Weight...overweight, obese, morbidly obese, etc.

I am overweight. I should lose at least a stone and probably two to be back in the right area, but I am older than most here and it DOES make a difference. Post menopause I put on weight and it is phenomenally difficult to shift. I'm also a different shape than I used to be. I used to be a size 12/14, now I'm a 14/16 with a fatter waist.

On the plus side I am reasonably fit and power walk 3.5 miles a day.

We probably have changed our collective view on fat. But body image seems to be far more important these days than before, although how those two things reconcile with each other is beyond me.

I am an older lady too, not yet menopausal (*sp) but I am classed as obese. I am a totally different shape too esp after having 2 children and I carry all my "fat" around my tummy. I see a personal trainer once a week, dog walk every night and go to the gym yet I am still the same size (I am trying to eat healthier too)

I agree totally with AC about body image and how hard it is though shift weight as you get older. I will keep trying though!

I am classed as overweight. I'm 5ft 4 and 11st 4lb, I am a size 10/12.

I need to lose 2 stone to be in the middle of my healthy weight range, yet I have been told by people that many would 'kill' for a figure like mine.

I do think we have become desensitized to obesity. Many times I have seen a bigger woman decribed as curvy when she is blatently just overweight/obese. I think this is wrong because it reinforces a view that being unhealthy is ok.

I also think that the media likes to batter women with an idea of 'normal' If you are over a size 14 you are fat but under a size 10 you are not a 'real' woman. We cant win.

Having seen photos of you Rod, you do look good...but I agree that looking good in a dress for a night out doesn't equal being healthy...you've hit on the point I was trying to make.

This is what the book was saying. That is has become normal to be heavier and so now overweight is seen as normal, obese as curvy, morbidly obese as needing to lose a few pounds.

Yes. Yes.

I am 5' 5". I am 11st 10lbs so am in the middle of the overweight category.

Like Rod, I need to lose two stone to be in the middle of the ideal range and one stone to be just into the healthy range.

What I hate about Rod is that in BMI terms we are pretty much exactly the same. Yet she looks like her and I look like, well, me.

I agree that what is considered normal is higher than it was.

I agree with a lot that's been said here. I am overweight, I am 5 foot 4 and 11 stone. I also put weight on around my tummy which is incredibly unhealthy.

People don't like the word obese, understandably, but sadly I think we collectively do need to wake up and realise that our perceptions are wrong.

This is mental. I am 5'4'' and a usual 10/sometime 12, but at around 9st. Am I full of air? (Not just of the hot variety....)

I'm in the healthy BMI, only just though.

I was obese at my heaviest, but I did look it. I still think I look fat, though, even though I'm healthy.

Whilst I agree that some people don't *look* morbidly obese, the fact is the heavier you are (in most cases) the worse it is for your health. Obviously there are exceptions, but generally if you're obese, you'll have health problems later in life.

People always say I look about 9 and a half stone. I wish!

So you hate me now?! haha!

I like to think my weight is made up of the 3 b's. Boobs, bum, brain. All very heavy haha

Just going off on a tangent slightly I'm 5ft 9 and weigh almost 12 stone yet I'm most definitely a suze 12 to 14. I can't work out how rod is 5 inches shorter and only half a stone lighter and can wear size 10 clothes. That doesn't make sense to my tiny addled brain!

I'm the same height as Rod and a few pounds lighter but need a size 14 for my bum and a 10-12 on top!

Yes. Was that not clear? ?

?

I am roughly the same height and weight as Rod. I wear a size 10 top and size 14 bottoms. I think your clothing size depends a lot on how your weight is distributed rather than just how tall you are and how much you weigh, if that makes sense.

Yep its about body shape. As well as where you buy your clothes from I find.

This is my point about BMI. A woman I work with is the same height as me, 9st. But doesnt drink water and eats crisps all day. So yes, her BMI is good but she isnt healthy.

Well I'm not lying haha!

Well I'm not lying haha!

BMI charts tell me im obese...seeing as im 5"1 il always be classed as obese unless im 8 stone 7 or something ridiculous!!!!!!!!

I am also 5'4", a 10-12 and weigh 10 stone now (yay lost 6 pounds!)

its not like I even have decent norks to weigh me down. How does this happen?

Beats me Mini one!

Rod, you've obviously got heavy feet and a heavy brain!!

I am 5'3, 10stone (or at least I was last time I weighed myself as my scales have run out of battery) and a size 10-12 (though usually a 12). According to BMI I'm overweight, although only just. I don't think I look overweight but mainly because the weight is distributed between my boobs, stomach and thighs, so I'm fairly evenly proportioned, and since I'm careful about what I wear most people don't realise how big my belly actually is! I have quite muscly thighs from doing a lot of walking and there's not much I can do about the weight of my boobs, but I would like to lose some of my stomach flab.

I've never known that we were the same height...9st 6lbs will get you in the ideal range.

Clearly! I am not small framed and bird like. I am fairly heavy set i suppose.

I never realised you were so short. In my head, you are a leggy one.

Rod, what size boobs are you?

I am only a B cup, so mine probably weigh about 2 lb altogether.

and i always thought you were a tall'un!

My BMI is 23 which is about in the middle of normal.

I weigh around 8.5 stone (55kg ish) am 5"1 and my top half can be anything between 6-8, bottom half 8-10 depending on where I shop. My hips are my main issue but I cant do a lot about bone...

I have been this weight since I was 18, at one point I was down to 53kg but I was exercising more and eating a bit more healthy. Just after that I was down to 50kg but I lived on toast due to my erratic working hours so that wasnt a healthy diet either.

I think sometimes we focus too much on BMI and what is supposedly obese, would be not be better focusing more on the percentage of body fat because surely someone could have less body fat and be smaller than somebody who has more body fat and is taller, thus has the potential to be obese...

At the other end of the scale I feel there is a lot of pressure to be skinny and anything over a 10 is deemed fat.

I wish!!!

Well according to this I am over-weight.