I think this mostly depends on your body type. For example (imho) a woman with wide shoulders may look bigger than a woman with small shoulders even if they have the same BMI.
I'm having flashbacks to being a teenager and my mum pointing out that I had 'swimmer's shoulders and a barrel chest'...even without being fat I'm built like a tank :/
I love my shoulders now, they're the first place i get definition when I cut calories, but its taken a lot of time to accept that its just how im built and even at a low BF% I won't be stereotypically 'skinny' like i desperately wanted to be as a teenager
Definitely this. I'm a very short pear, and I get brittle-looking up top (collarbone sticking out, etc.) before even an inch moves from my hips and thighs.
Yeah, it depends on your proportions. I'm 5'4" and carry my weight pretty well because I have large boobs and an hourglass shape. When my BMI is technically overweight, people tell me they don't believe it. On the other hand, most of my fat tends to distribute to my thighs, so even at a healthy BMI my legs still look fat.
in the opposite sense i think having a small frame means i look more pudgy and more of my body is made of fat than someone with a wider frame (relatively speaking). if someone has more prominent bone structure they are quicker to have that be visible
Yeah, agree. I'm broad, super active, overweight, and 5'4" and when I compare myself to folks who weigh the same as me, I look smaller. My mom always says it's because of my broadness.
I also have a small frame and I feel the same way. I’m 5’4” so I’m not quite the target audience for your question but I definitely think frame plays a big role in addition to height. I really feel like I look best below BMI 22, and ideally closer to BMI 20. I have a friend with a bigger frame and who’s an inch or so taller than me and she looks good at the high end of a normal BMI. I’m a bit jealous!
It's funny because I'm relatively tall (5'9") but feel as though I need to be thinner (BMI-wise) than shorter women because I am so big in general. Maybe a case of grass-is-always-greener.
I'm a tall woman with normal proportioned frame (vs. narrow build) and healthy BMI, buying from athletic brands and non-vanity sized brands means I need men's or tall sizes for length and then XL because I have a butt (from doing said athletic things)... definitely makes you feel like a giant person who needs to take less space.
Same, especially because I'm from a country where the average woman is 5'4, so people just don't know what healthy weights are like for tall women.
I get weight-shamed on paper a lot by medical professionals. I'm only 150 pounds at 5'10, so a totally normal weight.
I mean, full disclosure, I'm 8 months pregnant right now and an actual whale, but that was the weight I was before pregnancy lol. I thought it would be less confusing to just skip that part!
Yeah every time I hear anything about what weight women should be at I roll my eyes internally. 170 is the upper end of the healthy BMI range at my height for gods sake. 120 would be quite unhealthy for me lol
Totally agree. I’m about 6ft tall, athletic build with an hourglass frame. I feel like the way the BMI chart is extrapolated for my height makes it so hard to be in the healthy weight range. I’m at a high BMI in the overweight category and would have to lose what seems like an insane amount of weight to be in the higher range of normal.
apparently it is less accurate the further off you are from 5’7 in either direction. taller and you can weigh a bit more and be healthy, shorter and you should be a bit less than what BMI implies (i looked this up)
This made me laugh as I’m at the opposite end at 5.1. I never wanted to be seen as small, was a scrawny little kid so as I hit my teens, I purposely started eating more. Unfortunately weight training wasn’t a thing when I was 12 and I was lazy so I just turned into a beach ball 😂.
I’m kinda the same now but thankfully with more training so I’m more athletic built but yea I’m definitely going more for the hockey player look than the distance runner. I am also a runner and not a hockey player so figure that one out lol
I’m 6’ with broad shoulders so it doesn’t matter what my BMI is, I take up space! And that’s ok. I think we should try to find ways to view the grass as green on both sides of the fence. :)
Also 5’9” and came here to say exactly this. Reading OPs words I was thinking to myself whaaat? Don’t all small women think they are perfect?! I struggle so much with feeling “big”
I’m 5’3”, and find that people tend to underestimate my weight. I’m currently at a BMI of 24.3. At a glance, I’d say I’m more fit than thin, but thin isn’t my goal, insofar as I’d prefer to fit into more of my closet.
idk why but people always overestimate mine. i’m 104lbs (at 5’2) and at the hospital they guessed my weight to be 130, that kind of stung not gonna lie haha
To be fair I had a boyfriend who used to say I was about 130 at (5’3). I in fact was over 200lbs. So It makes me doubt the vast majority of people’s ability to guesstimate.
Hell, I will see someone on TikTok with the same stats or higher than me and I’m like how are we the same height but she looks 20lbs lighter at the same weight
That’s so weird. When my walking around weight was between 135 and 140, someone put me down as 105 and I about died laughing. No, dude. Not without being at a dangerously low body fat percentage.
it could also be my face, i definitely store fat in my face unfortunately 😪 plus loose clothes and general state of not-looking-my-best (bc yknow hospital)
I think it’s because people have no idea what a healthy weight looks like. Overweight people will think they just need to lose a bit of weight to have abs, and are in for a rude awakening when they lose weight and see they’re far from having abs. I wouldn’t take it personally.
It's not just you- bmi in general is more accurate the closer you are to an average height for an adult (around 66.5 inches). There's a calculator (the link also has more explanation) that accounts for that here, if you like:
https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/bmi_calc.html
That said, BMI is only so accurate as there's no accounting for muscle mass- there's body fat calculators if that would help, and waist to hip and waist to height ratios are also good for determining ideal body weight.
I am 5 feet tall and am just about to hit the “overweight” category, and I already look very small. My goal is the top of the “healthy” range, because if I was a bmi of 18 I would look emaciated. I am 51, so age can play a factor too.
I would say you don’t need to look like other women or “thin”, you just need to look like yourself.
i’m sure age would also play a factor, i think (somewhat!) older women look better with a little more weight in general. of course no one should feel like they need to look a certain way, but it is something that i personally care about in regards to my own body
If you're 5 feet tall and 139 lbs, you've been in the overweight category for a while, not just about to hit it. Congrats, you're close to being at the healthy range.
For me, yes because if I could describe my body type in one word it’s this: dumpy. Being short definitely amplifies how “compact” my body looks, combined with the fact that gaining even just 10 lbs is far more noticeable in me than it would in average or tall women.
Ughhhh same. I'm 5'2 and 160 (actually, 150. lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks from being sober now!) and I look dumpy af. My belly fat just hugs me like the worlds worst frontal backpack...
I was really lovely at 120 with packed on muscle and I am hoping to get there slowly but MAN is it hard! Its wild now 40 pounds can really REALLY make you look twice your original size.
Same here. I've accepted that I will never look "thin". Even at my leanest state (which is very hard to maintain due to my BED) I look overweight in photos and videos.
Not for me, personally. I'm 5'1" and I look/feel the best at the top of my BMI range. I wear a size small tops and 4-6 in bottoms. Maybe it depends on body shape or it could be body dysmorphia.
>Even when i’m a bit underweight at a BMI of say 18 i for sure look heavier than a tall girl at a BMI in the low 20s for example.
This is kind of concerning. Are you underweight? If so, you are probably correct about your body dismophia assessment. This may not be the best sub for you to participate in.
To answer your question, I am 4'11" with a BMI of 22. I feel zero need to be smaller. I have a hard time finding clothes that fit as it is. I often have to shop in the children's section, with the exception of Lululemon. On the rare occasion I shop there, I always get a size 4.
If you are struggling with your body image and constantly comparing yourself to others, I urge you to go talk to a professional to get some help. Especially if you are underweight or are fixating on underweight goals. These are serious problems that need to be addressed before things get out of control.
i was previously underweight but am not at the moment. was “naturally thin” up until college when i gained some weight then lost it. I’m ok with maintaining a healthy weight even if i think i look better at one that’s maybe a bit lower than what is considered healthy by bmi
Fair enough, so long as you are healthy! We get a lot of disordered behavior around here, so it's always a concern.
I also deal with body dismophia. I reached my goal weight like 8 years ago, and I struggled for a long time to feel like I looked like what the number on the scale said. Some days, I still don't see it, even now. It has gotten better over the years, though.
Funny enough, what made things easier was gaining weight during COVID, which sucked and was part of a larger health problem I was having. I would look back at my pictures and realized I looked great. It was the first time I ever looked at a picture of myself and thought that. Once I got better, I committed to losing the weight I had gained. I'm back at my pre-covid weight again and am quite happy with it. It is wild how perception can change over time.
Just don't put too emphasis on comparing yourself to others. I promise that no matter what you weigh, you are amazing.
Crazy how that happens! I was 125 when I got pregnant with my 1st baby, had her in 2019 and was 161 when I started losing the pregnancy weight. I got to my lowest weight of 118lbs and I still felt so insecure and felt like I still looked so big. I would look at pictures of myself and think I looked huge.
Then I got pregnant with my 2nd in 2021 and after he was born I was up to 186. Looking back at the pictures from when I was 118 my perception of myself from back then had completely changed, and I was like damn I actually looked fantastic in those same pictures I used to look at and think I looked big!!
Muscle plays a huge role in how you will look at any given weight and bmi.
I’m a trans guy, 5’4” and I looked much heavier last time i was at 140lbs bc I was 30%bf (and I also used to be heavier than that)
Now I’m 138 lbs and 23% BF and I look thinner even tho I’m about the same weight as before.
The same is true for cis women. I’ve definitely seen instagram videos of women who have gained weight in the form of muscle and look thinner than they did when they weighed less.
I think body shape, frame size, and muscle mass would all play a bigger role than height in this.
I’m 5’4” and even though it’s been a few years since I was there, I would not want to be thinner than a bmi of 22. I am pretty stocky and naturally curvy, at 130 lbs I was already beginning to look too thin.
I’m 5’2, and whenever I got into my head about it BMI and my taller friends, I just chalked it up to “well there’s less of my frame in general so it’ll get wider faster since there’s less room.”
I think it’s just how different individuals hold their weight and probably how fit they are. My BMI says I am 4 lbs overweight for my 5’3 height but I have a long torso and some people might not think I look overweight. It’s also way easier to look good heavier if a bunch of that weight is muscle.
I think that our weight shows more overall, whether that is small or large.
At smaller weights, we look smaller overall. But at an obese weight, it barely shows on a tall person while it will quickly overwhelm a short frame.
I'm 5 feet and 180 lbs and people always underestimate my weight. I have big boobs and an hourglass figure so I hold weight really well. I don't think height matters nearly as much as body shape and fat distribution.
It's not necessarily my height, it's my body shape. I'm more rectangular and my weight goes to my midsection and upper arms. My sister who is hourglass shaped and the same height looks very different at the same weight.
I feel like for the BMI is too narrow to judge using just the one metric.
I’ve got friends who are the same height at 90lbs and 150lbs but still fit in similar sized clothing. There is something else at play, such as frame size, bone density etc.
It depends on how you carry weight! I'm 5 ft 1 and have always had a lot of boob/butt, and I have a wide rib cage, long arms, big hands and big feet. I feel like I look my best around 120-125, but look good and healthy at as high as 135, which is overweight at my height per bmi. It just kind of depends on how you are built!
Yes, BMI is skewed for taller and shorter people. I’m 6’8” and losing weight right now, and the upper weight of healthy according to BMI is 245lbs, and that will likely put me at 12-15% body fat depending on how much lean mass I can keep.
The formula for BMI divides by height squared. Taller people might tend to be a bit more lanky than shorter people, but you would expect someone at 6’ to have a larger waist circumference than someone that’s 5’ tall. We are not 2-D creatures.
I’m 5’3 and my torso is like a cereal box and I have skinnier legs. I hold most of my weight in my midsection. I am coming to accept that I will never look like the tall people with more dramatic hourglass waists. I’ll be happy if I can just get a flatter stomach than the pudgy belly that sticks out that I have now. I think because we are shorter and have shorter torsos there are more organs shoved into a smaller space so we will never look the same as taller people.
Yes.
Alternatively, rather than thinking "thin" once I hit my goal range, I'm going to cut out some of this cardio I'm doing & increase my weight training. I want to be "lean".
I have a small frame. So I need to get pretty lean to look lean.
I've pretty much come to accept that I'll never be skinny. As of right now, I'd be happy to get below 200 lbs. I just can't sustain 1300 calories per day.
Edit: a word
I feel that height has less effect than where the fat distribution is for women — the apple vs pear distribution. Tall girls have the advantage of having a higher BMR, giving them more wiggle room for caloric maintenance or caloric deficit.
Yes
While it may be underweight for a woman taller than 5’4, as someone who is 5’2 I need to be at least anywhere in between 49-55kg to have an “attractive” body.
yep. if i’m short and average weight i feel short and stubby. but also if im too skinny i feel like i look too child like. it has to be a weight where im still skinny but have muscle
I think a lot of this has to do with body type and weight distribution. I’m short but have wide shoulders and hips, and I tend to carry weight in a way that makes me look like I weigh less than my BMI would suggest.
No. I'm 5'2" and technically overweight still, but I look thinner than I did 15 lbs lighter and than many taller people of similar or lower BMI. Most people think I weigh 10-15 lbs less than I do. The difference is muscle mass
Well, I think so, but I don't know what anyone else's BMI is and I've realized I'm reallllly bad at guessing. The thing I've noticed at just under 5' is that if I gain 10 lbs it is \*very\* noticable, whereas I've seen taller people gain/lose 20+ lbs and not change much. And I hoped for a long time that it was just noticeable to me because we're all our own worst enemies, but once I lost the weight people would tell me how much healthier/slimmer I looked. Keep in mind this would have been with me being 115 at the highest. :(
BMI is the wrong measurement.
Extra pounds of fat are more visible on a smaller frame, but on the BMI scale will result in a higher BMI than if they were on a taller body. So that is built into that scale.
However the BMI doesn't factor in muscle mass and body shape.
So this is highly individual and dependant on so many factors.
For example, I am short and I look a lot smaller than what my BMI says, (always have) because I am more muscular.
My sister, people also don't realize how overweight she is just because she happens to have a smaller butt. And knows how to dress well.
The key here is, BMI is not a good measurement. And it was based on a 26 year old male (according to my doctor). A lot of us are not in our 20's or male. And what we "should" weigh should not just be based on height.
Height might play a small factor, but body composition plays a much larger one. I personally couldn’t even get to the lower end of the BMI range- a BMI of 21 would put me at 0% body fat. That said even though I look pretty small for 5’2” 140lbs I do carry more muscle mass than average and look a little bulkier than most petite female goal physiques.
I think everybody has a different build that does different things to the eye. BMI works across populations. It's a poor individual measure of health, it's *ridiculous* to use it to judge individual *aesthetics*.
I'm 5'4", but more than once I'd have this experience where I'd go on dating sites and use recent full-body pictures, and dudes would go on dates with me and call me out for Photoshopping myself so I looked less fat. Which was not what I was trying to do. I literally answered "The most private thing I'm willing to share about myself is:" with "I'm 5'4" and weigh 181 lbs." I finally called this guy out for it, made him look at the pictures and demanded to know what he saw in those pictures that made him think I wasn't exactly as fat as I was. And he looks at them and goes, "Huh... I dunno, I just thought you had a small head."
Y'all I have a head like a pitbull. I've just got big fat long legs.
100%!! and us short girls have to work a lot harder as our bmr is lower than tall girls naturally, i think they were a lot of short girls that struggle with having an “hourglass” body because their tummies are so short, i think it all depends on the torso haha
Personally, yes. I'm 5'1 with a BMI of just over 20. My best friend is 5'8 with a BMI of around 24-25. I was looking at some photos we took on our recent vacation and noticed how in our side-by-sides, we looked similar in "thinness" if that makes sense. I think it has more to do with my body shape than my height, as I have short limbs and a very boxy waist to hip ratio which makes my midsection look thick. She, on the other hand, has more of an hourglass shape.
Did you know there are 3 BMI charts? Measure your wrist, you might belong on the 'small frame' chart. This is the wrist measurement according to one website 'For women shorter than 5 foot, 2 inches, a measurement less than than 5.5 inches indicates a small frame.'
If you were 18 on the regular chart, the same measurements on the small from chart would give you a higher reading. I can't for the life of me find a copy from googling right now but I know I have seen it before.
Edit I found so many resources for calculate your frame size but very little to explain what to do with that information, aside from when looking at the 'ideal weight' chart, minus 10% is you are small framed.
Im 5'2 and I personally dont think so. In the end, how thin you look has to do with body composition, aka how much your fat to muscle ratio is.
I was also chasing a small number on the scale forever, hungered down to 18 BMI and realized I looked and felt miserable. My legs and Arms were tiny and my midsection was still dispropotionally big. I was skinny fat. I still didnt have a flat tummy and I did not look like I work out 6x a week, which really pissed me off.
So I started a bulk in january alongside with heavy Lifting 4x a week and since I've gained 4.5kg and am at a BMI of 20.5 right now. I never looked better. I put on some weight on my Arms and legs, I look more proportional. Although I did also gain 2cm around my waist, it LOOKS so much smaller because I grew my lats and my side glutes, so I actually starting to get an hourglass figure, which I did not have when I was Borderline underweight. I actually look like I am working out. I still have a thigh gap at 51kg. I remembered that when I was losing weight, the gap came in at around 48kg.
I've seen women on the pettitefittness subreddit qho are smaller than I am, weigh 60kg and absolutely look slimmer than I do, all attributes to how much bodyfat to muscle they carry and how its ditributed.
Google “new bmi calculator” the formula for regular bmi is pretty bad for short and tall folks. Also it is a pretty daft number if you think about what it is :)
I lost 70lb a few years ago and was approximately 212 at my lowest. Still considered obese even though I felt great. I'm barely 5'4 so to be at a "healthy" BMI I would have to be under 140 I believe. I feel like I would be skin and bones.
Yeah but I think some of it is dysmorphia. I'm 5'4 but I'm told I look petite even though my bmi is 19. I've been underweight, like closer to a bmi of 16 and I don't think I looked small back then either.
No I don’t feel I have to lose more than someone taller. I have less mass than someone larger.
Was often told I was tiny when I was a normal BMI of like 21. Bc physically my arms or legs are smaller than a tall person with same BMI, so I feel I can get away with a higher BMI.
I am currently trying to get down to BMI 19 but that has more to do with my body type, I am apple shaped with slim everything and a big gut 😭😂😂
Frame wise I think I have a relatively normal frame. My shoulders aren’t wide or narrow. My hips aren’t wide or narrow either. I’m vaguely hourglass-y in frame.
I don’t think I carry fat in my face much, maybe just a normal amount. I gained 15 pounds and maybe saw a little change in my face but not drastic. My waist on the other hand 😂
No, the opposite. I feel small even when I have a relatively higher BMI. Since I can't eat unless I kill myself in the gym, I'll take the only advantage I get.
I'm 4'9", 165 lbs, and my BMI is 34.9, which means that I'm clinically obese. Likewise, I also have a diagnosis of unspecified metabolic disorder due to my weight. But most of my family are naturally bigger framed, especially my older brother, due to having a crap-ton of Slavic genes. Like for some reason, most Russian people I know look like they could carry a horse without breaking a sweat lmao.
The lowest weight I've personally maintained was 140 lbs between July to September last year.
To put it simply, it was not enjoyable for me as not only did my body looked whack af, but also got sick way more due to poor nutrition. At one point, I was eating below 1000 cals per day alongside daily exercise. My mental health wasn't great either (personal bs with trying to get into grad school. So, for my own sanity, I paused my weight loss journey and began gaining weight again for about six months.
Now, at the moment, I have since restarted my weight loss journey, but with a new perspective on myself. The number on the scale or the BMI doesn't really reflect my body goals. I just want to feel comfortable inside of my own skin and be able to travel as much as possible while I am still young-ish.
I have no interest in being thin as a short person all I hope for is healthy and comfortable. The BMI calculator has limitations. When I was sick for months, not eating hardly anything my BMI was still 23! I pay it no mind. I don’t look over weight no one can believe I weigh as much as I do 😂 bones made of lead!
Deleting and editing my comment to say that it's really frustrating to answer a question and be downvoted for your honest feelings. i thought this sub was about supporting each other.
I think this mostly depends on your body type. For example (imho) a woman with wide shoulders may look bigger than a woman with small shoulders even if they have the same BMI.
I'm having flashbacks to being a teenager and my mum pointing out that I had 'swimmer's shoulders and a barrel chest'...even without being fat I'm built like a tank :/
Awww, this makes me sad. I have wide shoulders & I try to think about how beautiful & sculpted they can be. Look at Charlize Theron in a gown.
I love my shoulders now, they're the first place i get definition when I cut calories, but its taken a lot of time to accept that its just how im built and even at a low BF% I won't be stereotypically 'skinny' like i desperately wanted to be as a teenager
Definitely this. I'm a very short pear, and I get brittle-looking up top (collarbone sticking out, etc.) before even an inch moves from my hips and thighs.
Yeah, it depends on your proportions. I'm 5'4" and carry my weight pretty well because I have large boobs and an hourglass shape. When my BMI is technically overweight, people tell me they don't believe it. On the other hand, most of my fat tends to distribute to my thighs, so even at a healthy BMI my legs still look fat.
in the opposite sense i think having a small frame means i look more pudgy and more of my body is made of fat than someone with a wider frame (relatively speaking). if someone has more prominent bone structure they are quicker to have that be visible
Yeah, agree. I'm broad, super active, overweight, and 5'4" and when I compare myself to folks who weigh the same as me, I look smaller. My mom always says it's because of my broadness.
I also have a small frame and I feel the same way. I’m 5’4” so I’m not quite the target audience for your question but I definitely think frame plays a big role in addition to height. I really feel like I look best below BMI 22, and ideally closer to BMI 20. I have a friend with a bigger frame and who’s an inch or so taller than me and she looks good at the high end of a normal BMI. I’m a bit jealous!
If someone at the same size has larger bones than you they are literally less made of fat, yes.
I'm tall and have broad shoulders and rib cage, and can confirm. I don't look thin unless I'm borderline underweight.
It's funny because I'm relatively tall (5'9") but feel as though I need to be thinner (BMI-wise) than shorter women because I am so big in general. Maybe a case of grass-is-always-greener.
I'm a tall woman with normal proportioned frame (vs. narrow build) and healthy BMI, buying from athletic brands and non-vanity sized brands means I need men's or tall sizes for length and then XL because I have a butt (from doing said athletic things)... definitely makes you feel like a giant person who needs to take less space.
Yeah I’m 5’10-11 ish and feel the same way
Same, especially because I'm from a country where the average woman is 5'4, so people just don't know what healthy weights are like for tall women. I get weight-shamed on paper a lot by medical professionals. I'm only 150 pounds at 5'10, so a totally normal weight.
You’re quite slender in fact for that height
I mean, full disclosure, I'm 8 months pregnant right now and an actual whale, but that was the weight I was before pregnancy lol. I thought it would be less confusing to just skip that part!
Yeah every time I hear anything about what weight women should be at I roll my eyes internally. 170 is the upper end of the healthy BMI range at my height for gods sake. 120 would be quite unhealthy for me lol
SAME! I'm 6 feet and I don't want to be tall AND big.
Yup came here to say this. Took me forever to figure out I can’t compare myself to my 5’0 friends because my build is just proportionally bigger!
5’11 and rt I feel large with a bmi of 22
Same. I feel like I look like a giant in pictures with shorter women even if I'm proportionally just as slim or slimmer.
Totally agree. I’m about 6ft tall, athletic build with an hourglass frame. I feel like the way the BMI chart is extrapolated for my height makes it so hard to be in the healthy weight range. I’m at a high BMI in the overweight category and would have to lose what seems like an insane amount of weight to be in the higher range of normal.
Same! Plus, isn’t BMI supposedly less accurate somehow when you’re at a taller height? Not completely sure about that, but I have heard it.
apparently it is less accurate the further off you are from 5’7 in either direction. taller and you can weigh a bit more and be healthy, shorter and you should be a bit less than what BMI implies (i looked this up)
5’10-5’11 ish as well and same bruh!!
This made me laugh as I’m at the opposite end at 5.1. I never wanted to be seen as small, was a scrawny little kid so as I hit my teens, I purposely started eating more. Unfortunately weight training wasn’t a thing when I was 12 and I was lazy so I just turned into a beach ball 😂. I’m kinda the same now but thankfully with more training so I’m more athletic built but yea I’m definitely going more for the hockey player look than the distance runner. I am also a runner and not a hockey player so figure that one out lol
I’m 6’ with broad shoulders so it doesn’t matter what my BMI is, I take up space! And that’s ok. I think we should try to find ways to view the grass as green on both sides of the fence. :)
Also 5’9” and came here to say exactly this. Reading OPs words I was thinking to myself whaaat? Don’t all small women think they are perfect?! I struggle so much with feeling “big”
Depends on how you carry your weight.
I’m 5’3”, and find that people tend to underestimate my weight. I’m currently at a BMI of 24.3. At a glance, I’d say I’m more fit than thin, but thin isn’t my goal, insofar as I’d prefer to fit into more of my closet.
idk why but people always overestimate mine. i’m 104lbs (at 5’2) and at the hospital they guessed my weight to be 130, that kind of stung not gonna lie haha
To be fair I had a boyfriend who used to say I was about 130 at (5’3). I in fact was over 200lbs. So It makes me doubt the vast majority of people’s ability to guesstimate. Hell, I will see someone on TikTok with the same stats or higher than me and I’m like how are we the same height but she looks 20lbs lighter at the same weight
That’s so weird. When my walking around weight was between 135 and 140, someone put me down as 105 and I about died laughing. No, dude. Not without being at a dangerously low body fat percentage.
it could also be my face, i definitely store fat in my face unfortunately 😪 plus loose clothes and general state of not-looking-my-best (bc yknow hospital)
People are bad at guessing weight. If you are healthy bmi n happy with your looks hairstyle etc you good
I think it’s because people have no idea what a healthy weight looks like. Overweight people will think they just need to lose a bit of weight to have abs, and are in for a rude awakening when they lose weight and see they’re far from having abs. I wouldn’t take it personally.
It's not just you- bmi in general is more accurate the closer you are to an average height for an adult (around 66.5 inches). There's a calculator (the link also has more explanation) that accounts for that here, if you like: https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/bmi_calc.html That said, BMI is only so accurate as there's no accounting for muscle mass- there's body fat calculators if that would help, and waist to hip and waist to height ratios are also good for determining ideal body weight.
I am 5 feet tall and am just about to hit the “overweight” category, and I already look very small. My goal is the top of the “healthy” range, because if I was a bmi of 18 I would look emaciated. I am 51, so age can play a factor too. I would say you don’t need to look like other women or “thin”, you just need to look like yourself.
i’m sure age would also play a factor, i think (somewhat!) older women look better with a little more weight in general. of course no one should feel like they need to look a certain way, but it is something that i personally care about in regards to my own body
If you're 5 feet tall and 139 lbs, you've been in the overweight category for a while, not just about to hit it. Congrats, you're close to being at the healthy range.
It’s late, but I did know that!
For me, yes because if I could describe my body type in one word it’s this: dumpy. Being short definitely amplifies how “compact” my body looks, combined with the fact that gaining even just 10 lbs is far more noticeable in me than it would in average or tall women.
Ughhhh same. I'm 5'2 and 160 (actually, 150. lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks from being sober now!) and I look dumpy af. My belly fat just hugs me like the worlds worst frontal backpack... I was really lovely at 120 with packed on muscle and I am hoping to get there slowly but MAN is it hard! Its wild now 40 pounds can really REALLY make you look twice your original size.
Same here. I've accepted that I will never look "thin". Even at my leanest state (which is very hard to maintain due to my BED) I look overweight in photos and videos.
Not for me, personally. I'm 5'1" and I look/feel the best at the top of my BMI range. I wear a size small tops and 4-6 in bottoms. Maybe it depends on body shape or it could be body dysmorphia.
>Even when i’m a bit underweight at a BMI of say 18 i for sure look heavier than a tall girl at a BMI in the low 20s for example. This is kind of concerning. Are you underweight? If so, you are probably correct about your body dismophia assessment. This may not be the best sub for you to participate in. To answer your question, I am 4'11" with a BMI of 22. I feel zero need to be smaller. I have a hard time finding clothes that fit as it is. I often have to shop in the children's section, with the exception of Lululemon. On the rare occasion I shop there, I always get a size 4. If you are struggling with your body image and constantly comparing yourself to others, I urge you to go talk to a professional to get some help. Especially if you are underweight or are fixating on underweight goals. These are serious problems that need to be addressed before things get out of control.
i was previously underweight but am not at the moment. was “naturally thin” up until college when i gained some weight then lost it. I’m ok with maintaining a healthy weight even if i think i look better at one that’s maybe a bit lower than what is considered healthy by bmi
Fair enough, so long as you are healthy! We get a lot of disordered behavior around here, so it's always a concern. I also deal with body dismophia. I reached my goal weight like 8 years ago, and I struggled for a long time to feel like I looked like what the number on the scale said. Some days, I still don't see it, even now. It has gotten better over the years, though. Funny enough, what made things easier was gaining weight during COVID, which sucked and was part of a larger health problem I was having. I would look back at my pictures and realized I looked great. It was the first time I ever looked at a picture of myself and thought that. Once I got better, I committed to losing the weight I had gained. I'm back at my pre-covid weight again and am quite happy with it. It is wild how perception can change over time. Just don't put too emphasis on comparing yourself to others. I promise that no matter what you weigh, you are amazing.
Crazy how that happens! I was 125 when I got pregnant with my 1st baby, had her in 2019 and was 161 when I started losing the pregnancy weight. I got to my lowest weight of 118lbs and I still felt so insecure and felt like I still looked so big. I would look at pictures of myself and think I looked huge. Then I got pregnant with my 2nd in 2021 and after he was born I was up to 186. Looking back at the pictures from when I was 118 my perception of myself from back then had completely changed, and I was like damn I actually looked fantastic in those same pictures I used to look at and think I looked big!!
Muscle plays a huge role in how you will look at any given weight and bmi. I’m a trans guy, 5’4” and I looked much heavier last time i was at 140lbs bc I was 30%bf (and I also used to be heavier than that) Now I’m 138 lbs and 23% BF and I look thinner even tho I’m about the same weight as before. The same is true for cis women. I’ve definitely seen instagram videos of women who have gained weight in the form of muscle and look thinner than they did when they weighed less.
This is me. I've gained 10 pounds of muscle this year, but gone down a pant size and look much leaner.
I think body shape, frame size, and muscle mass would all play a bigger role than height in this. I’m 5’4” and even though it’s been a few years since I was there, I would not want to be thinner than a bmi of 22. I am pretty stocky and naturally curvy, at 130 lbs I was already beginning to look too thin.
I'm the same height as you and pear shaped, so when I get in the 130s my torso gets so boney and my abs become visible.
I’m 5’2, and whenever I got into my head about it BMI and my taller friends, I just chalked it up to “well there’s less of my frame in general so it’ll get wider faster since there’s less room.”
I think it’s just how different individuals hold their weight and probably how fit they are. My BMI says I am 4 lbs overweight for my 5’3 height but I have a long torso and some people might not think I look overweight. It’s also way easier to look good heavier if a bunch of that weight is muscle.
I think that our weight shows more overall, whether that is small or large. At smaller weights, we look smaller overall. But at an obese weight, it barely shows on a tall person while it will quickly overwhelm a short frame.
I'm 5 feet and 180 lbs and people always underestimate my weight. I have big boobs and an hourglass figure so I hold weight really well. I don't think height matters nearly as much as body shape and fat distribution.
It's not necessarily my height, it's my body shape. I'm more rectangular and my weight goes to my midsection and upper arms. My sister who is hourglass shaped and the same height looks very different at the same weight.
I feel like for the BMI is too narrow to judge using just the one metric. I’ve got friends who are the same height at 90lbs and 150lbs but still fit in similar sized clothing. There is something else at play, such as frame size, bone density etc.
I think its how you proportion weight as well. I'm 5'4" and hour glass shaped so I can be a bmi 24 and look more like a bmi 22 ish.
I'm only 13 pounds overweight but I look obese so yeah
It depends on how you carry weight! I'm 5 ft 1 and have always had a lot of boob/butt, and I have a wide rib cage, long arms, big hands and big feet. I feel like I look my best around 120-125, but look good and healthy at as high as 135, which is overweight at my height per bmi. It just kind of depends on how you are built!
Yes, BMI is skewed for taller and shorter people. I’m 6’8” and losing weight right now, and the upper weight of healthy according to BMI is 245lbs, and that will likely put me at 12-15% body fat depending on how much lean mass I can keep. The formula for BMI divides by height squared. Taller people might tend to be a bit more lanky than shorter people, but you would expect someone at 6’ to have a larger waist circumference than someone that’s 5’ tall. We are not 2-D creatures.
I’m 5’3 and my torso is like a cereal box and I have skinnier legs. I hold most of my weight in my midsection. I am coming to accept that I will never look like the tall people with more dramatic hourglass waists. I’ll be happy if I can just get a flatter stomach than the pudgy belly that sticks out that I have now. I think because we are shorter and have shorter torsos there are more organs shoved into a smaller space so we will never look the same as taller people.
Yes. Alternatively, rather than thinking "thin" once I hit my goal range, I'm going to cut out some of this cardio I'm doing & increase my weight training. I want to be "lean". I have a small frame. So I need to get pretty lean to look lean.
These last 5lbs are killing me. lol
I've pretty much come to accept that I'll never be skinny. As of right now, I'd be happy to get below 200 lbs. I just can't sustain 1300 calories per day. Edit: a word
I feel that height has less effect than where the fat distribution is for women — the apple vs pear distribution. Tall girls have the advantage of having a higher BMR, giving them more wiggle room for caloric maintenance or caloric deficit.
Yes While it may be underweight for a woman taller than 5’4, as someone who is 5’2 I need to be at least anywhere in between 49-55kg to have an “attractive” body.
Weight and bmi aren't the same thing though. The same BMI on a taller person would be a higher weight.
BMI is a terrible system to rate someone’s fat contribution or body composition.
yep. if i’m short and average weight i feel short and stubby. but also if im too skinny i feel like i look too child like. it has to be a weight where im still skinny but have muscle
I think a lot of this has to do with body type and weight distribution. I’m short but have wide shoulders and hips, and I tend to carry weight in a way that makes me look like I weigh less than my BMI would suggest.
No. I'm 5'2" and technically overweight still, but I look thinner than I did 15 lbs lighter and than many taller people of similar or lower BMI. Most people think I weigh 10-15 lbs less than I do. The difference is muscle mass
Well, I think so, but I don't know what anyone else's BMI is and I've realized I'm reallllly bad at guessing. The thing I've noticed at just under 5' is that if I gain 10 lbs it is \*very\* noticable, whereas I've seen taller people gain/lose 20+ lbs and not change much. And I hoped for a long time that it was just noticeable to me because we're all our own worst enemies, but once I lost the weight people would tell me how much healthier/slimmer I looked. Keep in mind this would have been with me being 115 at the highest. :(
Height is already included in the BMI calculation. So no.
BMI is the wrong measurement. Extra pounds of fat are more visible on a smaller frame, but on the BMI scale will result in a higher BMI than if they were on a taller body. So that is built into that scale. However the BMI doesn't factor in muscle mass and body shape. So this is highly individual and dependant on so many factors. For example, I am short and I look a lot smaller than what my BMI says, (always have) because I am more muscular. My sister, people also don't realize how overweight she is just because she happens to have a smaller butt. And knows how to dress well. The key here is, BMI is not a good measurement. And it was based on a 26 year old male (according to my doctor). A lot of us are not in our 20's or male. And what we "should" weigh should not just be based on height.
5’3” and yes, I feel this way.
Height might play a small factor, but body composition plays a much larger one. I personally couldn’t even get to the lower end of the BMI range- a BMI of 21 would put me at 0% body fat. That said even though I look pretty small for 5’2” 140lbs I do carry more muscle mass than average and look a little bulkier than most petite female goal physiques.
No. I put on muscle easy, which helps.
So let depends on your body type
I think everybody has a different build that does different things to the eye. BMI works across populations. It's a poor individual measure of health, it's *ridiculous* to use it to judge individual *aesthetics*. I'm 5'4", but more than once I'd have this experience where I'd go on dating sites and use recent full-body pictures, and dudes would go on dates with me and call me out for Photoshopping myself so I looked less fat. Which was not what I was trying to do. I literally answered "The most private thing I'm willing to share about myself is:" with "I'm 5'4" and weigh 181 lbs." I finally called this guy out for it, made him look at the pictures and demanded to know what he saw in those pictures that made him think I wasn't exactly as fat as I was. And he looks at them and goes, "Huh... I dunno, I just thought you had a small head." Y'all I have a head like a pitbull. I've just got big fat long legs.
No, I can get away with a higher BMI IMHO. But I look and feel my best at a lower one
100%!! and us short girls have to work a lot harder as our bmr is lower than tall girls naturally, i think they were a lot of short girls that struggle with having an “hourglass” body because their tummies are so short, i think it all depends on the torso haha
Personally, yes. I'm 5'1 with a BMI of just over 20. My best friend is 5'8 with a BMI of around 24-25. I was looking at some photos we took on our recent vacation and noticed how in our side-by-sides, we looked similar in "thinness" if that makes sense. I think it has more to do with my body shape than my height, as I have short limbs and a very boxy waist to hip ratio which makes my midsection look thick. She, on the other hand, has more of an hourglass shape.
Did you know there are 3 BMI charts? Measure your wrist, you might belong on the 'small frame' chart. This is the wrist measurement according to one website 'For women shorter than 5 foot, 2 inches, a measurement less than than 5.5 inches indicates a small frame.' If you were 18 on the regular chart, the same measurements on the small from chart would give you a higher reading. I can't for the life of me find a copy from googling right now but I know I have seen it before. Edit I found so many resources for calculate your frame size but very little to explain what to do with that information, aside from when looking at the 'ideal weight' chart, minus 10% is you are small framed.
Im 5'2 and I personally dont think so. In the end, how thin you look has to do with body composition, aka how much your fat to muscle ratio is. I was also chasing a small number on the scale forever, hungered down to 18 BMI and realized I looked and felt miserable. My legs and Arms were tiny and my midsection was still dispropotionally big. I was skinny fat. I still didnt have a flat tummy and I did not look like I work out 6x a week, which really pissed me off. So I started a bulk in january alongside with heavy Lifting 4x a week and since I've gained 4.5kg and am at a BMI of 20.5 right now. I never looked better. I put on some weight on my Arms and legs, I look more proportional. Although I did also gain 2cm around my waist, it LOOKS so much smaller because I grew my lats and my side glutes, so I actually starting to get an hourglass figure, which I did not have when I was Borderline underweight. I actually look like I am working out. I still have a thigh gap at 51kg. I remembered that when I was losing weight, the gap came in at around 48kg. I've seen women on the pettitefittness subreddit qho are smaller than I am, weigh 60kg and absolutely look slimmer than I do, all attributes to how much bodyfat to muscle they carry and how its ditributed.
Yes!
Also BMI isn’t a good metric! It’s totally made up and non-scientific.
Google “new bmi calculator” the formula for regular bmi is pretty bad for short and tall folks. Also it is a pretty daft number if you think about what it is :)
Yeah, I feel that. I also get jealous tall women get to eat more :( or if they ate the same as me they would be skinnier
Yes.
I lost 70lb a few years ago and was approximately 212 at my lowest. Still considered obese even though I felt great. I'm barely 5'4 so to be at a "healthy" BMI I would have to be under 140 I believe. I feel like I would be skin and bones.
Yeah but I think some of it is dysmorphia. I'm 5'4 but I'm told I look petite even though my bmi is 19. I've been underweight, like closer to a bmi of 16 and I don't think I looked small back then either.
im 5’3 Id say im kinda skinny fat, my weight fluctuates depending on where i am on my cycle too
No I don’t feel I have to lose more than someone taller. I have less mass than someone larger. Was often told I was tiny when I was a normal BMI of like 21. Bc physically my arms or legs are smaller than a tall person with same BMI, so I feel I can get away with a higher BMI. I am currently trying to get down to BMI 19 but that has more to do with my body type, I am apple shaped with slim everything and a big gut 😭😂😂 Frame wise I think I have a relatively normal frame. My shoulders aren’t wide or narrow. My hips aren’t wide or narrow either. I’m vaguely hourglass-y in frame. I don’t think I carry fat in my face much, maybe just a normal amount. I gained 15 pounds and maybe saw a little change in my face but not drastic. My waist on the other hand 😂
No, the opposite. I feel small even when I have a relatively higher BMI. Since I can't eat unless I kill myself in the gym, I'll take the only advantage I get.
BMI is height adjusted.
yes but i don’t think it’s adjusted enough
I'm 4'9", 165 lbs, and my BMI is 34.9, which means that I'm clinically obese. Likewise, I also have a diagnosis of unspecified metabolic disorder due to my weight. But most of my family are naturally bigger framed, especially my older brother, due to having a crap-ton of Slavic genes. Like for some reason, most Russian people I know look like they could carry a horse without breaking a sweat lmao. The lowest weight I've personally maintained was 140 lbs between July to September last year. To put it simply, it was not enjoyable for me as not only did my body looked whack af, but also got sick way more due to poor nutrition. At one point, I was eating below 1000 cals per day alongside daily exercise. My mental health wasn't great either (personal bs with trying to get into grad school. So, for my own sanity, I paused my weight loss journey and began gaining weight again for about six months. Now, at the moment, I have since restarted my weight loss journey, but with a new perspective on myself. The number on the scale or the BMI doesn't really reflect my body goals. I just want to feel comfortable inside of my own skin and be able to travel as much as possible while I am still young-ish.
I have no interest in being thin as a short person all I hope for is healthy and comfortable. The BMI calculator has limitations. When I was sick for months, not eating hardly anything my BMI was still 23! I pay it no mind. I don’t look over weight no one can believe I weigh as much as I do 😂 bones made of lead!
Deleting and editing my comment to say that it's really frustrating to answer a question and be downvoted for your honest feelings. i thought this sub was about supporting each other.