[Nikel1979]

Mine dropped an entire point. I'm tall with a lot of muscle, so I don't pay much attention to BMI. I'm still obese, but my size 14 pants are getting to big. I care more about that than I do about my BMI.

[Skellig19]

I went from Obese to Overweight! woot woot! I was nearing the Overweight moniker anyway. About 4 lbs away...

Not that I put much stock into it but finally, it's advantagious to be tall!

[Magrat]

This blows. My bmi went up more than a point. Under this new system I am essentially six pounds fatter, and further away from my goal than ever.

Tall people already had all the advantages ( needs more calories so more room to create a livable deficit, small flucuations don't mean a bigger size, etc) when it comes to weight loss.

Why do they have to have this one too?

[AlmostMe]

BMI is a bunch of crap. I'm average height, but muscular and 'large framed' (according to the Dukan test). I'm a prop forward in rugby, if that means anything to you. I'm fat - and I'm willing to admit that at my current weight I'm obese, but for me the BMI boundaries don't make sense. They're not way, way off, but enough off. I haven't even checked the new BMI.

[Amy8888]

Another reason for us short people to be jealous of you tall folks. :P

In my mind, my goal weight is 145. That is still slightly overweight according to the old BMI, and seems solidly overweight according to the new one. I'd have to be 140 (old) or 135 (new) to be normal. At first I thought I should move my goal weight, but the new calculation made me want to stick with 145. It just seems more realistic and sustainable to me, and I can't see myself living at 135 (just because 145 was my lowest weight as an adult after losing weight).

[ChickieChicks]

I read this yesterday, and I am so upset by it! Illogically so, but it really bothers me that short people are getting the shaft on this one!

I took this picture today after coming home from my Zumba class. Here I am, less than 4 pounds from be "overweight".



I am not a weight-lifter, but I must have good muscle mass, because my body fat % is consistently calculated at 20% using calipers. I guess I could be smuggling bricks in my yoga pants, but it just irks me that I have worked so hard and come so far, and now I am supposedly just a cheeseburger away from being overweight!!


GRRRRRR! (breathing deeply...)

[VermontMom]

JayZeeJay, thanks for posting that link! I'm just happy to see that I'm considered 'normal'

Originally Posted by ChickieChicks

I read this yesterday, and I am so upset by it! Illogically so, but it really bothers me that short people are getting the shaft on this one!

I took this picture today after coming home from my Zumba class. Here I am, less than 4 pounds from be "overweight".



I am not a weight-lifter, but I must have good muscle mass, because my body fat % is consistently calculated at 20% using calipers. I guess I could be smuggling bricks in my yoga pants, but it just irks me that I have worked so hard and come so far, and now I am supposedly just a cheeseburger away from being overweight!!

GRRRRRR! (breathing deeply...)

ChickieChick, you got NUTTIN to worry about!! props on the awesome pic from today...and I went back to check your Goal story and if I were you, I would show the bikini pic and then the later one to strangers on the street

[AlmostMe]

Here's a very geeky article on BMI http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_05_09.html

Mine went up by .5 - I note that there wasn't an explanation of the change to the formula in the article.

[ChickieBoom]

I'm going to have to lose an additional 3 pounds to hit the normal range...great.

[LockItUp]

Originally Posted by Avezy44

According to this I could weigh as little as 115 and still be considered normal... idk about that.. maybe.

And according to the original BMI for 5'6" (I'm that height too) 114 is the bottom of normal. I imagine that is much to thin for *most* people our height! But for me too the top range of BMI still leaves me looking chubby. I think we're both at that happy medium place!



BMI will be argued FOREVER unless/until it goes away. It's HUGE range for each height as it is, then you have people argue the top range is too LOW and some will even argue the bottom range is too HIGH. I mean body frame and muscle mass taken into account, maybe there's no way to have an average. Maybe doctors should start taking body fat to determine level of overweight-ness/obesity. I don't really see a way to make BMI acceptable to everyone, it won't ever be. It's simply an average, for the average person, with average bone structure/frame, and average muscle mass. But how many people are average!? Probably the majority, but certainly not all!

[krampus]

Your new BMI: 20.71
Your old BMI: 20.47

I'm one of those people who would look fine at the bottom BMI threshold, but look like a fat mess too close to the borderline.

[JayZeeJay]

Originally Posted by AlmostMe

I note that there wasn't an explanation of the change to the formula in the article.

There is - if you click the link at the bottom of the article, it goes to the mathematician's webpage at Oxford and the complete derivation is cited.
That was really why I posted this, his explanation is interesting (or funny). He faults the prior formula for having a ^2 exponent, and says that we live in a three-dimensional world.

[AlmostMe]

@JayZeeJay - Ok, thanks for the prompt to go back! We live in 3 dimensional world so let's raise it to the power of 2.5 - 'cos some days we feel a little bit, ya' know - flat.

Why not CUBE it - give tall folks a real advantage. What a laugh!

[JayZeeJay]

AlmostMe: I know right? It really does seem that arbitrary!

And as several other people have commented, I agree that BMI isn't the greatest universal measure. It doesn't differentiate at all between lean mass and fat, or between subcutaneous and visceral fat - it's a weak measure of overall health in that respect.

And as a "lady", I always feel shortchanged by BMI. I read somewhere that D cup breasts can weigh up to 18 lbs. How does BMI account for our "endowments"? Because breast weight has a very different health impact than 18 lbs of visceral fat has.

My .02-

[sontaikle]

as a shortie, my BMI went up slightly.

I too think that body fat should trump BMI. There are too many variables otherwise when it comes to the BMI range.

I have to say though, at the top range of the healthy BMI for my height I still felt (and looked) chubby. The bottom was too low for me, so I'm quite happy in the low middle.