What Is Your BMI?

Pupslice

23.5

stacief82

22.1 I just hit my goal weight this morning, but I may shoot for another 5lbs-10lbs weightloss which would put me between 20 and 21. Lower than 20 and I may start looking sickly.

SafioraLinnea

29.4, which is down from 39.7. Goal is 23.

TeethOfTheHydra

I'm clocking in at 23, with a % body fat of 12.5. I have no doubt that my BMI was, at one time, well into the obese scale...

cforsyth617

22.6

STEVE142142

JJS1979 wrote: »

Here is my problem with the BMI, many people that are muscular look at it from that extreme of being low body fat percentage but high BMI. I tend to look at it from the opposite side of the scale. For instance, I am a 37 y/o male and I am 6ft even. My current weight is 176 which is in the healthy range. Now, according to the BMI scale, I can weigh as low as 137lbs and still be considered in a normal weight. To me, this is even more dangerous than the other end of the spectrum. How can a grown man at 6ft tall weigh under 140lbs and be considered healthy??

Bottom line, I don't use the BMI at all, I see how i feel, how i look, and monitor my Cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides and other metrics to determine health, not just one number. I know people use it as a base but i personally think it is useless.

This sums up BMI perfectly. I'm six foot four current weight is 208. I have a 42 inch chest and a 35 inch waist. According to BMI I'm overweight. For me to have a normal BMI my weight should be between 155 - 205 lb. If I were 155 pounds I'd be a walking skeleton.

Also if you look at the BMI index every guy in the NBA is overweight or obese. BMI is the worst thing you can go by.

richardpkennedy1

21.8

singingflutelady

KurumiSophia wrote: »

25.7 still fat af unfortunately

25.7 isn't fat af. It's only .7 overweight

sijomial

Maintaining at 24.8 - a bit high for when I'm a cyclist, a bit low for when I do weights.

It's my personal compromise.

AnvilHead

singingflutelady wrote: »

KurumiSophia wrote: »

25.7 still fat af unfortunately

25.7 isn't fat af. It's only .7 overweight

Depends on whether she's 18% bodyfat or 40% bodyfat at a BMI of 25.7.

BMI, in and of itself, tells nothing about fatness. There's certainly some level of correlation inferred, especially at either extreme, but as a whole it's not a reliable indicator of how much fat one is carrying. There are people with a normal/healthy BMI who carry sufficient levels of bodyfat to be labeled "metabolically obese, normal weight" (the slang term is "skinnyfat"), and there are people with an overweight BMI who are lean and carry a lot of muscle mass.

Skinnyfat (image borrowed from web):

singingflutelady

AnvilHead wrote: »

singingflutelady wrote: »

KurumiSophia wrote: »

25.7 still fat af unfortunately

25.7 isn't fat af. It's only .7 overweight

Depends on whether she's 18% bodyfat or 40% bodyfat at a BMI of 25.7.

BMI, in and of itself, tells nothing about fatness. There's certainly some level of correlation inferred, especially at either extreme, but as a whole it's not a reliable indicator of fatness.

I'm assuming she probably doesn't have a low bf% as she eats 1000 calories a day and doesn't eat her exercise calories so probably is losing a lot of muscle. It's more of the self loathing must punish herself attitude I'm responding to. Check out her posts. You'll see a pattern

Purplebunnysarah

STEVE142142 wrote: »

JJS1979 wrote: »

Here is my problem with the BMI, many people that are muscular look at it from that extreme of being low body fat percentage but high BMI. I tend to look at it from the opposite side of the scale. For instance, I am a 37 y/o male and I am 6ft even. My current weight is 176 which is in the healthy range. Now, according to the BMI scale, I can weigh as low as 137lbs and still be considered in a normal weight. To me, this is even more dangerous than the other end of the spectrum. How can a grown man at 6ft tall weigh under 140lbs and be considered healthy??

Bottom line, I don't use the BMI at all, I see how i feel, how i look, and monitor my Cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides and other metrics to determine health, not just one number. I know people use it as a base but i personally think it is useless.

This sums up BMI perfectly. I'm six foot four current weight is 208. I have a 42 inch chest and a 35 inch waist. According to BMI I'm overweight. For me to have a normal BMI my weight should be between 155 - 205 lb. If I were 155 pounds I'd be a walking skeleton.

Also if you look at the BMI index every guy in the NBA is overweight or obese. BMI is the worst thing you can go by.

BMI is only not useful if you are built like an NBA player though (basically). It is a fairly good correlation to %body fat for the average person.

Admittedly, the MFP user population probably is skewed from the average population just by the nature of this website where you have a much of very fit people trying to become more fit and also many people with obesity or overweight who are trying to get to a more healthy weight range. So there will be more 'special snowflakes' who fit outside the box here than in your average slice of the population.

That being said, my BMI is 33.5, down from 45.1 this time 2 years ago.

Mary90Mary

My bmi is about 24-25 so not overweight I used to be about 26. My bodyfat is probably 29-30%.

NadNight

17.6 and I'm skinny-fat

AnvilHead

STEVE142142 wrote: »

JJS1979 wrote: »

Here is my problem with the BMI, many people that are muscular look at it from that extreme of being low body fat percentage but high BMI. I tend to look at it from the opposite side of the scale. For instance, I am a 37 y/o male and I am 6ft even. My current weight is 176 which is in the healthy range. Now, according to the BMI scale, I can weigh as low as 137lbs and still be considered in a normal weight. To me, this is even more dangerous than the other end of the spectrum. How can a grown man at 6ft tall weigh under 140lbs and be considered healthy??

Bottom line, I don't use the BMI at all, I see how i feel, how i look, and monitor my Cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides and other metrics to determine health, not just one number. I know people use it as a base but i personally think it is useless.

This sums up BMI perfectly. I'm six foot four current weight is 208. I have a 42 inch chest and a 35 inch waist. According to BMI I'm overweight. For me to have a normal BMI my weight should be between 155 - 205 lb. If I were 155 pounds I'd be a walking skeleton.

Also if you look at the BMI index every guy in the NBA is overweight or obese. BMI is the worst thing you can go by.

1) That's why BMI is a range, to account for different builds. With that said:

2) The further from "average" you are, the more BMI starts skewing and becomes wonky. I'm 2" taller and 3 lbs. lighter than you with very similar measurements, presently at about 15-16% BF, and my BMI is 23.7 - on the high side of the "healthy" range. If I were anywhere near the bottom of that range (which would be 160 lbs for me), I'd look like a skeleton also (been there, done that - about 38 years ago in high school).

3) Although it's not officially "accepted" by any agency or organization AFAIK, the newer "Smart BMI Calculator" takes gender and age into consideration along with weight and height, and gives a somewhat more realistic picture IMO.


BMI is just a number. Its original intended use was to compare populations, not individuals. It was co-opted for individual use because it's a simple, non-invasive, easily calculated (albeit flawed) metric. It's definitely not perfect (or even optimal) for everybody, but it's at least somewhat useful as a loose guide - and the closer you are to "average" in height/build, the closer to useful it will be.

ada_desiree

Mine is 27....but I stopped caring after I realized I put on muscle very easily. I don't know my BF%, but I don't think I'm past 25%.