Yay! I’m overweight!

That is: I am no longer officially obese. Not long ago, I dropped to a weight that, according to a calculation of my body mass index (BMI), places me in the merely ‘overweight’ category. You can find examples of BMI calculators here and here.

The BMI is a measure of your weight relative to your height and it roughly estimates the amount of body fat you have. It has limitations; for example, it may overestimate the amount of body fat for athletes or exceptionally muscular people. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for me. There are other ways to measure body fat like skinfold thickness measurements with calipers or underwater weighing; but these methods aren’t always affordable or DYI.

I don’t take this designation too seriously, but it still gives me a grain of satisfaction. It’s another milestone achieved. I would have to lose another 30 pounds to fall into the ‘normal’ weight category. This will probably not happen. At the very least, I plan to drop another 15, but everything after that is gravy, or rather, lack of gravy. I think it’s quite possible that I will have to remain ‘overweight’. Or, I could grow a few inches taller.