?? Big bones and BMI ??

shadowofender

-shrug- honestly I have no idea if there's truth or not. I'm a really big girl (at my heaviest well over 300lbs) and have always had tiny wrists and ankles. I can easily overlap fingers around my wrists. I know I have long fingers, though. BUt I also have always had wide shoulders, hips, etc. even when thin. Soooo I just ignore it. BMI is not so accurate, and I'd rather focus on factors like body fat percentage anyway.

freckledrats

When I was obese, I could not wrap my fingers around my wrist. I am overweight, and now I can wrap my fingers around with a tiny bit of overlap on my thumb and index, and barely touch on thumb and pinky.

So, yes, you can carry fat there. It's just a place on your body where there will be the LEAST fat, so it's easier to judge frame. That said, your skeleton is not very heavy no matter how extra dense it might be, so this isn't going to account for 30-50 extra pounds between one person and another of the same general size, sorry to disappoint.

At most, it MAY skew BMI a tiny bit upward, but to a fairly small degree. Muscular composition is going to affect it more than bone density, and this will MAINLY apply to serious body builders.

PlumpKitten

BMI is a range - and a pretty big range.

For a small woman like myself, the range is about 30 lbs. That more than accommodates different frames.
When most people say, "Oh, I just have big bones. I have big wrists. I was always naturally buxom," etc - it's just a justification. Even a larger natural frame does not put you out of a 30-lb range if you are otherwise slim and healthy.

For someone who is 6', the range of healthy BMIs is 45 lbs.

BMI works for just about everyone, with some rare exceptions, like Olympic weight lifters!

shabaity

BMI is a range - and a pretty big range.

For a small woman like myself, the range is about 30 lbs. That more than accommodates different frames.
When most people say, "Oh, I just have big bones. I have big wrists. I was always naturally buxom," etc - it's just a justification. Even a larger natural frame does not put you out of a 30-lb range if you are otherwise slim and healthy.

For someone who is 6', the range of healthy BMIs is 45 lbs.

BMI works for just about everyone, with some rare exceptions, like Olympic weight lifters!

BMI does not work for everyone. My doctor flat out told me to ignore it and aim for about 140-150 as a good weight for me 130 as the very lowest, I'm 5'1. This is due to multiple factors including having an odd genetic quirk that makes it easy for me to gain muscle, as well as, being natural strong for a female and being an excellent candidate for a breast reduction surgery. And I may be the largest I've ever been currently but I've been 140 my cleavage didn't go anywhere.

ExRelaySprinter

BMI works for just about everyone, with some rare exceptions, like Olympic weight lifters!

BMI works for "some", but doesn't work for most people.....especially if you are of a Muscular Frame or Big Boned.

WalkingAlong

BMI works for just about everyone, with some rare exceptions, like Olympic weight lifters!

BMI works for "some", but doesn't work for most people.....especially if you are of a Muscular Frame or Big Boned.

By definition, BMI is applicable to most people. It's based on norms and averages.

ExRelaySprinter

By definition, BMI is applicable to most people. It's based on norms and averages.
[/quote]

Well, my sister who is 5ft 5 and Big Boned is 170lbs (and looks great at this size). She has a BMI of 28 and would be classed as overweight .
Her BMI at 25 (which is what they say she should be at..... (at least!) is 150 lbs,......but she would look practically skeletal at that weight!
And i know many people like this.
We are Black also, and i don't think BMI takes that into consideration....as we are known to weigh heavier than White and Asian people.

Advaya

I have always been called big boned, my 7th grade science teacher used me as an example of someone who might need to worry less about osteoporosis! Uhh

I can't even begin to wrap my fingers around my wrists, there is at least a half inch gap. i can pinch the fat and still see that my bones are large.

But I don't know how accurate the wrist thing is in general, and I'm sure some people carry fat around their wrists.

My goal weight is 140, its the highest end of normal BMI. I'll see what I think when I get there, but someone at my height 5'2 could be 115 and normal weight, so I know my goal is high. But I honestly can't imagine how I'd look at 115.

lemurcat12

the wrist thing doesnt really make sense because it doesnt take finger length in account.

Heh, this is what I was thinking. I've always had pretty narrow wrists (I think, I've worn smaller sizes in watches and such) even when overweight, but the overlapping finger thing seems more related to the fact that I have long skinny fingers. I also have a difference (probably noticeable only to me, but still) between my left and right sides, which has to be related to muscle and my right arm being dominant and stronger.

So while I think for other reasons that I am average to small framed, I don't think the wrist test works.

lemurcat12

BMI works for just about everyone, with some rare exceptions, like Olympic weight lifters!

BMI works for "some", but doesn't work for most people.....especially if you are of a Muscular Frame or Big Boned.

By definition, BMI is applicable to most people. It's based on norms and averages.

Seems to work for women more than men, too, which would make sense given muscle development.

That said, if one is concerned that it doesn't fit them, body fat is better measure for an individual.

meshashesha2012

BMI works for just about everyone, with some rare exceptions, like Olympic weight lifters!

BMI works for "some", but doesn't work for most people.....especially if you are of a Muscular Frame or Big Boned.

By definition, BMI is applicable to most people. It's based on norms and averages.

Seems to work for women more than men, too, which would make sense given muscle development.

That said, if one is concerned that it doesn't fit them, body fat is better measure for an individual.

if i'm not mistaken BMI charts were created in the 19th century for white people. back then there were no female athletes for the most part. it also didnt take into account different ethnicities (for instance black and latina women tend to have less risk of osteoporosis than white and asian women because of differences in bone density).

in any case, even if all things were equal, more girls now, thank the gods, are involved in athletics which is going to mean more lean body mass. i dont know if the more updated charts look take those things into account. but generally speaking i dont think people who are legitimately overweight need a chart to tell them they could lose a few lbs :laugh:

elizabethroyce10

Dont freak / it is okay! I like the other comments here for the most part. I have always been big / heavy boned. At my thinnest I weighed in at 150... and was a size 5.... Im 5 9" . It is just the way im built . It used to bother me as a younger woman but i have learned to love me the way i am. I am just bigger than most women and some men even... no one will mess with me :0

newdaydawning79

I have super-dense bones and a large bone structure - to the point where I've been told by more than one doctor that I will be lucky to ever be below a size 14 and shouldn't get below 180. 180 puts my BMI even as a large-framed woman as overweight.

zetodd

such a serious thread. BMI is a measure of population not individuals.
and

lemurcat12

BMI works for just about everyone, with some rare exceptions, like Olympic weight lifters!

BMI works for "some", but doesn't work for most people.....especially if you are of a Muscular Frame or Big Boned.

By definition, BMI is applicable to most people. It's based on norms and averages.

Seems to work for women more than men, too, which would make sense given muscle development.

That said, if one is concerned that it doesn't fit them, body fat is better measure for an individual.

if i'm not mistaken BMI charts were created in the 19th century for white people. back then there were no female athletes for the most part. it also didnt take into account different ethnicities (for instance black and latina women tend to have less risk of osteoporosis than white and asian women because of differences in bone density).

in any case, even if all things were equal, more girls now, thank the gods, are involved in athletics which is going to mean more lean body mass. i dont know if the more updated charts look take those things into account. but generally speaking i dont think people who are legitimately overweight need a chart to tell them they could lose a few lbs :laugh:

There's some chart floating around that compares the distribution of body fat and bmi and seems to indicate that it's FAR more likely that bmi under reports rather than over reports overweight for women. In other words, that you are much more likely to have too much body fat at an okay bmi than the other way around. I'll try to find it.

Anyway, doesn't mean there aren't outliers, which is why individuals need to look at themselves and go to body fat if they think it doesn't fit them, as I said. But the belief by some that it's likely to not fit most people or widely overstate the overweight or obesity rate due to muscle mass for the average person seems to me to be quite wrong.

Now, could it not fit specific groups as well as others, because it primarily used a white population pool (or majority white) and there are differences between populations? Certainly possible, but that's a different question. I do know that the bmi skews high for certain Asian populations so it certainly could skew the other way for other groups.

BinaryPulsar

Big bones or small bones usually refers to frame size. Your frame size partially determines weight. I'm petite and small framed. I have smaller internal organs because I'm short with a small rib cage and waist. And less space in the body for fat and muscle (to some degree). My bones are slightly smaller than average. Like a child has smaller bones than an adult for example. My ten year old daughter is almost bigger than me (but of course I have a more curvy/womanly shape).

It's just one factor. There are many other factors and variations.

Anahita_Swims

my doctor a slight asian woman said my bmi says I'm morbidly obsess and need to loose 56 this would put me at 136 which would be healthy at most people

however I sort of disagree when i was 16 had bulimic tendencies at my skinniest i was about 150lbs which is what I'm aiming for again 14lbs less would look drastic on me i feel

Sued0nim

This is how you check frame size

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/17182.htm

kelly_e_montana

I agree the "wrist measurement" is not valid. "Big boned" is more of a euphemism for someone with a higher than average fat free mass (FFM). FFM includes everything that is not fat--bones, muscles, organs, etc.

The range of FFM levels for females at any given height can range over 30-35 pounds, which means the range of what can be considered an "ideal" weight is even larger.

The best way to determine an "ideal weight" is to assess body fat. From that number you can estimate FFM. With FFM, you determine your target BF% and add that to FFM and you have a decent target weight goal.

I don't think we need to "epheumize" Fat Free Mass.I'm 172 with 129 pounds of fat free mass (25% BF). I'm proud to have all the muscle I worked hard for and I don't need it attributed to my bones. That being said, I also have a large wrist, but that has nothing to do with my muscle. That's genetics and hard work, not bones.

I totally agree with you on the fat % target though and using that to get your ideal weight. At my ideal of all ideal weights, I will be 155, and still overweight according to BMI, yet 20% BF.

lemurcat12

Here's the BMI study I was talking about. I found it interesting.

Www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2877506/

janeypoosandbob

18 months ago I had a wrist measurement of 6" and BMI of 15
Now I have a 7" wrist and 25 BMI so I don't really take much notice of wrist measurements as I feel for that much difference on the BMI scale 1" difference isn't a lot at all.
I'm 5'4" and consider myself to be big boned because even at my lowest weight my frame although very skinny and all bone I was still quite broad unfortunately.

BinaryPulsar

Frame size is not determined by wrist size. It is your skeleton (shoulders/ribs/waist, etc. Pelvis, but that is also influenced by glute size). I have lowish bodyfat, so it's easy to measure my frame size.

kristijohnson1

I found this on another thread that was talking about frame size. It uses real wrist measurements. I may be a freak. I am 355 but I still have relatively boney wrists so I am pretty confident I got an accurate assessment as Large Boned. Really more of a confirmation of information back before I put all the weight on.

https://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/fsz

kristijohnson1

deleted

susannamarie

There's some chart floating around that compares the distribution of body fat and bmi and seems to indicate that it's FAR more likely that bmi under reports rather than over reports overweight for women. In other words, that you are much more likely to have too much body fat at an okay bmi than the other way around. I'll try to find it.

Anyway, doesn't mean there aren't outliers, which is why individuals need to look at themselves and go to body fat if they think it doesn't fit them, as I said. But the belief by some that it's likely to not fit most people or widely overstate the overweight or obesity rate due to muscle mass for the average person seems to me to be quite wrong.

Now, could it not fit specific groups as well as others, because it primarily used a white population pool (or majority white) and there are differences between populations? Certainly possible, but that's a different question. I do know that the bmi skews high for certain Asian populations so it certainly could skew the other way for other groups.

Exactly what I was coming in to write.

If you're very overweight (bmi 40 or so) don't worry about whether your goal would give you a bmi of 27 or even 30. Get there first and then decide if you need to lose more.

kristijohnson1

18 months ago I had a wrist measurement of 6" and BMI of 15
Now I have a 7" wrist and 25 BMI so I don't really take much notice of wrist measurements as I feel for that much difference on the BMI scale 1" difference isn't a lot at all.
I'm 5'4" and consider myself to be big boned because even at my lowest weight my frame although very skinny and all bone I was still quite broad unfortunately.

I hear ya! Even back before I put on the weight, I still wore pants 6 sizes larger than the other girls in school because of the way I am built under the fat. Of course I didn't understand that then and "hate ate" myself up to 362 lbs.

_Terrapin_

OP--hopefully you got your questions answered 3 years ago when you started this thread.

pkw58

I have been classified as big boned by 2 physicians. My bone density is near the top of the charts for a woman of my height (5'8") and because of that I can weigh more and look good. Supposed to be somewhere around 145-150 and I can pull off 175-180 and look fabulous!

As for the BMI, I was told that because of my build the "standard" would not really apply to me because they're based on someone of average structure. I'm far from average (on many other levels too :bigsmile: ) and after getting my second opinion that also said not to go by those numbers, but rather weight and/or clothing size I started to listen.

So, I'll never be a size 0 or a size 6...just glad to be healthy again!

Hey! I am your same height with small bones! Confirmed by doctors... bone structure really does matter! My ideal weight range is 125-135...

Graelwyn75

I always thought I was fairly large boned because I have quite broad shoulders and hips (hips will not go below 34" or so), but my weight has never gone over 150(I am 5'10), and it only hit that high because I had undiagnosed hypothyroidism. I look pretty flabby at that weight, actually, my natural setpoint weight being 140 or so since I reached my full height at 14.

BinaryPulsar

OP--hopefully you got your questions answered 3 years ago when you started this thread.

We know. This is a talkedy topic regardless.