Why are so many people aiming for a very low BMI?

I have noticed on Calorie Count that many of the forums include posts from people aiming to lose weight for a BMI at the lowest end of the healthy range (18.5 - 20) some of the posts seem to be aiming for a BMI even lower than this. 

If the healthy range is 18.5-24.9, shouldn't people be happy to be somewhere in this range rather than actively aiming for the lowest end of the scale?  I can understand people in this range wanting to increase their fitness (changing their fat/muscle ratio) but I don't think they need to actively try to lose weight.

I understand the average BMI in the USA, the UK and in Australia where I hail from is sadly higher than 25 for both adult men and women.  The push to have a very low BMI is therefore not a result of wanting to look like everyone around us. 

What do you think?

I do figure competitions for fun and motivation.  That is why I aim for a low BMI.  I like the muscle-ly look and I like seeing my abs.  I don't think people at higher BMI's look bad at all though.  In fact some people probably think I look better at a higher BMI but that's their opinion of me and my opinion of me is all that counts!!!  ;)

A lot of it is media influence.  Very few celebrities have BMI over 20.  Many are underweight.  Most of the posts aiming for BMIs on the bottom edge of the healthy range come from teens who are heavily influenced by the media and their peers (who are, in turn, heavily influenced by the media).

For some, it's wanting to weigh the same as they did in high school (or, in the case of teens, as they did a few years ago).  Sometimes that's reasonable.  Other times, it's not.

For some, it's bone structure.  If you're very petite and fine boned, you may still look heavy with a BMI of 25 and may want to aim closer to 20-21ish.

I disagree with the whole concept of the BMI.

Fat percentage is one thing, but BMI's are very strange.  I have a friend who i can literally switch clothes with. Im 206, he's 176.  He has a better BMI than me but my fat muscle percentage kicks his ass. 

What I've come to realize that is that its easier to follow what you're told than to come up with healthy asumptions on your own. If they say you should have "A" BMI and i have "C" bmi, then i should change to A or better. To stop and question your make up, and even the very rules of BMI is to step out of a comfortable box.

Alas this is the way life in general works.

I think that most of us who are truly obese don't aim for anything much below 25 in order to be healthier (I would be happy to be 24.9, personally) whereas people who only have a little weight to lose often are interested in meeting media standards of beauty.

I also think that some of us become obsessed with the satisfaction of losing weight, and want that to continue past the healthy point.  Maintaining doesn't seem as satisfying -- maybe because when you are dieting to lose weight you see confirmation of your struggles in the lower number on the scale, once you are at a healthy weight the number stays the same.  A different kind of satisfaction, but maybe less satisfying for some of us?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I happen to have a LOT of fat (especially on my stomach) at my current BMI of 21.  I don't put much stock in BMI, but I do put stock in how I feel, and currently, I feel about 10 pounds overweight.

So that puts me at a pretty low BMI, but once I stop having a calorie-deficit and can rebuild my lost muscle, I expect my weight and BMI will go up.

I am currently at a BMI of 24.1, and I still look overweight to me. I am a very small frame, and look my best at 110. I'm not sure what that puts my BMI at, I'm guessing like 19. I think that anywhere in that range is healthy, so at a BMI of 19, I will still be healthy, but I'll feel a lot better about myself, which, in my opinion, makes me even healthier.

You shouldn't focus on BMI at all. It's a bad number to use and should be nothing more than a complete rough approximation.

To answer the OP's question...  the probably reasons are the following:

ignorance - some people truely just don't know what a healthy human being actually looks like.

Vanity - a desperat need to look thinner, slimmer, more athletic, ect, ect then some one.. or even every one else. ((though I never figured out how looking like a walking skeleton could be considered athletic, but those are the words I hear repeated))

Insecurity - low-self esteem and insecurity is a huge problem with women in most industrialized countries.

Serious body image issue - this boils down to every one being their own worst critic taken to necrotic levels and is also very common in industrialized countries.

attention -  this a big one...  if you've read all these posts I'm sure you've noticed it.

Add this to the media glorification of the altra thin, and the unhealthy depictions of beauty for women... and then new emo/gothic emaciated look that's populare for guys.  It's a social phenomena that would probably kill off the unrealistic and the stupid where it not for modern medicine.

Personally I think these unrealistic ideas of beauty are terrible.... people literally killing themselves for a look that can only be achieved through photo touch ups and computer manipulation.  It's unhealthy, dangerous, and sad.

@#6  Every girl aiming for a low BMI makes that claim.  They are smalle boned, small framed... ect ect.   Only a very small percentage of the population is naturally that small, and naturally and healthily at that low of a BMI.   So if 1% ((randomly chosen small number))of the population actually is naturally that small... want to figure the odds that it's true for you and every other girl that claimed that just today alone?   Not likely hun....  More over, if you where naturally that small, that small boned, or that small framed...  well you probably wouldn't be on this site.   That's sort of what "naturally" means... it means you are that way without having to take measures to get that way .

I'm really sorry if I sound harsh, but aiming for just this side of healthy is all of half a step to aiming for unhealthy.   It's a horrible thing to do to yourself.  Really if your at a healthy weight and you just have a few vanity pounds you should focus on building muscle and losing fat rather then the numbers on the scale. 

Sorry OP, you asking this just really brought up all the things I've been thinking about this.   I've seriously considered just not using the message boards a time or 2... because the whole thing makes me sad, angry, and plain horrified.   You just want to help every one... a few you just want to bop in the head and tell to wake up...

BMI is BS.  Like one guys said, he weighed 30lbs more than a friend, but was leaner- yet his BMI is higher.  It simply does not take into account the variations in people's body structure.

Example.. a few years ago I went to a gym/nutritionist and they had one of those fancy bodyfat readers with things they stuck to your feet that apparently the only other place in the area that had one was the hospital.

My lean body mass (not fat) weighed 140lbs.  I am 5'7, large frame, and muscular.  According to BMI standards, a 25 BMI would be 160lbs, however do the math- if you look at my actual lean bodymass, that would only leave me with 13.5% bodyfat.  Thats a pretty fair descrepancy. 

So why do people use it- or go for the lowest one possible (excluding body builders)?  I guess for self punishment :p

Original Post by piedmontq1:

I have noticed on Calorie Count that many of the forums include posts from people aiming to lose weight for a BMI at the lowest end of the healthy range (18.5 - 20) some of the posts seem to be aiming for a BMI even lower than this. 

If the healthy range is 18.5-24.9, shouldn't people be happy to be somewhere in this range rather than actively aiming for the lowest end of the scale?  I can understand people in this range wanting to increase their fitness (changing their fat/muscle ratio) but I don't think they need to actively try to lose weight.

I understand the average BMI in the USA, the UK and in Australia where I hail from is sadly higher than 25 for both adult men and women.  The push to have a very low BMI is therefore not a result of wanting to look like everyone around us. 

What do you think?

 

I cant and wont speak for anyone else but based on the numbers I am supposed to have a BMI from 18.5 - 24.9 and mine today is at 21.8 so I guess I am in the middle....which is cool with me :)

Lunaripyros (at #8), thank you for your excellent points.  I think you're right on the money.  I've actually started hanging out more in the "Fitness" section these days because I get so sad and frustrated by the abundance of these sorts of posts over here.  On the Fitness board, there's a lot less of that mindset and a lot more of people actually looking to be healthy instead of stick-thin.

GIJane is usually around to (try to) talk some sense into people on the Weight Loss board, though, which I appreciate.  But there have been so many lately that I read it less often.  And when people try to point out that these I-want-a-super-low BMI posters are already at a healthy weight, the posters get angry because you've spoiled their "OMGZ I am teh FATZZZZ!" party. 

This post kind of buggs me.  The BMI index is inacurate to begin with.  The range is given because people in this range have the least amount of health problems compared to the rest of the population.  There is no "ideal".  The smack dab middle of the BMI chart is not even an indication of health or of best weight. 

I get it that people looking to be ultra thin are not in the right mind set.  Yeah I get that.  I also get that someone of a higher BMI can have more muscle mass and therefore be smaller than someone at a lower BMI. 

But most of these posts just seem down right thin bigoted.  I just reached a healthy BMI.  But if you were to see me you would see that I still have weight to lose.  I am working on my muscle.  I am not some kind of skinny freak. 

But I spent most of my life with a BMI of 19 or 20 and all of it was good strong muscle.  I was at my healthiest then and I see no reason not to aim for my healthiest now.  I got pregnant, took a desk job, got sick and had to take steroids and became depressed - all of that added up to extra weight.  But that weight is not me and it is not how I spent most of my life and it is NOT how I will spend the rest of my life.

Do I have to worry that as I try to lose my last 15-20 lbs there will be people flogging me for "trying to be skinny"? 

I know all about good health being more than just weight.  I would hope that you all would too.  Yet these posts are just another form of number obsession and they are not even your numbers.

I think some people are happy to be healthy and let it go at that, but many have been 'underweight' in previous years and let that skew their views on weight loss.  I understand that sizes today are different from what they were say 10-15 years ago so it's unrealistic to get back to X pant size for a lot of us.  Some people get fixated on a specific number and from that anything else seems to be unacceptable.

But I guess it's all in the individual.  If I see someone pushing for a certain goal weight I try to find out why it's so important if the weight goes below what should be healthy for them.  Honestly that's all any of us can do is try to help people be healthy.  I get conflicted with people that want to be on the lower end of the scale getting flack for it.  Barring them doing anything unhealthy or dangerous I thought we're all here in that same boat trying to reshape our lives.

I go off more where I know I felt comfortable weight wise rather then a specific number.  I know pictures of me at weights lower then 110 I looked sickly and scrawny in.  At 135 I got tired of telling everyone I wasn't pregnant and being miserable that my clothes were getting tight.  Both of those weights come up as "healthy" for a BMI though.  So perception does play in.  115-120 is a 20.4 to 21.3 BMI and that's what I'm shooting for.  Will people have something to say, probably, but it's like anything else in life.  Can't make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time.

What works for one of us might appear that someone else has a few more pounds to lose.  My best friend and I are 4 inches apart in height and wear the same pants size and are about the same weight.  When we hit a weight that would finally put me in the healthy BMI range, she'll still be "mildy overweight".  Even if we were the same height we're proportoned so differently that what works for me might not work for her.

If you're obese at BMI 30 or above, 25 looks really good, and it's a struggle to get there.  Waistline is said to be a more accurate health measure, but usually lower waistline comes along with lower BMI.

Below 25 is all cosmetic IMHO.  At my age there's no danger that lowering my BMI will turn me into Brad Pitt, so I really don't give a rip.

Original Post by lunaripyros:

To answer the OP's question...  the probably reasons are the following:

ignorance - some people truely just don't know what a healthy human being actually looks like.

Vanity - a desperat need to look thinner, slimmer, more athletic, ect, ect then some one.. or even every one else. ((though I never figured out how looking like a walking skeleton could be considered athletic, but those are the words I hear repeated))

Insecurity - low-self esteem and insecurity is a huge problem with women in most industrialized countries.

Serious body image issue - this boils down to every one being their own worst critic taken to necrotic levels and is also very common in industrialized countries.

attention -  this a big one...  if you've read all these posts I'm sure you've noticed it.

Add this to the media glorification of the altra thin, and the unhealthy depictions of beauty for women... and then new emo/gothic emaciated look that's populare for guys.  It's a social phenomena that would probably kill off the unrealistic and the stupid where it not for modern medicine.

Personally I think these unrealistic ideas of beauty are terrible.... people literally killing themselves for a look that can only be achieved through photo touch ups and computer manipulation.  It's unhealthy, dangerous, and sad.

@#6  Every girl aiming for a low BMI makes that claim.  They are smalle boned, small framed... ect ect.   Only a very small percentage of the population is naturally that small, and naturally and healthily at that low of a BMI.   So if 1% ((randomly chosen small number))of the population actually is naturally that small... want to figure the odds that it's true for you and every other girl that claimed that just today alone?   Not likely hun....  More over, if you where naturally that small, that small boned, or that small framed...  well you probably wouldn't be on this site.   That's sort of what "naturally" means... it means you are that way without having to take measures to get that way .

I'm really sorry if I sound harsh, but aiming for just this side of healthy is all of half a step to aiming for unhealthy.   It's a horrible thing to do to yourself.  Really if your at a healthy weight and you just have a few vanity pounds you should focus on building muscle and losing fat rather then the numbers on the scale. 

Sorry OP, you asking this just really brought up all the things I've been thinking about this.   I've seriously considered just not using the message boards a time or 2... because the whole thing makes me sad, angry, and plain horrified.   You just want to help every one... a few you just want to bop in the head and tell to wake up...

 

 I think this is SO unfair for anyone to say! And where I understand where you're coming from, it's ridiculous to say that anyone trying to make themselves look good is in some way disordered. I'm very much offended by your post, and I think it's small minded and unfair. I'm 6'1" and 153, which makes my BMI pretty low, but BMI means almost nothing. I'm healthy, I eat a lot, I work out, and YES I have a small frame for my height. I'm glad that a BMI of 24 or whatever works for some of you, seriously! Do what you do! Love the way you look! But for those of us who have a different body composition and are not even worried about BMI, please don't be rude and tell us that we have all of these various things wrong with us, when that is NOT the case.

personaly my goal is around 20% BMI by the way the military dose it

curnetly by there measurements i am about 27%

there are many ways people can measure bodyfat and i dont know of one that accounts well for all bodytypes and person (unless they cost more than 100$ to perform

so for myself i am going for the military standards

I blame the Wii Fit - no one wants to be the meatball Mii

I am glad I knew going in that the Wii Fit doesn't account for muscle or body frame. According to the Wii Fit - even a well toned but muscular athlete would be considered to be overweight.

Personally, BMI means absolutely nothing to me.  I am simply shooting for a goal weight.

BMI doesn't really mean much to me, but because of todays standards I can see why it would to some people.

Personally, according to this site, I'm aiming for about 21. I'm not sure how that will look on my frame, so I'll probably stop around the 22-23 range.

because it usually looks better.