prominent bones at a healthy bmi?

daisydreams1234
daisydreams1234 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i'm 5'10 and 141 lbs, so a healthy bmi, but my bones are still oddly, how to say this, visible?
when i lean forward, my ribs on my back show, and its kind of scary, and when i'm laying down, my hip bone and rib bones stick out.
is this normal at a healthy bmi? do bones usually stick out?
this might be a stupid question, but i've been overweight for as long as i've been paying attention to myself.

Replies

  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    Normal and healthy!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited February 2020
    daisydreams1234 wrote: »
    i'm 5'10 and 141 lbs, so a healthy bmi, but my bones are still oddly, how to say this, visible?
    when i lean forward, my ribs on my back show, and its kind of scary, and when i'm laying down, my hip bone and rib bones stick out.
    is this normal at a healthy bmi? do bones usually stick out?
    this might be a stupid question, but i've been overweight for as long as i've been paying attention to myself.

    BMI is just an indicator of potential risk of disease. It has nothing to do with aesthetics or body composition, nor is it an indicator of actual health...it's just an indicator of risk potential. To me this suggest a lack of both fat mass and muscle mass. 141 @ 5'10" is getting towards the lower end of a healthy BMI...I would pretty much expect it to look skinny...ie little fat and little muscle mass. I am also 5'10" and that's about what I weighed in high school...and yes, I was very skinny and bony, so yeah...I'd say it's normal.
  • Onedaywriter
    Onedaywriter Posts: 326 Member
    Happening to me as I approach “good” BMI. Shoulders and back especially. Wish is was muscle but it’s bones. My wife calls me skeleton-man and I’m still over the weight/BMI range.
  • Buttermello
    Buttermello Posts: 127 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    daisydreams1234 wrote: »
    i'm 5'10 and 141 lbs, so a healthy bmi, but my bones are still oddly, how to say this, visible?
    when i lean forward, my ribs on my back show, and its kind of scary, and when i'm laying down, my hip bone and rib bones stick out.
    is this normal at a healthy bmi? do bones usually stick out?
    this might be a stupid question, but i've been overweight for as long as i've been paying attention to myself.

    BMI is just an indicator of potential risk of disease. It has nothing to do with aesthetics or body composition, nor is it an indicator of actual health...it's just an indicator of risk potential. To me this suggest a lack of both fat mass and muscle mass. 141 @ 5'10" is getting towards the lower end of a healthy BMI...I would pretty much expect it to look skinny...ie little fat and little muscle mass. I am also 5'10" and that's about what I weighed in high school...and yes, I was very skinny and bony, so yeah...I'd say it's normal.

    This! You can alleviate some of the 'bony-ness' by lifting and adding muscle mass, or you can gain a bit of fat until you're near the top of the BMI healthy range.

    It's all subjective, but asethically, I prefer bodies towards the top of the bmi healthy range.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    daisydreams1234 wrote: »
    i'm 5'10 and 141 lbs, so a healthy bmi, but my bones are still oddly, how to say this, visible?
    when i lean forward, my ribs on my back show, and its kind of scary, and when i'm laying down, my hip bone and rib bones stick out.
    is this normal at a healthy bmi? do bones usually stick out?
    this might be a stupid question, but i've been overweight for as long as i've been paying attention to myself.

    At a lower BF, there are some bones that it's normal to be more pronounced in certain positions, and that includes your ribs on your back when you bend forward and when you have less fat and your ribs and hip bones being pronounced when you lay down.

    Give yourself some time to get used to how you look and feel at this weight. You might find once you get used to it you are quite comfortable there. Or you might find you preferred being a little heavier or might have more energy or an easier time maintaining carrying 5 or 10 lbs more. Once you're in that healthy range, you can play around with where exactly you look and feel your best.

    And as others have said, focusing on resistance/strength training can really help aesthetics, no matter what weight you settle on. :drinker:
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    BMI is a broad indicator of a 'healthy' weight. What I would be interested in, is what is your bone structure? Are you medium boned, light or heavy? You can do a couple of measurements to figure this out. If you are medium boned, you are going to look bony at the low end of a healthy BMI. A light boned person would not. If you are heavy boned you will look very bony. Wrist and ankle measurements will give you a good idea of your bone size. For me, I am light boned in my upper half and medium at my lower. I look bony at the low end of a 'healty' BMI for my height. I don't necessarily think that your ability to see your bones makes you too skinny. I think that we are so brainwashed now that we don't even know what a healthy weight looks like anymore. But what matters the most is, are you happy with the way that you look?
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    My bones stick out, some even at 9 months pregnant. It depends on bone structure, how you carry fat, muscle. Totally normal.
  • Scotty2HotPie
    Scotty2HotPie Posts: 146 Member
    I wouldn't use BMI as any kind of indicator... People are far too different. I'm still considered obese according to BMI.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,070 Member
    Agree with the others, it's definitely normal to have some bones that show! Muscle can help provide some balance, but yes, at a healthy weight we generally will have some areas that seem a bit "boney" if you're used to being more "fluffy" :)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    daisydreams1234 wrote: »
    i'm 5'10 and 141 lbs, so a healthy bmi, but my bones are still oddly, how to say this, visible?
    when i lean forward, my ribs on my back show, and its kind of scary, and when i'm laying down, my hip bone and rib bones stick out.
    is this normal at a healthy bmi? do bones usually stick out?
    this might be a stupid question, but i've been overweight for as long as i've been paying attention to myself.

    While 140 pounds is indeed at a healthy BMI, the range for 5'10" is 130-170 pounds, so you might be happier closer to the top of the range.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited February 2020
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    daisydreams1234 wrote: »
    i'm 5'10 and 141 lbs, so a healthy bmi, but my bones are still oddly, how to say this, visible?
    when i lean forward, my ribs on my back show, and its kind of scary, and when i'm laying down, my hip bone and rib bones stick out.
    is this normal at a healthy bmi? do bones usually stick out?
    this might be a stupid question, but i've been overweight for as long as i've been paying attention to myself.

    While 140 pounds is indeed at a healthy BMI, the range for 5'10" is 130-170 pounds, so you might be happier closer to the top of the range.

    Or even just 10-15 Lbs. When I went into boot camp after high school I was140 Lbs soaking wet and just looked really skinny. They put me on double rations in boot and I got up to around 150 and then 155 which was kind of my sweet spot for a long time until I started eating and lifting to put on muscle mass in my mid 20s.

    When I was in high school I got teased a lot for being such a skinny guy, but had a really hard time putting on weight. At 155 I had enough fat on my bones and a bit more muscle from boot camp training for people to stop with that, but not so much as to be "fat"...I actually had 6 pack abs, I was just a little more filled out and looked more athletic/fit.
  • peggy_polenta
    peggy_polenta Posts: 325 Member
    you bones will grow to support the weight of your body. so if you have been overweight most of your life, they have grown to support your overweight mass. they do not reduce in size. your bones are the size they were because of your weight so now that you have lost it, they are prominent.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    At pretty much any reasonable body weight (BMI 20-22 for my structure), my upper body has much less subcutaneous fat and parts of it look pretty bony, while the part below ribs above mid-thigh is still kinda flabby. I don't think I'm completely devoid of muscle, either, though I could have better balance aesthetically, if I cared to optimize. My top half looks like mid/upper teens body fat, lower 25%+.

    Meh. :lol:
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    It's okay. You're just not used to it. :)

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