SmartBMI

icemom011

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

you can be short but large framed, your heigh doesn't matter in terms of frame size. Frame size is related to basically how thick your skeleton is (that is an oversimplification but yeah). Turns out there is something to being "big boned".

I'm a 6' tall man. I have a small frame (light narrow bones). Because I have a small frame I'm actually lean at about 150 pounds which for a large framed 6' tall man would basically be dead from starvation.

BMI is calculated just by dividing your Weight by your Height (thats it) and as such BMI makes some assumptions. It assumes you have the average frame and the average amount of muscle. If you have a large frame and a lot of muscle your BMI might be 27 even though you are in excellent shape simply because your extra muscle and heavier frame makes you weigh more than average for your height.

I am small framed and probably have lower muscle than average (partly as a result) and so a BMI of 24 for me is probably still overweight even though its in the "healthy weight" category of the BMI scale.

A simple way of getting an idea of your frame size is to do this:

Take your thumb and middle finger and attempt to wrap them around your wrist at its narrowest point (assuming you don't have a lot of fat on your wrist and can actually feel the bone). If your fingers touch barely you have an average frame. If your fingers overlap you have a small frame. If your fingers don't touch at all you have a larger frame. Basically you are trying to measure the girth of your bones where your bone is most of the diameter of that part of your body (which is why its measured at your wrist which is basically just bone).

If I do that I can put my thumb completely over the nail of my middle finger.

Your sistem of reference is flawed too. I'm 5'7" and large frame, but my fingers are long. So i too, can overlap my tumb nail over my middle finger while wrapping around the wrist.

DebSozo

marissafit06 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

mitch16 wrote: »

My BMI is 22.4--solidly in the middle of the normal range. I agree that BMI is a bad indicator, especially without the added context of frame size and lean/fat mass, but I entered my data anyways because I'm (as much as I hate to admit it) getting older. Still 22.4 as a SmartBMI, but I'm not a fan of this statement it made in the interpretation:

"Your current reduction diet

Your weight is below average: Do you really need this diet?"

So--just because I'm below average I shouldn't be trying to lose weight/become fitter? Does it matter that the average has been creeping up over time because more people are obese than ever? Hmmm.

Yeah, it made the same comment to me, and I wasn't impressed either. My BMI is about 21 right now and apparently I'm lucky that I don't need to work at weight loss nor do I need to pay any attention to my diet. I guess I can just let myself go.


Oh, and with that wrist measurement thing ... each one of my fingers overlaps with my thumb, some by quite a bit. As it happens I have tiny little wrists and very long fingers. My wrists are so small, I can still wear a bracelet I was given at some point prior to turning 6 years old. But I certainly wouldn't say I've got an ultra-small frame ... it's probably "medium", whatever that is.

You wrist measurement is just one data point. Elbow breadth is also an indication of frame size.

https://www.myfooddiary.com/resources/frame_size_calculator.asp

Interesting. I put in my wrist (6.75 in) and elbow method (3.25 in). The answer came back: "The wrist and elbow methods agree that you have a broad body frame." No surprise there.

I'm going to keep plugging along, aiming for middle range BMI, and try to keep up muscle mass. I used to want to have a smaller frame, but that can't be changed, unlike weight.

ETA: The BMI calculation for the www.myfooddiary.com gave the same result that the Smart BMI website did. So I personally didn't see any adjusting differences for Smart BMI.

DebSozo

icemom011 wrote: »

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

you can be short but large framed, your heigh doesn't matter in terms of frame size. Frame size is related to basically how thick your skeleton is (that is an oversimplification but yeah). Turns out there is something to being "big boned".

I'm a 6' tall man. I have a small frame (light narrow bones). Because I have a small frame I'm actually lean at about 150 pounds which for a large framed 6' tall man would basically be dead from starvation.

BMI is calculated just by dividing your Weight by your Height (thats it) and as such BMI makes some assumptions. It assumes you have the average frame and the average amount of muscle. If you have a large frame and a lot of muscle your BMI might be 27 even though you are in excellent shape simply because your extra muscle and heavier frame makes you weigh more than average for your height.

I am small framed and probably have lower muscle than average (partly as a result) and so a BMI of 24 for me is probably still overweight even though its in the "healthy weight" category of the BMI scale.

A simple way of getting an idea of your frame size is to do this:

Take your thumb and middle finger and attempt to wrap them around your wrist at its narrowest point (assuming you don't have a lot of fat on your wrist and can actually feel the bone). If your fingers touch barely you have an average frame. If your fingers overlap you have a small frame. If your fingers don't touch at all you have a larger frame. Basically you are trying to measure the girth of your bones where your bone is most of the diameter of that part of your body (which is why its measured at your wrist which is basically just bone).

If I do that I can put my thumb completely over the nail of my middle finger.

Your sistem of reference is flawed too. I'm 5'7" and large frame, but my fingers are long. So i too, can overlap my tumb nail over my middle finger while wrapping around the wrist.

Have you tried measuring wrist with a tape measure? What is your circumference?

Machka9

DebSozo wrote: »

marissafit06 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

mitch16 wrote: »

My BMI is 22.4--solidly in the middle of the normal range. I agree that BMI is a bad indicator, especially without the added context of frame size and lean/fat mass, but I entered my data anyways because I'm (as much as I hate to admit it) getting older. Still 22.4 as a SmartBMI, but I'm not a fan of this statement it made in the interpretation:

"Your current reduction diet

Your weight is below average: Do you really need this diet?"

So--just because I'm below average I shouldn't be trying to lose weight/become fitter? Does it matter that the average has been creeping up over time because more people are obese than ever? Hmmm.

Yeah, it made the same comment to me, and I wasn't impressed either. My BMI is about 21 right now and apparently I'm lucky that I don't need to work at weight loss nor do I need to pay any attention to my diet. I guess I can just let myself go.


Oh, and with that wrist measurement thing ... each one of my fingers overlaps with my thumb, some by quite a bit. As it happens I have tiny little wrists and very long fingers. My wrists are so small, I can still wear a bracelet I was given at some point prior to turning 6 years old. But I certainly wouldn't say I've got an ultra-small frame ... it's probably "medium", whatever that is.

You wrist measurement is just one data point. Elbow breadth is also an indication of frame size.

https://www.myfooddiary.com/resources/frame_size_calculator.asp

Interesting. I put in my wrist (6.75 in) and elbow method (3.25 in). The answer came back: "The wrist and elbow methods agree that you have a broad body frame." No surprise there.

I'm going to keep plugging along, aiming for middle range BMI, and try to keep up muscle mass. I used to want to have a smaller frame, but that can't be changed, unlike weight.

ETA: The BMI calculation for the www.myfooddiary.com gave the same result that the Smart BMI website did. So I personally didn't see any adjusting differences for Smart BMI.

OK, I did it and got this message:

"Unfortunately, the wrist and elbow methods do not agree with each other. The wrist method says that you have a thin body frame while the elbow method says that you have a medium body frame."

I would agree that I've got a medium frame ... and that my wrists are tiny.