PSA: BMI Categories

taso42
taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
in Chit-Chat
Seems there was some miscommunication and hurt feelings on the boards today. Just a friendly reminder: The following are the BMI Categories. These are designations based on height and weight. BMI is not an opinion, a judgement, or name-calling. It's just an index.

< 15: Very severely underweight
15.0 to 16.0: Severely underweight
16.0 to 18.5: Underweight
18.5 to 25: Normal (healthy weight)
25 to 30: Overweight
30 to 35: Obese Class I (Moderately obese)
35 to 40: Obese Class II (Severely obese)
> 40: Obese Class III (Very severely obese)

P.S, I notice that I've recently tipped into the Overweight category, from Normal. I'll consider it a NSV! (All that lifting and eating paying off!)
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Replies

  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member
    27.8! High score!
  • Nessiechickie
    Nessiechickie Posts: 1,392 Member
    20.7 hurray!
  • Feisty_Red
    Feisty_Red Posts: 982 Member
    You called me a bad...bad...name.

    Reported.
  • Jonesie1984
    Jonesie1984 Posts: 612 Member
    I'm on the last possible point in normal. haha.. funny. I was at this same point last year with a BF% of 20.3
    FATTY!!!

    I got into an arguement with the physician who scanned me last you for BF reading him telling me I was an athletic body fat but he insisted I lose weight because I weighed too many pounds.. go figure. haha Someone educate these "wellness" doctors that if I way more pounds but have less fat I'm probably athletic
  • sarantonio
    sarantonio Posts: 880 Member
    Hey! I'm 25.8! Woot! Haven't checked that thing in a while...
  • lacurandera1
    lacurandera1 Posts: 8,083 Member


    P.S, I notice that I've recently tipped into the Overweight category. I'll consider it a NSV!

    Seems like you could use this to your advantage! Next time someone gets butt hurt bc a dude with muscles referred to them being overweight while giving them advice, you can say "hey! I'm overweight, too! It's ok! We're all in the same struggle here!"
  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member

    P.S, I notice that I've recently tipped into the Overweight category. I'll consider it a NSV!

    Congratulations. :smile:

    Anyone who wants to call themselves a power lifter, or bodybuilder would probably rather be in the overweight, or the obese category on the BMI scale.

    When I talked to a nutritionist, and she asked what my goal weight was, and why I had it, she told me not to shoot so low, but that it would be an "unhealthy" goal. (It would have put me at a BMI of 25.)
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
    25.1

    So. Damn. Close. I. Can. Taste. It.
  • 1ConcreteGirl
    1ConcreteGirl Posts: 3,677 Member
    Yay, I am finally normal in one way!!!

    Thanks for this helpful information, Taso. You are very encouraging and supportive.
  • sarantonio
    sarantonio Posts: 880 Member
    25.1

    So. Damn. Close. I. Can. Taste. It.


    Cut your hair and clip your toenails...
  • _noob_
    _noob_ Posts: 3,306 Member
    SWEET...only moderately obese...
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
    My 22.9 is overweight. I assure you.
  • DontStopB_Leakin
    DontStopB_Leakin Posts: 3,863 Member
    22.1


    Yippy.
  • jmc0806
    jmc0806 Posts: 1,444 Member
    almost normal...
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
    25.1

    So. Damn. Close. I. Can. Taste. It.


    Cut your hair and clip your toenails...

    I already have a shaved head :sad:

    Though I guess I could shave all my body hair. That has to be good for at least five pounds...
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
    And by generally disliked, I mean no one dislikes.

    BQF9huh.jpg
  • EatClean_WashUrNuts
    EatClean_WashUrNuts Posts: 1,590 Member
    Awe maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. Whatever
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,025 Member
    40.5. Very seriously obese. :cry:
  • firstsip
    firstsip Posts: 8,399 Member
    DAMN, I MISS EVERYTHING.
  • Alex_is_Hawks
    Alex_is_Hawks Posts: 3,499 Member
    as one who started in Obese class III (and was shocked I even FIT on the table whatsoever) and is now merely obese so close .....so so close to tipping into overweight...

    I thank you....this is awesome.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    30.1 What are you calling me obese!! :sad: :sad:

    On another note, the BMI is averaged over a large group of people and should not generally be used for an individual as your muscle mass and bone structure could be above or below average.
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
    30.1 What are you calling me obese!! :sad: :sad:

    On another note, the BMI is averaged over a large group of people and should not generally be used for an individual as your muscle mass and bone structure could be above or below average.

    This is an important point. Even when I nudge under that magic 25 number, my body fat will still class me as abdominal obese, unless I miraculously lose two inches off my waist in the next week.
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,025 Member
    30.1 What are you calling me obese!! :sad: :sad:

    On another note, the BMI is averaged over a large group of people and should not generally be used for an individual as your muscle mass and bone structure could be above or below average.

    You mean that my BMI doesnt make me one of the fattest people on the planet?!?!
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member

    P.S, I notice that I've recently tipped into the Overweight category. I'll consider it a NSV!

    Congratulations. :smile:

    Anyone who wants to call themselves a power lifter, or bodybuilder would probably rather be in the overweight, or the obese category on the BMI scale.

    Maybe not for women. I'm pretty heavy for a woman and still within healthy BMI.
  • SmartAlec03211988
    SmartAlec03211988 Posts: 1,896 Member
    25.0 exactly.

    At my goal weight I'll be 24.4.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    25.1

    So. Damn. Close. I. Can. Taste. It.

    24.9 BMI - 22% body fat

    So. Damn. Close. I. Can. Taste. It.

    (ultimate long term goal: overweight BMI with 20% or less body fat)
  • sz8soon
    sz8soon Posts: 816 Member
    This is incredibly divisive. No one needs to conform to your way of thinking... oh wait. :blushing:

    I'm fat. obese, stout, overweight, heavy, plump, rotund, corpulent, portly, well-fed, chubby, podgy or pudgy, roly-poly, tubby, bulky, fleshy, paunchy, pot-bellied, overfed, flabby, elephantine, broad in the beam, beamy, beefy...

    Thing is-- I didn't need a BMI table, a mirror or a scale to tell me this and I don't need it to define me. I can't hide it, it's who I am- no sense in denying it. I'm here to get muscles, fit, lean, buff, built, stacked, whatever you want to call it. Imma gonna be a healthy bish, instead of a fat one when I'm done.
  • taylor0204
    taylor0204 Posts: 357 Member
    Mine is 25.7 ......so that makes me part normal and close to overweight.....I need to drop the .7
  • NobodyInParticular
    NobodyInParticular Posts: 352 Member
    25.4 Like a boss
  • etoiles_argentees
    etoiles_argentees Posts: 2,827 Member
    BMI is useless when determining what's attractive in an individual. BMI is for tracking a large population to determine where the $ go. We've done this. bmi-s-inacuracy-leads-to-the-epidemias-s-underesti?hl=BMI+determines%23posts-7811663">http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/555058-obesity-bmi-s-inacuracy-leads-to-the-epidemias-s-underesti?hl=BMI+determines#posts-7811663


    Who Was Behind the Redefinition of "Obese"

    In 1997 a front-page exposé in the Newark Star-Ledger noted:
    "Eight of the nine members of the National Institutes of Health task force on prevention and treatment of obesity have ties to the weight-loss industry, either as consultants to pharmaceutical companies, recipients of research money from them, or advisers to for-profit groups such as Weight Watchers."

    Case Western Reserve University professor Paul Ernsberger describes how financially conflicted researchers control the government’s pronouncements on obesity:

    "Medical beliefs about obesity are shaped by expert panels that are highly selective in the data they consider. Experts included on government consensus panels have been disproportionately drawn from the ranks of diet clinic directors, which might explain the congruence between panel recommendations and the economic interests of the diet industry. In short, economic factors encourage a systematic exaggeration of the health risks of obesity."

    Many of America’s most influential obesity experts receive significant financial support from the $46 billion weight-loss industry. These experts help drive obesity hype by churning out a steady stream of studies, alarmist public pronouncements, and treatment guidelines.

    The notion that 65 percent of Americans are overweight or obese derives in part from a 1998 decision to redefine "overweight," which cast more than 35 million Americans into that category. This decision was made by a National Institutes of Health obesity panel chaired by Xavier Pi-Sunyer, one of the most influential obesity researchers in the country.

    Over the years, Pi-Sunyer has received support from virtually every leading weight-loss company, including Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Ortho-McNeil, Wyeth-Ayerst, Knoll, Weight Watchers, and Roche. He has served on the advisory boards of Wyeth-Ayerst, Knoll, Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, and McNeil Nutritionals. He once headed up the Weight Watchers Foundation and is currently a board member of that organization. Pi-Sunyer gave the "obesity overview" presentation on behalf of Knoll, maker of the weight-loss drug Meridia, at a 1996 FDA advisory panel hearing on the drug. He has also been paid to sign his name to ghost-written journal articles used to promote the dangerous weight-loss combination known as "fen-phen."

    Xavier Pi-Sunyer is an advisory council member of the American Obesity Association, which is best described as the lobbying arm of the weight-loss industry and is examined in greater detail later in this report. He is the former president of the pharmaceutical industry–funded North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO is also examined later in this report) and heads a NAASO-affiliated research institute that is also supported by the weight-loss industry. He has influenced international obesity policy through his membership in the pharmaceutical industry– funded International Obesity Task Force, which plays a key role in determining policy for the World Health Organization.

    Pi-Sunyer has chaired the National Institutes of Health Task Force on the Treatment of Obesity since 1995, when he also led the industry-funded NAASO. In 1998, when his NIH panel redefined the official standard for "overweight," he served as editor of NAASO’s journal, Obesity Research.

    In addition to Pi-Sunyer, the 1998 NIH panel included a number of other financially conflicted researchers, such as Claude Bouchard, Graham Colditz, and Shiriki Kumanyika, each of whom is profiled later in this report.

    The decision to redefine "overweight" was a big boost to the diet drug industry. In April 2005 The New York Times reported: "[M]any drug industry analysts see a potentially even bigger market if such a drug also catches on among the more than 60 percent of adults in this country who are statistically overweight, those with a body mass index of 25 or more."

    The weight-loss industry appears to appreciate the flawed BMI standard. In 2001, Roche, maker of the weight-loss pill Xenical, promised a donation to NAASO for every individual screened during "BMI Awareness Week." In 2005, the American Cancer Society ran an event called the "Great American Weigh In" at Weight Watchers.

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