I'm 6'0 and the last time I was under BMI 25 I was a triathlete. The only way I could be <25 would be to exercise 3 hours a day and eat 1200 calories. F-off and die
I did quit smoking though:
- Really wanted to
- Picked a good mental argument against it ($100k CAD over 20 years)
- Picked a quit date
- Patch + zyban + nicotene lozenges
If you live in British Columbia, the government will pay for your patches or lozenges (hint: ask a friend)
I'm 6'1 and I had a BMI of about 26 until recently - I was definitely pudgy. I also claimed that BMI was worthless until I dropped a few pounds and realised that it was right and I was just making excuses.
If you're an athlete, or a bodybuilder, or particularly tall or small, it won't necessarily fit you. but if you're of normal-ish stature (ie 5'4 to 6'3), and don't keep track of your weight, it's probably bang on.
I've had a BMI of 27 for most of my adult life. I used to do competitive sport and trained for sessions a week 45 weeks a year, I got to 40 and couldn't cut it anymore so I quit. My bmi stayed at 28... I looked at a photo of me at age 28 about eight months ago and compared myself to that. The photo showed muscle bulk and tone, the mirror showed a big belly. I've adopted what I call the beer, bread and biscuits diet (as in NO) and avoid alcohol four days a week altogether. I've lost six kg, six more to go!
I'm about 6'2 and very lanky. My problem has always been that I don't eat enough, and my doctors have told me all my life I need to consciously try to eat more (which I try to do) to gain weight. I don't really do any planned exercise but I don't have a car so I get some daily workout from walking/cycling. In short, I'm no fitness nut or bodybuilder.
Every time I've taken BMI, the result is that I'm "slightly overweight". That's bullshit. If I actually tried to eat less, I'd probably end up having health complications related to malnutrition.
So BMI is very much bullshit when applied to individuals. It might have some relevance for the average case, and therefore be useful for demographic comparisons of large groups.
BMI isn't really reliable on a individual level as it doesn't take body composition into account. Athletes are generally "overweight" according to the BMI cutoff.
That's generally untrue. Winning endurance athletes are almost all in the normal BMI range. You'll only see "overweight" (by BMI) athletes in certain sports such as weightlifting and (American) football which require huge bursts of muscle power for only a few seconds at a time. Those are also the athletes who unfortunately tend to gain a lot of fat and have many health problems once they retire from competitive sports.
I'm 6'0 and the last time I was under BMI 25 I was a triathlete. The only way I could be <25 would be to exercise 3 hours a day and eat 1200 calories. F-off and die
I did quit smoking though:
- Really wanted to - Picked a good mental argument against it ($100k CAD over 20 years) - Picked a quit date - Patch + zyban + nicotene lozenges
If you live in British Columbia, the government will pay for your patches or lozenges (hint: ask a friend)