Don't look as heavy as I weigh??

kanaada

I don't know but everyone says I don't look as heavy as I weigh which makes me wonder why is that so? I am overweight with a bmi of 23.5(following Asian bmi standard) but nobody believes me when I told them so. I researched on how muscles weigh more than fats but I don't think my muscles are so "heavy" to out me in the overweight category. So guys, have anyone said the same thing to you too?

FrothyGibblets

I'm incredibly tall which skews people's perceptions of how much I weigh as they forget to upscale everything. When they think of 400lbs + they think of the average height people you see on tv with mobility issues.

Some people are more fortunate in fat distribution or underlying muscle weight to not look as "bad" as their weight suggests. Also, I've just had to look up Asian BMI standard as I'd never heard of it before. Could it be, because you fall into the "healthy" range of standard BMI people have difficulty seeing that you're overweight in the Asian standard?

kommodevaran

People say so many strange things and many people don't know what normal healthy weight individuals look like and even less what healthy weight individuals weigh.

rugbyishy

I am extremely heavy but have friends who measurement wise are bigger but they are several stones lighter than me. I did do a measuring where u told muscle ratio, fat ratio. Have high fat ratio but also have very high muscle ratio to. It was interesting reading as it showed which areas are more muscly.

Oishii

From what I'd read before, it was only the Japanese who needed a separate BMI scale because poor health outcomes came at lower BMIs, but other Asians didn't have the same issues. Has there been more research or are people expanding the Japanese research to include all Asians? Or is this not research based?

I think the way we see excess weight can also be related to ethnic background and norms. A Korean pupil once heard me mention losing weight and said he bet I weighed 55kg, I guess because this is a typical, objectively fairly low weight, that teenagers he knew were trying to lose weight from, but I think I was nearer 65kg at the time.

AwesomeSquirrel

Most people are completely unable to estimate another person's weight. And most people are too polite to say "yeah you look it" if you tell them how much you weigh, or would never guess your weight (and tell you) without a margin of vanity, say less 5 kg or so.

Chef_Barbell

Maybe they're just being nice. This is a coddled society now a days.

jemhh

Many, possibly most, people are bad at guessing weights. Plus, do you mostly associate with other Asian people or are you hearing this from non-Asian people? Different cultures or backgrounds will view "heavy" or "light" differently.

olymp1a

Cultural backroung plays a big part on how people understand heavy / light weight. That being said I think most people are not able to estimate other people's weight.

krtbmt

Also, I think it depends on where your body stores fat and your height. Because you could find two woman that weigh exactly 200 lbs and they would probably look super different.

JenniferNoll

I hear it all the time, even from my doctors. It's crazy. I don't take it as a compliment anymore.

rcktgirl05

This is a great project I came across several years ago that shows people of the same height and weight, and how they look so different. I am 5'4" and weigh 184 as of this morning, and I think I look much different from the pictures of people my same weight. It's because I'm more muscular or just carry my fat differently I guess.

http://www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.html

tiptoethruthetulips

Why are you telling everyone what you weigh?

rcktgirl05

I was planning to post a pic to compare with the others in that link to show the difference in how weight looks but it was screwy.

ccjlgrider

I have some input on this actually, though I'm not sure if it is 100% accurate. It may give you something to google though. Here goes:

I have a Chinese daughter and I was looking up something about age of first period in Asians and whether it was different than Caucasians. That led to this whole interesting search of articles about growth and development in Asians and Caucasians. It seems that in Caucasians, 90-100 lbs is kind of a magic weight for when girls get their first period. So, I was trying to figure out if the same is true for Asians. (We are trying to guess at her height potential and have no family history on her. We adopted her as a baby.) What I read in my search is that Asians carry more fat as visceral fat around their organs that you can't see than Caucasians. Ours tends to be more visible. So, an Asian person who weighs 150# will look smaller than a Caucasian person weighing 150# who is the same height. So, I didn't know there was an Asian BMI chart but that makes sense. Visceral fat is more dangerous. So, it would make sense that Asians would want to stay at a lower BMI if what I read is true and accurate.

Hope this helps you some.

Alluminati

What does it matter in the long run? What matters is what YOU think of you. That being said, it could be a cultural thing, a context thing or body fat distribution thing.

AnnPT77

Yes. I even had a mini-argument with a medical professional once: I mentioned that I knew it would be healthier for me to lose weight, she said I wasn't overweight, and I told her to calculate my BMI (which was then just over the line into the obese range).

There can be lots of reasons for this. In my case, I speculate it had to do with weight distribution. While I wasn't extra muscle-y, I was very active. Therefore, I didn't have the sort of doughy appearance that many older, overweight women have. In addition, I have a very narrow-hipped bone structure, so the fat around my hips/thighs/waist didn't look like as much as it actually was.

For me, only my doctor's opinion mattered, and only my opinion drove the goal. Everything else was just chit-chat.

perhapsormaybe

I dress in a way that hides things so people who didn't know me before all the weight gain don't believe me that I'm overweight.

kshama2001

kanaada wrote: »

I don't know but everyone says I don't look as heavy as I weigh which makes me wonder why is that so? I am overweight with a bmi of 23.5(following Asian bmi standard) but nobody believes me when I told them so. I researched on how muscles weigh more than fats but I don't think my muscles are so "heavy" to out me in the overweight category. So guys, have anyone said the same thing to you too?

Yes, but then I have a large frame. If you have a medium frame and everyone around you has a small frame, this could be a consideration for you as well. http://www.myfooddiary.com/Resources/frame_size_calculator.asp

cwolfman13

kanaada wrote: »

I don't know but everyone says I don't look as heavy as I weigh which makes me wonder why is that so? I am overweight with a bmi of 23.5(following Asian bmi standard) but nobody believes me when I told them so. I researched on how muscles weigh more than fats but I don't think my muscles are so "heavy" to out me in the overweight category. So guys, have anyone said the same thing to you too?

You should also take a look at BF% and that will tell you if you're over fat or not. I was definitely over fat, but I didn't look 220 when I was...but I was still over fat and there were health implications that went along with that. I'm still over weight now per BMI @180, but I'm at a healthy 12% BF...most people don't think I look 180 Lbs either.

SLLRunner

Alluminati wrote: »

What does it matter in the long run? What matters is what YOU think of you. That being said, it could be a cultural thing, a context thing or body fat distribution thing.

This!

rcktgirl05

Here's another awesome gallery of real people. I found it fascinating to put my height and my goal pants size in the search and see how wildy the weights vary on people.
http://www.mybodygallery.com/