Are you overweight?

I was always told to take the BMI with a "pinch of salt". One of my friends who is built like a brick **** house is apparently obese lol :p he clearly isn’t though.

As for myself I weighed in at a massive 121kg(~19st) just under 2 years ago. I'm now down to 78.5kg(just over12st). Id say I'm still a bit overweight mainly some belly fat that I need to shift. My arms, shoulders, chest and back are more "defined". Completely lost my "moobs" which annoyed me for years. My face looks almost completely different due to less fat around the neck and cheeks.

People tell me I have done extremely well and look almost like a completely different person now.

My effort was stick to a very strict Healthy balanced diet. Along with some exercise. Exercise was very hard to begin with so I mainly stuck with concentrating on diet. Cut out fizzy drink and beer completely and just drank water and the odd coffee. Once I got exercising though sure it was hard but I just kept plugging away at it, start of slow and easy and work towards doing more and more.

The sports section here gave me some really good advice with exercising and food along with bit of research online. Just got to keep in mind that it takes time, I didn’t really start seeing results for amount a month or two into my diet and exercising. For me at least it just seemed to start shedding off. I now look at pictures of me from about 3-4 years ago and just think holy **** was I really that big :eek:

I must admit my diet is not quite as strict now and I drink the odd beer here and there. I just make sure I don't overdo it anymore. Same with food, there is nothing wrong with going out with a meal once in a while with my girlfriend or friends. I just don't make it a habit. But that’s more of a luxury for me now as I'm quite happy with my weight now and can "afford" to treat myself once in a while. Also since losing so much weight I think I’m more aware of what I’m eating and drinking because I just think to myself I do not want to get stupidly fat again.
 
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im a right fat git!!!

i lost loads of weight a couple of year ago and got pretty hench... then i rediscovered sitting on my arse and eating junk food.

dont care yet, will sort it out october i reckon :D
 
I'm not, I have been a little bit in fact I think I was touching obese on the BMI scale but BMI doesn't take your build into account so I pretty much stopped paying any attention to that a while ago.

Used to drink too much, eat rubbish and I was about 13.5st (5ft 9, 37yo) and no amount of gym (I was going every day at one point) made much difference, each lb lost was difficult.

At the start of last year I made a couple of fundamental changes so I stopped drinking during the week (for the most part) and more importantly changed my diet.

More concerned with animal welfare than diet I chopped out all meat when I don't know the source so if it's not free range or organic I don't eat it, I also started trying to be veggie all week (and then I pig out on a really good burger or steak or something at the weekend) and I've also moved so stopped going to the gym.

I've lost 2 stone doing less exercise than I was before.

I see so many people killing themselves in a gym because they've been brainwashed into thinking that is the answer, and to be fair I am going to start going again because I'm losing my shape/definition and I like being a bit heavier set but in terms of health and weight loss its diet diet diet diet. And understand what is good and what isn't, there's a guy at work who is piling the weight on currently and we've been laying into him for all the KFC etc, he got a diagnosis of high blood pressure, reduced liver function and early signs of diabetes so what did he do? He went healthy.. came back from lunch with a salad and orange juice. The salad has about 700 calories of dressing and cheese and the big bottle of orange juice had over a days allowance of sugar. Ignorance is a killer!

More green, more raw, less meat, less carbs.. it's been a revelation.. I can't actually put weight on now.. you should see how much salad you need to eat to hit the same amount of calories as meat and potatoes, you couldn't get it in!

The veggie diet is much more than veggie burgers and iceberg too, something like river cottage veg and simon rimmers accidental vegetarian books are full of really tasty, really easy meals and because you're doing raw assemblies a lot its cheaper on ingredients, there's less waste and they're often quicker and at the end of it you feel great.
 
Salsa said:
Up until last year I was, not massively (6'1" and 15 stone) but I was very unfit. I took the decision to do something about it though and cut out the crap from my diet and started running.

Just over a year later I am 2.5 stone lighter and 4 inches smaller round the waist. I dont even crave junk food or sugar anymore. If I crave anything these days its normaly fruit. So far I have 5k and 10k races under my belt and got my first 1/2 marathon in 3 weeks. Have never felt in better shape.

I am not militant with my diet. I still drink and eat the odd pizza but I changed my snacking habits switching crisps etc for fruit or cutting snacks out entirely. The goal for next year is actually to put on about 1/2 a stone and complete a tri, marathon and beat my PB for 5/10k.
/Salsa
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Well done - I'm quite the same in height, exception I started off at 17 stone (which I think I carried quite well) except sometimes I do move back to junk every once in a while. Got what i'd class as a bit of 'stubborn' fat around the belly, but apart from that i'd say I am in good fitness.

Currently bouncing around 13st10 - 14st but so much more fitter than usual, it is unbelievable.

Also, a bit of stress from work doesn't help matters either!
 
Kronos said:
Not actually looking for advice as putting on weight is not something I really need to be concerned about any more as a diet of Fortisip, 4 bottles a day takes care of that. As for exercise when I worked I had a really physical job so never really felt the need plus I hated the gym and sport which I thinks having it forced upon me during my school-days in all weathers many many years ago.
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Those sort of drinks aren't really that helpful, you might as well just prepare your own food which will be far more nutritious. It's a bit of a lackadaisical approach to nutrition and food to rely on a pretty poor drink to provide you with balanced nutrition as an excuse to not bother eating properly.

If exercise and sport isn't your bag then there are other options and choices you can make. :)

My interest in the answers to my question are really based on the fact that there is a massive choice of unhealthy foods and snacks these days which must make life more difficult.
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Yes there are unfortunately as they are cheap and easy to mass produce, and people are lazy and do not realise the crap they are putting in their bodies.

However, it is not difficult to ignore them and eat healthily. I don't find it hard at all, admittedly going out in town and finding a quick health snack is not always as easy, but you can still make the choice. i.e. instead of a floppy burger from somewhere, you can grab some chicken, avocado, and some nuts and have yourself a pretty decent meal for the same price. Add a banana or another fruit and you've got yourself a decent meal for well under £5.

We hear much of the obesity epidemic but nothing much seems to be done about the companies making big money on producing crap food though at times they do pay lip service to reducing salt and sugar intake.
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I agree there should be a responsibility to put less cheap mass produced foods out there, but then think about the families that struggle to make ends meet - these cheap foods, whilst not great, are very appealing, as they can feed their family for £50 a week. With education they can do it for the same amount but a lot healthier - but it's just not that easy. I'd love to see the demand for fresh produce increase, lots of fresh meats, fish and fruits and vegetables available, but it's just not economically viable owing to how the industry is set up. Similar with bread, you cannot make good quality bread when it's mass produced - it's impossible, as such you will be left with poor quality breads loaded with sugars and additives.

For the average joe bloggs, seeing a £1 meal / pizza / whatever, vs, lots of individual ingredients is a no brainer. They can shove the meal in the oven, and forget about it. Preparing a meal takes a bit of imagination skill and a bit more time.

I don't disagree with you at all though, I'd love for there to be only health choices available and no mass produced/refined/processed foods. However, how do you feed MILLIONS of people without doing that? We haven't got the logistical network, enough farms, or bandwidth to cater for everyone. It's just not scalable. Banning or removing certain products from shops is one way I guess, but why would you want to hit your profits? It's a responsibility we should all be willing to embrace, but let us face it, if you're not making money from your store you won't continue that strategy.

Some supermarkets have removed chocolate bars from check outs, and other "convenience" foods for "on a whim" purchases - I wonder how big a hit they'd get for removing all the snacks and sweets?

Then again, is it fair to remove them? What if you get health freaks like me for example, who fancy a chocolate bar from time to time?

I appreciate that we are all free to choose what we eat but the costs to society will surely be expensive if it continues to grow.
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I agree long term it makes more senses as a country, and talking about our health services and so on - but short term, people don't look beyond their P&L figures.

I admit when I was overweight I knew it and still did nothing and when I look at the size of some of my clothes I wore then I am quite disgusted.
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Well done on changing your lifestyle :)
 
A little, yes. Working in an office and driving to work will do that to you I guess.

Been considering taking up running though.
 
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According to BMI figures I am overweight (just under 30) and I am very pleased about it........................ considering I had a BMI of about 40 6 months ago :p
 
I recently had a full health check with Nuffield Health and they had this to say:
"Weight 12 stone 5 lbs, height 5.8 giving you a BMI of 26 kg/m^2 elevated due to athletic build, as your percentage body fat
percentage is 16.8% and waist size 85 cm which are all normal"

I think people worry too much about the weight figure itself and BMI can be very misleading. The Body-fat percentages and Waist size are a far better indication, but nothing should be taken in isolation really. For example, blood pressure, resting heart rate and cardio-vascular fitness should be taken into account.
 
I'm 6ft bang on and weigh 95kg. This puts me squarely in the overweight category but I'm working on it slowly. I was 99.2 a month ago but changes to my diet, signing up to a gym and generally watching what I eat is helping me drop slowly. It's slow but I am still enjoying my food and I'm doing lots of strength training so hopeful'y I'm building a bit of muscle too.

Doesn't help that the day this fitness / health thing hit me I decided to quit smoking too.
 
BMI is actually a very useful benchmark. Mostly because it is so simple, an easy way to quickly check if someone is too fat.

Those for whom it really doesn't work are the exception, and are unlikely to be people who would benefit from such information anyway.

It's not especially helpful to give people the excuse to ignore it with all the "BMI is useless" talk in every overweight discussion ever.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
I recently had a full health check with Nuffield Health and they had this to say:
"Weight 12 stone 5 lbs, height 5.8 giving you a BMI of 26 kg/m^2 elevated due to athletic build, as your percentage body fat
percentage is 16.8% and waist size 85 cm which are all normal"

I think people worry too much about the weight figure itself and BMI can be very misleading. The Body-fat percentages and Waist size are a far better indication, but nothing should be taken in isolation really. For example, blood pressure, resting heart rate and cardio-vascular fitness should be taken into account.
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Absolutely, waist and bodyfat percentage is far more important. Even more important is visceral fat vs subdermal fat.

As you say blood pressure is also something people should be aware of.
 
cheesyboy said:
BMI is actually a very useful benchmark. Mostly because it is so simple, an easy way to quickly check if someone is too fat.

Those for whom it really doesn't work are the exception, and are unlikely to be people who would benefit from such information anyway.

It's not especially helpful to give people the excuse to ignore it with all the "BMI is useless" talk in every overweight discussion ever.
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It's a guideline for sure, and easy to do as you do not need callipers or any specialist equipment. However, most people who are overweight on BMI can tell by looking in the mirror really. That's the point.

Also, waist to hip ratio, and waist to height ratio is also an important measurement which is easily calculated without any specialist equipment.

BMI should be used in conjunction with at least some other easy to work out measurement else it is not really indicative.
 
cheesyboy said:
BMI is actually a very useful benchmark. Mostly because it is so simple, an easy way to quickly check if someone is too fat.

Those for whom it really doesn't work are the exception, and are unlikely to be people who would benefit from such information anyway.

It's not especially helpful to give people the excuse to ignore it with all the "BMI is useless" talk in every overweight discussion ever.
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BMI is definitely useless for anybody who has above average muscle mass
 
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