this is interesting stats as I recently had a body composition done where I was weighed, and measured and had an electrode reading of my body fat done, in this I was told I needed to lose 20lbs to be in a healthy range, AND I was currently at 34% body fat. Um the 2 are NOT coinciding in my opinion
BMI is different from body fat percentage. The numbers aren't necessarily going to match up.
BMI is based on height vs. weight and provides a fairly simple way to calculate a very general indicator of relative weight. It doesn't take into account your bone structure or level of fitness, so you have to adjust for that mentally yourself. But generally speaking, over 30 percent is considered obese for both sexes.
Body mass index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Body fat percentage, on the other hand, gives a more accurate picture of how much spare flab you're carrying around because it measures actual fat content. For men, obese would be over 25 percent. For women - over 32 percent.
Body fat percentage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The latest study on mortality rates published on November 6 of this year (the one that I referred to in my last post) effectively broadens the range of what can be considered healthy. The medical community used to think that "normal weight" was healthy and "overweight" was unhealthy. Now it looks like "overweight" is healthy too, and you don't actually get into an unhealthy range until you start getting up into the "obese" range.
In other words, it used to be considered bad to be "pleasingly plump." But the latest study indicates that "pleasingly plump" may be okay. You just don't want to get to the point of being "sloppily fat."
Also, it's worth keeping in mind that weight is just a very general indicator of health. It's mainly just an overall view of the person and how they're taking care of their body. If someone is obese in their youth and they're not offsetting the obesity with good habits like exercise on a regular basis, then obesity is a forward-looking indicator that predicts they are probably going to have more health problems than usual as they get older, and that they should probably start working on some better habits.
It's like smoking. It's not necessarily a problem when you're young. But as you get older, it puts a strain on the body and leads to predictable sorts of health problems. So it's preferable to think long-term and try to curb the bad habits relatively early before they start straining your body's coping mechanisms too much.
By the way, Tara, I've seen your pictures here on the message board, and you look pretty good to me. I like women with curves on them.
IOW, overweight and even borderline obese can still look good and be sexy. The medical community defines the lower level of "obesity" pretty low, by my standards. My wife is a middle-aged woman from Indiana, and she definitely has a round, curvy look to her. And I'm no lightweight either. We're both probably borderline obese. But we also both work out at least a couple times a week to stay healthy and keep active and to offset the extra weight and make sure it doesn't become a problem when we have our annual check-ups. So far, so good.