Do you take note of bmi?

brightlightkatie

I am very muscular, I have quite strong thighs, abs and arms cause of dancing for so many years. I know that even without bmi I am overweight (I'm 5"7 and 173lbs) but my bmi says I need to be 159 to be in the 'healthy category'. It also says I can go down to 118 before I'm overweight !

I'm not being funny here but if I was 118 at my height I would keel over I think !!!

So my question is... is bmi really THAT much of a bible to go by?

Do you take note of your BMI if you know you have more muscle?

lotusfromthemud

BMI is a very flawed tool. Many world class athletes skew towards the "obese" end of the BMI scale, and are, of course, not obese.

If you have the means, you might want to get your body fat % checked (a lot of gyms have the means to do this with some accuracy). This is a much better way to set a goal weight, or better yet a goal body fat %.

stylistchik

I think right on the bmi calculator it doesn't account for very muscular athletes or pregnant women so, no. It will be easier for you to measure yourself than to weigh yourself.

thirtyby40

I think it is just a basic guideline. My husbands says he needs to lose 20 pounds to be "healthy" but he is muscular and looks perfect to me! Hip to waist ratio is more important the way I understand it.

arewethereyet

I don't use any...... but if you want a good calc for BMI this one uses pants size along with other info

http://www.webmd.com/diet/calc-bmi-plus

arewethereyet

OH and here is my little unexpected experiment:
I was working with a trainer 3x week for 2 months. I took pictures.
Stopped working with the trainer and for some damn reason stopped working out altogether for 4 months
Same weight, same sized pants
took a picture to compare and is was like night and day.
my tummy was puffy and like fluff..............my legs much more jiggly.

So here I was at 132-134 with two different fat contents to my body.

I would NOT be even looking at BMI if I were you

bjberry

For your weight and height, Healthy is: 118.1 - 159.6 lbs. That way, a muscular person fits into the healthy range as easily as a non-muscular person. It is a very general guideline (which successfully scared me into re-starting this current weight loss--I was too close to 30 BMI, or Obese.)
All the above suggestions for a more precise fat measurement are very good, BMI is just there to get you thinking.
Have fun dancing! BJB

jackpotclown

Sure I pay attention to bmi....when I really want to aggravate myself to no end....I'm 5'8 and right at/around 170 and I feel great....BMI says I should be at 164, and I've only been back there once and was notably cold all the time...and looked like a rail...even mom told me I need to eat. I don't pay as much attention to the BMI as I do hip to waist ratio for health.