BMI question - I may be shot down in flames here......

Sez

has started again!!
How much store do you guys set by BMI guidelines? I just wonder as I have almost four stone to lose, if I go according to my height and BMI, but I honestly think that would be too thin for me. I felt great at about 3 stone over my ideal BMI, and I was aiming for that weight less about another stone as my final goal.

Do you think age makes any significant difference in the BMI range? Is BMI calculated differently for nubile 20 somethings, than it is for exhausted 40+ mothers! LOL!!!


Just wondered......
 
Sez, I really hate BMI calculations as the weight it wants me to be is way to thin for what I will feel comfortable with so I only use it as a guideline.

I have a serious gripes with what the BMI stipulates for me. I know how you feel. I am a 20 something female and I don't want to be stick thin either. I am doing CD to get down to a weight that I am comfortable. I am not going to be lumped into an average group of what other people thing I should weigh.

Sorry rant over....
 
i only go by BMI in terms of on vlcd we shouldn't be ssing once we get to BMI25 or below.

In terms of if a person should be aiming to get in the "healthy" range. I think BMI is only a guide and can give misleading information. For instance if you have two females of medium build, 5'4, age 30 and both weigh 8 stone 5 ... their BMIs would be the same but it takes no account of the fact that one of the females is an elite athlete with twice the muscle mass of the other female, whom barely manages to walk to the bus stop.

I know that people look different at different ages and somehow their bodies can look completely different even though their height and weight is the same.

One thing .. You know that young miss england candidate who is a size 16? Well, she is about my height and says she is a size 16 even though she apparently weighs 12 stone 8 - she looks larger than me and I was a size 12/14 a few months ago when I weighed 13 stone 5. Perhaps this info hasn't been reported correctly but I've noticed it with "real" people. Same stats but look different.

waffle waffle waffle


Hadnt seen her, but IKWYM! I am around 13 and half stone now, and am wearing mostly size 14s. When I weighed 12 stone , I was easily fitting into 12s...... at my ideal BMI I would be an 8 or below, I reckon!!! Way too thin for me, honest!!
 
BMI is pretty much a generalisation based on Joe average of average build who is average age and living in averageville as far as we know!
When your BMI gets to 25/26 its pretty much generally accepted for a VLCD that you do not have enough stores of fat to continue on SS, and its a guideline marker for moving up the plans.
To work out calories in terms of maintenance its worth looking at your Basal Metabolic Rate as this figure takes into account your height, age, gender and activity level. Link below.

Calories Per Day Calculator - Basal Metabolic Rate
 
For me, if I got to 11 stone it would be 2102 cals per day. Fairly doable I reckon. 9 stone would be 1919cals.....
 
you are clearly years younger than me and/or more active than me

oh bum.... I spotted the activity levels! If I adjust to "lightly active", (I darent do sedentary!!) I will have to just starve.....


Oh & I am much much older.....44 in fact!
 
you are clearly years younger than me and/or more active than me

Mines only 1800 to maintain:cry:

Darn nuisance as I find 2,000 much more 'comfortable'

Not that 1800 is uncomfortable, just 200 calories lower than I'd prefer :D
 
How much store do you guys set by BMI guidelines?

Not much, though like Dancing, I do believe people need to take the BMI 25 rule for SSing seriously, as there's no way to be sure on an individual basis. It's the best we got.

I just wonder as I have almost four stone to lose, if I go according to my height and BMI, but I honestly think that would be too thin for me. I felt great at about 3 stone over my ideal BMI,
I really feel that you shouldn't feel any pressure to get to anyone's ideal view of what the correct BMI is. It's your body after all. You know how you feel, what you want to look like...whether you want to look super-skinny, or curvy.

Personally I don't think 2-3 stone above what is considered 'healthy' is enough to make much of an impact on health anyway.

The only thing I would say is do experiment a bit. Don't just get it stuck in your head what weight you want to be and that's that.

I know that when I started Cambridge, I wanted to be 13 stone. I had been 13 stone before and felt great.

It wasn't until I got a fair bit under that did I realise that I had previously accept 2nd best (for me anyway).

What I had done is decide on a weight that would make me feel I was a slimmer overweight person. There really is nothing wrong with that, but I guess that I had subconsciously decided that I was never going to be 'normal'....it just wouldn't be possible...too big boned...not in my genes...etc etc.

Other people also expected me to stop when I was a slimmer overweight person. They too never pictured me as slim...like them.:rolleyes:

When I got to 13 stone, I could see the possibility of being even slimmer, yet I was very happy at that 13 stone mark. I decided that I needed to 'try' another weight to see if it was even better ;)

I decided to continue with Cambridge and I must say that I am very pleased I did.

But...as I say, it's a personal choice. My decision to lose more wasn't based on my BMI, just how I felt when I reached that 13 stone. I wanted to be sure that I wasn't just taking that 2nd prize IYKWIM
 
another bonus of moving up the plans on CD I suppose - get to appreciate every little calorie.

I'll have to take a look at your maintenance diary to see how much food you actually get to eat on 1800 cals.

You don't want to look at todays. It's appauling :D:eek:
 
this is exactly the argument I've been having with myself. I know that 12/12.7 is an easy option for me and I'd be settling for second prize. If I believed in myself 100% I'd go for 11/11.7lbs. I will continue to dwell on it as I begin my CD journey again on Monday :eek::):D

It is really hard to know exactly what is right for us, because we often have such a distorted view of ourselves anyway. Just never sure what is real.

I couldn't believe it when I got under 13 stone. I just could see a whole new road of pretty colours ahead. A place that I had always discounted as impossible.

Mind you, as I got closer to that BMI healthy mark, the diet was totally doing my head in. I couldn't stand it any longer.

So in the end I didn't chose a goal weight, I chose a day. I just announced on the pink site (where I hung out;)) that Monday was goal day regardless of what I weighed :D

Then monday I announced I was at goal :D
 
i find bmi's annoying. i'm trying so hard to get under the 25 but it's starting to get more difficult the lower i go. i can hardly do more, i think anyway.

i think that if you compared some prof sports people, their weight and height and calculated their bmi, not many would be normal!

i'm 5ft 8in and my range is very low, i feel. i've managed to get to 11st 12lbs and i can see more is needed before i loose some lumps and bumps. however, when do you say that's it, no more, what if i get down another 5lbs and find that i've still got lumps and bumps and that it's never really going to shift from those spots and infact i just look too thin everywhere else?

i've taken up running and have been doing around 16 miles a week - soon upping this though. my figure is taking on a more athletic look but i still need more off for my bmi!

argh! it's so complicated. esp when to stop dieting. when is enough enough? when do you get to be happy with the way you look regardless of a few lumps and bumps?
 
I do want to be in the healthy range, I am happy now that I have hit 25 bmi but to be honest I am only focusing on bmi to keep my doctors from dragging it up every time I go in due to health problems I have which are aggrevated by weight! And they are I can already feel improvements having shifted 3 stone but its hard to hear when you are struggling to get the weight down. Now that I have achieved that I will box the next doctor that tries to gives me a lecture over it.

But personally I want to get to a size 10, thats my ultimate goal, and the size I was happiest with in the past and the weight I was before my health issues started playing havoc with me. I thought that I would get to that by getting down to 9 and a half stone, but now I think I might just have to be content with a 12 as I dont think I want to go lower than that and I right now I am firmly a size 14 on the bottom for some reason when others of my height and weight are enjoying the 12s already :)
 
After reading all these replies, I think the general consensus is then, that we are after all, individuals and we will choose our own goals accorind to how we feel, look, our health etc.

Thanks for your replies everyone. It has been os interesting to see & hear your opinions on this, and hey.... no-one shot me down after all!!
 
well i have set my target as 11st7 because i was a size 14 at that weight when i was younger and i didn't get below 11 then because i started to look gaunt. but that was when i was 17. so i could look great at a lighter weight, and i'm not sure whether people say i looked my best at a size 14 because they don't expect me to be able to get any lower... so my cdc said to get there and see what i thought at the time. and that puts my bmi in the very high 24s... so only just within the bracket.

abz xx
 
I do want to be in the healthy range, I am happy now that I have hit 25 bmi but to be honest I am only focusing on bmi to keep my doctors from dragging it up

Funny you should say that, it was definitely one of the things that made me go lower than I would have done.

One doctor had been horrible to me. Made me cry:cry:..oh and then go home and put another 2 stone on:rolleyes:

I never wanted that to happen again. I never wanted them to have reason to criticize me for my weight, or be exempt from anything again.

As it was, it was the doctors who were telling me to stop dieting when I got to BMI 28-29:eek: Telling me that the BMI was a very individual thing, and I was very individual :D

Unfortunately, things are just not as straightforward as they may seem. I lost a lot of weight from my face, but my tummy was still big.

It was the last stone that flattened that out:cool:.
 
I agree with KD. Once I got down to one and a half stone above what's considered to be a healthy BMI for my height, I looked 'slim enough' and felt great. At another half a stone down, I stopped dieting. I did briefly lose another half a stone (still about 4/5lbs above 'healthy), and actually felt skinny! That half a stone soon went back on, though.

So, this year, I too wondered if I was settling for second best, so decided to get into the healthy BMI range, just to see what it was like - I could always (happily!) gain the weight back if I didn't like it. My BMI is now 23.something, and I actually feel 'properly' slim now, so i'm much happier. It's harder to maintain though, and my lose skin looks saggier!

Anyhow, I agree that the BMI scale should be taken with a pinch of salt to a certain extent, as it's all about what weight you feel happy at... so long as you can be sure that you wouldn't be happier losing a bit more... :)


Jo x
 
another bonus of moving up the plans on CD I suppose - get to appreciate every little calorie.

I'll have to take a look at your maintenance diary to see how much food you actually get to eat on 1800 cals.

I've been looking for my maintenance diary. Don't think I have one after all. Just the odd new thread now and again.

I think I had one ages ago, but things are quite different now.

You might like to look at this menu though. Its a fair amount of food, but only 1400 that day:eek: Not on purpose, I should add. Just that sometimes I eat more, and sometimes less. Depends on how hungry my day is.

Message No. 2

http://www.minimins.com/maintenance/41465-question-all-cambridge-maintainers.html
 
My BMI is now 23.something, and I actually feel 'properly' slim now,

:clap:

Sometimes it takes a couple of goes to find the right weight doesn't it. I found I just had to 'live' in my body for a while before I could be sure it wasn't quite what I wanted. Hang on...it's still not quite what I ordered, but weight wise it's okay.


brill. Thanks

You're welcome. I enjoy what I eat these days, rather than just stuffing it in. I thought my problem was that I liked food, but half the time I wasn't even tasting it:confused: Now I really appreciate it :)
 
I always thought I would look awful at 10 stone (I am 5ft 7.5) and was told so by all and sundry. However, I am now 10 stone 9.5lbs and I look good. I could so with some general overall sculpting i.e. a bit of fat trimmed off the middle and smaller thighs so I reckon 10 stone will look good.

It's hard to see the end of the road when you're quite far down it. I suppose telling someone when you're 16st 8.5lbs (which is what I was) that you want to be 10 stone it will seem a bit impossible.

I just learnt to take it 7lbs at a time.
 
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