Maintaining higher than normal BMI?

texteach66
texteach66 Posts: 92 Member
edited November 21 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I've lost a little over 100 pounds, and I'm thinking about seeing a goal that still has my BMI in the overweight range. When I got to goal at WW in 2002 I was 35 and had lost 135 pounds. I had a really hard time maintaining, but managed to maintain for awhile about 5 pounds above. I've been overweight for most of my life. At 50, I'm not sure how realistic it is to try to get to a weight I couldn't maintain at 35. Any maintainers out there in a similar boat? BTW, I carry my weight mostly in my hips, butt, and thighs and have a small waist.

Replies

  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    I'm in a healthy BMI but I maintain my weight at the top of the healthy weight range for my height, or just above. I am the same...most of my weight is in my hips and thighs.
  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
    It appears you conflate two separate issues here- the right goal weight (and whether it's sustainable) and long-term maintenance of your goal weight. It's true that, to some degree, you can only maintain what you can sustain. And it's true that the BMI is a guide. I actually think it's a pretty good guide, but it's not the be-all, end-all. So, if a goal of 5 pounds above the top of your BMI range works for you and is sustainable, it may well be the right goal.

    But you've still got to maintain that goal. Which may be easy for you. Or not. Regardless of whether it's within your healthy BMI range or 5 pounds heavier.



  • Hungry_Shopgirl
    Hungry_Shopgirl Posts: 329 Member
    I wonder though about what it could mean in terms of health care down the road. Some doctors seem to have blinders on and whenever they talk to someone whose BMI is not "normal" they'll raise red flags. So it might work for you internally but it could be a choice you have to find yourself justifying to others.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    If you carry most of your weight in your hips and thighs then you should be okay maintaining in the overweight range. It's those who carry a lot their weight viscerally that have less leeway when it comes to health risks. I'm built like you too, and my planned maintenance goal falls in the overweight category too. If you can maintain an overweight weight and are okay with it, then that's the best choice for you instead of continuous struggling and yoyos. I have a calorie level I know from experience I can't live normally under, and it happens to put me at an overweight BMI (liking the look of a bit of extra fat was also part of that decision). Although BMI is useful for most people, you need to keep in mind that anyone who manages to maintain a 100+ pound gain for years doesn't have normal mechanisms. Habits play a big role, but there is more to it for the morbidly obese and maintaining a severely reduced weight compared to starting weight is even more of a struggle, to the point where aiming for the lowest maintainable weight is leaps and bounds better than any other option that would jeopardize maintenance.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    edited September 2017
    sijomial wrote: »
    (Re BMI being flawed - yes it is. But comparing young, male, professional athletes who are unusually tall to the general unfit, average height population is a poor argument against using it as a guideline. There's far more people who wishfully think they are an outlier as opposed to those who genuinely are outliers. I was one of those dreamers for years!)

    Not to mention the fact that BMI skews weird at the extremes, as it wasn't intended to be a one size fits all tool for everybody and most NBA players are extreme outliers in height in the first place. BMI was intended as a metric to compare more or less average people across populations, and NBA players are not anywhere close to "average" in any population (except the population of "other NBA players").

    I'm also willing to bet that if you exclude players such as Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley (who were fat even when they were playing in the league), the majority of NBA players would probably fall within, or close to, BMI standards.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    I'm in a healthy BMI but I maintain my weight at the top of the healthy weight range for my height, or just above. I am the same...most of my weight is in my hips and thighs.

    Same here. My maintenance weight is a fairly big window. I'm sometimes a few lbs above healthy BMI but mostly below. I do kind of use going above the healthy range as a guide for when I need to rein things back in, but sometimes I'm above for several weeks. As long as my clothes still fit and I'm still getting healthy checkups I'm cool with this.
  • LiftHeavyThings27105
    LiftHeavyThings27105 Posts: 2,086 Member
    Amen on the "habit" comments. And on the "life style" habits.

    I am big on mind-set. It is everything to me. Setting yourself up for success is really huge.

    It is difficult to change one's habits - good or bad - for most people. We get comfortable. ☺

    You will get there.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Congrats on your loss! I wouldn't worry too much about your BMI right now. Maintenance is so important. I agree to pick a goal you feel you can maintain. After you successfully do that for 6+ months, you can always reevaluate and lose a little more if you want to. I lost 150 and picked a number at the top of my BMI range that I thought I could maintain. I have maintained to the pound for a year, but have still seen significant body shape improvements through strength training/recomp.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    You've done a terrific job getting to this point. If you're comfortable with the way you look and are having a relatively easy time maintaining - stay where you are. Or, assuming you're still logging and weighing, do the tiniest of all small deficits (like 100 cals) and drift down ever so slowly over the next year or two.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    Don't worry too much about BMI. That said, you can use BMI in concert with some other 'loose' metrics (waist/hip circumference, belly/height ratio) to make a call on whether your weight is such that it won't increase your risk of health problems anymore.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    STEVE142142 wrote: »
    Forget about the BMI. BMI is very subjective number that's not realistic in my opinion.

    If you look at the BMI index every athlete in the NBA is considered overweight and obese. It doesn't account for muscle and skeletal development.

    I'm 6-foot for about 200 pounds and I'm 57 years old. According to BMI my weight is considered normal between 165 and 205 lb. At 2:08 I'm considered overweight. If I tell people that I'm overweight they look at me and go what the hell are you talking about. I couldn't picture myself at 165 it's unrealistic number.

    The most important thing is when you look at yourself in the mirror and you're comfortable and like what you see. Just like BMI weight is a relative number that's different for everybody

    It's kind of reinforcing your point, but 200 pounds at 6 feet is smack dab in the middle of overweight on the BMI charts? The top end of 'normal' for that height is about 185.
  • LiftHeavyThings27105
    LiftHeavyThings27105 Posts: 2,086 Member
    And, to be clear - what I say about BMI is simply my opinion. Plain and simple.
  • sytchequeen
    sytchequeen Posts: 526 Member
    I've been at the lower quarter of my BMI (after a long illness) and I looked terrible
    I've received the most compliments about how fit I look when slightly "overweight" according to the BMI chart
    I will be happy to get back to slightly "overweight" again.
    Your build and individual body isn't on any chart - although it can be a useful guideline
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