What is a good weight?

MicheletteLew wrote: »

Recently I saw a blog, I think on FaceBook where the couple do it are supposed to be fitness gurus. some of their stuff was pretty interesting - but then came THIS - the woman said she was heavy at 5'8" and 135 lbs when she went on her diet!!!!! And now she is fit at 119 lbs! Excuse me? When I was in my 20s I was told I was underweight at 5'3" and 115 lbs! And I was - bones sticking out everywhere. How can this woman say she is healthy at this weight?
Opinions?

She'd have an underweight bmi with the lower weight, so that's interesting that it was her goal.

I know there's controversy with bmi, but I've found it to be a good rule of thumb for myself personally. I feel the best when my bmi is around 20. I've been lower than that (18.5 is the cut off for the healthy range and I got down to around 19), and I purposely gained to get back up to 20ish. Now I'm hovering around 21 and I'm working on getting back down to 20 (124lbs).

At some point it comes down to personal preference-we all have an idea of where we look/feel best and that's subjective. I wouldn't recommend going below a healthy bmi but there's a pretty wide healthy range that gives people wiggle room.

jholland927 wrote: »

As a registered nurse, and after many discussions with dieticians and bariatric doctors, there is a consensus: BMI is garbage and meaningless. When Arnold Shchwarzenegger won Mr. Olympia, his BMI would have said he was obese. Laughable, at best.

In my honest opinion, a person's health is not measured in weight, BMI, or even body fat percentage. Instead, it is measured in how active you can be and not become overly fatigued, how well you maintain blood sugars, and any presence of disease state (i.e. high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart diseases, sleep apnea).

We fool ourselves into believing that health is measured on the scale. When in reality, that's the method that the insurance company uses (and we probably all know what a bunch of crooks the insurance companies are).

BMI is not garbage. It is a fairly reliable indicator. It is not meant to diagnose.
Yes, there are outliers. But the vast majority who fall outside the healthy range also fail other measures.

"A high BMI can be an indicator of high body fatness. BMI can be used as a screening tool but is not diagnostic of the body fatness or health of an individual.

To determine if a high BMI is a health risk, a healthcare provider would need to perform further assessments. These assessments might include skinfold thickness measurements, evaluations of diet, physical activity, family history, and other appropriate health screenings."

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html

ETA - I'm guessing that Mr. Olympia would have failed the initial BMI test but passed the others.

I'm 5"8 and 143lbs is my goal weight, any lower than that and I start to look sick and gaunt.

sunnybeaches105 wrote: »

jholland927 wrote: »

As a registered nurse, and after many discussions with dieticians and bariatric doctors, there is a consensus: BMI is garbage and meaningless. When Arnold Shchwarzenegger won Mr. Olympia, his BMI would have said he was obese. Laughable, at best.

In my honest opinion, a person's health is not measured in weight, BMI, or even body fat percentage. Instead, it is measured in how active you can be and not become overly fatigued, how well you maintain blood sugars, and any presence of disease state (i.e. high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart diseases, sleep apnea).

We fool ourselves into believing that health is measured on the scale. When in reality, that's the method that the insurance company uses (and we probably all know what a bunch of crooks the insurance companies are).

Your opinion is at odds with the strong correlation between weight (and the better correlation between body fat percentage) and health. Granted, there are flaws with BMI but it is a very good starting point for an analysis.

As for the reference to Arnold he had a very low body fat percentage and high muscle mass, and these factors were so extreme as to place him at the absolute top of the bodybuilding community so much so that he won Mr. Olympia 7 times, and people like you are still talking about him. To put it mildly, he is an extreme outlier.

I used BMI because, like I said, it's a very good starting point for an analysis. Successful runners are often at the very low end of BMI or even below the "healthy" BMI range. Successful bodybuilders will be over the top of that range. Of course, BMI works just fine for the average couch potato. I wonder where someone complaining about some random fit person on FB would come in?

All of this.

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MicheletteLew wrote: »

Recently I saw a blog, I think on FaceBook where the couple do it are supposed to be fitness gurus. some of their stuff was pretty interesting - but then came THIS - the woman said she was heavy at 5'8" and 135 lbs when she went on her diet!!!!! And now she is fit at 119 lbs! Excuse me? When I was in my 20s I was told I was underweight at 5'3" and 115 lbs! And I was - bones sticking out everywhere. How can this woman say she is healthy at this weight?
Opinions?

Truthfully, that person was factually wrong. You were still 11 lbs above the official threshold for being underweight at 5' 3".

Perhaps that weight did not look good on you because of the way your fat is distributed. Perhaps it did look good on you and you had the same experience many here have had where people are telling you you're too thin when you aren't and don't look it. It doesn't really matter. As long as you were healthy and pleased enough with your weight than that's where you should have been.

Once someone drops into official underweight territory, they should check in with their doctor to make sure they're healthy and not deluding themselves or unknowingly causing themselves harm. The person you're talking about falls in this category. That said, BMI is not exact. She may be an outlier and be perfectly fit and healthy at 119 lbs. But she definitely should check in with a doctor if she hasn't already to verify.