My Niece Was Told She is Overweight with a BMI Barely Over 25
It triggered her eating disorders — both anorexia and bulimia
This is what my niece said to me when I asked what she thought about herself.
All I see when I look in the mirror is a big, fat, ugly pig.
At 17, she is about 5' 6" tall and weighs 160 lbs., hardly someone who looks even slightly overweight.
But about six months ago, she and some friends did some stupid BMI challenge, and here’s what her score was: BMI = 25.8, which means at risk for being overweight. Her score was slightly into the yellow zone on the BMI chart. A BMI of 24 and below means you’re not overweight.
Her so-called friends whose scores came in under 25 and were in the green started laughing and teasing her about her score, telling her that it wouldn’t be long before she blew up as fat as a floating blimp and other fat insults and jokes.
She later told us that she tried to shrug it off like they were just jokes. But even though she was laughing with them on the outside, she was hurting on the…
