Whats your BMI (body mass index)

ride_whenever

Surf-Matt wrote:

ride_whenever wrote:

I'm just over 14 stone, but i'm carrying a lot of excess weight, i've really piled on the fat the last 9 months. I'm hoping to get down to around 12 which should put me in reasonable shape.

This word will mean you are doomed to fail.

Change it to "will" and you stand about 35543562565 times more of a chance.

Not really, I want to lose weight, but I'm not going to an arbitrary target, I'm going to bring down my body fat until I'm happy with it.

Ditch Witch

And the most useful bit of that article is:

The BMI is not infallible. For instance, it is possible for a healthy, muscular athlete with very low body fat to be classified obese using the BMI formula.

If you are a trained athlete, your weight based on your measured percent body fat would be a better indicator of what you should weigh.

That, quite frankly, is all anyone needs to know about it.

Trev71

I'm currently 29.0, but was about 33 before I started riding a couple of years ago.

fred1star

About 24 or25 (Wii acreditied) depending on much crap i've eaten.

sampras38

As people have already stated, BMI doesn't really count for much unless you are very overwight, as algorithms are all based on body mass, as apposed to body fat. So a guy with a lot of muscle will be classed as obese because he's heavy. The stats mean nothing and I wouldn't pay any attention to them. Mine is around 23 and I'm quite muscular with fairly low bodyfat.

gandhi

20.1.

For most (not all) people, BMI is a reasonable quick way to decide if someone is over weight (not to decide if they're unfit, that's obviously different).

I hear a lot of big guys saying it's rubbish because they [used to] play rugby or lift weights etc, but if you look at them they have a lot of fat too. People using professional rugby players to rubbish it when the players are basically abnormal makes the people who are actually over weight take no notice of it either.

However, the best way to decide if you're over weight is probably a bit of common sense and being honest with your self.

sampras38

gandhi wrote:

20.1.

For most (not all) people, BMI is a reasonable quick way to decide if someone is over weight (not to decide if they're unfit, that's obviously different).

I hear a lot of big guys saying it's rubbish because they [used to] play rugby or lift weights etc, but if you look at them they have a lot of fat too. People using professional rugby players to rubbish it when the players are basically abnormal makes the people who are actually over weight take no notice of it either.

However, the best way to decide if you're over weight is probably a bit of common sense and being honest with your self.

I agree it's a good starting point but too many people try and live their lives by the BMI figures and it's pointless.

fred1star

I'm just big boned.... honest :roll:

Surf-Matt

gandhi wrote:

20.1.

For most (not all) people, BMI is a reasonable quick way to decide if someone is over weight (not to decide if they're unfit, that's obviously different).

I hear a lot of big guys saying it's rubbish because they [used to] play rugby or lift weights etc, but if you look at them they have a lot of fat too. People using professional rugby players to rubbish it when the players are basically abnormal makes the people who are actually over weight take no notice of it either.

However, the best way to decide if you're over weight is probably a bit of common sense and being honest with your self.

I'm just about on the "overweight" border yet look very "normal" (no thuggish giant trap muscles or anything), have 9% bodyfat and am pretty lean. Yes I've worked out since I was 16 but am a million miles from being a bodybuilder. More like a sort of boxer physique. So I still think it's daft. If you're fat, you don't need numbers to tell you you're fat. You're just fat.

The Northern Monkey

Use waist to hip ratio instead.

this isn't a "fitness" guide... its to assess your risk of cardiovascular disease.


BMI is no longer used by nutritionists/dietitians because its useless - I should know!

stumpyjon

I think it's a bit easy to dismiss BMI. Yes it is a bit vague and doesn't work for everyone but let's be honest most of us are not athletes (Matt to be fair with the amount of exercise you do and having seen your photo I'm more than willing to concede that you may well fall into this category). It is a rough guide, thing is if you've got a BMI of 30 and you're not working out daily there's a fair probablity you need to lose some weight, some of you will be 'big boned' etc. etc. but most will not. If you've got a BMI of 25 / 26 and you are fit then probably you haven't got a lot to worry about (although in most cases losing a couple of pounds wouldn't hurt).

In case you're wondering my BMI is around 26.2 at the moment, down from around 29 two years ago. People say I look fine and don't need to lose more weight, personally I think another 5 or 6 Kg less would be good.

I think one of the reasons many people rubbish BMI is we've lost our reference point in society for what normal is. So many people are now sedentary, eating poor diets and not exercising that what would have been considered fat 15 years ago now passes for normal. Those that do exercise a bit (which probably covers the majority of people here) will naturally be lighter than the average.

Right I'm off to finish stuffing that packet of Revels down my neck

Kiblams

The way I see it is if your stomach sticks out further than your pecs, then you need to work it off a bit.

I am happy as in the last month after riding since January; my stomach is now smaller than my moobs even though the moobs are pretty much pecs again now. (dropped from 17st to 16st so far)

Kitty

BMI is 15.8 but I'm underwieght from being ill, before I got ill my BMI was still too low so not much has changed.

Surf-Matt

Flipping eck Kitty that is very low. Hope you are okay?

Jon - ermm thanks :oops: I guess I do train (and have trained) a fair bit over the years. As I get older though, bits of me keep falling apart! Either get fat or stay fit and fall to bits. Now doing physio for:

My right knee (unstable due to slightly flat right foot)
My right shoulder (been dislocating since I was 15 - almost sorted now)
My right hip (think it's from the knee issue)
My right trapezius/lat area (related to my shoulder - strong but don't have sufficient muscle control)

And repeated sinusitis!!

stumpyjon

Matt

I've noticed that. I've never been particularly fit and was getting fat until I started riding properly 2 years ago. I'm definitely thinner now than I have been since i was 20 (I turned 38 last week), and a lot fitter but everything hurts. Knees sometimes ache after riding and I keep getting random pains which appear first thing in the morning and take a couple of weeks to ease, never in the same place twice though :? . Sometimes makes me wonder if I should have stayed a porker.

Kitty, regardless of your take on BMI that is very low :shock:

Ditch Witch

Well, you may have niggly pains now, but at least you'll be able to pull yourself off the toilet when your 80

Thewaylander

Maybe depends if his knees go..

Then he could get stuck there..(best take a mag with you mate )

Ditch Witch

And one of those donut cushions

stumpyjon

Thewaylander wrote:

best take a mag with you mate )

fastest route to piles (or so I've been told :oops: ).

Thewaylander

Look for a fella its perfectly to take some good reading with you for release time...

Kitty

I'm fine thank you boys, trying to put weight back on but a gluten and dairy free diet isn't helping much.

Porgy

According to the BMI I was still obese at the thinnest I have ever been. I've seen pictures of myelf taken then and I look like a bean pole. People who knew me were askign me if I was eating enough.

However, now I am overweight and my BMI is strictly confidential, on a need to know basis only.

stumpyjon

Kitty wrote:

I'm fine thank you boys, trying to put weight back on but a gluten and dairy free diet isn't helping much.

Got a freind like that, she's in exactly the same boat. She's fairly allergic to some basic foodstuffs (properly allergic not 'intolerant'). She was really ill before they finally diagnosed what was wrong by which time she'd lost loads of weight. She's back to a more healthy weight now but it is difficult to get fat on her restricted diet.

mea00csf

the reason BMI is rubbish is because it was never really supposed to be applied to singular people. It was devised to be a statistical analysis of the population as a whole. This means that the people who it doens't apply to become insignificant as, in general over the whole population, it works. To look at a persons individual BMI is irrelevant.

Although i still know mine, a healthy 22.7

rolf_f

Just to add another shape to the proceedings, my BMI is 16.9 and waist:hip ratio 0.94 - and it will have been pretty much that for the last 25 years. However, this is probably no surprise since my body fat is 6.1%. Don't work to get it like that - always has been and probably always will be; doesn't make any difference what exercise I do or what I eat, it always stays the same.

Kitty

stumpyjon wrote:

Kitty wrote:

I'm fine thank you boys, trying to put weight back on but a gluten and dairy free diet isn't helping much.

Got a freind like that, she's in exactly the same boat. She's fairly allergic to some basic foodstuffs (properly allergic not 'intolerant'). She was really ill before they finally diagnosed what was wrong by which time she'd lost loads of weight. She's back to a more healthy weight now but it is difficult to get fat on her restricted diet.

Yeah I lost about a stone and a half before I was ill and it took me ages to get to that and a year later i'm still struggling to put it back on, if I get ill over a couple of days half a stone can drop off so easily, however I do have "lovely" supplement drinks (taste like sick) to stop that now.

whyamihere

22.8, need to lose a bit of weight.

Ditch Witch

Rolf F wrote:

Just to add another shape to the proceedings, my BMI is 16.9 and waist:hip ratio 0.94 - and it will have been pretty much that for the last 25 years. However, this is probably no surprise since my body fat is 6.1%. Don't work to get it like that - always has been and probably always will be; doesn't make any difference what exercise I do or what I eat, it always stays the same.

I have a couple of friends like you. Bastards

Ditch Witch

Kitty wrote:

BMI is 15.8 but I'm underwieght from being ill, before I got ill my BMI was still too low so not much has changed.

Are you sure that's not body fat %? Cuz to get that BMI, you'd have to be 5'8" and 7 stone!

Kitty

Ditch Witch wrote:

Kitty wrote:

BMI is 15.8 but I'm underwieght from being ill, before I got ill my BMI was still too low so not much has changed.

Are you sure that's not body fat %? Cuz to get that BMI, you'd have to be 5'8" and 7 stone!

5"6 ish and 7 stone actually.