With plenty of cash to hire personal trainers and private chefs, Hollywood’s hottest have all the tools in place for perfect health. But if you judge celebrities’ fitness only by BMI, or body mass index, the numbers tell a different story.
BMI looks at height and weight to measure a person’s body fatness, placing them in four broad categories: underweight (18.5 or lower), normal weight (18.5 to 24.9), overweight (25 to 29.9), and obese (30 and up). Some life insurance companies look at BMI measurements in considering the cost of coverage. But is this really an accurate measure of body composition?
Often the numbers don’t add up. For athletes with loads of lean muscle mass, BMI measurements can be misleading because the scale doesn’t differentiate between muscle and fat. That means that the world’s top sports stars are often classified as overweight. But even the trimmest actors—particularly the shorter ones—aren’t immune to confusing BMI classifications.
We asked our top two nutrition experts to put BMI to the test with seven celebrities. Registered dietitians Frances Largeman-Roth and Julie Upton, both members of the American Dietetic Association, analyzed photos of these stars. Keeping heights in mind, they offered their best estimates of their weights, and we started crunching the numbers.
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Comments (34)
Whoa, I don’t think Tom Cruise is overweight and Arnold Schwarzenegger is definitely not obese! Arnold has tons of muscle and probably has a normal body fat percentage (which is different than a BMI calculation)
What a totally stupid article…guessing celebrity weight and BMI. WHY?!
what about my big bubs? I need help here people. what to do, what to do?
what, bmi my breast? what one titty at a time? what?
I want to be on the itty-bitty titty committee! I am sick and tired of heavy titty’s. I want to cut them off, I could scream I hate it so bad. Then my tummy, I hate the fat. I tried pills and what have you, I am just meant to be fat and ugly I geuss. But if I had a chance for anything good to happen to me, I would want to get a breast reduction and tommie tuck. I know then people would take me more serious and not a big fat joke. elm
My friend had a breast reduction and loves it. Insurance paid for it because the straps were digging into her skin. I was 45 lbs. overweight and after watching The Biggest Loser, I got off the couch, threw out the diet pills and started exercising. I lost 43 lbs. You can to. I also eat healthy. No fast food, chips, pop, alcohol, floor, salt, junk food. Eat healthy. Temptations are everywhere. Avoid them and you will lose weight and the beautiful person you are!! Good luck
I mean you will love the beautiful person you are!! Sorry.
Cor Angie, what a fox!
guessing at weight and BMI? Why bother? If it doesn’t take into account muscle vs fat, BMI is misleading and useless! I would imagine that you would have more pertinent things to write about!
For a free BMI online calculator, weight tracking, food diary and a host of other tools and reports, try OptimalBodyWeight.com
Just a suggestion:
Use the BMI chart as a general guideline. If you have bigger head (like me), broader than normal shoulders, bigger muscles, or heavy or big bones, then your natural weight is probably 1 – 5 pounds heavier than normal. Just set a simple goal: “Any unwanted pounds that you managed to get rid of for good, is awesome.” Source (book): Mind Your Own Wellness – Turning Thoughts Into Reality
Hope this helps!
This article is not worth the paper it is written on.
I think it’s a worthwhile article because it allows people to consider themselves “in shape” with varying body types–I for example am pretty in shape but have a “large frame” according to the Health article on finding your feel-great weight (http://diet.health.com/2009/02/12/find-your-feel-great-weight/?xid=hts090325&utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_content=body-lede&utm_campaign=hts090325-html&PromKey=XET), see about halfway down for the “frame calculator”. A lot of people have self-confidence issues about their supposed “overweight” status because of different builds.
(Also, not trying to be mean, but the comment about “paper” made me laugh. We still talk about things like “rewinding” DVDs and other things that imply that we’re still living 15-20 years ago.)