Are you trying to gain/loose weight? [poll]

[munimkazia]

I hear a lot about people trying to loose weight, and you have TV ads, internet ads, diets and programs for them..
I, on the other hand, have been extremely underweight ever since I can remember.
So I am just interested to know the statistics here on xkcd forums. How many of you want to gain/loose weight and how many are happy with the way you are.

If you are not sure, calculate your BMI by dividing your mass in kilograms by your the square of your height in meters.
SI units: BMI = weight in kilograms/(height in meters)^2
Imperial units: BMI = (weight in pounds * 4.88)/(height in ft)^2

If you have a BMI of 25 and above, you are overweight(or obese, but lets put that into the overweight group for simplicity)
If you have a BMI of less than 18.5, you are underweight.

So, calculate and choose your option.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Mass_Index

Edit: I am ignoring the chance that there are people here who are underweight and still want to seriously loose weight, and people who are overweight and still want to gain weight. If you happen to fall under those two categories, choose happy with the way I am.

[Nath]

You're also missing the 'not overweight, not underweight, happy' option. Though I guess that's not as interesting.

[munimkazia]

I knew I was missing something important.. Anyway, I fixed it. Thanks!

[akashra]

I knew I was missing something important.. Anyway, I fixed it. Thanks!

You're also missing that you mis-spelled 'lose' every time

[Fossa]

I'm not overweight or underweight, but I am trying to trade about 5 lbs of fat for 5 lbs of muscle...

[kgirlfae]

I'm about 10 lbs above the middle of my "normal" BMI range, which is where I would like to be (Smack dab in the middle of normal) I actually went from 140 lbs at the beginning of the year down to 115 lbs a few months ago, and have gained back up to 130 with the stress of moving and finding a new balanced diet while working in food rather than retail. So my goal for this year is to lose those 10 lbs to get me down to normal, but then swap another 5 lbs of fat for muscle tone. So basically "lose 15 lbs of fat, gain 5 lbs of muscle" is my 2010 goal. I think it is pretty do-able, since I already walk to work every day, so I'm reasonably fit, I just need to add in some strength training and get back to running when the weather improves.

I've also been considering wearing light ankle weights on my walk to work, so that might help. Really my goal is to just improve my overall fitness.

[Cathy]

Well, I polled before I calculated. I'm aaactually 18.84, which leaves me inside the normal range by 3.4
I polled underweight, want to gain weight. This is mainly caused by the facts of significant medication-induced weight gain, the sudden stop of those medications, and from this christmas to last christmas going from 175lbs to now, this christmas being at 103lbs.

In reality, I just want to "gain weight" so I'm not LOSING ANY MORE! At 5feet 2in I'd be perfectly happy being at 115 and having an ass!

[Adrien]

I'm not overweight or underweight, but I am trying to trade about 5 lbs of fat for 5 lbs of muscle...

What's the option for this? Because that's my goal as well.

[duckshirt]

I'm not overweight or underweight, but I am trying to trade about 5 lbs of fat for 5 lbs of muscle...

What's the option for this? Because that's my goal as well.

I voted "I am not overweight but I still want to loose (sic) weight..." I figure the weight is referring to the fat, if anything. I'm pretty much happy the way I am, but 5 less pounds of fat and 5 more of muscle would probably feel good.

[munimkazia]

Hmm.. That is yet another thing I hadn't thought of.. (man do I suck at surveying)
But you could choose :"trying to lose weight" if you want to trade fat for muscle.

[swimge]

Voted not underweight but want to gain weight because according to bmi I'm in the normal range. The people I work with on the other hand keeping telling me to eat more and questioning if I'm strong enough to do stuff. Personally I wouldn't mind putting on some more muscle mass so I wouldn't get those comments.

[Lazar]

I have a bmi of 20.2, in the lower part of the normal zone. I have no concerns about my weight, but I do want to build some muscle and be less flabby.

[Grop]

I voted overweight, want to lose weight, but to be honest I am getting close to my objective, which would still be considered overweight by the definition of BMI > 25.

[caje]

I am technically overweight BMI of 26 (though probably a lot less body fat percent then skinny-fat people with a lower BMI), but I'd like to lose another 10 pounds of fat and gain about 18 pounds of muscle to weigh about 200. Which would raise my BMI to 27 but put me a bit below 10% body fat.

[Kendo_Bunny]

According to my BMI, I'm morbidly obese. However, underneath my fat, I'm very densely muscled... according to my body fat index, I'm at the threshhold for obesity vs. overweight. I want to lose about 40 lbs. of fat... I've decided to scrap my target weight, since I put on muscle so easily.

[EmilyR]

My BMI is about right, and my weight's alway's been stable, that said I dance & am in the gym every day. Gained a bit of weight in my mid teens when I stopped focusing on ballet and switched to doing aerobics & clubbing all the time, have stayed pretty much the same ever since.

[Fossa]

I really loathe the BMI system since muscle is so much denser than fat. My BMI has gone up steadily as I've gotten in better shape, and I still want to lose a little fat and gain a little muscle.

[iddqd]

187 cm and a few kilos over 90, which means I'm a bit overweight. Looking to gain muscle mass and lose fat. Don't really care much about the numbers on the scale.

[TheKrikkitWars]

I'm about 6'4" and 86kg (horrible mixing of unit systems there I know)

Most of my weight now is muscle mass, but I'd kinda like to lose the tiny pathetic excuse for a beer belly I have...

[EmilyR]

I really loathe the BMI system since muscle is so much denser than fat. My BMI has gone up steadily as I've gotten in better shape, and I still want to lose a little fat and gain a little muscle.

BMI has it's problems, and isn't one-size-fits-all, but remains a useful indicator for many people.

Among people who aren't exercising much, or whose exercise is skewed in particular directions (ie how much aerobic vs anaerobic), it's useful since proportional muscle gain is slight compared to weight loss. One way or another I average about 2-3 hours of exercise a day, but mostly flexibility & cardio so my BMI isn't too out of whack and I know that the difference dosn't really matter, very little fat but more muscle than "average" (dancers thighs all slow twitch muscle). Conversely, if someone's focused on anaerobic then, assuming they're already reasonably fit, their BMI will be relatively high.

A well-balanced aero+anaerobic programme for someone overweight wanting to become fitter will result in them gaining muscle, but the weight-loss will be far more significant, so their BMI will go down. The limited awareness of the limitations of BMI causes problems though; I quite often see obviously unfit people exclaiming that their BMI is okay since a lot of it is muscle mass, which is obviously nonsense.

BMI is broken for the people who don't need it, but fine for most of those that do.

[Alex-J]

The adult BMI would place me a underweight. But since I'm a women in my teens they set slightly different standards (as adult women have more body fat, and are supposed to because they should have more fat on their chest and hips than their male or adolescent counterparts).
Because of this I fall in the healthy weight range for teens.

I was surprised the Wikipedia link you had showed the difference between adults and children, but neglected to show separate charts for men and women. Women can have a higher BMI than men and still be healthy, and men can have a lower BMI than women and still be healthy for the reasons mentioned above.

[Kendo_Bunny]

The limited awareness of the limitations of BMI causes problems though; I quite often see obviously unfit people exclaiming that their BMI is okay since a lot of it is muscle mass, which is obviously nonsense.

Not necessarily. I'm fairly fit, especially for my weight, and under the fat pockets on my body I'm muscled like a brick.

Then again, I've struggled with an eating disorder for the last decade, and that tends to make fat accumulate in weird ways. Almost all of my fat is over my lower abs, which the female body does to protect the reproductive organs when it thinks it's starving. I still have a trim enough waist for my body fat measures to stay fairly low.

[Fossa]

As of this morning I am officially "overweight". My BMI is now a flat 25.

Spoiler:

Of course, I have a six-pack, a 30 inch waist, and was recently told by a coworker that I'm "too skinny for [my] own good".

I'm pretty happy with my body at the moment. Mostly maintenance from here along with improving my technique and agility in the course of my training.

[BurningLed]

Hovering at 17.1 (6'1 and 130 pounds)

Bit underweight, I'm trying to get it up to 18.5 with muscle, rather than fat. 10 pounds of muscle is a long way to go, though.

[Peter Galbavy]

I really loathe the BMI system since muscle is so much denser than fat. My BMI has gone up steadily as I've gotten in better shape, and I still want to lose a little fat and gain a little muscle.

Ditto. It gets worse when in the UK medical professionals insist on using it to judge your treatment in the NHS system. They should know better. Even other simplistic metrics are better such as hip-to-waist ratio and electronically measure body fat percentages. For references, according to BMI I am dead, which is odd since I cycle about 100 miles of commuting (inc. hills) a week and my last VO2Max test was quite positive. 5.2liters/minute of Oxygen is apparently a healthy number - but it's all relative, just not as relative as BMI. </rant>