Im ALMOST over-weight

So, I have a BMI of 24 which is one point away from being overweight, and I hope to go sub3 first go at FLM.

Who's mad, me or the Medics ?

TR, you are proof that BMI is a very very rough estimate of health.  And definitely does not apply to trained individuals such as yourself.  Sounds like you're doing superbly at your BMI of 24

Ah, TR, the proof of the pudding ... this time in 2001, I *hoped* to go sub-4 at my first pop at FLM the following year. I did a smidge under 6 hours. I weighed slightly less then than I do now

FFS - I'd have to be 2 stone lighter than I am now to have a BMI of 18.5!!!!!!

I think I'll stick at my 22.3 thank you very much!!!!!!

We'll see how I get on.

I got to 38m for 10k and 64m for 10M off a few runs/week plus other fitness stuff.

I tarined for last years FLM and got a chest infection that knocked me back for 8 weeks and so deferred, then I fell running off road and damaged my medial knee ligament in my right leg.

Been getting back to it slowly with lots of easy running and fitness work.

TR - You're doing all the right stuff, and hanging out in the right places, you know you can do it if you get the balance right on the training and a few injury free weeks!

I'm 19.3 at the moment...but in the hardest months of marathon training it would probably go below 18.5.  A few years ago when I was under a lot of stress it would have been as low as 17.4 (and banned from the fashion runway!)

I used to think that being lighter would be better for racing, but then I noticed that people who had a bit more meat on their bones would often be really strong runners and cruise past me while I would fade.  So I started eating more -- as well as starting to eat some fish and chicken this year after 18 years as a total vegerarian -- and put on just a couple of kilos and I think my running has improved because my blood sugar doesn't get so low and I get more iron.  I can still fit into the same trousers as even in the 17.4 BMI days, so I guess some of this gain has been muscle as well as body fat.

The article says if you go below the recommended BMI you risk the chance of becoming weak.  Paula Radcliffe however, comes in at 18.1 (as would most female distance runners) so lets hope's getting the sponsorship she needs in the deep fried mars bars department!   

Paula Radcliffe and her ilk do so well partly because they CAN be healthy and function normally at these very low weights. With a BMI of 18, I'd be amenorrhoeic and probably wouldn't be able to get out of bed.

There is a great deal of misery in the sub-elite bands of athletes resulting from people trying to achieve unnaturally low weights in the hope of improving their performance, often in response to misguided comments from their coaches. 

I suppose it also depends on WHY you are that weight.  If it's due to restricting calories I can imagine that would adversely affect performance.  But if you eat a really nourishing, calorie packed diet and still burn it off because you run so much (which is probably the case with most elite runners) I guess you could function.

I'd rather be strong than too, too skinny.   Athletes like Carolina Kluft and tennis player Amelie Mauresmo would probably be in the middle of the "normal" range of  BMI.  

According to my BMI I'm underweight, as far as I can remember back I would have always been in the same bracket. I would guess most of me is bone, skin and essential organs and my BMI goes very slightly up and down with muscle when training.

If the 'medical' definition of BMI was right my body would be eating itself alive on a long bike ride..... how does that work.

Hi all

 My personal experience suggests that weight loss = faster is absolutely right.  I was ill last year my weight has dropped from 12 and a half stone to 11st 5lbs as of Saturday morning.  I am 6ft 1.5" tall, so I am now around half a stone above the point where the BMI calculators say I would be "underweight". 

I got back to my marathon training in April this year and right now am running about 20 miles a week less than I was this time last year, doing only the key sessions (threshold run, hills, intervals, marathon pace, long run) plus around 100 miles a week cycling.  My 10 mile time has come down by about 3 minutes.  My cross country times are down markedly too. Everything is much easier, especially hill running, exactly as the article says.  Don't know about my half or marathon times yet, but the calculators suggest big things and I have a half and a marathon coming up, so should know soon. 

 I'm not sure about the implication that we should eat less carbohydrate though.  Carbs are where the energy for training comes from - you need more not less when you're training hard for long distances - not just in the run up to a marathon but all the time!

ah - the old BMI chestnut..........

imho BMI is not a bad measure for the vast majority of UNFIT people but the issue is the application of BMI when looking at more active people - it means nowt....

my BMI is 32.7 currently - 5'10" and 228lb - but as an ex-rugby player I'm not a "standard build" and I've just returned from completing Ironman Florida in a sub-12hr time. I was pretty impressed with that time and I raced the event as a member of the Clydesdale Class which the Yanks use to rank us heavier athletes - in my over 40 age/over 200lb weight class - I came 18th of 69.......the winning time was - unbelievably - 9:24hrs which was nearly as fast as the winner of the women's PRO race!!!! I was 1st of the over-50's in my class though which was good to know......

so for us heavier athletes, weight/BMI is no great indicator of anything as we can show that we are still athletes after a fashion

however, during the athletes briefing they took a count on who had lost the most weight while training for the event - the guy that lost most had lost 104lb - he went from 302 to 198lb - which is pretty amazing. he was probably about 6' tall so roughly his BMI went from
41 to 26.9 which is a pretty impressive drop.

so, you could argue that a BMI of 41 for a guy like that - before training - was an important measure of his condition and would have probably been useful in some form of medical/health assessment.........he was clearly well overweight at the start as he was able to lose so much and at some great health benefit to him but could someone like me do the same??

I doubt very much as I've been stable around my BMI for about 5 years now despite all the exercise and races I do

so - be careful how you use BMI - it can mean different things accordin to the individual

My BMI is 23.6 ....but if you chopped me in half I'd half my upper body would make up 10 of it and my lower body 13.6 of it! 

Thats what comes from posting after a glass of wine!

I'd be inclined to use waist measurement rather than BMI as an indicator of whether someone is overweight. It's the central obesity that determines a person's risk of heart disease, diabetes etc. So, a pear-shaped person (almost certainly a female ) is relatively protected (till her shape changes after the menopause) even if her BMI is a little on the high side, but an apple shaped person with a prominent belly is at risk - no matter what the BMI says. For males, the cut-off point is 37 in, for females, it's 31 1/2 in (which is probably too generous in fact, especially for non-whites): by the way, waist measurement isn't the same as trouser measurement (which can be 10in less for those with beer bellies) - it's the measurement taken at the most prominent bulge around the midriff.

Incidentally, I deliberately lost 7 lb over 2  months a few years ago (in the process dropping my BMI from 22 to 20.5) in a last-ditch attempt to get my marathon time under 3 1/2 hours - and achieved a PB of 3hr 21min. So, definitely, your weight makes a big difference to your ability to run fast for longer. And I felt so much better at my new weight that I've stayed at it ever since.

All those people out there who think that the BMI doesn't tell the real story - just measure your waist, at its biggest circumference. It will tell you whether your weight is abdominal fat or well-developed muscle. A protruding belly isn't muscle - it's fat.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I have just done my bmi and i'm 27.16!!!! Thats alot over the recomended 25. I might now have to give up running due to FATNESS!!!  

SBIT - have you not read this thread?? BMI is no measure of fatness for dog's sake.......

Doctors are being advised to use waist measurement as a more sensitive indicator of abdominal adiposity (and hence heart disease risk) than BMI, though taking an accurate waist measurement is trickier than calculating BMI.

Well I pass on the waist thing.

I can get into 30" waist trousers - wouldn't dare trying to sit down in them though.

Interesting thread.  I have had a facination with BMI for a while, but don't understand it.

Being slightly on the stumpy side (but I don't think overly fat) I have a BMI of 25.2 so technically a 'Biffa', but... if grow an inch and put on 3lbs  it drops to 24.8 which although borderline - is not.  How does that work?

Having lost quite a bit of weight since running (4yrs), I have plateaued(?) for the last 18 months and whether I starve or munch my way through mountains of food I seem to remain the same weight.  Whilst I know that my running has to improve if I lost half a stone, I can't see anyway of that happening - short of drastic surgery!  Any suggestions?

Having said that, like velocirapter, in order for me to have a BMI of 18 I would have to loose almost 2 and half stone, which I reckon would render me incapable of standing as it is more than a quarter of my current body weight !

 My hopes have also been dashed after just measuring my waist which also dips just over the cut off point stated by HC.