Average Woman Is 5'4" and 140 Pounds: Problem?

[Mulligan]

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Originally Posted by RetireAge50 I wear size 14 or 15 and am not fat. Then again, I am a male and the sizing is for a baseball cap.

I am trying to stay vigilant in avoiding weight gain. I don't want to get to the point where I have 3 waist sizes.... 31 inch below the gut, 40 in. around the gut, and 34 in above it.


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[tinlizzy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR For illustration purposes... Btw, this is percent bodyfat, not BMI.

I'm 5'4" and 140lbs and look exactly like the woman in the middle (30% body fat).

I lost a lot of weight after my son was born and 95 - 110 at 5'4" is almost gross and definitely underweight. 115 felt good but 120 - 125 had men falling over themselves around me. Within 2 years I had settled back into my normal weight of 135-140.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR For illustration purposes... Btw, this is percent bodyfat, not BMI...

It looks like for men 15% body fat is good, but women need 25-30% body fat.

Anyway, I do not know our body fat, but when going swimming I have to work to stay afloat but my wife could never dive, I guess due to too much buoyancy . Yet, my BMI is higher than hers.

[Chuckanut]

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Originally Posted by AnIntentionalRoad Try to keep it off and your hunger level will adjust after a while. Also there are foods you can eat a lot of to fill yourself up that are low calorie.

Just remember that the idea that eating fat makes us fat has been declared as 'misguided' by the Harvard School of Public Health. If you like I think I can find the link. So...... to eat and feel full, it's OK to eat more fat which does serve to satiate our hunger for a longer period of time.

[Nemo2]

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Originally Posted by Katsmeow 5'1" and 103 pounds is a BMI of 19.5 and is toward the lower end of the normal range (which starts at a BMI of 18.5). Your extrapolation is not correct though. For someone 5'4" to be at an equivalent BMI of 19.5, that person would weigh between 113 (19.4) and 114 (19.6). A weight of 108 pounds for someone who is 5'4" would be 18.5 the very bottom of normal weight range. (Yes, I know that BMI is not the best measure for everyone. I think that body composition - body fat percentage - is a better measure. People who do serious strength training can have an obese BMI and a low body fat percentage. But, for most people, they don't fall into that category and BMI is a reasonable proxy).

I wasn't focusing on BMI but rather, (in an attempt at simplicity), the ratio of inches per pound, (or pounds per inch if you prefer)........my own BMI is currently ~22.1 and I'm quite happy with that; my wife, (both of us work out daily), has a small frame and a 19.5 BMI suits her perfectly.

[Katsmeow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo2 I wasn't focusing on BMI but rather, (in an attempt at simplicity), the ratio of inches per pound, (or pounds per inch if you prefer)........my own BMI is currently ~22.1 and I'm quite happy with that; my wife, (both of us work out daily), has a small frame and a 19.5 BMI suits her perfectly.

I get that. It is just that the way they use to best compare people of different heights is by using BMI.

[Dreamer]

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Originally Posted by CaliforniaMan This study sounds so interesting! Made me google it, seems like a big area of research in this field. Hope you can keep us informed about the results. Probably applies to many of us here, I know I felt better 15 pounds lighter too. If you have any good readings in the field to suggest would be great if maybe you could post some here.

Sorry, that I took so long to get back to you. I asked the doctor if he had any online links and he said that his study will not be published for awhile. He gave me some paper print outs from other studies, that I have skimmed, but need to read more in depth. My DH's numbers improved quite a bit. Some of mine improved a little, but some did not and were actually a little worse. Probably had to do with what I was eating during this time. We had a couple of family birthdays, including my own, and Easter.

The really big thing that this study did for me, was send me to a cardiologist. I was in the healthy control group and had a very hard time doing the bicycle stress test. They were doing an echocardiogram at the time and it showed that I had aortic insufficiency. The cardiologist said that I also have atrial flutter and was at risk for having a stroke. I went from 0 meds to 2 meds for the rest of my life. Glad that I found out about it, as I would not want to have a stroke!

[athena53]

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Originally Posted by Amethyst Many years later, I weigh the same, yet have somehow morphed into a Size 4 and a Small. Nevertheless, the few 1980's "Medium" and "Size 12" items I have, still fit. Amethyst

LOL! I've seen that, too! Somehow I'm now in size 8 jeans, at 5'7 and 130 lbs. I've never worn size 8 in my entire adult life.

Having said that.. I now weigh what I did when I graduated from HS, having lost 17 lbs. a few years ago (the old, boring eat less/move more method). I just feel better even though 147 lbs. wasn't all that bad by most measures. I don't feel fat jiggle when I walk up steps. I cut 2 minutes of my bicycle time (9 mile course) in a triathlon compared to 2 years earlier. I just signed up for a 50K charity bike ride. In the meantime, many of my former HS classmates are grumbling about their health problems (one just posted a recipe for a pie that contains 1,440 calories and 87 grams of fat per serving if you slice it into sixths). They're having a benefit dinner for one who needs hip replacement surgery. He's Santa-Claus shaped and I wonder how much stress that put on his hips.

I try to get out of the trap of being judgmental about what other people weigh/eat, but there are big costs to being overweight and sedentary.
You can get flamed for

[CaliforniaMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreamer Sorry, that I took so long to get back to you. I asked the doctor if he had any online links and he said that his study will not be published for awhile. He gave me some paper print outs from other studies, that I have skimmed, but need to read more in depth. My DH's numbers improved quite a bit. Some of mine improved a little, but some did not and were actually a little worse. Probably had to do with what I was eating during this time. We had a couple of family birthdays, including my own, and Easter. The really big thing that this study did for me, was send me to a cardiologist. I was in the healthy control group and had a very hard time doing the bicycle stress test. They were doing an echocardiogram at the time and it showed that I had aortic insufficiency. The cardiologist said that I also have atrial flutter and was at risk for having a stroke. I went from 0 meds to 2 meds for the rest of my life. Glad that I found out about it, as I would not want to have a stroke!

Thanks for the reply and sounds like the study was a great benefit for you, finding a potential future health concern, and the solution! Glad things worked out for you and welcome to the meds for life club. I have been a charter member for a while, so far health is good. Also your post brought back to my attention the weight training I was planning to do this summer, which was getting less attention than planned.

[Chuckanut]

Here is an interesting study recently published in JAMA:
JAMA Network | JAMA | Increasing Adiposity: *Consequence or Cause of Overeating?

If you can understand it.

Quote:

According to an alternative view, chronic overeating represents a manifestation rather than the primary cause of increasing adiposity. Attempts to lower body weight without addressing the biological drivers of weight gain, including the quality of the diet, will inevitably fail for most individuals.

I think they are saying that some ways of eating will drive the body to gain weight thus triggering one's desire to eat more. In other words, one eats more because one is getting fatter. The reverse of the current common thinking, IMHO.

[ziggy29]

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Originally Posted by Chuckanut I think they are saying that some ways of eating will drive the body to gain weight thus triggering one's desire to eat more. In other words, you eat more because you are getting fatter. An interesting point of view.

I usually hear this in conjunction with eating a lot of carbs. The thinking is that eating carbs triggers cravings for even more carbs, as opposed to eating fats which have the tendency to make you feel "full" (or at least sated) more than carbs do. I think it's this theory that's behind Atkins and some of the other low-carb diets -- less carbs means less overeating.

[ls99]

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Originally Posted by aja8888 The above are two independent events and really don't cover the landscape of the average for women. My neighbors on both sides of us consist of two widows about 75 years old and each probably weighs 110 pounds (maybe soaking wet) and are about 5' 5". Neither of these two women shop at Costco (none near us) or go to a health spa. On the other hand, a visit to McDonald's in south Houston brings anther perspective of obesity into play.

The majority of women I see at Walmart, Sam's club, even $tarbucks of two different towns 60 miles apart certainly cover the landscape. Absolutely bigly enormously huge.

What I wonder about is how much of their income goes to feed these folks. The disposal though is a municipal issue, overloaded sewer system complaints are routine.

[CaliforniaMan]

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Originally Posted by Chuckanut Here is an interesting study recently published in JAMA: JAMA Network | JAMA | Increasing Adiposity: *Consequence or Cause of Overeating? If you can understand it. I think they are saying that some ways of eating will drive the body to gain weight thus triggering one's desire to eat more. In other words, one eats more because one is getting fatter. The reverse of the current common thinking, IMHO.

I have found this to be true in myself. When I go to a place like McDonald's for instance, no matter how much I eat, I find I still feel like eating. On the other hand, if I have, for example, a really good Asian meal, the real kind, with their symphony of natural flavors playing to my palate, not the American style with the thick sweet glaze over everything, I find I am pleasantly satisfied after eating and not feeling that feeding frenzy.

Good food, the fresh and healthy type, seems to satisfy much more than the bad stuff for me.

I don't know, but have long suspected that places like McDonald's must do a lot of research to get people to feel like I do after eating there, wanting more.

Just looking at the people who eat at McDonald's or even worse, IHOP, make me not want to go there, even though I admit I can get addicted to that kind of stuff too if I let myself.

[Amethyst]

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Originally Posted by athena53 I try to get out of the trap of being judgmental about what other people weigh/eat, but there are big costs to being overweight and sedentary. You can get flamed for

Not sure how your final sentence was going to end, but I'd lay money it was "you can get flamed for posting anything that claims to link overweight and health issues."

Agree that going around judging other people's eating habits and appearance is kind of pointless. That stuff is their business alone. I still can't help wondering how overweight persons can stand the discomfort of hauling around all that extra weight. Ten pounds over my best weight = foot pain for me.

Amethyst

[aja8888]

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Originally Posted by Amethyst I still can't help wondering how overweight persons can stand the discomfort of hauling around all that extra weight. Amethyst

They generally try to minimize the "hauling around" part...

[haha]

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Originally Posted by Amethyst Not sure how your final sentence was going to end, but I'd lay money it was "you can get flamed for posting anything that claims to link overweight and health issues." Agree that going around judging other people's eating habits and appearance is kind of pointless. That stuff is their business alone. I still can't help wondering how overweight persons can stand the discomfort of hauling around all that extra weight. Ten pounds over my best weight = foot pain for me. Amethyst

What is and is not solely an individual's business depends entirely on who winds up paying for it.

Since today, we are in full-on socialism, expect more and more interference into what we may consider to be our private business.

Ha

[aja8888]

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Originally Posted by haha Since today, we are in full-on socialism, expect more and more interference into what we may consider to be our private business. Ha

If so, it may be time for Plan 2: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0065QZVB6/...=IW0OLR3W1ZV59

[ohfrugalone]

I have over the course of the last 18 months lost a considerable amount of weight, going from obese to just above normal bmi. But the difference in just normal bmi and what I used to weigh is still too much.

I interpret what you should weigh by measuring wrist - and at less than 5" then I am small framed, so that makes a difference. And then I have read that if you are greater than 20% over what you should weigh you are obese. So anything 144 and over means I am obese, then under 144 will bring me to just overweight, while my bmi is normal, yet obese?

In body fat percentage the world health organization says my body fat percentage would be healthy, but the American Council on Exercise says I am obese.

[Amethyst]

That is quite an achievement. Congratulations.

Amethyst

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Originally Posted by ohfrugalone I have over the course of the last 18 months lost a considerable amount of weight, going from obese to just above normal bmi. .