BMI is just another tool. I wouldn't be stressing about about 130 vs 128 lbs til you are in the neighborhood.

You are at 173 right now, right? Still have to cruise through 160, 150, 140, etc.

If this were a road trip... this would be like worrying about finding the house number before you even got to the street. Or town. Or state. Let's get a little closer to it before we start the fine tuning.

Shoot for 130 for now to get you in the neighborhood, and once you are actually on the right street you can worry about what house number it is you are looking for.

A.

I love this! That's exactly what I am doing. My initial goal is also 130, after I hit that weight, I will reassess.

Ugh...I never know quite how to feel about the BMI, honestly. On one hand, I know it's a good guideline in terms of some risk indicators for certain health conditions. On the other hand, though, I realize that for some people, the BMI is just way screwed up.

We always talk about how we shouldn't pay attention to numbers when it comes to losing weight (you know, the whole "don't be ruled by the number on the scale!!" thing) but it seems like at the same time, so many people are ruled by this BMI business.

I mean, I'm five feet tall, so going by the BMI calculations, at my current weight of 141 I am still overweight and still out of the healthy BMI range. But at the same time, I *look* much smaller than I am (without any exaggeration, most people think I don't weigh any more than 120.) In order to get to a "healthy" BMI, I'd need to reach a goal weight of 125 (and that would put me at the very *top* of the healthy range, with a BMI of 24.4.) And frankly, not only can I not picture what I will look like at 125 pounds, but I don't even know if 125 pounds is something I can maintain in the long run. I mean, I'm nearly 32 years old and I haven't weighed 125 pounds since I was roughly 8 years old.

My doctor recommended that I drop to 125, and I'm trying, but I really do question at times how much stock I need to put in this BMI stuff. I feel better than I have in YEARS, I look awesome, and I'm happy. Why, then, should I fight to lose another 16 pounds just to get to an arbitrary number? It just seems to contradict everything we hear about "don't pay attention to the number!!!"

OK. *L* Rant over, I promise.

Did you know that most doctors only know two things about diet and exercise?

Noth Ing

Weight, by itself, not an indicator of health. The end.

no - i just play music but then, i was in the gym for a number of years.

this page is pretty good - covers the basics: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw10.htm

but the bottom line is, there are only three exercises you REALLY need:

bench press
squat
deadlift

do those three only and you will have a total-body workout.

if you don't have a fitness bench, use the coffee table.

if you don't have a bar, use a broom handle.

bench press: run the band so the ends are in your hands and it's underneath the coffee table. wrap the bands around your hands and proceed.

tip about benchpressing: you know how you see powerlifters with that ferocious arch to the lower back and their feet pulled waaaaaay back? that IS the proper way to do it. your spine is structured to bear a load while arched, not flat. i've benched a max of 175lbs and never had lower-back injury because of that posture. i have, however, suffered low-back pain after doing conventional benches (where the feet are flat on the floor, legs at 90 degrees, back flat).


squat: have a big loop running under your feet and up over the ends of a broom handle across your shoulders. lower yourself as if you're about to sit on the coffee table and as soon as your butt touches it, stand up again. needless to say, the band should be at its tightest when you're fully upright.

deadlift: you'll need to double or triple the band for this one: loop over the ends of the handle like the squat, but it's in front of you. use boxes or something to keep the bar approx halfway up your shins when at rest. the movement for this is *tricky*.

start with your butt sticking out back and your lower back arched, abs held *tight*. you need a solid core.

do a squat movement so your hands grasp the bar.

instead of "stand up" or "Straighten up" - both of which will torch your lower back - think of pushing the ground away with your feet. if the bar scrapes up the front of your shins, you've done it properly.

Yeah, that's pretty much the conclusion I'm coming to as well. The only problem I have is that I'm following WW, and in order to set a goal that is outside of WW's healthy weight range, I need a doctor's note...and my doctor won't give me one because she says that I need to be at 125 for my height.

It kind of pisses me off, really, because it's like....dude, 125 is only a number. I mean, when I last went to see her, I was at 155, and even *she* didn't believe I was that heavy. She didn't believe it until she weighed me herself. So she should *know* that in my case, a BMI out of the "normal" range doesn't necessarily mean anything useful. Since I started losing weight last January, I've been able to come off of two medications, and all of my chronic conditions (early-onset osteoarthritis, PCOS, and insulin resistance) have gone into "remission." So how she can possibly say that the BMI means much in my case is totally beyond me.

But (and I know this may sound silly to anyone who isn't following Weight Watchers) getting to my goal weight and getting my lifetime status is kind of important to me. It just really sucks that I can't get the okay to set a higher goal weight.

my youngest daughter is 5yrs old. since she was 20mo old, she's weighed betw 50 and 54lbs.

yes, she was definitely a tank when she was little (she was triple her birthweight before she even started solids, not a bottle in her life - healthy babies nurse (a PHN) couldn't understand it).

now she's still betw 50 and 54 and still takes a size 6X (sometimes 8) but i had to buy her all new clothes because i got so sick of looking at the same stuff year in, year out. she needs them for length, now, and is perfectly proportionate - for a 7yr old!

just for giggles, i put her on the giant butcher's scale he's got in the front of the shop. he looked at her, looked at the reading of 54lbs, looked all around the weigh plate, looked at me and said "WHERE!?"

and ALWAYS i get the same damned lecture about her "obesity" from her developmental specialist. at 13mo old, my daughter was strong enough to lift a full-grown, rather portly man standing six-three right up off the examining table (our family doctor - trying to get a peek down her throat)! i have to wonder about that doctor's vision problems that she trusts a number on a scale over the evidence of her own eyes!

I love this. So cute.

It's all about density! That is why many women can wear a size 8, yet be all over the map for weight. You can fill up a bucket with feathers, or fill it up with sand, or fill it with jelly. It's going to look exactly the same from the outside, but feel so different!