# What is your BMI? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 2, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891 "2013-01-02T23:02:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/61 "2013-01-03T18:37:54Z")
That’s funny. I’m just over 25, which is considered “overweight.” I’m pretty lean (I have abs), so it’s unlikely that anyone would look at me and suggest that I need to go on a diet. In fact, I’d like to add 5-10lbs of muscle. I wonder what my BMI would be _then_! ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/62 "2013-01-03T19:14:37Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I’ve spent most of my life as a blob, and I’m sick of it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/63 "2013-01-03T19:28:00Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Sorry, but I’d have to gain 50 pounds to be at your BMI. 50 pounds! Is there some reason you’re being a jerk to them about it? Any at all? ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/64 "2013-01-03T19:30:24Z")
I also mentioned this in the [thread on exercising](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=677567), but I’m surprised at the distribution shown here; BMI concentrates near the normal range as expected and tails off as you go higher but then there’s that range for over 39 (morbid obesity) sticking out like a sore thumb, much more so than the below 19 option, which includes part of the normal range (it’d be like a below 15 or so option). Although I suppose that suggests those people are morbidly obese for specific reasons not necessarily related to the usual culprits. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/65 "2013-01-03T19:47:09Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Well you are in a tiny minority. Impressive. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy doing pull ups. On the flip side, I hate bench pressing, and my chest is definitely my weakest muscle group. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/66 "2013-01-03T19:53:30Z")
> [@Trom](#): > > I don’t know why, but I really enjoy doing pull ups. On the flip side, I hate bench pressing, and my chest is definitely my weakest muscle group. I can’t bench press, due to my torn rotator cuffs. All I do for chest is incline pressing/benching (with weighted dips thrown in for completeness) and my chest is one of my better/stronger muscle groups. I haven’t touched a flat bench or flat dumbbell-press in over 7 years. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/67 "2013-01-03T19:57:39Z")
Mine has been steady at 15-17 for my entire adult life. A couple pounds make a big difference on my small frame; I. look peaked when I drop under 100 lbs, but quite healthy at my current weight of 105. I am very fit and have low body fat/defined musculature, so I rarely even get called ‘skinny’. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/68 "2013-01-03T20:05:26Z")
Mine is around 19. I am about 5’2" and 104 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/69 "2013-01-03T20:05:51Z")
24.9, baby! Down from a high of 32.9. I’m working to be around the 22-23 range. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/70 "2013-01-03T20:26:35Z")
My boyfriend asked me “Where did you go?” And I can go through cracks less then a foot wide, so I guess some part of me went somewhere ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/71 "2013-01-03T20:31:22Z")
24.85. I need to start exercising again; I’m a bit of a couch potato and could use some toning up, and to lose 10ish pounds. But it’s not too bad, I guess, so perhaps I should take solace in that. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/72 "2013-01-03T20:36:17Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > 24.9, baby! Down from a high of 32.9. I’m working to be around the 22-23 range. Wow, good for you! ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/73 "2013-01-03T20:45:57Z")
Thanks! It’s taken 2 years and I’ve fallen off the wagon a couple of times, but then I catch up to it and hop on again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/74 "2013-01-03T21:23:02Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > 15th percentile for age and gender. 85% of Americans are fatter than me. Heavier. Not necessarily fatter. Could be, could be not. Remember, BMI does not say how much is fat and how much is muscle, and if the fat is the fat that matters. You could be what one poster here likes to refer to as “skinny fat” and which the medical literature calls [metabolically obese normal weight](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/skinny-fat_b_1799797.html) or [“MONW.”](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/health/research/more-data-suggests-fitness-matters-more-than-weight.html) Your BMI alone is not enough to say. Your lack of regular exercise though, compared to the likes of **MLS** , does make one suspicious that such might be the case. > [@](#): > > Dr. Neil Ruderman, an endocrinologist at Boston University School of Medicine, was the first to identify a condition he called “metabolically obese normal weight,” in 1981. Such people have weights in the normal range on the B.M.I. chart but also have metabolic abnormalities, including high levels of insulin resistance and triglycerides; they tend to carry fat around the middle, which is more apt to affect the heart, liver and other organs than fat in the hips and thighs. … > > … Fitness is an important, and often unmeasured, confounder, and the growing pile of paradoxical evidence is forcing experts to re-evaluate its importance. … > > … Research that does tease apart weight and fitness — like a series of studies conducted by Steven Blair at the Cooper Institute in Dallas — shows that being fat and fit is better, healthwise, than being thin and unfit. Regular aerobic exercise may not lead to weight loss, but it does reduce fat in the liver, where it may do the most metabolic damage, according to a recent study at the University of Sydney. > > “More often than not, cardiovascular fitness is a far more important predictor of mortality risk than just knowing what you weigh,” said Glenn Gaesser, author of “Big Fat Lies” and director of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University. > > In 2005, an epidemiologist, Katherine Flegal, analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that the biggest risks of death were associated with being at either end of the spectrum — underweight or severely obese. The lowest mortality risks were among those in the overweight category (B.M.I.s of 25 to 30), while moderate obesity (30 to 35) offered no more risk than being in the normal-weight category. > > Whatever the explanation for the obesity paradox turns out to be, most experts agree that the data cast an uncertain light on the role of body fat. “Maintaining fitness is good and maintaining low weight is good,” Dr. Lavie said. “But if you had to go off one, it looks like it’s more important to maintain your fitness than your leanness. Fitness looks a little bit more protective.” ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/75 "2013-01-03T21:25:01Z")
I wonder if there’s a graphic out there that shows what the same BMI looks like on, say, three people with different body types. Edit: Lo and behold: [![](https://srxa.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bmi-comparison.gif) ](https://srxa.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bmi-comparison.gif) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/76 "2013-01-03T21:38:42Z")
> [@Michael63129](#): > > I also mentioned this in the [thread on exercising](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=677567), but I’m surprised at the distribution shown here; BMI concentrates near the normal range as expected and tails off as you go higher but then there’s that range for over 39 (morbid obesity) sticking out like a sore thumb, much more so than the below 19 option, which includes part of the normal range (it’d be like a below 15 or so option). Although I suppose that suggests those people are morbidly obese for specific reasons not necessarily related to the usual culprits. Not so sure how unusual that is. [36%](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm) of adult Americans have a BMI over 30 and [6.6% over 40](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22986681). So far the most over represented group are the under 19 BMIs - close enough to official underweight (18.5) to use to compare to those numbers. Right now this crowd is running over 9% in that group; nationally the number is only [1.7%](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/underweight_adult_07_10/underweight_adult_07_10.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/77 "2013-01-03T21:41:56Z")
There are large spikes on both ends; below 19 and higher than 39. Is it likely that respondents with extreme BMIs are simply more likely to vote? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/78 "2013-01-03T21:53:04Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > I wonder if there’s a graphic out there that shows what the same BMI looks like on, say, three people with different body types. > > Edit: Lo and behold: > > [http://srxa.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bmi-comparison.gif](http://srxa.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bmi-comparison.gif) Surprisingly[this graphic](http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calculators/bmi-visual-graph/) matches people up to their BMIs pretty well. [This site](http://www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.html) is cool and shows a variety of people at various heights and weights (you’d need to calculate the BMIs.) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/79 "2013-01-03T21:56:05Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > There are large spikes on both ends; below 19 and higher than 39. Is it likely that respondents with extreme BMIs are simply more likely to vote? Or perhaps we’re more likely to know our weight? Lots of folks in this thread saying they never weigh themselves. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891/80 "2013-01-03T22:01:11Z")
Yes, we all know bodybuilders get the shaft with how BMI conveys their weight, but for most of us, BMI is a pretty useful tool in determining how healthy our weight is. I’m another of one of those people who is on the border of healthy and overweight (24.5 BMI or something like that), and I don’t think anyone in their right mind would look at me and go “oink, oink,” but one, I have a lot of muscle tone, plus a few situps wouldn’t kill me, but moreover, being ever so slightly overweight doesn’t make one a fatso. Just as a personal anecdote, I think the image graph DSeid linked more or less nails me. If I had to pick which one of those most closely matches my body type, I’d pick the one on the high side of normal weight. Please note: I am not a bodybuilder. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-bmi/645891.md?page=5)