FORGET BMI!!

i dont understand. most of the overweight ones are jsut barely overweight and look fine but the obese ones clearly are. the healthy range ones look just that. BMI isnt about how attractive people look. i'm not aiming for sub 25 either, i'll be happy with a stone overweight, but i would certainly be healthier. i think we've all got a but squiffy eyed about what humans are supposed to look like.

It is crazy!!! Heck, in college I weighed 150 pounds and I looked awesome! No one would ever haved guessed my weight but I had boobs and a booty and that is the way I like it...

As a nurse, I can vouch that BMI does not work for everyone. It does not take into consideration muscle mass or body build/bone structure. My goal is a healthy BMI of 135-138 lbs for my height of 5'5", but realistically I know I may never get there. I have a very broad hip/shoulder ratio, and I have always been bigger-boned than my peers (even as an emaciated sickly child -- I was vastly underweight but I can still remember comparing wrist size to my friends and always had among the biggest wrists).

You have to look at fat percentages, and your overall fitness. Someone who is 130 lbs for a "good" BMI but is built for 140 lbs of actual weight is going to be sickly.

BMI also doesn't account for the difference between muscle and fat. My previous karate sensei registered as borderline "obese" on the BMI charts, but he's a tall guy with lots of muscle and a healthy body fat percentage. It's more a guideline than actual rules.

Im shooting for overweight myself!

BMI is crap! I played sports all the time growing up and was really muscular and athletic and I was told I was 'overweight' I also have a large frame. BMI only takes 'normal' into account and I don't think many people fit into the 'normal' criteria. My goal weight is in the 'overweight' category. I like being muscular and having curves and would rather have that then be super-skinny.

I agree.... BMI is bogus. Im 5 11 and have a big frame. Ill never be 135 pounds. Id be all bones! Im shooting for 180 which is still in the over weight category but barely. It was interesting to see it illustrated like that. I preferred the overweight bodies to normal for sure

The problem I've always had with the BMI calculator is that, for my height, there's more than a 40lb gap between underweight and overweight. That's not helpful. Sure, my ideal weight is in there someplace, but the healthy weight range the calculator spits out does nothing to help me predict it. But that's the problem with trying to get specific info out of a process based on generalities.

How awesome if is that. Thank you for posting.

I don't disagree with the comments about BMI, but it's a tool....and only that. As a retired P.A. in internal medicine, I can tell you that I would have been THRILLED to death if all of my patients could have managed to get down into the "overweight" range for BMI. But sadly, in my adult patient population, there were too many people (women) who considered themselves "curvy" when in fact, they *were* obese. Hollywood images of emaciated young men and women are not realistic role models, the BMI isn't perfect, but denial is a powerful thing, and if seeing in print that you are morbidly obese or obese helps to create an action plan for better nutrition and exercising, I'm all for it.

Your BMI is: 23.9
Target weight range: 101.2 - 136.7 lbs
I find it to be accurate for me. I can maintain 130 or so without doing much of anything, 140 (my highest ever) made me feel all doughy and unfit, and 105 (when I was ill) looked sickly and unhealthy.

None of this stuff is about how you LOOK. It's about how healthy your body is. Normal weight is when your body functions like NORMAL. Overweight, obese, or anything higher is when your body's weight is starting to degrade your mental or physical health. Same with underweight and whatever is under that.

the BMI isn't perfect, but denial is a powerful thing, and if seeing in print that you are morbidly obese or obese helps to create an action plan for better nutrition and exercising, I'm all for it.

I agree with this.

People don't always see overweight when they look in the mirror (I never did).

I also think people like to trash the concept of BMI because it makes them feel bad. I understand that, but it doesn't remove the fact that you have a very wide range within your BMI that is considered ok, and it's not that unreasonable for most people. For MOST people BMI is a very good indication of healthy weight (not health full stop, but healthy weight). It only becomes inaccurate if you are body building or have a very very low body fat %, which can lead to it's own problems. Many athletes and male film stars have overweight BMIs because they have an abnormally high amount of muscle on their frames, but most of us aren't in that category.