The Asian BMI is the WORST

bear2303

I've lost a fair amount of weight (over 40 lbs) and am now pretty firmly in the "Normal" range for BMI, the "normal" BMI that is. Not the one that is geared specifically towards asians (which I am) UGH in order to be "normal" i need to lose at least another 8 pounds and to be firmly in the "normal" category I need to lose almost 20 more lbs!

I'm a size 4 in pants and I've literally never been this small as an adult and its soooo frustrating that I'm still considered "overweight" on the asian BMI.

I feel really good at my current size and I know it shouldn't matter what one little metric is but it's really getting me down. It just makes it feel like it's never enough.

tcunbeliever

Wow...I'm above a healthy range on that too...bummer...I have 3 lbs to lose just to barely drop into the healthy range...not asian, but also a size 3/4!

Go_Deskercise

Also a size 4 and overweight according to Asian BMI .... crazy

RelCanonical

That visceral fat be chillin' and killin'. Looks better on the outside, worse than subcutaneous on the inside.

MikePTY

Do you know your body fat percentage? The reason why there is an "Asian BMI" is because as a general rule, Asians tend to have higher amount of body fat at a lower weight than Caucasians. However like all else BMI related, that is a generalization, and may not be true in your case. It's not "I am Asian so I need to use Asian BMI." If your body fat percentage is in a good place, you don't need to qualify the BMI off of your ethnicity. If you do end up with the higher body fat percentage, then you can evaluate trying to lose some more weight.

GaryRuns

I'd second finding out your body fat percentage. That's really what matters. Find a place to get a DEXA scan or give you a dunk test.

bear2303

MikePTY wrote: »

Do you know your body fat percentage? The reason why there is an "Asian BMI" is because as a general rule, Asians tend to have higher amount of body fat at a lower weight than Caucasians. However like all else BMI related, that is a generalization, and may not be true in your case. It's not "I am Asian so I need to use Asian BMI." If your body fat percentage is in a good place, you don't need to qualify the BMI off of your ethnicity. If you do end up with the higher body fat percentage, then you can evaluate trying to lose some more weight.

I don't know it. Maybe i should look in to that. I know my local grocery store has a machine that like runs a pulse through your body but I'm not sure how accurate those are. You're right, body fat percentage is probably a better metric to go off of

tirowow12385

Had to google if this was real lol, yay i can lose more weight.

PAV8888

Unfortunately, your local grocery store machine's BIA measurement is extremely unlikely to be accurate for anything beyond "entertainment purposes".

poisonesse

Many gyms have the equipment to test body fat for you, or ask your doctor, he might be able to as well.

ElizabethKalmbach

Hey! I totally casual-stalk your posts in the forums because we're similar in height and I'm half Asian. You've managed to get into normal BMI range and that's awesome. Life doesn't stop when you hit maintenance, and even maintenance can change over time. Take a break and savor your accomplishment! You'll hopefully keep maintaining for YEARS, so when you feel "unchallenged" maintaining at *this* weight, a few years down the road, you can go back into deficit for a while and drop down a little more.

I *do* think you should take MikePTY's suggestion and have an *accurate* body fat assessment done, as that will tell you a lot more about your health and fitness level than a generic BMI.

With my frame size and build, I find that using the Asian BMI would be extremely unhealthy for me. At the top end of *normal* BMI, I am 18% body fat, which is the *athletic* range. I currently need to lose about 12 pounds to get down to 145, and lose my spare bicycle tire, but if I drop enough weight to get down to the 130 that is theoretically the "ideal weight" for my frame size at 5'4, my period stops which is WAY LESS HEALTHY than walking around at a BMI of 26 or 27, knowing full well that my body fat % is well within the healthy range.

Take a break and be proud of yourself. If you can't get the Asian BMI out of your head, get some other health markers assessed and talk to your doctor about whether or not you should even WORRY about it. My doctor doesn't even want me to worry about REGULAR BMI, much less the Asian one.

mom23mangos

I agree with the above^. I am not genetically Asian, but I have the same build and bird-like bones. What I've noticed is that the reason most Asians fall on the lighter side of the BMI scale is because most lack muscle mass. In opposite of Elizabeth above, I spent a good portion of my life either slightly underweight or right on the cusp with no Dr's ever being concerned. If you've been overweight for a long time, you've built up muscle mass to compensate for carrying around that extra weight. BMI is all well and good, but an accurate BF measure is much more useful to an individual.

ElizabethKalmbach

Also, I don't know that Asian BMI will necessarily help you, if you're North American Melting Pot Asian, like many of my friends... Even the WHO doesn't have enough data to make an easy or decisive call.

https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/bmi_asia_strategies.pdf

bear2303

ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »

Hey! I totally casual-stalk your posts in the forums because we're similar in height and I'm half Asian. You've managed to get into normal BMI range and that's awesome. Life doesn't stop when you hit maintenance, and even maintenance can change over time. Take a break and savor your accomplishment! You'll hopefully keep maintaining for YEARS, so when you feel "unchallenged" maintaining at *this* weight, a few years down the road, you can go back into deficit for a while and drop down a little more.

I *do* think you should take MikePTY's suggestion and have an *accurate* body fat assessment done, as that will tell you a lot more about your health and fitness level than a generic BMI.

With my frame size and build, I find that using the Asian BMI would be extremely unhealthy for me. At the top end of *normal* BMI, I am 18% body fat, which is the *athletic* range. I currently need to lose about 12 pounds to get down to 145, and lose my spare bicycle tire, but if I drop enough weight to get down to the 130 that is theoretically the "ideal weight" for my frame size at 5'4, my period stops which is WAY LESS HEALTHY than walking around at a BMI of 26 or 27, knowing full well that my body fat % is well within the healthy range.

Take a break and be proud of yourself. If you can't get the Asian BMI out of your head, get some other health markers assessed and talk to your doctor about whether or not you should even WORRY about it. My doctor doesn't even want me to worry about REGULAR BMI, much less the Asian one.

This is incredibly helpful, the link you posted too is also very helpful. I am 100% Japanese which on the article you posted actually has a slighter higher range for "healthy" BMI so that is very good to know. My doctor has never shown concern as my numbers (cholesterol, BP, Heart Rate etc) are now good but i've never done a body fat analysis. If those numbers are good maybe i can drop my whole fixation on trying to get to a certain number.

ElizabethKalmbach

5'4, 157#, BMI 26.8.

Also, half Japanese. *fist bump*

I would avoid using the bio-electric impedance tests you get from the scale or the drug store. My scale just told me that I am 38.6% body fat, which is probably not even close to accurate. I have a DXA scan tomorrow that should give me a much, much more accurate number and other data to work with.

I still have 12 lbs I want to lose, and I will *never* be done working on me, but I'm really not worried that I'm likely to have heart disease or diabetes just because my BMI is outside the "healthy" range.

GaryRuns

bear2303 wrote: »

MikePTY wrote: »

Do you know your body fat percentage? The reason why there is an "Asian BMI" is because as a general rule, Asians tend to have higher amount of body fat at a lower weight than Caucasians. However like all else BMI related, that is a generalization, and may not be true in your case. It's not "I am Asian so I need to use Asian BMI." If your body fat percentage is in a good place, you don't need to qualify the BMI off of your ethnicity. If you do end up with the higher body fat percentage, then you can evaluate trying to lose some more weight.

I don't know it. Maybe i should look in to that. I know my local grocery store has a machine that like runs a pulse through your body but I'm not sure how accurate those are. You're right, body fat percentage is probably a better metric to go off of

That's called bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) and it's not very accurate. The only truly accurate way to get your body fat percentage is via a DXA (or DEXA) scan (there's a franchise called DEXAfit in a lot of major cities where you can have it done), or via a dunk test where they weigh you while submerged in water and while not submerged and the difference tells them how much fat you have. Even those can suffer inaccuracies, but they'd give you a much better idea of your body composition than BMI.

And be sure you search the web for places to get a DXA scan in your area. DEXAfit seems to be the most widespread but also one of the most expensive.