BMI accuracy.

[Cliff67]

I am weighing at 19 stones at 5' 8". According to the BMI chart I am Obese at 40 and should lose 8 stones at least. I dont understand this as when i was regularly excercising i was hovering around 15.5 stones, which is my fighting weight. If i was 11 stones i would literally be a bag of bones. Bearing in mind I am heavily built anyway. When I was fit my waist size was 36", chest 48", legs 27" and 19" with 17" biceps, which is still current except for the waist. Can anyone tell me what my true BMI actually could be?

[redhead35]

My husband is exactly the same - somewhere around the 18 stone mark, allegedly should be about 11 stone, but again has a 'fighting weight' of around 15 stone. I wouldn't take too much notice of the BMI - it's a guide in terms of what's healthy / not, but as Concerned states, it doesn't take into account anything like amount of muscle. I once knew a nurse whose husband was a body builder - when he went for a regular check up, the practice nurse told him he was obese. Cue huuuuge row with said practice nurse as the bloke was all muscle and as healthy as a horse! It's a shame that the healthcare professionals do tend to focus on BMI rather than something like muscle:fat ratio's. Diabetes UK ran a campaign a few years ago that focussed on waist measurement as an indicator of risk of developing diabetes - it's storing fat around your vital organs that causes the long-term health problems from what I can remember. As long as you're trying to be fit and healthy, then I think you should just do what feels right for you personally!

[Joinfrance]

I think the BMI is probably accurate, as at your height you really should be less than 15st. How about getting down to that and rechecking? I'm 5'4 and should be around 9 st. I'm skinny at that weight, so 10st6 is my target. Nicely rounded....

[MusicMaker]

Try getting one of those scales that measures body fat and find out what your body fat is when you get back down to about 15.5 stone. You can look up on the Internet what a healthy body fat range is, which will give you a better idea whether you need to lose more weight. Of course if you're not as fit as you were you may have lost muscle and replaced it by fat, so you may well need to lose more, particular if you don't get your fitness back up. Muscle is heavier than fat so BMI may not be a great indicator for someone very muscly, but it can also be easy to kid yourself when what you think is muscle is actually fat, unless you measure fat percentage (or get it measured at your gym).

[JayW]

Hi, Cliff-

The good news is that you can ignore the BMI. It was an insurance company scam that became mainstream. The formula uses weight and height only, so everyone (men and women, broad and narrow, young and old) who has the same height and weight has the same BMI. Read about it here: weightzonefactor.com/scienc...

If you want a free, accurate estimate of how much you should weigh, go here: weightzonefactor.com It's quite scientific.

[pinktwinkledust]

Good health professionals should never state that bmi is accurate. It is literally just a guide as it doesn't take a lot of things into consideration as mentioned above. When I got down to bmi of 24.5 , even though it said I was a healthy weight, I knew I was still carrying around too much for my height. So I just continue to use it as a guide.