Im Obese?!?!

If your pics are current, you are certainly not obese. I'm trying to figure out where you are going to lose 26 pounds cause I think you look great in your photos.

The charts and calculators can drive us all crazy. They are just averages and guidelines - and for a lot of us, good starting points to determine if we need to find a way to be more fit.

I was pretty darn miserable at what the charts said was "overweight" but below "obese" ... didn't feel much better till I got to the lower end of the "healthy range". Now energy is rebounding every day I maintain my weight and eat nutrition dense foods!

My husband feels fine in the lower end of the "overweight" range.. so it just depends on the individual.

I went to a performing arts doctor (same as a sports doctor but with more emphasis on dance, music performers) and got my target weight and activity program over a year ago. I will go back in about two months as I meet some fitness goals as I maintain my target weight. I think it is the best thing I ever did for my physical health so that my "brain" is aligned with what I need to do. My husband went to a personal trainer a few years ago and did the same thing.

here are the calculations I typed in

height: 5'4
Weight: 160
Neck: 12
waist (Smallest part right?): 29
Hips (widest part?): 42

Your Body Mass Index is 27.5 which is in the overweight category, you would need to get down to 145lb to get into the top of the healthy range, 115lb is the bottom of the healthy range for your height. It's quite possible for a female to be clinically overweight or even healthy weight but have a medically obese bodyfat percentage, just means your lean mass is too low and your fat too high. If you just lost weight you'd probably find your bodyfat was still too high so you'd need to then work on building lean muscle with strength training which will slim you down and tone you up. If you carry your weight in your hips rather than around your waist that will make you look slimmer in photos and is lower risk for health.

Having said all that you are working on a guesstimate of bodyfat anyway, get your bodyfat properly measured and work from that - the measurement system underestimates mine and I am skinny-fat. Remember the word obese is a clinical definition related to health outcomes, it's not an insult and doesn't relate simply to how huge or wobbly you look. The human body evolved to be pretty active, when we are sedentary it's easy to have way too little muscle and too much fat. Many of us in the west have a completely skewed view on what is a healthy size/ shape/ bodyfat because of the average size in our country. Probably what you think of as obese is actually morbidly obese.

I think the gym at my college that I go to has different measurements and tests to do, I might check those out when everything opens back up after break.

That is probably the best idea. Body fat percentage, measured accurately will probably tell you more than any of the calculators you can find providing guesstimates. But yes, the posters saying you can look an average size but be medically (based on fat %) obese are absolutely correct. Doesn't mean you are, you won't know that without actually measuring fat mass.

I punched in the same numbers you did, and although I believe it overestimated your % by looking at your photos, it stated your total fat mass is 50 lbs - not that you have to lose 50 lbs of fat. Furthermore, it says you will hopefully maintain a lean body mass of 100 lbs, not that your total weight will be 100 lbs. Keep that in mind as well.

And to further explain, this means a goal weight around 135 lb would be ideal if you are able to maintain lean body mass the rest of your journey.


And keep in mind, the closer to a lower body fat, the more fuel you will need to maintain lean body mass and the more resistance training should be utilized.