BMI sucks (for short guys)
 

I just did my BMI for the first time and while I am no longer "morbidly obese" (39.8) I am still severely obese and, doing the numbers, will remain so for quite some time.

This sucks. The smaller weight goals are much easier to focus on so I will be focusing on weight from now and not BMI.

Saying that, I punched in some numbers pretending I was a six-footer and BMI looked much more favorable.

So, if you're tall BMI is the way to go for a little bit of motivation.

For the shorties, avoid.

I find it's not much better for us taller guys. Apparently for my BMI I would need to be so light I would be almost see through. Not going to happen.

I'm 6' 4" and I just typed my information into a BMI calulator and at my weight now (321.4) i'm 39.1 before i started this diet 2 weeks ago i was (332.4) 40.5.

Yeah i wouldn't be measuring my weight loss through BMI, it's alot easier to just watch the pounds drop.

It sucks for ladies too! Mine was over 50 when I started (gulp), I am hoping to be less than 35 at my weigh-in tomorrow. My doctor did point out I'd be changing from "Obese II" to "Obese I" very soon and I wanted to climb under the exam table. But it beats the Morbidly Obese I started at.

The worst thing is being labeled based solely on your BMI number. My fertility specialist said the hospital will not treat a woman for fertility if her BMI is over 40 (I was just over it at that visit, like 41.5). It doesn't matter about any other part of your health, it's only based on BMI and there are no exceptions. I'm so glad I lost weight since that appointment as my doctor looked at me like I'd never get under that 40. Way for me to prove him wrong and then some!!

Oops---this is the Men's Forum, I'm sorry!! I click on "new posts" and read everything! Sorry for the TMI!

I saw a think on You Tube, which makes it not credible at all, but it said that waist to height ratio was far more accurate than BMI. This is because BMI as it's calculated is a standard and does not account for body type.

[EDIT: My BMI is 36.6, my Waist to Height ratio is .68 still pretty bad]

I don't put all that much stock into BMI, although I do track it, because I use anything I can as a motivation and that's one more number to look at to measure my progress.

So this is progress for you, whatever BMI does or doesn't mean. So congrats on that!!!

Even when I was in shape, the bmi calculators and ideal weight charts always were off for me. Im 6'1 and my ideal weight is 152 - 189. The only way for me to get below 185 is starvation. My BMI would be 25 which is considered pre obese.

Thats when I was wearing a 31in waist, and running 30 miles a week. Everyone's body is different and personally I will never look at one of those charts again for guidance. Do what your body feels comfortable with and stick with it.

The BMI is a blunt instrument that is meant to characterise at risk people in general and in doing so is bad for individual cases.(there are so many reasons to ignore it)

A high or low BMI is nothing more than a warning flag for you/your doctor to use to look into your lifestyle. There will be reasons for it i.e muscle tissue can heavily skew the BMI.

It broadly says if you outside of the recommended range for your height that's it. We are mostly overweight else why are we on these boards? you don't need the BMI to tell you that. Now that you are looking at your lifestyle i.e diet and exercise there is really no actual purpose in looking at the BMI until you feel you are at or near your goal weight.

@Snickerless: Aye-aye! I agree, even though my "goal" is 162 lbs I have a feeling I should stay around 180/175 instead. I am just gonna feel it out when I get there. It is why I am measuring my waist size as well!

Yeah, looking at BMI numbers and the depression that followed is what brought me to this site. For my height, it's completely depressing. I guess the only looks I'll give the chart are to see when I don't have the "morbid" tag anymore, and when I'm not obese, just simply "overweight".

I meant to add, there was a news story out of Massachusetts last week where elementary (I think) kids got letters sent home saying if they were obese. Some kind of screening was done in school to get the numbers. But the long story short is, the news story ended with one of the young kids saying if you use BMI numbers with Tom Brady's stats then he's obese too! Obviously most of us here don't have the build that Tom Brady does but that just proves BMI numbers don't mean anything. And that doesn't mean I don't do crazy calculations to see mine at all different kinds of weight.

@fit_dad_2b: You know what I did dude? I looked at what weight was associated with the "correct" BMI and focused on that instead. That's why in my sig I have 196 marked as "no longer obese" because technically that's what it is. Like I stated before, even though the charts tell me I need to be in the 160s somewhere I really feel like my healthy weight is in the 170s if only because I have a little muscle on me.

I feel it's a good way to just avoid BMI all together.