BMI Project
I put together a slideshow to demonstrate just how ridiculous the BMI standards are.
There’s also a Flickr set with a bunch more photos.
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Recent Comments
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Wow! This is great.
And Moxie is so cute.
Just so you know, the show reads “Robin is morbidy obese”…
Joie, Robin is “morbidly obese.” (If you’re joking and that’s your point, ha!) Robin’s 5′10″ and 302 lbs., with a BMI of 43.3.
I’m just saying that while she may be morbidLy obese, no one is morbidy obese. As far as I know, at any rate.
Oh, DUH!
I used to get paid to catch that shit! Thanks, Joie!
This looks awesome. I’m glad you put this as a permanent feature.
Damn, that was jarring to start it up and see my own face staring back at me in the first picture.
Seriously educational. Goes to show exactly how useful the BMI metrics are…
I’ve just been reading Amanda’s blog, and I find it interesting that at least two of our “underweight” participants have chronic health problems.
powerful stuff. bravo!
Well done!
Looking at those pictures, it seems like
BMI under 20 = underweight
BMI 20-40 = normal weight
BMI 40+ = overweight
might be a better set of guidelines. Funny how that’s also the way the life expectancy data pans out…
On the other hand, putting people into any weight or BMI categories probably does more harm than good.
Yeah, I was underweight til about 19, when I got on a pain medication that increases appetite. I’m more padded now (I’m on the Flickr group at my current weight) and much, much happier that way.
I never did figure out what caused the underweight thing (even my doctors noted I seemed malnourished but never did anything about it) but it definitely seemed at least in part connected to the chronic health issues.
That’s amazing. I can tell no difference between normal and overweight in most cases. Hmm.
THANK YOU for showing the full range of real, beautiful women (and cats). Women are human beings, not numbers on a scale.
How dreary, and possibly unhealthy, the world would be if every single person fell within ‘normal’ BMI.
(even my doctors noted I seemed malnourished but never did anything about it)
Yeah, I was wondering whether you had a hard time getting adequate treatment because hey, at least you were thin. I think the medical ignorance knife cuts both ways on that one…
I love all these pictures. Moxie could be my Binkley’s cousin!
If you could still use more, I might have one I can send you.
I was sent here by Swistle, and as a MOm who gained a ton of weight breastfeeding my son, I now strive to be overweight. Sad hey, I think the “overweight” girls are what I am striving to be, not the “normal” ones. Someone feed the normal girls a donut!
Awesome slideshow.
Someone feed the normal girls a donut!
Sleepynita, Kate mentioned on the original post that there will be no critiquing of participants’ bodies for any reason. It bears repeating here. I’m glad you enjoyed the project, but please keep in mind that the people who submitted their pictures are overwhelmingly happy, satisfied, active people who are rocking the body shape that’s right for them. The women and men with BMIs 25 and under don’t need a donut (or fancy cheeses) any more than I need to lay off them.
Thanks, Fillyjonk.
The normal girls are indeed normal for them. And those of us who aren’t “normal” are normal for us. That’s the point.
This is of course not to say that they can’t have a donut if they want one!
NO DONUTZ! THEY GIVE YOU TEH FAT!
Love it, love it, love it. What a celebration of beautiful bodies.
I need to get off my duff and send a pic in.
Hooray, I’m part of the slideshow!
Something that I find very strange about the BMI classifications is that there is only one kind of “underweight” but then there’s “overweight”, “obese” and “morbidly obese” for the fatties. With all the concern about eating disorders and crazy extreme diets and ZOMG SCARY SKINNY!!!!!11one celebrities, you’d think there’d be more than just one level of skinny.
This was beautiful..thank you for putting it together.
As a “voluptuous” woman, (who works out regularly and eats better than 90% of the people I know, it is genetics) with a teenage daughter with the same genetics, I work hard to help her accept and love her curves..I just sent her a link to this and hope she fwds it on. and for the record, I am obese. when I did starve myself to a point of being “overweight” I was not healthy for my body type. now I focus on healthy food, healthy lifestyle, and work to love who I am.
Women’s bodies rock, all shapes and sizes, truly.
There aren’t many levels of skinny, really. There’s supposedly-”normal” skinny, there’s “you’re obviously having some sort of health problem” skinny, and then there’s “days from death” skinny. I guess they figure they don’t need to come up with a name for that last one.
The problem isn’t so much that there’s not enough categorizations left of the midpoint, the problem is that the midpoint is way left of where it would be, if it ought to be anywhere at all.
That was so fun. I loved seeing all of those women just… being.
If I had a recent body shot I’d send it. I’m “normal” - internet BMI 22, which I’m not sure how much to trust - and I’m definitely bigger than some of those “overweight” women.
I should add “…and men.” I enjoyed seeing them too, and I applaud them for participating.
Gorgeous. Really enlightening.
This reminds me of how ridiculous it is that I always choose the picture of myself that doesn’t show my chin or the photos that don’t show my wide hips or the photo that etc….. I am a senior in college and all of the students at my school are required to take a class called Heath Promotion 200. Everyone in the class is supposed to take the BMI, (what to we referred to in middle school as “the fat test” ). I am glad the teacher is allowing us to do an alternate assignment if we talk to him about it. That was not the case in middle school…
When I was in middle school they made us take the “fat test” in front of the whole class, it was one of the most embarrassing moments in my life. When I first learned that this was a legitimate ‘test’ I was mortified by it and then tortured with it for three years.
I also started to doubt the test because on of the girls who was larger than me, but extremely physically active did worse on the test than me. (she was the only one who failed the test worse than me, this is how I truly felt).
Writing about it now is strange because it makes me think of all of the horrors of middle school gym class. When they did the “fat test”, they also made us do the pull-up, or multiple pull-ups if you were “good”. If we couldn’t do any pull-ups, we were made to hang there in front of a bunch of people.
Spot on, Beth. Am I the only one who remembers middle school gym class as being explicitly designed to make you hate both exercise and yourself? They made us do 30 minutes of laps around (I kid you not) ONE TENNIS COURT. That’s like doing laps in the bathtub, only with less interesting scenery. How could anyone NOT hate running after that? And making us do “pull ups” (HA!) one at a time in front of each other. That’s like one pull-up every three days for each individual kid. How, exactly, does that build arm strength?
And people say that we need more of this bullshit to STOP TEH OBESITY EPIDEMIC ZOMG! Yeah…running in little tiny circles and watching other people fail at pull-ups will work WAY better than actual intersting sports and not hating yourself. It’s the Super Grover approach: “When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!”
It is snowy here in the winter and they also made us “cross country ski” and snow shoe around the track behind the school, yeah real fun when you can see the woods where it would be so ‘dangerous’ to cross country ski…
Gym class felt like torture, that might be an interesting post.
“What are your BMI horror stories of gym class?”
Beth, we did the pull-ups in my middle school and I could only just hang there. One day a boy from another class came up and pulled my feet. I bicycled my legs to stay up, and he kicked me in the stomach. I stood up to hit him, and he punched my glasses off of my face.
At least he gave me some exercise.
Fuck middle school gym.
Thank you for this point of view. I personally have a bias against fat people. I think excessive fat looks gross. This entire site was very helpful for me to learn, not to let my bias prejudice how I view other wise normal and healthy people. Thank You!
I’m…. I’m not sure if that was a troll or not.
Just in case it wasn’t a troll: kevin, since you’ve started thinking outside the box, think a bit further. There’s no call to be prejudiced against people who aren’t healthy, either. No matter how much space they take up or how aesthetically unappealing you think they are.
The more I look at this project, the more I realize two things:
1. The BMI’s “normal” category is such a thin slice of the range of possible healthy body sizes that to land in it at all, much less because it’s your body’s natural happy equilibrium, is about as easy as winning the lottery.
2. All the women in the “overweight” range and about half in the “obese” range look to me like they should be labeled “normal.”
And middle-school gym class…agh, don’t remind me! I couldn’t do a pull-up, touch my own toes, and I took longer than anyone to run a mile…by about five minutes. Thank God it’s over!
Kevin: if you’re not a troll, then imagine replacing your words “fat” and “excessive fat” with any of the following:
female, breasts and hips
black, brown skin
disabled, wheelchairs
old, white hair
poor, off-brand clothing
Fear/hatred of fat people, like other forms of prejudice, is not *just* a personal bias, but an entrenched social phenomenon that damages many people’s lives. I hope, as lauredhel suggests, that you continue to think further.
1. The BMI’s “normal” category is such a thin slice of the range of possible healthy body sizes that to land in it at all, much less because it’s your body’s natural happy equilibrium, is about as easy as winning the lottery.
2. All the women in the “overweight” range and about half in the “obese” range look to me like they should be labeled “normal.”
Yep, Dani!
And even when you get beyond what looks “normal” to the average person, people still underestimate the classifications. I’ve heard “You’re just a little overweight; it’s not like you’re obese” more times than I can count. Well, the government disagrees!
Also, as I mentioned on Shakesville, there was a study last year that showed some ridiculous percentage of “obese” people didn’t know they were “obese.” William Saletan wrote about it at Slate, and of course it was, “Fatties are delusional! They’re in denial! THEY DON’T KNOW THEY’RE FAT!” But all the study was really asking was whether people knew their own BMI categories. So a lot of “obese” people pegged themselves as overweight and “overweight” people pegged themselves as normal. Looking at these pics, you can see exactly why that would happen, no delusion necessary.
But it’s a much better story if it suggests that fat people are fucking idiots, of course.
“But it’s a much better story if it suggests that fat people are fucking idiots, of course.”
Oh, of course. All the alternate headlines were total flops:
Fat People As Aware of Own Health As Anyone Else, Thanks
Fat People: Not As Fat As Government Says They Are
Study Shows BMI Accurate Indicator Of…Well, Nothing Really
No, Really, That’s What Women Are Supposed To Look Like
Dani, bwah!
Well, Jezebel.com just mentioned your BMI project. Wooooo!
First: Donuts…mmmmmm…*homer simpson gargle*
Second: Am I the only one who had a hard time distinguishing between normal, obese, and morbidly obese? Because, seriously, everyone looked spectacular!
Third: Gym Class. gag.
Well, Jezebel.com just mentioned your BMI project. Wooooo!
Wow, it only took nine comments for someone to say that Laurie was lying about her weight and was 110 max.
Wow, it only took nine comments for someone to say that Laurie was lying about her weight and was 110 max.
Oh, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.
Oh, and it took a few more before someone said, “There’s no way you can be 325 lbs. and a triathlete.”
Uh, okay, then. Sorry, Sarah! You don’t exist!
[...] Harding has put together a slideshow illustrating how ridiculous BMI standards are. The show includes everyone from the underweight to the morbidly obese, and a lot of you might be [...]
Sarah’s also apparently doing irreparable damage to her joints, according to many people who are CERTAINLY doctors. This makes me lol particularly because a teeny friend of mine who’s maybe 120 max just started running and benched herself with an ankle injury almost immediately. Must be all that… fat?
Sarah’s also apparently doing irreparable damage to her joints
Its interesting to see how utterly useless chemistry-based medicine is, when it comes to joints and connective tissue.
fillyjonk - I saw that and laughed. My grandmother, who was well over 300 pounds herself, did have impressive (and irreparable) knee damage near the end of her life…her doctors said it was the result of years of *not* moving.
The funny part is, over at Jezebel, a lot of the eruption of comments is about how “well the BMI doesn’t measure muscle” or “I think a lot of those ‘overweight’ women look just fine” or whatever. Which are all semi-valid points, but seem to miss what, to me, is the major point: all of these people are humans, real people, not headless fat people on a 30-second newsreel or scary-sounding numbers on a chart. We’re all real people, EVEN THE MORBIDLY OBESE ONES LIKE ME, and dang, stop the hate already. For yourself and for everyone.
Amazing how people are still stuck on judging who is ‘acceptable’ and ‘not acceptable,’ just maybe by using a slightly different yardstick (one which, coincidentally, manages to include the measurer in the ‘acceptable’ category.) We’re all acceptable. Fat or not, health problems or not. Because since when did anyone get the authority to become The Body Police? Jesus.
Will you be adding more pictures to the project? My husband and I would love to get in on this.
Sure, Jeni! Send pics to katesblog at gmail.
all of these people are humans, real people, not headless fat people on a 30-second newsreel or scary-sounding numbers on a chart.
SM and I are headless though. Sorry everyone!
But yeah, I was struck by how many people at Jezebel used the project to beat up on themselves — like “these girls are ‘overweight’ and they still look better than me” or “wow, turns out I’m overweight, guess I’d better go punish myself.” Not that it’s really news to me that desperately unhappy women read publications like Jezebel, mind you.
[...] of Shapely Prose put together a Flickr slideshow illustrating the difference between underweight, normal, overweight and obese according to BMI [...]
“What are your BMI horror stories of gym class?”
Well, the caliper test in 8th grade really bugged me, but wasn’t as bad as it could have been, because we didn’t get to it until after I’d broken my leg falling down some stairs.
This is relevant because at 14, I was about 200lbs and 5′6″ and I was told by the orthoped that I really broke my leg because I WAS TEH FAT and IT WAS CRUSHING MY BONES and I MUST LOSE ALL THE LARD IMMEDIATELYY !!!111!! Oh, and btw, it might also be because my bone density was affected by lactose intolerance and I might want to quit drinking milk and take some mineral supplements. BUT IT WAS MORE LIEKLY TEH FAT!!!111!! He actually suggested I crash diet while I was in the cast to “get a head start.”
So by the time I got to the dreaded caliper test a month later, I was already hating myself and it just confirmed how horrible I was. My gym teacher was ok, but totally bought into the whole thin=good, fat=bad thing.
However, I moved, and my HS gym teacher was a tiny, aggressively feminist lesbian who didn’t care if any of us were fat - she mentioned the caliper thing but pointed out that she thought it was huge crock as fat has nothing to do with fitness. Her big thing was making sure we knew we could do as much as the boys, and that sports were good, and fun. She even flouted the rule girls weren’t allowed to particiapte in contact sports. Way more fun.
Anyway I think she planted he seed that health, strength and fitness are more important than anything else in my head. Good gym teachers can change lives.
Gym class was a nightmare from the word go. I had years of physical ability shaming, as a lifelong fat kid–like the time we had to run a mile in the field behind the junior high school and I walked it, because running was and is uncomfortable and something I’d been laughed at for doing. It took 20 minutes for me to walk a mile, everyone else was long since finished, and the gym teacher was screaming at me from the doorway to hurry up because she was sick of waiting for me. Anyway, once in high school we were being made to do the step test for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award thing (gah). The step test, if you don’t know, is having to step up onto the bottom row of the bleachers and then down again until you feel like dying. The teachers were walking along the row behind us as we stepped up and down, “encouraging” us, and I didn’t want to be ridiculed for not being able to hack it. So of course I pushed myself to the point of exhaustion–and I fell. I had weak ankles anyway from ice skating injuries and being so tired, my foot landed wrong, and I just went down. My mother had to come and pick me up and take me to the ER to get an x-ray. Luckily I didn’t break my ankle, just sprained it really badly.
But on top of all the fat-hating, it’s just awful that physical activity is presented to us when we’re young and impressionable as something that’s about being tough and hard and not being weak or giving in to pain or tiredness. Gym class was like boot camp, I swear, and the other kids were allowed to treat the clumsy and unfit among us like shit–though of course us braniacs were soundly rebuked should we pick on any of the jocks for being stupid because “they can’t help it.” School sucked.
But on top of all the fat-hating, it’s just awful that physical activity is presented to us when we’re young and impressionable as something that’s about being tough and hard and not being weak or giving in to pain or tiredness.
OMG, yes! No wonder I didn’t discover I actually liked exercise until I was in college! And when I started doing yoga and learned that PAIN MEANS YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG? A whole new world opened up.
Yeah, I have to wonder how many people Jane Fonda managed to turn off exercise, especially people who were in their teens and 20s in the early 1980s.
I wonder how many people got turned off from exercise by gym teachers. I know that was the case for me–in elementary school, I was made fun of in front of the entire class by the gym teacher. And he was not a small man himself. Junior high, the gym teacher (a female) was possessed with me losing weight, trying to force me to weigh in every day and keep a food diary. I finally told my mom about it and she went screeching in there to tell this woman to back off. My doctor got me excused out of gym class until my senior year, when I was recruited to be a part of a new class…Weight Management. Though I have to say it was probably the closest thing to HAES I’d experienced before I knew what HAES was. It was run by the first gym teacher I’d ever known that wasn’t a raving psychopath, and it wasn’t a horrible experience.
I absolutely love the slideshow/Flickr. I’ve paged through the photos again and again, marveling at the fascinating variety of people and shapes.
This slideshow is great. I thought I had pretty much adjusted my own perception of how fat people are based on the wildly innacurate (and sometimes hilarious) guesses people make about how fat/what size I am. And it’s true–when guessing weight, I come a *lot* closer than most people. However, I wasn’t thinking carefully enough with a friend the other day, and asked her if she was a size 12. She told me, with a slightly incredulous look, that she was a size 18. And I did a double-take, and thought, “Oh. Yeah. I guess I should have known that.”
And I *still* get comments from people about how I “can’t be that fat” when I tell them I weight 270 pounds or wear a size 20.
I’d be curious, actually, to see a sort of “sliding scale” (pun intended), of people of all shapes and sizes, arranged by weight. Or by height. Either one would be pretty awesome.
So you have people who weight 140-150 pounds, and within that category you have a whole bunch of people who all look very different from one another. Short, tall, skinny, fat…
I thought I had pretty much adjusted my own perception of how fat people are based on the wildly innacurate (and sometimes hilarious) guesses people make about how fat/what size I am.
You never know when the conditioning is going to rear its head, though. Yesterday, I heard from a friend from grad school I’d lost touch with, ’cause she found me via Jezebel. She told me she loved the project, and she’s a hair shy of “overweight,” at 5′8″ and 160 lbs.
My gut reaction: YOU weigh 160 lbs.?
Yeah, at fucking 5′8″. Which I know is the farthest thing from fat. But because I know her and have her in the “thin person” box in my mind, hearing that number blew my mind. Because of course all thin women weigh under 120, and all women who weigh over 150 are fat.
You’d think I, of all people, would not still have thoughts like that. But there it was.
I also ran a 20 minute mile — all three times we were made to run it. Fortunately I had a somewhat understanding teacher.
I was (as shown) uber skinny, but even I thought I was fat. How my thighs showed in gym shorts, O NOES! Yeah. And I remember running laps. In some cases, I would come in far last, with, of course, a couple of the fat kids. And the teacher would get on their case, but not mine. And I always thought, you know what, that’s bullcrap. They’re having a hard time physically too, why do they get criticized for it as though it’s just because they’re FAT! ? And even if it is, so fucking what?
It always annoyed me.
… and in the other case of running laps, I would actually come in as one of the first, because I was one of the only ones who actually tried. I had a couple of gym classes with the kinds of kids who would walk across the shallow end of the pool when we were supposed to be swimming laps. Damn straight I was graded well for my effort, even if my actual performance sucked, because I was putting in a thousand times more effort than they were. Ugh, that always annoyed the piss out of me.
Because of course all thin women weigh under 120, and all women who weigh over 150 are fat.
My standards, growing up, were a little more lax. Anything under 150 was skinny and desireable. Anything under 200 was acceptable. Anything above that meant the person had eaten one too many chocolate cakes. (Like me.)
Thank God my mother didn’t *try* to include me in her neuroses regarding weight. I picked up enough of it as it was–but at least I had the idea that fat people were still people, and that models were still WAY too skinny.
I’m still confused as to how I missed all that “I’m-supposed-to-look-like-a-model crap.”
Jane, your experience in gym is one of the reasons I am motivated to do activism (however, that winds up being). I don’t know how I lucked out, but I had sane coaches & teachers in PE all through school (and I was the “second fattest girl” in my town, as the bullies made sure I knew). I know so many people my size and smaller who were put through hell by sociopath gym teachers. That level of abuse is just… ARGGGGGG!!!!
I’m sending you the psychic equivalent of wicked cool magic playballs that have nothing but happy attached to them!!!
Oh my goodness, my picture has been viewed 10,748 times! That is crazy, I had no idea this would become this big.
“Amazing how people are still stuck on judging who is ‘acceptable’ and ‘not acceptable,’ just maybe by using a slightly different yardstick (one which, coincidentally, manages to include the measurer in the ‘acceptable’ category.”
Star-bellied Sneetches. Everything I needed to know about human nature I learned from Dr. Seuss.
Amy, did you go to my school?
Kate, d00dette, awesome Crane Pose. (Hopefully commenting on ostensible athletic ability is OK.) Although I do a wicked Twisted Root, me attempting Crane Pose (5′7″, short waist, long legs; high center of gravity for a girl apparently) looks an awful lot like Laurel & Hardy attempting “Swan Lake.” I over-rotated and sprained my wrist trying it once.
But awareness of what one’s body can actually do is key — which I think is part of the point here.
[...] Project: Eye opening look at the BMI scale BMI Project Shapely Prose Came across this today. Puts some new perspective into the mix, huh? __________________ Katie ~ [...]
haha, moxie. I’m so glad I stumbled onto this slideshow, I love this slideshow!
and redundancy.
When my mom was “morbidly obese”, she married a man 11 years her junior, whom I met in college!
When she finally starved herself down to a “normal” weight, at the urging of her doctors, her hair fell out and her teeth were loose. She also developed NALD (non alcoholic liver disease) from losing weight too fast.
I’m 5′2″, 225 lbs. I hike, dance, swim. I’m dating three men who think I’m incredibly hot, and two of my ex-boyfriends are still begging me to marry them.
Not only is weight not the only factor in “healthy”, it certainly isn’t the only factor in “sexy”.
Thank you SO MUCH for this. I have been having this argument with the doctor, and others, for awhile now and have been feeling at the end of my rope. I cannot qualify for a breast reduction until my BMI reaches 27– period. I’ve been trying to explain to people that BMI measurements are bullshit, and this slideshow proves it. Again, thank you.
Gertie, assuming that means you have to lose weight to qualify, that fucking ENRAGES ME.
First of all, when I got down to a size 4, I was still a DD. I had started out as a DDD, so for me, 65 lbs. = one cup size down. Not everyone who loses weight loses boob.
And when I was a size 4 and a DD? The boobs were still way out of proportion to my body, as you can imagine — and if I hadn’t been young at the time, they would have been causing back pain just as they do now.
Second, since we know virtually ALL dieters regain every pound lost, wouldn’t it make a hell of a lot more sense to operate on someone while her weight is stable, to reduce the risk that she’ll just gain weight and end up with overlarge breasts again anyway? I mean, I suppose if you’re a heartless, money-driven plastic surgeon thinking, “Hey, maybe I’ll get to operate on her AGAIN down the line!” then such a sensible course of action wouldn’t be in your best interest. But if you care about the best interest of the patient? Much better to do the breast reduction while she is in the weight range she will probably be in for the rest of her life.
Third, the reason women seek out breast reductions is usually that they are in pain. So once again we have an example of doctors saying, “We will not give you treatment for your PAIN until you lose weight.”
GRRRRRRR.
Aye, I have huge boobage that is painful. NHS (National Health here in Scotland) won’t operate at my weight because they consider anything above a BMI of 27 to be “risky”. I am the first to agree that I am fat, even very fat (I wear a size 18 US). After a car accident in 2001, the back pain made it difficult to be active and coupled with PCOS I gained a lot of weight.
I lost 35 pounds two years ago and have managed to keep it off. I am physically active and eat healthy and even stopped smoking six months ago. I find it difficult to do more than walking as exercise, though, because of the size of my breasts. Wearing a bra, even a properly fitted one, amplifies the pressure on the middle of my spine and affects my breathing.
They will not consider that I am also a very muscular woman, who can drop a dress size but actually gain weight. Also, they will not deduct the breast weight from their expectations either.
Yesterday the doctor dismissed me and my questions, but then had no problem prescribing me pain killers.
Anyhoo, I have been feeling so frustrated at being ignored but you and your slideshow make me feel like I’ve been heard and that has helped me tremendously. I am going to continue my path to better health, and will find a way to finance my breast reduction surgery on my own.
thanks Kate!
Gertie, as someone who has actually been through a breast reduction, I can tell you two things:
1) It is not a panacea. I went from a 38HH to a 38DD and I still ache (it’s definitely better, but I was off-balance for a few years and I still have upper back pain). I completely think it was the right thing to do, but I know I had higher expectations than were appropriate. I also lost sensation. That, my friends, was the biggest damn bummer EVAH. Very individual and personal decision, but just so you know: you might not get the relief you’re looking for. Can you see a physio or an osteopath over there?
2) I actually gained weight after the surgery. See, until I got the girls lopped off, I didn’t realize I had a ginormous belly. When I saw it I was mortified and depressed. Hello, comfort eating and staying in bed when I wasn’t at work.
I have gotten over all that now but the belly is still there, looming larger than ever as though a tribute to the Missing Girls.
I’m sorry that you evidently have a useless physician (I read your encounter on your website…whoo, that’s rough). I imagine that (s)he is just following the NHS protocols, but still…stoopid. My heart is with you.
Oh, and congratulations on quitting the smokes! While everyone else bickers about how important losing OMG all that fat is to your health, the smart doctors are saying it’s better to gain weight because of smoking cessation than it is to keep smoking so you don’t blow up into a big fatty cow. Wev.
Thanks for that. It does help to have input from someone who’s been there. Based on my size, I will probably require removal and repositioning, resulting in sensation loss– I almost expect it– and at this point I am willing to risk that.
I don’t know if I have unrealistic expectations with regards to my pain, or not. I’ve been wanting reduction surgery since I was 20 but held off in case I had children and wanted to nurse. I never did have kids, so at 36 I decided to get in the best shape as I could by the time I was 39 so that I could have the reduction and then start 40 off with a whole improved body. I’ve had breasts since I was 8, and they didn’t really change much with the weight, thank gawd. I plan to reduce down to a C cup, and hope that this will allow me to exercise in a way that will increase my back strength and give me the physical freedom to literally climb mountains.
Doc prescribed painkillers, and also referred me to the obseity clinic. I’m holding onto hope that those people will be better suited to handling this and can get me sorted. Fingers crossed.
Just chiming in on the gym class experiences…My sophmore year of h.s., the very thin, driller of an gym teacher was telling my all-girls class about how important is is to work out. Not a bad lesson, until she started pointing out all of the bad things that could happen to your body, including, in her words, “the disgusting pockets of fat underneath your arms that seem to extend from your chest” while looking at me in my tank top (I often didn’t change into the stupid gym uniform…). Thirteen years later and still remember. And I HATE her. I was 15, DD breasts, and 170 pounds. Bitch.
Why is it I don’t see typos until they are already posted?
From age 8, until my first year of college, I myself held many prejudices against fat, . My first roommate, Tina, was a large woman (probably a size 22US) who would kick my ass every single day on the racquetball court. Ten minutes into the game and my (at the time) skinny self would be sweating and trying to catch a breath while she just kept pounding the court.
Wow, size does not reflect fitness! Being fat does not equate being lazy!
I am a big (heh) believer in being healthy and active, but I no longer subscribe to the belief that you need to be a stick insect to achieve that. I finally see the true beauty in just being a woman and I think each one of us needs to make an effort to show our appreciation and keep people (like Kristin’s gym teacher) from perpetuating the hate.
This is great! I used to be a BIG triathlete (BMI around 30). I could run a 1/2 marathon in a little under 2 hours and loved it and i could bench press 10 reps at about 120 lbs and carry 2 40 lb bags of dog food at a time. Then i had a huge car wreck (broke my neck but wasn’t paralyzed TG) and over about a year lost about 40 lbs. I figure at least 15 of those were muscle. I am now in the “normal” category with a BMI of 24. I can barely run 3 miles without being sore for 3 more days, i can barely lift my 25 lb daughter (and my hand gets tired holding a cup of coffee for more than a few minutes). I’ve never been so weak and unhealthy feeling in all my life. Yet everyday people say “you look GREAT…you must have fully recovered…you look like you’ve been working out (huh? working out was what i was doing when i was “obese”)…” etc etc…inane comments that equate thin with fit/healthy. My office manager weighs the same as i do but has about 1/2 the body fat (we’ve both had ours calculated). SHE looks fit and healthy but VERY built while i just look kind of average.
I would like to see a slide show with a bunch of people who weigh the same but look very different.
And medical literature is finally catching up (although the doctors are not) to the fact that it’s HEALTHIER to be active and fat than inactive and thin.
I truly believe i wouldn’t have done as well in my accident if i hadn’t had some extra weight on me. My nutritional status was horrid for a long time (which is why i lost weight) and i probably would be very ill right now if i’d started out in the “normal” category.
Great stuff! Thanks for posting it (and glad i came across it, rather randomly).
Oh, and speaking of smoking, I read somewhere that smoking a pack a day adds the equivalent of 150 lbs of extra weight in terms of health “risk”. The average person gains 30 lbs when they quit smoking so most people are still coming out ahead in the health game. (in the body image game, well, that’s a different story, obviously).
So, you’re saying somebody who’s 300 pounds or so has the same health risks as a smoker? Last I read, smokers have a 6000% greater chance of premature death (i.e. getting lung or mouth cancers) than non-smokers, whereas 300 pound people have health “risks” exactly equal to people currently in the “normal” categories (best health is in the “overweight” group.) So, where’s your data to justify comparing people with “150 pounds of extra weight” to smokers?
I guess you think you’re supporting fat acceptance, but you’re still bashing fat people. (Or, at least, people fatter than you are.)
Wow–great site. I love the illustrated BMI. Right now I’m in grad school with a ton of Type A neurotics who would just as soon gain 5 pounds as get anything less than an A+ in a class. As they reach their late 20s they freak out because they’re not as lithe as they once were, and most of them have developed sports/exercise injuries. There’s just no moderation here…COOK whole, healthy food, eat in moderation, don’t binge when stressed, and do exercise that doesn’t harm your body. I think everyone leaves their brains at work. It’s nice to see some refreshing, non-guilt-ridden perspective here. Thanks.
[...] watch this absolutely amazing slideshow showing photos of people with their BMI labels. I think my favorite is the three sisters whose BMI [...]
Well, it seems there is no category called “healthy.” Yikes. And here is sit, morbidly obese, but on my way to the gym. This is so sick, and I am so embarassed to see that our society still buys into this outrageous thinking.
A million blessings on you for this project. It’s uplifted me in ways it is impossible to convey. Most of the time I just can’t “tell” what I look like. My BMI, at 30.2, says I’m obese, but I feel kinda okay — healthier than most “normal” people I know and not all that bad looking. At the same time, I gained a lot of weight over the past few years (a pretty healthy diet, but enormous stress and not enough sleep) and many days, barely recognize myself, and mourn the loss of the body I used to have — and the different way people treat me and look at me now, and the assumptions they make about me, etc. As a result, I avoided sexual intimacy like the plague the past few years (burying something that had been so important and fun to me), assuming no man would find me attractive anyway. But recently (of course, while I was doing what I love at a time when I was truly happy and oblivious and least expected it), I met a really sweet man that I really hit it off with. He kept pursuing me and I kept assuming I was misunderstanding his intentions. I was really dense about it. Even once he made his attraction clear, I still had my doubts. I just couldn’t believe that he could really be interested in me “that way”, because no matter how much we have in common non-physically or how well we hit it off, I just couldn’t get past that fact he must find me unattractive because I’m obese and he is an extraordinarily fit cyclist with a gorgeous body and years younger than me. But after viewing these wonderful photos, now I see myself in a new light — apparently the one he’s been seeing me in all along. It’s too late tonight, but I can’t wait to tell him tomorrow — no, show him — that I’ve put the doubts that held me back with him to rest. So give yourself a big round of applause, cuz thanks to you this fat chicks gettin’ her mojo back.
Awesome awesome awesome.
Thank you Kate for doing this, as always you are an inspiration!
Oooh what a cool project. Can anybody submit their picture and join?
Thank you for doing this. BMI is a very messed up concept and your slide show was a beautiful way to dismantle all too powerful stereotypes. I am someone who has battled anorexia for years, yet have rarely been “underweight” - the BMI had done my head in a number of times. Especially when folks tell me I can’t have an eating disorder because I’m not under 18.5 on the BMI chart.
Your work is beautiful, as is each person (and cat) that submitted a picture. Thank you.
I love that I found this! Speaking of fantastic health advice from your doctor, you kids will love this. I am obese at 5′4 188 size 14 (I am strong as hell, thank you muscles!) and travel a lot for my job. My doctor pretty much always reminds me how OBESE I am and how i really need to get my BMI to healthy (hum…my BP is 117/62 all other health tests say i AM healthy) place. She suggested when I am out with clients for dinner I try a few of tricks that her friend (BTW, a friend the the Doc. said had an eating disorder!!!) does. “Just push food around on your plate. Don’t actually EAT it. Just make it look like you ate it. And order vodka sodas.” Wow, thanks Doc!
Thank you for doing this. More people really need to know how stupid and wrong the whole BMI-business is.
That is just so awesome! Loved it, and thanks!
I absolutely love your slideshow , what a fantastic idea
[...] in the “normal” range, is often a crock of shit. See how stupid BMI is, illustrated here. I’m much less concerned with the number than I am with my size. I range from a size 9-12, [...]
I just mentioned in front of my whole class (40 people) that the BMI is inaccurate. We are supposed to do the skin caliper BMI next week in class and I am unwilling based on research and the reality that the BMI is very inaccurate with just 5 measly little numbers between “normal” and “obese”. I am so fucking sick of this supposed Health Promotion class that every single student is required to take.
The teacher even mentioned that the insurance companies are the ones that use the BMI to determine what type of coverage people deserve! I am so sick of big business telling me if I am healthy or not!
I think I will send him to this website for an explanation as to why I refuse to do the skin caliper test. If you know of some good source I can which refer to the inaccuracies of BMI, I would greatly appreciate it.
Beth,
A good place to start is over at Sandy Szwarc’s Junkfood Science (www.junkfoodscience.blogspot.com). She has ongoing items of interest (and then some), and also has links in the right hand column to a series she did a couple of years ago for Tech Central Station. There are also plenty of books around (Google: “obesity” & Paul Campos, Glenn Gaesser, Laura Fraser, Gina Kolata, Dean Edell… ) Happy reading!
Beth, if you can get your hands on the full text of this 2006 study published in the Lancet, you’re good to go. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in MN looked at 40 studies covering 250,000 people and found:
-the underweight group had an increased risk for both total mortality and cardiovascular mortality
-the overweight group had the least risk of both
-moderately obese people (BMI 30-35) had no increased risk in either category
-those with a BMI greater than 35 had no increase in total mortality but the highest risk for cardiovascular mortality — which was only slightly higher than the risk for the underweight category
Interestingly, the abstract says nothing about the “normal” category.
I feel a little confused. I watched the slideshow, and I felt the categories the individuals fell into according to what was indicated were accurate. I guess it doesn’t feel good to be labelled “overweight”, “obese”, etc., but the people pictured in those categories had noticeable extra weight. And the those labelled “normal” or “underweight” appeared to lack extra weight accordingly. Not trying to be mean, it’s just an observation.
Anon, we’ve been through this about 80 times already. Your “observation” is profoundly unoriginal. And it would seem most of the people viewing the project disagree with you. *shrug*
Blah blah fat-people-look-fat-cakes. Not everyone’s gonna get it; what can ya do.
Incidentally, does anyone ever say they’re not trying to be an asshole when they’re not trying to be an asshole?
Oh look! Anon knows exactly what the ideal weight for human beings is; see, if you’re above it, you have “extra” weight; if you’re below it, you “lack extra” weight. ANON HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT S/HE KNOWS THE MEANING OF THE WORD “EXTRA” IN RELATION TO AN ARBITRARILY DEFINED “NORM”
Yeah, anon, haven’t you learned anything from this site? Geez, fat people are angry and defensive about being fat, duh! Do you have to throw it in their faces?
Oh, boy! We have a tie for Missing the Point Award of the Day!
Who knew it was such a hotly contested title?
It’s particularly awesome when non-readers seek out the blog in order to be snide and sarcastic… about how angry we are.
Wait, forgive me, it’s not a tie. Sara and Anon have the exact same IP address! SHOCKER.
Sifl vs. Olly cage match!
On the personal experiences with gym class thing (and I’m in the slide show - gray sweater and jeans)…
I was another kid who weighed around 200 in high school. I had mixed feelings about gym class. I liked playing sports, but hated distance running. I had good lower body and core strength and better than average flexibility, but very little upper body strength. 40 situps? No problem. Pull-ups? Forget it. I used to walk or bike the 3 miles to school, and I was in the marching band, so I wasn’t in horrible shape. I could sprint up to 600 yards, but no way was I going to run the mile. I walked it in 14 minutes.
Back in the day (early 80’s) they didn’t test BMI or single out the fat kids like they do now. I mean, I wasn’t exactly the gym teacher’s pet and I was one of the last picked for teams, but I think it’s worse for fat kids now. I didn’t love gym class, but it didn’t ruin physical activity for me, either.
[...] Hallelujah! Let us eat cake! And even if you don’t feel like cake, be sure to check out Kate’s BMI project. [...]
“THANK YOU for showing the full range of real, beautiful women (and cats). Women are human beings, not numbers on a scale.”
Whoever posted that was right on the money. I’m so sick of women being told they have to be like toothpicks to be healthy. It’s disrespectful on so many levels.
[...] BMI Project: Shapely Prose (or on Flickr, here. Plus, a great article here). [...]
When talking to my doctor once, I mentioned that i knew i needed to be lifting weights or something like that more: lose a little fat and gain a little muscle. I like this doctor quite a bit, but he pulled out the BMI chart and said that i was on the low end of normal, almost underweight and so i should not worry. He basically said that women are too concerned about their weight. That may be true, but it is not true for me and not what I had said. The BMI chart he used was based solely on weight and height (which is not indicative of body composition). As we know, muscle weighs more than fat. If I gained muscle and lost fat my charted BMI may remain the same, but my body composition would have been altered and my energy level would be better which was what i was wanting to achieve. I am more concerned with what I can do and how I feel.
I couldn’t get the link to the Lancet article to work (for some reason this page is still loading for me and so the link wouldn’t function), but it would be interesting to see if they looked at body composition at all or solely the BMI chart. It is actually possible to have an ‘unhealthy’ level of body fat and fall in the ‘normal’ range on BMI, just as it is possible to have a ‘healthy’ level of body fat and fall in the overweight range. It is very silly that we are all aware of this and yet BMI is still being used. It is really time we demand physicians use metrics that actually relate to health so that they can advise us realistically.
After looking at all the pictures it seems that BMI is quite accurate after all. Sure, there are some exceptions and there is some inaccuracy at the thresholds, but overall it is pretty damn accurate. Really, all the people where I was thinking they do not look overweight or obese were right at the limit for their respective categories. And obviously, somebody with a BMI of 25 is not going to suddenly look different from somebody with a BMI of 24.9.
Lord on high it’s a brand new troll.
Yes it is, Joie, and he’s about to be banned, since this isn’t the only thread where he’s dropped in to enlighten us without reading a word of the site.
And obviously, somebody with a BMI of 25 is not going to suddenly look different from somebody with a BMI of 24.9.
Gee, ya think? And ya think maybe that’s THE POINT OF THE PROJECT? Since everything from the way people are treated by doctors to whether they can get health insurance at all is determined by those arbitrary thresholds?
So you have people who weight 140-150 pounds, and within that category you have a whole bunch of people who all look very different from one another. Short, tall, skinny, fat…
What this made me think of, oddly enough, is that right now I am the same weight I was when I got married. And you can fit two of me-now in my wedding dress. I, er…took up a number of activities (rollerblading, yoga, bellydance, rugby, biking, hiking, and pilates) in the six-plus years since my wedding.
Same BMI (33.7), same person, two completely different sizes and fitness levels. That says better than anything to me that BMI is pretty useless as a measure of anything real and substantive.
I wonder if I can get my rugby team to take pics in uniform for the flickr stream?
Nifty slideshow.
As a very very fat woman myself (my dress size is 6x. I don’t know what I weigh as I am off the scale when my doctor insists on weighing me), I had a bit of a revelation watching the show. All the underweight people, lovely as they doubtless are, kinda made me flinch a little bit. I am clearly a horrible bigoted person. Sorry thin people! I can’t help my instincts, but I do seriously respect your bodies, even if they make me want to make you a cup of tea and a plate of dinner. I’m going to work on this prejudice of mine that I didn’t even know I had, before I end up checking Satan’s spreadsheets in hell for all eternity.
Secondly, I have to admit, my reaction to all the so-called overweight /obese/morbidly obese people was the same: “Come *on*!” e.g she/he/they is/aren’t overweight! They’re perfectly freaking normal.
In conclusion: I take your point.
I should apologize. I am trying to “enlighten” the anti-fat individuals of the internet by posting a link to the BMI project. It’s safe to say any new trolls you are getting are coming from extremely hostile spaces to begin with. I post at a lot of message boards where insecure men worship supermodels who are probably suffering from eating disorders. Needless to say, anybody above a size four is “fat” to them.
Not only is this a great slideshow (blows Inconvenient Truth out o’ the water), I was surprised at the guys’ pics. I’m 5′4 165lbs and my boyfriend is 6′2 and 138, so I know he’s thin…but the men who are supposedly overweight? Some of them had visible stomach muscles! It is also shocking to see other women who share my numbers and realize that my self-perception is so off base. It has taken me twenty years to realize that I don’t need to lose weight.
Also, I think gym teachers are programmed to target fat kids. I think mine gave up on me in eighth grade. It wasn’t until I started backpacking and doing yoga that I realized “exercise” can be fun–and I am good at it! Shock and awe! Now if only the insurance companies would realize that we can be “overweight/obese/morbidly obese” and still be healthier than many thin people…
Some irony, for whatever it’s worth:
I’ve been having some trouble with my health lately. For a still-mysterious reason, my weight is dropping like a hot rock. This morning, my weight was 103, which puts my BMI at 18.2 - officially “underweight.”
The irony? My bust, waist, and hip measurements are exactly the same today as they were when that BMI Project photo was taken (you can look it up, but I’m 115 in the photo). My BMI could be “normal” or “underweight” in that photo, and no one would ever know the damn difference. Because visually, you can’t.
Go figure.
That is so true, Dani. People have this deep need to believe they can diagnose whether someone is “too thin” or “too fat” from a picture or their clothes size or appearance, and you CAN’T. You cannot understand or control others in that way. People just need to recognize this and deal with it.
I hope your health improves and you find out what is causing the changes to your weight and the problems you are experiencing.
Incidentally, we occasionally get hits from people who are googling things like “what size would I wear at 5′4″ 175 pounds” or similar queries. Sorry, folks, we just can’t answer that, and neither can anybody else.
Well, the obvious answer is “the one that fits” - but nobody wants to hear that.
Man, if that’s not wisdom for the ages. Nicely put.
[...] huh. So, these doctors will be using a test that isn’t exactly accurate in even determining how fat a person is to help halt the “obesity problem”? Are y’all as lost as I [...]
Are you still accepting photos?
Attention everyone: From now on, every single “I don’t get it, fat people look fat” comment on this thread will be deleted. Usually I gauge based on whether it will be fun to bat you around, but hear this: from now on, you’re ALL fucking boring.
Aww, you deleted that one just as I WAS batting her around!
I support this policy, though.
I know, it was a good batting too, but overall OMG SO TOTALLY YAWN re: disingenuous concern trolls.
I asked for an explanation.
Rather than saying “LYKE OMG YOUR POINT IS SO BORING!” How about you try to explain yourselves.
No, you didn’t ask for an explanation, Andrea. You made a REALLY BORING POINT, which has already been addressed numerous times in this thread.
And if you actually want an explanation, you can read the fucking blog.
And if you actually want an explanation, you can read the fucking blog.
Noooooo don’t make me thiiiiiiiiiink
I love people who don’t read more than 3 comments before them, let alone some of the actual blog they’re commenting on, yet feel entitled to demand that we drop everything and explain basic things to them.
See those 400 other blog posts? THAT’S WHERE WE EXPLAIN THINGS.
You so totally rock! Pictures are worth a million words…
My medical clinic recently announced that as of Jan. 1, they will start documenting BMI for all their patients. I can’t imagine what they think this will accomplish. Oh wait. It’s for our own good.
Unfrickingbelievable. I feel like I should fight it somehow. Any tactical suggestions welcome.
Perrin J - I think you should fight it. I mean, has anyone ever tried? What if the nurse asks to weigh you, and you just say “no, thank you.” Passive resistance, my friend.
I don’t mind knowing my weight *for myself,* because it’s just a friggin’ number, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to allow them to weigh my moral value, even if if my personal doctor does think it’s for my own good. Hell if I’m going to passively contribute to his delusion by allowing him to keep weighing me. So there.
(Big talk: I’ve never actually done this, but I TOTALLY WILL the next time I can afford to visit a doctor).
I always refuse the scale.
I’m very polite about it; I simply say, “No thank you,” like I would say, “No thank you, I don’t care for dessert.” So far they’ve never made an issue out of it. They might come down on me like a ton of bricks, though, now that they’ve decided it’s some kind of critical vital sign. 
Really, unless you’re going to be receiving anesthesia or some other medication that is dosed according to body mass, there is no absolute medical need for them to know exactly what we weigh. Why can’t the doctor just make an eyeball estimate?
I’m impressed and inspired! I think you may have just convinced me to stick to my resolve next time I’m asked to step on the scale. Thanks!
Wonderful….Simply Wonderful. Have been “lurking” here for awhile and love all the wonderful and inspiring posts and peeps here….
Hey Kate! The BMI project is great!
But other than the whole BMI thing being a complete hoax (and people still believe in it), I’ve heard that people were gonna adjust the “normal” range further down the scale for Asians just because we’re supposedly smaller. http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?Article=3735
Way to go on making us feel worse about our bodies.
OMG, Su, that’s insane.
Soooooo, is there a population anywhere in the world that is good to go according to the Powers That Be? Or are they saying that all of us are unhealthy and need to change?
Any big famines going on right now? Maybe those people would be healthy . . .
I’ve heard that people were gonna adjust the “normal” range further down the scale for Asians just because we’re supposedly smaller.
Yeah, and all exactly the same!
Jesus.
I’ve come to the conclusion that “professionals” who rely on BMI have never met any actual people, especially actual people who have boobs, muscles or come from what might be called “sturdy peasant stock”.
Paging sweet machine… this is both ludicrously off-topic and way late, but would you be willing to share some of the places where you like to shop for clothes? I absolutely LOVE your outfit in the BMI project. If you don’t wanna divulge that’s no problem, I just thought I would ask.
What is interesting is when you are technically overweight but still wear a size 6. What’s up with clothes sizing?
Leslief, I think the better question is, what’s up with the BMI? (At least one person in the project is “overweight” and a size 4.)
Are you sure Moxie is only 1 foot tall? Is that standing all the way up, or just measuring her legs? Because even a 12-week-old kitten is a good foot long if you stretch it out and that looks like a fully grown cat to me. I’d give her at least 2 feet, maybe 2-1/2, and that would probably ratchet her down to “barely overweight” at 12 pounds.
But DGMS about vets and their attitudes about cat weight. Two of my cats are 20-pound bruisers, and yet one is much more “girthful” than the other one. And the second one, who’s actually a bit heavier, is constantly in motion, wanting to play fetch all day long. But to the vet, weight is weight. Bleh.
Meowser, I think the measurement for Moxie was height at the shoulder, not length. And in fact, she’s under 12 inches by that measurement, but the BMI calculator would only take heights in feet.
I have just lost track of time because I was reading your blog - the time in Denmark is now 2:52 am and I was supposed to have gone to bed three hours ago!!! I am so glad that I found it!!!
I ended up on this website tonight because a “friend” (I’m using quotation marks because she is a dear friend but is kind of preachy when it comes to weight and won’t let my “overweight” be) told my that I most assuredly have BED - why else would I be overweight, and what else would be the cause of my depression? I didn’t have the courage to tell her of then, but now I will. As I said she is preachy about loosing weight because she’s lost a lot of wait, but ho - she’s put it on again!
I have never really been bullied about my weight directly but of course by society in general (yes, Danish society is also prejudiced against people on the high end of the weight scale – pun not originally intended but left in when noticed ;o) ). In Denmark we don’t have to take the test you have been talking about but everybody have to have check ups by the school nurse – here I was singled out and had to go see her once a month instead of once a year to “keep my weight in check”. And even though I got a small flag the days I had lost weight (the Danish national flag named Dannebrog is used as symbol of celebration e.g. for birthdays, wedding, etc. – so in this case it meant the same as a gold star), the humiliation of having to go to the nurse in the middle of classes all the way through the school far outweighed the positive feeling the flags was suppose to give me. And then imagine the days when I didn’t get a flag…
Luckily my present doctor asked me in my first consultation with her if my weight was something she should address. I said no I was fine with it and she has only mentioned it one time since then (when I had an ultrasound made to confirmed gallstones she simply said “your liver shows up a bit diffused but that’s normal with your weight” – and that was the end of that comment).
So in general I am perfectly fine with my weight but I do have a few family members and friends who are preachy – ironically most are heavy too and preach because they themselves are trying to loose weight and think they are doing really well that way. I have not been ably too stand up to them before but, as a mentioned earlier in my little novel, now I have a basis to do so!
Line Thy, I am always sad but not surprised to see that the situation for fat people is often the same or worse outside of the US. That weight monitoring program you had to do in school must have been really embarrassing. On the positive side your current doctor sounds great!
See now - I notice some things about ALL those people, that they have in common: 1) each one is, without exception, DARLING; 2) each one looks interesting and friendly; 3) each one without exception looks like someone I’d enjoy having a cuppa and a chinwag with; 4) one of them has a tummy I’d like to smooch. MOXIE!! It’s MOXIE (what on earth were you thinking?) {{laughing}}
Last summer I drove a support vehicle for people on a 500-mile bike tour. The *majority* of the riders, ALL of whom covered the whole 500 miles, were over 40, and would also be described as “obese” or “morbidly obese” in your slide show. There are MANY people who, being stout to greater or lesser degrees, are nonetheless as hearty and healthy and buff as one of those alleged paragons in TV exercise videos. Saw it with my own eyes. So there. Shut up. {{grin}}
scg, thanks! Let me try to remember for that outfit… At the time that picture was taken I was wearing 12/14, so some of my clothes were from plus stores and some were from straight stores. For that particular outfit, I got the little cardigan at Urban Outfitters (their L fit over my E-cup boobs! Worth a shot for inbetweenies or not-so-endowed fatties). I’m pretty sure I got the t-shirt at a now defunct store called Tiger Tiger in Seattle, but I can’t remember the brand — it might have been local. And the skirt I got at a thrift store in Vancouver. I did very well thrifting when I lived in the PNW! But in general when I’m an inbetweenie, (besides thrift stores) I shop at H&M, Old Navy, B & Lu, and Torrid (mostly on half-off clearance). Now I’ve lost some weight because of illness, and I’m baffled as to where to shop!
Oh, and the knee socks were from Torrid and the jewelry is handmade by friends in Oregon.
Yay! Thanks so much for the info. I am about to quit my traditional office job (engineer at a consulting firm) and embark on an as-yet-unknown different career path, and in between jobs at least (and maybe beyond if I end up working alone or in a little more creative environment), I want to start expressing my own fashion sense a little more. You folks in the slide show offer some great inspiration.
It is at least good to know that Urban Outfitters might be suitable for the more well-endowed (American Apparel [which is next door to the local UO], I’m looking at you with loathing on this score). All of the Hip Young People at UO make me break out in hives and I end up racing through and never trying anything on.
I will venture into H&M again too. Though I feel I should boycott them on principle since they got rid of the awesome Jytte Meilvang line they used to have. The overdyed purple dark-wash cuffed capri jeans from that line that I used to have were pretty much the coolest plus-sized garment I ever had, especially 6-8 years ago when you didn’t have a lot of options in the first place. I love LB in many ways but it couldn’t hold a candle to H&M’s departed plus line.
Thanks again!! Your friends are very talented jewelers too. The necklace is gorgeous.
ha…at 5′3 and 147 I’m apparently “overweight”, according to the BMI.
Ludicrous.
I like the slideshow. Puts things in perspective.
[...] the measurement we all know and love. Love to call bullshit on, I mean. So such massive fatties as the “obese” people in the BMI Project slideshow, for example, would be denied surgery because it’s “too hard” and has [...]
Right on. This BMI photo is ‘food for thought’ and yes, with some folks BMI just doesn’t compute. I mean - it made me think of my own situation and my weight. Some say under weight - and I say - spot on. Thanks - you’ve lifted the largest eating day of the year.
[...] find Kate Harding’s BMI Project both fascinating and full of hot pictures of cute big girls. The best kind of social commentary. [...]
LOL. I liked the way you proved whatever point you were trying to prove by this slide. I loved it, to say the least.
I’ve been through some weight loss programs and doctors can’t really explain why I seem to register heavily on the scales yet I have visibly lost a lot of inches. I quit the programs and just made a variety of not weight-loss but health maintenance exercises and diets to suit my mood and lifestyle. Admittedly though, I am currently violating them in favor of “holiday bliss”. LOL. Anyway, thank you for this post. Your blog is really informative.
Kudos!
Well, the situation over here in Asia (especially in Taiwan, Korea and Japan) is pretty bad. It doesn’t help that streets are choke-full of size 0 girls. So even if you’re a normal size 8 or 10, you’re still considered fat.
And I weep for myself and my friends. I’ve got friends who weigh in at 120 pounds but are still hell-bent on losing weight. It’s so hard to win when men over here are narrow-minded bigots who choose to ignore anything above a size 10. They already have an idea of what ALL girls should look like: skinny and with long hair. No wonder we’re all looking the same these days.
I just wish the Fat-Acceptance movement would gather more support here. People have simply decided that being fat is bad and that’s the end. Everyone loses hope after a while of being on the heavy side.
One thing that I think a lot of people don’t know (or don’t want to admit) is that the BMI was never intended by its creator to be a diagnostic tool of any kind. Most doctors don’t know this, or won’t admit it if they do. Look up “Adolphe Quetelet” sometime; he was an early social scientist who wanted to categorize people based on their body-mass index, not diagnose or treat them. The Wikipedia page on the BMI says as much under the “Accuracy” subhead: The BMI is meant to broadly categorize populations for purely statistical purposes.
Using the BMI to measure health is like using a scale to measure distance. The tool is not designed for the purpose it’s being used for.
Yeah, Adam, most people around here know the whole history of the BMI. The fact that too many doctors don’t is part of the point of this project.
Hi Kate,
Sorry, as a social scientist (and brand-new to this blog) I make a point of telling people about Quetelet every chance I get. I apologize; I didn’t see mention of him on the site, so I thought I’d put out what the original purpose of the BMI was supposed to be. My bad.