morbidly is 40 or greater.
According to my nursing instructor (lousy citation, I know), LOSING weight has a greater impact on reducing diabetes risk than being less fat to start with. That is, yes, we have a greater risk of diabetes because we’re fat, but losing as little as 10 pounds cuts that risk dramatically (no numbers, sorry.) If *already *a diabetic, losing as little as 10 pounds means we have to recalculate your insulin needs, because your body doesn’t need as much exogenous insulin.
In other words, yes, a 40" waist is a high predictor for developing diabetes, but that risk is even greater for a higher number, and the diabetes, if it develops, is more serious at 48" than 46" (assuming 1" = 8 pounds)
Similar citeless claims abound from hospitals and clinics. See here for one example.
Not overweight. 6’5", 190-200lbs
For the first 25 years of my life I couldn’t gain weight. Now I can, dammit.
I run a lot.
Overweight but not fat. (5’10", 196.) I don’t worry about it, as long as I can see my abs.
Regards,
Shodan
Okay, I’m morbidly obese, with a BMI of 42. And yes, I can do what I want to do, in terms of the things you have stated - running a block to catch a bus, carrying the groceries up the stairs, etc. I’m reasonably active, although not intense activity, but I can happy go for a three hour walk or spend a day wandering around London visiting the various tourist attractions, etc.
I am a lot fitter than many people I know who weigh less than me. Part of me thinks that’s because I’ve always been fat, so my body has built up muscle tone and strong bones as a result - for example, I saw a woman today who had a fat person ‘waddle’ and because I could see her reflected in the window and me reflected in the window, I could confirm that I don’t waddle like that. But I bet we were about the same weight.
I’m currently obese but within striking distance of only being overweight.
I was underweight my entire life until about 5 years ago. I got sick and between the physical limitations, drugs and self medicating my depression with food as they tried and failed to find out what was wrong I gained over 100lbs. A year ago we figured out what was wrong, I had the surgery to fix things up and the weight is slowly dropping off.
On my doctors advice I waited 6 months to ensure that this time we were right and the surgery had actually solved the problem. Even before I started dieting and exercising at the end of June and I had lost about 40lbs and since June I’ve lost 20 more. I’ve got 35 to go before the end of the year to meet my initial goal, and I’ll probably try and lose another 25 in the first 6 months of 2011. This will put me slightly higher than when I started but square in the middle of normal BMI.
Nope, me too. My BMI is 26.5 but a lot of my weight is muscle. I’m always surprised by dieting before/after articles that show women who weigh less than I do but wear larger clothes and have waist measurements inches above mine.
They say that for younger and/or active people Height-to-Waist ratios might be more accurate at predicting healthy weight, and my HtW at 44% is well within the healthy range. It’s probably BS but this siteclaims that given that, my body fat is just under 20% which is obviously also less than the BMI believes.
You are so pretty. 
Not total bullshit, but it’s not always accurate, no. It’s a fair measurement more often than not, but you have to keep your body type in mind. I’m about your size (a little smaller), and am right on the cusp of my target BMI range and overweight, too. Depending on the day, considering my weight usually fluctuates around 5 lbs, I’m either on the very high end of healthy, or very low end of overweight. I voted for the healthy BMI option because I’m in the range as often as I’m out of it, and just looking at me, you’d not think I was fat.
I am about 15 lbs underweight for my height. I’ve gone through quite a bit of effort to gain some weight, but can’t keep any on - I’ve been within 5 lbs of this weight since my mid-teens and am in my mid-20s now. I eat a lot and do my best to stay fit and strong, and I have some nice muscles (wiry little ones of course).
All of my female friends have ‘normal’ to ‘morbidly obese’ BMIs and I eat more, sometimes much more, than a lot of them.
I don’t think BMI is a reliable measure of body fat percentage or of health, no. I have around 20% bodyfat even though my BMI is just barely 17 right now and I am in great general health.
BMI is a rule of thumb for populations and obviously is not always the greatest tool for individuals. I’m probably heavier than BMI would indicate because I have a very light, birdlike frame.
As someone who’s the same height and now down to 207 it’s kind of disappointing that losing 25 pounds and having lots of people comment on how thin you’re looking these days does not mean you’re at a good weight according to the BMI. Apparently I have to go down to 145 to be considered “underweight”. Amputation might do it.
See, I don’t think this is true either. Unless by ‘populations’ you mean ‘European soldiers in the 1800s’ which is the entirely of the data set the BMI equation is based on. No women. No non-white men.
I’m slightly over my ideal weight but well within the “right” BMI for what that’s worth.
I don’t think anyone would see my weight as unhealthy.
However, I’m waaaaaaay too fat to be fashionable.
The thing is, I don’t really see why people think it’s necessary. Can you not tell a fat person by looking at them?
It’s not just us, it’s a fairly well known limitation of the BMI - if you lead an athletic lifestyle and have a muscular build, your BMI may read as overweight when you’re actually not. From the National Institute of Health:
My BMI is 27.5, which I refer to as “Texas normal”–yes, I am overweight, but as a woman in her 30s in Texas, I am absolutely normal.
I have lost about 45% of my body weight in the last 15 months, however, so yes, I was fat. I like this better. I’d love to lose another 20 lbs but we are trying to conceive through IVF and I think it’s better to be maintaining for that. If we are successful, I can always take this last 20 lbs off later.
Well, yes and no. I can sure tell when someone is big and carrying what I consider extra fat, but most people don’t seem to agree with my definition of ‘overweight’ (because higher weights and extra body fat are the norm for the whole population here) Also, slender people who have zero muscle tone and more than 32% body fat often aren’t identifiable until they are wearing very little. They have the same health risks as someone who’s carrying around 50lbs of extra fat on a large frame, but they often think they’re healthy cause they’re not visibly large, so don’t bother to make good choices when it comes to their health.
Either way BMI is useless.
I’m fat. Have been most of my adult life.
I think I may have clicked on “obese” though because in addition to being fat I can’t read up to down.
Actually at 240 I guess I’m morbidly obese. But I’m so damned spry I forget sometimes!
Apparently not. This study showed people drawings of a person of each sex in six levels of fitness: one underweight, two normal, one slightly overweight, one significantly overweight, and one very overweight, and asked them to identify which person(s) (of their own gender) in the pictures were at healthy weights.
No. Last month when I went to the doctor, my current measurements were 5’7" and 114 lbs, which puts me at 17.9 on the BMI chart. I just don’t eat that much, never have.