the word morbid. i think i'd rather be extremely obese or hugely obese or grossly obese then morbidly. wow.
according to that scale me as a grown adult at 5 foot 2 inches could be perfectly normal under 100 lbs. that is scary to me. that is definitely a goal i do not want to aim for.
i agree with susan - it's a good tool to give you a general idea and a start at your long or short term goals- but it's not the be all end all.
and i saw that poor woman who clearly was put over the edge of the scale by her large breasts. i feel sorry for her- i bet her back hurts as bad as mine does. lol.

[murphmitch]

I agree that some of these people look pretty good & not overweight or obese from just looking at the photos. I think that body fat testing is the way to go to measure healthy body composition. I have read all the Covert Bailey's books (Fit or Fat series) and he always talks a lot about this. When people speak of weight loss, he always says "You lost x pounds of what?" Losing muscle in weight loss is not really good for you. Gaining weight when it's muscle is certainly not bad for your health. I agree that the BMI is just another tool, but if you're using it to determine need for surgery or in a healthcare setting, IMO it's much more appropriate to do body fat testing.

[LandonsBaby]

Originally Posted by Azure

I've read that a waist-to-hip ratio is a more accurate way to figure out relative health (compared to the BMI). And I personally think looking at someone's body fat % vs lean mass would be a better indicator of health than either the BMI or waist-to-hip, but that's me.

This is an old post but I agree!! I knew BMI was stupid but I kept looking at it anyway. I've been thinking for the past year that I'm obese. BMI says so. I knew my body was changing but whatever (My weight was the same but I could wear smaller clothes). I finally got someone to compare bf% vs. lean mass and I am NOT obese. I'm not even on the line. I refuse to let myself look at my BMI anymore.