Who desides what fat is? when is thin bein too thin?

Question

when you go for a medical they weigh you and measure you and then work out if you are anorexic, on the verge on anorexia, ok, on the verge of obesity or obest!!
last year i went for a medical....i am 5ft 4 and weigh roughly 10 stone...
i was told i was on the verge of obesity and to cut down...at the time i was living the life of an anorexic. eating hardly anything to loose weight. i was never fat. i used to swim and gain a lot of muscle and as we all know muscle weighs more than fat so i packed in swimming
what is the world coming to? making people conshus of how they look. even doctors are advertising a world of anorexia!

Answer 1

The only true way to determine whether a person is fat or thin is not on weight to height alone (body mass index), a mistake many health professionals make. There are variations in general body builds, fat to weight, how active or not the person is, as well.
A 5' 2" weight lifter might have a larger than average weight but have a low fat to muscle ratio. Some one who was the same height, weighed less but didn't exercise at all would have a higher fat to muscle ratio.
And how healthy your weight is depends on that ratio as well as other factors..
If your body fat falls below 9% and over 16% you could get sick.
Having said that I would get another doctor to see if they would arrange body fat test, if you are at all worried.
On the radio here they had an interview with a personal trainer, who did tri-athlons regularly, and he said that according to the body mass index he was obese, even though his body fat ratio was around 12%, and he had a very muscular build.

Answer 2

There are many ways to "measure" fat and skinny; from the Brocca´s scale to BMI, etc. Not all of them are accurate and all will yield different results for they measure one single aspect of a complex system like the human body.

Some doctors just see the end figure, the number of the weight report or scale and go on base on that. Most likely due to over work and many patience waiting in line.

If you are fit, eating healthy, with muscle mass, then there is not much of a problem.

Answer 3

i was told i was obese by the doctor, i am 6ft and 17.5 stone, the doctor looked on his wee chart and said well according to this your obese,

then he measuerd my 36 inch waist noticing the lack of a belly and the presence of muscle, and spotted my 20 inch biceps and told me in confidence this was a load of rubbish and if i turned up weighing 14st like i should he would be worried,

some of the heavy people i know are far healthier than me and the skinny ones are no where near as heathly,

having discovered this fat gene maybe scientists should just realise the human body is not a standard size, we are all different and there are far better indicators of our health than weight

Answer 4

how many people are tri-athletes or pro weight lifters barly any so bmi is still good any doctor seeing you in person should be able to tell wether someone needs to lay off the cakes without any charts

Answer 5

Well the only person in my opinion who can tell you if your too thin or too fat is yourself. You shape your body to how you like it, not some stupid chart.

Answer 6

Insurance compainies...I thikn they came up with the original height and weight charts, but I could be wrong.

Answer 7

i think it all comes to weather your feel comfoable with your weight or not. and of course how healthy you are.
wrote about it a few months ago. called true beauty. have a read.

Answer 8

In the U.S. the standard is the BMI chart.
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

Answer 9

the media dictates if this specific way of being fat is sexy and when it's not. also the specific style of being thin so that it becomes sexy or not.