Americans View Fat As “Normal”?
August 9, 2007 by Claire
Filed under Women's Health
Talk about spin: A Reuters article mentions the following statistics as a reason why Americans think being fat is normal:
-In 1994, the average woman weighed 147 pounds but wanted to be 132
-Less than 10 years later, the average weight climbed to 153 but the ideal became 135
Can someone explain to me the leap from 135 to “fat”? It would be different if they said they wanted to be 145, 155 or above (the average woman is also 5′4″) but to me, 135 is not fat and 3 pounds in a decade is not significant. For one thing, they weren’t asking the same group of people. Couldn’t it just be a fluke?
For the record, a person weighing 135 at 5′4″ would have a BMI (body mass index) of 23.2. That’s not thin by any means, but it’s certainly not overweight either.
What do you consider your ideal weight to be, and do you think it’s changed over the years? Let me know in the comments.
Claire
(Image from breast-cancer-blog.com)
I hear ya. I’ve dropped 35 pounds off my 5′3″ frame and now wear a size 6 (from a 12 pushing a 14)..and yet the charming BMI chart says my BMI is 25 which is still deemed as overweight. GEEZ! What’s a girl got to do around here for someone to say I’m “skinny?”
I know what you mean! Best to go by how your clothes fit, and your body fat percentage (a better indictor than BMI, in my opinion!).
Congrats on the weight loss! Bet you look great