Overweight Per BMI, but Healthy?
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Well, my sister and I are about the same height (64 in). She has never seen a number over 103 on the scale and I'm at about 180. If you looked at my sister, you wouldn't think she was unhealthy at all, and she's not. She's lean, but not "skinny" in any way, although she does wear a size 0. She simply has a very small frame.
I, on the other hand, am categorically overweight (bordering on obese) according to my BMI, but my body fat percentage is at a fairly healthy 25% (for a woman). It would actually be unhealthy for me to weigh any less than 145 pounds. I have a large frame. My waist is 33 in and my waist to hip ratio is .7.
Factors like wrist size and waist size are important to look at because not only are some fairly healthy people told they need to lose weight because their BMIs are too high, but also some people think their weight is "healthy" even though their shape is unhealthy. If you carry more of your weight around your abdomen than, say, your hips, then you are more likely to have health problems.0 -
Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered obese by BMI standards when he was at the height of his body building career. BMI is a measure of mass not health, in my opinion, and was developed in the 1800's! Talk about out dated.0
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It also works the other way round - people can have an underweight BMI and be perfectly healthy.
If someone is heavily muscled I understand how they can be healthy but have a high BMI. But how can someone be healthy at the underweight BMI? I'm not trying to be mean but I am genuinely curious as to how that works. For my height (5'10") I would have to be 128 to be classified underweight and I can't imagine any way that could be healthy.0 -
WebMD has a pretty measured approach to describing the BMI categories as well as considering other measures like waist size:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/tc/healthy-weight-what-is-a-healthy-weight0 -
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BMI was created a LONG TIME ago and really is not valid anymore. It's called evolution. We all know ourselves best. You know when you're at a healthy weight. Avoid comparing yourself to others who may have a different body type or one-size-fits-all historic charts from the 1920's.0
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My bmi says i am overweight.. I am 5'8 165 lbs
I mean i'm not ripped or super fit (yet) but I don't think I am close to overweight
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