Originally Posted by
Stephanie47
Once upon a time I was six foot two, 170-175 pounds and wore a 38 Tall suit jacket; had a 32 inch waist; and assuming hips somewhere around 36 inches. I never had to measure my hips. I call it my military weight. I got zero grief from my future wife. I have pictures of myself almost in the buff at a beach in Chu Lai. I looked terrible. It looked as if the wind would knock me over. My old platoon leader told me recently that he could not figure out how I was able to carry 80-100 pounds in sweltering heat and humidity.
When you post pictures on this site are you padded top and bottom along with a corset. If your wife is seeing you totally in the buff, i.e., no chest and hip padding she may be seeing a total different image than we are seeing. BMI is NOT an indicator of good or bad overall health. Most of the medical personnel I see do not adhere to BMI calculations at all. Bone structure and body mass/muscle has a lot to do with it. In fact, our local military newspapers (Ranger and Air Lifter) have advertisement geared to military "overweight" by BMI standards to lose weight which is primarily muscle mass. There are a lot of stocky men and women with muscles but not enough height. One thing that totally gave me an emaciated look in my teen years (six foot two, 138 pounds) was a gaunt look in the face. My wife saw a picture of me when I was that height and weight. She thought I was deathly ill and wondered what illness I was recovering from.
Perhaps your wife is gauging your looks under different circumstances than we are seeing it.