BMI or waist measurement

Greatnan I was slender once but two lots of emergency major abdominal surgery have made me quite lumpy. However, it's better than being dead – at the moment at least.

Alison, I don't think you can. The calipers were calibrated, they had to be an exact distance apart that was not the same for each area of the body they masured and they had to be pinched at an agreed pressure to get the fat thickness exact. BMI is calculated in an entirely different fashion. it is based on the following formula:

English BMI Formula
BMI = Weight in Pounds / ( Height in inches squared ) x 703

Metric BMI Formula
BMI = Weight in Kilograms / Height in Metres squared

BMI is by no means a reliable estimate of body fat. It is worth reading the Wikipedia article on the subject. If you are very muscular or have a large frame it will overestimate your fat percentage and say you are overweight or obese when you are not and if like me you have a narrow frame it will lull you into a sense of false security because it will reassure you that your body fat percentage is at an acceptable level when it is actually significantly higher than it should be.

Absent, if we could be combined we would make a perfect woman - I have always had an hour glass figure - but it was a bit late in the day! I found it hard to buy two piece suits until they started selling tops and bottoms separately.
(You must be very slender).

I have a sort of upside down body – size 12 (or even 14) t the top and size 8 at the bottom. I am 5 feet 9 inches, have a BMI of 20 and a waist measurement f 28 inches. During my recent visit to New Zealand, my elder granddaughter wanted to know when I woud start shrinking.

Flickety how would we go about doing the caliper thing at home? I think we all need something we can do ourselves and I cannot think of a better guide to do at home than BMI.

I am still about 2" bigger than my oldest daughter,but I am now topped by all ten grandchildren, even the youngest, who is 13. My mother dropped from 5' 6" to 5' - but she did live to be 91.

Maniac yes, I have shrunk. When I had the pre op session before my Gall bladder operation a feww years ago, the nurse weighed me then said "And how tall are you?"
"5 ft 4ins," I replied.
She measured me and told me I was now 5ft 3ins.

Wonder how tall I am now....

BMI is a ludicrous measurement in any direction. About 20 years ago my employer ran a health and fitness programme at work and the medical staff calculated how fat you were based on a whole series of caliper measurements of fat thickness on different parts of your body, a far more accurate system than BMI. At this lower weight they reckoned my fat level was around 27. My weight then was about 5lbs lower than the maximum weight I can be under the BMI system and according to that scheme have less than 25% fat on my body.

In fact based on the more accurate caliper measurements at the upper limit of the BMI approved weight range I am actually nearer 30% fat and close to the official measure of obesity.

I have always found that regular sizing of trousers is no good for my shape. If I got them big enough for my hips, the waist would be far too loose, so it always had to be elasticated waist bands. Not so bad now I have lost weight.
I have shrunk too, from 5' 6 1/2" to about 5' 4" - can I use my former height to calculate my BMI please?
I suppose even BMI is hit and miss because a very muscly rugby player can a very high BMI and certainly won't be obese. I agree that the way your clothes fit is probably the best guide. (Anybody want a Size 18 'Miracle' swimming costume with a concealed support for the stomach - there is no way I can take it in)

Pennysue

I've also had the same problem. Small hips and large waist. I also happen to have broad shoulders. I'm fortunate that I have been around the same weight all my adult life. Does make buying clothes very difficult - dresses are a no, no. I'm just glad at the moment that hipster style trousers are still in fashion. High waisted trousers are just a nightmare. I'll have to go back to making my own soon.
It seems to me that one size fits all is absolutely mad. Everyone is different. In the past they looked at your bone structure to make those sort of decisions. Where has 'common sense' disappered to?

I am from a family of apple shapes - GM, Mother, Sisters, Daughter etc. all carry there weight round the middle. Grandmother lived to be 99, Mother is 85 and fit and active. We all have small behinds and very little fat elsewhere. Even when I lost loads of weight (infact was underweight for my height and bone structure) I still carried "fat" round my middle.

A size 12 is more then big enough for my hips whereas my waist needs a 16! Hence I make most of my own clothes

Have you shrunk in height? On changing my GP and being weighed/measured I was astounded that I am now 5ft 2in.
I used to be 5ft 4-5in.
I guess if the same weight is contained in a shorter frame I'm bound to have spreading areas around waist/thighs!

Mamie is correct about apple shapes and carrying too much fat in that area. The first thing my doctor checked last week was my BMI. That confirmed what I already knew and on the papers she gave me it states if the BMI is between 25 to 35, much of the health benefits come with losing the first 5-10% of your weight. The waist measurement given for concern is 80cm or above for a woman and 94cm or above for a man.

I think what it is saying is that being apple-shaped is more likely to give problems than being pear-shaped. It is the ratio of waist to hips that is important. I think they are saying that if you are apple-shaped you are more likely to carry fat around your vital organs and that this can cause health problems.
OH is the classic apple shape, thin from behind, but unable to shift the weight from his stomach despite diet and exercise. Everything I have read says that it is much harder to lose weight from there.

I have stopped measuring and weighing myself if my clothes get tight I get to the gym more and eat more healthy stuff. It's a simple solution but it works for me. My enemies in sheep's clothing are chocolate and cakes, and I suspect wine!

I read something online about this. The figures are from research carried out by the charity Nuffield Health, which found that the average waistline for women in the UK is 4.9 cm larger than the healthy measurement of under 80cm (31.5").

Is that 30" for all women? Seems daft to me as I have one friend who is 4' 10" and another who is 6' 2" and I wouldn't expect them to have the same measurements. Also we are lots of different shapes and some very big people have very small waists so might need to lose weight but using this measurment would think they are OK.

I think BMI is a much better way of looking at it and I use the NHS website to find mine as it takes age, weight and hight into consideration. I know I am overweight so just use it to see how much!

Surely most people know if they are overweight or not?

If you have knee or back problems it is almost always a good idea to lose weight and get excersise. Losing weight takes some strain off the affected area and excersise builds muscle to support the offending joint.

Ah, yes, I remember the days when I had a 26" waistline. I remember the days when I had any waistline. What happened to it?

oops yes inches not cms - numbers are not my strong point.

I think you might mean 30", susie! I have always tried to keep to the magic 70% ratio and when my waist gradually crept up to 35" my hips went up to 46" so it still was not too bad! I am now just under 10 stone, down from almost 12 stone about 18 months ago, and my measurements are 38, 29, 41. I am size 14 for the first time in about 25 years. My BMI is 23.8 which is in the normal range. I feel much better for having lost the weight, mainly because it has helped my arthritic knees so much and my BP has dropped to a safe figure ( I take just 2.5 mg of Rampiril a day).
I noticed that the dramatic fat loss has been from my breasts, stomach and bottom, but I still have chunky thighs.
Although I am still having the same diet and walking for at least two hours most days, the weight loss seems to have stopped - I am assuming I have reached the correct weight for my age and height.
I still do not recognise myself in shop windows and I find I am holding myself and walking differently. The downside is that I have several really nice 'dressy' outfits that are now far too big but I am not throwing them away because I might put the weight back on. I was too hasty in getting rid of all my smaller sizes because I thought I would never lose the 'middle aged spread'.

30cm? Blimey, susie, 12 inches? Do they want us all to be Barbies?