This is one for the guys. I find when it comes to BMI for female fat activists, there’s just an outright denial of BMI or they attribute it to body shape (“I have wide hips/big boobs/hourglass figure!”)
I see this type of fatlogic more with men. The excuse usually comes in as “BMI is bullshit because if I was at a normal BMI, I would look so skinny and frail!” Now, if someone was really tall, I would get that. It doesn’t necessarily throw BMI out the window, but I would see where they are coming from.
It’s usually guys who are clearly overweight, but have put in a little time at the gym lifting weights. The little muscle gains they have somehow justifies being overweight/obese. They think if they were to cut down, they would look like a holocaust victim. They mistake their chunky body and think they are mostly muscle and that being in a “normal BMI” would be impossible.
Take note of my examples, I got these pictures from users on /r/bodybuilding (two of them are actual competitors). The people in the picture have dedicated +4 years of strict dieting/lifting AND they still can cut to a normal BMI. Certainly in the off-season, they would hit the overweight region in BMI, but clearly in a “normal BMI” range, they look astounding and not “sickly skinny”. And though they are in the upper range of “Normal BMI”, if they weighed a few pounds less, they would still look relatively like this.
If you look fat, then you most likely are fat and definitely not overweight because of your muscles.
All in all, I am not saying that it’s impossible to be considered overweight by BMI and have a great physique. What I am talking about is how people think the “normal BMI” range is this unreasonably skinny and unhealthy state.
How the public views a normal BMI is now ridiculous.
An actual example of this fatlogic I showcased in a previous post.