Of course you're not. You might be a little bit overweight, or slightly plump, or maybe even stocky, but you're definitely not fat are you? Nobody likes to think that they are anyway, although the truth is often a little harder to swallow. Latest figures suggest that a quarter of UK men are obese and nearly half are overweight. For women, it's one in five obese and one in three overweight. We're an overfednation, and we're getting larger.
The government definition of obesity is based on the Body Mass Index, or BMI. And the government definition matters, because if they think you're fat then you may face increased insurance premiums or restricted access to certain services. The BMI is an unforgiving measure which takes no account whatsoever of other factors such as muscle weight or waist size, but it's still the official statistic.
You can calculate your BMI by dividing your weight (in kilograms) by the square of your height (in metres). If you prefer pounds and inches, that's BMI=703×weight÷height². And here's what the outcome of that formula means:
BMI less than 18½: underweight BMI between 18½ and 25: 'normal' BMI between 25 and 30: overweight BMI over 30: obese
There are onlinecalculators for working all this out with minimum fuss, but these merely tell you what your BMI is. And what you really want to know is "How much would I have to slim down before I'm normal?" and "How heavy do I have to get before I'm obese?" So that's what today's table tells you, with absolutely no mathematics required whatsoever.
For example, if you're six foot one tall and weigh less than 10 stone, then you're officially underweight. If you're five foot six tall, then you need to slim down to 11 stone before you're considered officially normal. And if you're five foot nine and weigh 14½ stone or more, then you're officially obese.
I'm concerned, because it turns out that I'm only a couple of packets of crisps away from official chubbiness. But I'm sure you're not worried. Because there's no way you'd ever be obese, is there?
