BMI and recommended Weight

dancoon7469
dancoon7469 Posts: 20 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been losing weight pretty steady for the last 2 months, actually too fast if I'm honest (3 to 4 pounds a week).
I've targeted losing 2 stone at a time so went from 16 to 14 stone in 10 months without really trying if I'm honest (really was still eating Maccy D's twice a week), just doing an active job and going exploring at weekends did the trick but it was sooo slow.
The next 2 stone I dropped in 2 months by joining a gym and eating better and at a -1000 calorie deficit (not eating back any exercise calories).
Now I'm targeting dropping the final 2 stone by the new year so I'm planning to upping my calories a bit to -800 to try and slow things down a bit (because at this rate I'll be done by Halloween!!!).
I'm checking my BMI and I'm still classed as overweight at the moment (which imo I am) but people keep telling me I shouldn't aim for a "normal" BMI and it's rubbish. BMI shows I should be 10 stone 7 pounds to be a healthy weight and 9 stone 9 pounds for an ideal weight according to multiple calculators I've used and tbh I think everyone's just not used to seeing me this thin (I've never been under 12 stone in my adult life until now) and it's making them think I'm ok now (people keep saying I look gout whatever that means) but I just want to totally get rid of the gut and then work on building muscle so for once in my life I look half decent.
I'm 5'5" and as of today I'm 11 stone 8 pounds, my current (and final) weight loss target is 10 stone, does that sound like an ok number, of course I have a brain and if I decide I'm thin enough before that I'll maintain at that weight.
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Replies

  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    Male or female? For me as a 5'8" woman the BMI seems pretty accurate - when I am overweight I definitely look it, and when I'm obese my health suffers. In my experience many men, especially muscular men, can carry a few more pounds than the recommendation while still being lean.
  • dancoon7469
    dancoon7469 Posts: 20 Member
    Sorry Male (just really short for a bloke).
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    rfrenkel77 wrote: »
    Disagree Mega, the BMI is not a guide post, it's a chasm, where a 5'10 individual is allowed a 40lb "normal" window, and makes no diff between man and woman. A total joke. The Ideal body weight IBW formula, lets pick Devine '74, is spot on. Use it instead of BMI, especially for women! When a woman checks BMI she thinks she is normal, even tho Her height in the BMI extends to include a mans high range. You can reality check this by googling the weigh in stats of mayweather or mcgregor of recent vegas fight, or height and weight of you fave tennis player. This will give a great sense of what a fit male or female should be. Ok, rant over, can you tell I hate BMI?

    Just checked out the IBW and for me it's spot on - the various methods all put me within a pound or two of 140, which is (according to my husband, anyway) my best weight. The clothing and modeling industry thinks I should weigh about twenty-five pounds less, but my experience was that at that weight I was anemic, had reactive hypoglycemia, no stamina, and nicknames such as "skinny Minnie." 140 was great. 165, which is the top end of normal BMI for me, was definitely what I consider "chunky" and starting to be heavy enough to impact my ability to easily run, for example.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,175 Member
    edited September 2017
    As a shorter not overly muscular male BMI will very likely be a very good predictor of whether you're overweight or normal weight.

    For a very tall (very) muscular male maybe not as much.

    The extension of the normal range to include 18.5 - 20 was introduced in large part in order to accommodate shorter (and Asian/Oriental) females.

    ETA: "overly/very muscular" quick definition: do you "juice"? Do you hit the gym hard and have trained for several years if a "natty"? Do your muscles have muscles? Then you have a chance to qualify as overly muscular.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    BrianAWeber wrote: »
    I'm not sure how accurate those charts are. I'm 6'4" and 211 lbs, and it says that I am still over-weight and should be between 152 - 205. I would be all skin and bones if I weighed the 160 pounds.

    BMI is supposed to accommodate frame size but there are outliers. I have a friend who is 6'2" and has a BMI of 18 but looks fine because he has a very slender frame. I have a large frame and my goal BMI is in Low Overweight. I'm shooting for the weight I was when I was a full time yoga teacher and felt great.
  • sunfastrose
    sunfastrose Posts: 543 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    rfrenkel77 wrote: »
    Disagree Mega, the BMI is not a guide post, it's a chasm, where a 5'10 individual is allowed a 40lb "normal" window, and makes no diff between man and woman. A total joke. The Ideal body weight IBW formula, lets pick Devine '74, is spot on. Use it instead of BMI, especially for women! When a woman checks BMI she thinks she is normal, even tho Her height in the BMI extends to include a mans high range. You can reality check this by googling the weigh in stats of mayweather or mcgregor of recent vegas fight, or height and weight of you fave tennis player. This will give a great sense of what a fit male or female should be. Ok, rant over, can you tell I hate BMI?

    Just checked out the IBW and for me it's spot on - the various methods all put me within a pound or two of 140, which is (according to my husband, anyway) my best weight. The clothing and modeling industry thinks I should weigh about twenty-five pounds less, but my experience was that at that weight I was anemic, had reactive hypoglycemia, no stamina, and nicknames such as "skinny Minnie." 140 was great. 165, which is the top end of normal BMI for me, was definitely what I consider "chunky" and starting to be heavy enough to impact my ability to easily run, for example.

    Whereas when I use the IBW calculator the ABW is a # that I've been before and was too low. And I am confused by the IBW calculator as a whole; the IBW is one # per gender/height combination? Talk about not covering the entire population.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    sunfastrose wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    rfrenkel77 wrote: »
    Disagree Mega, the BMI is not a guide post, it's a chasm, where a 5'10 individual is allowed a 40lb "normal" window, and makes no diff between man and woman. A total joke. The Ideal body weight IBW formula, lets pick Devine '74, is spot on. Use it instead of BMI, especially for women! When a woman checks BMI she thinks she is normal, even tho Her height in the BMI extends to include a mans high range. You can reality check this by googling the weigh in stats of mayweather or mcgregor of recent vegas fight, or height and weight of you fave tennis player. This will give a great sense of what a fit male or female should be. Ok, rant over, can you tell I hate BMI?

    Just checked out the IBW and for me it's spot on - the various methods all put me within a pound or two of 140, which is (according to my husband, anyway) my best weight. The clothing and modeling industry thinks I should weigh about twenty-five pounds less, but my experience was that at that weight I was anemic, had reactive hypoglycemia, no stamina, and nicknames such as "skinny Minnie." 140 was great. 165, which is the top end of normal BMI for me, was definitely what I consider "chunky" and starting to be heavy enough to impact my ability to easily run, for example.

    Whereas when I use the IBW calculator the ABW is a # that I've been before and was too low. And I am confused by the IBW calculator as a whole; the IBW is one # per gender/height combination? Talk about not covering the entire population.

    I don't doubt that at all. I just happen to fall into the category of people that the particular measurement works well for.
  • lalepepper
    lalepepper Posts: 447 Member
    rfrenkel77 wrote: »
    Disagree Mega, the BMI is not a guide post, it's a chasm, where a 5'10 individual is allowed a 40lb "normal" window, and makes no diff between man and woman. A total joke. The Ideal body weight IBW formula, lets pick Devine '74, is spot on. Use it instead of BMI, especially for women! When a woman checks BMI she thinks she is normal, even tho Her height in the BMI extends to include a mans high range. You can reality check this by googling the weigh in stats of mayweather or mcgregor of recent vegas fight, or height and weight of you fave tennis player. This will give a great sense of what a fit male or female should be. Ok, rant over, can you tell I hate BMI?
    I also find the IBW calculation to be pretty accurate for me, as a 6' female. It says my ideal weight is 176 - my goal for now is 180 and I plan to adjust from there. Lowest I have been was 193 and losing 15-20 from there seems spot on.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Even the various IBW calculators have a 4.3 kg variance for me, which at my size, is actually quite a noticeable difference. The bottom one, I can assure you, I look too thin (and this is from someone who has historically had a very warped body perception in terms of thinking I needed to lose weight when I didn't), the top one, actually about right for me, though 900g lower than my current goal weight (which is hiding under my winter insulation). We'll see how I'm feeling (or rather, looking) after a few months of recomp, and I may or may not drop a little lower. Either end of BMI is just LOL.

    Results:
    Based on the Broca formula, your ideal weight is 57.8 kg.
    Based on the Devine formula, your ideal weight is 59.63 kg.
    Based on the Robinson formula, your ideal weight is 59.44 kg.
    Based on the Miller formula, your ideal weight is 61.45 kg.
    Based on the Hamwi formula, your ideal weight is 59.29 kg.
    Based on the Lemmens formula, your ideal weight is 62.09 kg.
    Based on the BMI range formula, your ideal weight is between 52.21 kg and 70.56 kg.
  • youngmomtaz
    youngmomtaz Posts: 1,075 Member
    I always thought the bmi was junk. Always. I am not an outlier though and while I can put on muscle well when I work at it, my lean weight does not make bmi inaccurate for me(or 90% of the population). When I started to lose and got into the "normal" weight category I realized just how accurate it is. I can easily lose 15lbs more and look great. Not bony, skinny, or starved.

    I still feel like the recommendation for my husband would be way too low. But that is probably my skewed perception of "normal".
  • dancoon7469
    dancoon7469 Posts: 20 Member
    Thanks for the information. It sounds like I'm heading in the right direction. I'll stick to my 10 stone target but will slow things down and once inside BMI range I'll keep a close eye on how I look to make sure I don't go to far the other way.
  • Tangled2015
    Tangled2015 Posts: 47 Member
    Not sure but what's suitable BMI for 5.4 female?
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Tangled2015 wrote: »
    Not sure but what's suitable BMI for 5.4 female?

    BMI is a weight range - Body Mass Index. You can find BMI charts that will show the range you should be in quite easily via Google. Where you ultimately want to end up within that range is up to you.
  • Tangled2015
    Tangled2015 Posts: 47 Member
    Thank you so much. Let me check mine first.
  • johnmurrayus1
    johnmurrayus1 Posts: 8 Member
    Good discussion, yes BMI is a scale defining the required weight for a person as per his height, age and current weight.
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
    I think with BMI people get all caught up on a "perfect #". Then they hear others say it's "rubbish". And honestly, people's perception of the correct body proportions are all messed up. We've gotten used to most people being overweight. Then people feel like it's too much work to get within that window, especially if you've alway been on the heavy side (fat, not muscle). And because it's easy to listen to others than actually lose more weight, they stop, because it's easier. Not everyone will fit in that healthy weight window, but it's a good gage for most of the population. You just have to know yourself and how you are built.

    I know, for myself, I feel my best at a 21 BMI. According to the window, I'm healthy up to 179lbs. But even at 165 I start feeling "tubby". The perfect weight for me is 150, at 5'11, and a 38 year old woman. I just have a hard time staying there...hence why I'm here, writing this. I need to keep coming back to MFP after 6 years on and off to get a little 'reality check'. Basically proving that once you hit goal, it's not over.

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