I Don't Feel Obese .?!.?!

Welcome Alinda and good luck with your goals! Stick to them, and you can do it! :flowerforyou:

At 19 (when I weighed 190lbs at 5'11 and she told me she'd like to see me lose 60lbs) I thought she was insane! And, come to think of it, she probably was.

God, yes, she was insane. 130 is lower than my ideal weight, and I'm 5'1".

Please be aware though that BMI numbers are notoriously off--particularly with women! As I read on one site--we have those 2 "blobs" of mostly fatty tissue on our bodies that are never accounted for in BMI calculations.

BMI does not take gender into account--it does not take age into account--and it does not take muscle into account--it doesn't take body frame size into account. That's the problem with BMI--there is too much that it doesn't account for.

Not to say that you might not need to lose weight, but look at other factors other than your BMI to determine HOW much weight you wish to lose.

Of particular interest to you is this quote, found in the last linked article:

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"The overlying issue is the same criteria for BMI are used across the board,” said Joshua Ode,
a Ph.D. student in the MSU Department of Kinesiology and an assistant professor of inesiology
at Saginaw Valley. “Whether you’re an athlete or a 75-year-old man, all the same cut points are used.”

“BMI should be used cautiously when classifying fatness, especially among college-age people,” said Jim Pivarnik, an MSU professor of kinesiology and epidemiology. “It really doesn’t do a good job of saying how fat a person really is.”

The problem, especially among younger people and athletes, is that BMI does not distinguish between body fat and muscle mass, said Ode."

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Here's a few links you can check out yourself:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/bmi3.htm

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/how-accurate-body-mass-index-bmi

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070305202535.htm

I've always known that I am over my ideal weight (which is extremely low because of how short I am) but I have never felt obese like the BMI calculators and doctors tell me. That word has become like a 'bad' word and I don't like hearing it or using, especially in reference to myself. So I've decided, it's going to change. I am going to lose the 50 lbs I need to lose to fit inside my ideal weight range so my doctor will no longer be able to look at me and tell me I'm obese.

Good luck to everyone else on their weight loss journey and I hope we can all celebrate our amazing new selves in 2009!

Alinda :drinker:

I got that way toward my last few years in the military. The problem started when I got a few pounds over my max weight, and they caught me several times, then they would have to tape me and it was always fine.
A few of the guys in my shop would always get busted for the same thing, but they were huge body builders. I was just short and when I put on muscle it looks big and not always right, so I don't push the weights that hard because it doesn't take much for me. I go for the tone-ing and cardio now.
I always get a kick when I go to a trainer, because they are always surprised at how strong I am and just how much weight I can push. They never believe me either...