Girlfriend, you are something else! Congratulations for taking the bull by the you know what and loosing hte extra poundage. THe last thing you need to even worry about at this point is your BMI. Give yourself some time......kind of like a reward. You have done a REMAKEABLE JOB and need to be rewarded. I know, the helath benefits alone are rewarding, but give yourself a cople weeks at least, then go ahead and obsess about he BMI. I lost a considerable of weight as well, years ago and have kept it off............50 and still in 10 jeans by gosh! Hard as Hades, cause iIlove to eat. I have also changed my eating patterns, I drink mostly ONLY water, occasionally peack tea from Crystal Light...and to be honest, ahve my Capn MOrgan'cherry coke and Bud Light when the mood hits. I do not eat after 7 pm....no ifs and or buts. I am so very proud of you. Loosing weight is about as hard as stopping smoking. Been there, done that on both occasions. Was a fat child and it still haunts me....red rover , red rover, send fat Mary right over.............I'd run and run and when I got there, they'd let go of the hands and I'd go flopping across the yard. I'd love to see those Ass wipes today. Muscle weighs more than fat...and its far more important. Please don't allow size to be your guide. I'm in a 10 and have maintained this for over almost 30 years. I grad. from High school in a size 14-16.......I love my high school reunions now! Feel good about yourself....gosh I'm all teary eyes thinking about you! You deserve a reward! Take care of yoruself and keep in touch! HUGS!

Thanks so much!! And congrats to you too! It is tough, but I would do it all over again if I had to. And trust me, I hear 'you are something else' all the time. I know I need to chill out, enjoy were I am at, and maintain. It is taking some time for that to sink in. Hearing all your words moves me to one step closer to letting it sink in. Thanks so much for your encouraging words!

Hey Girlfriend.............what are freinds and Fairy*Godmothers for? I'll give you any encouragement you ever need. Get in a slump you can ALWAYS PM me and Iwill give it my best shot to keep you going! Yes, chill and maintain...this will fool your metabolism................then in a couple months, you can go back to the strict regimen you were on....but for now, hell you are only 25. Do something for you....soemting really special because YOU are special. This is a major accomplishment and until someone has been in your shoes, they could never understand or feel HOW GOOD IT FEELS! You are 5'6' so you should be almost to your (according to standards) correct weight. When I was your age, I tried to stay between 120 and 128.I'm 5'5" Now that I'm APPROACHING 51 and the ole metabolism has started to CRAWL.....its harder to maintain. I can still get my leg behind my head! Think if I can get these 10/15 extra pounds off by May this year, I'll reward myself with another tattoo! Got a tribal lower back for Birthday last year to celebrate 50! Or I might just plan a trip back to Cancun or Cozumel with my husband.....I am right here with you! Keep in touch and like I said if you ever get into a rut....PM me! HUGS!

I haven't exactly read the details, but from the gist of it, it seems you have lost a considerable amount of weight. Congrats, to some extent.
To answer your topic question literally, No, to have lost a lot of weight isn't really correlated with being healthy. I think what you mean to ask is if you have lost enough weight to be labeled "average body weight", which says little about if you are taking care of your body on its own.

BMI, I personally discredit it, I think it is outdated and too simplistic, but it still provides a general guideline I suppose. As you somewhat seem to know, BMI doesn't take into consideration several things, gender, age (older people often have lower bone density, thus they are lighter for instance), BF%/ muscle mass %, etc. I'm 5'10 and I weigh 175 now, and I'm quite proud in saying the BMI states I JUST passed the mark from average, to overweight. Why am I happy about being "overweight"? Because for males in particular who spends quite some time in the gym, it means that they have a good bit of muscle in them that the BMI overlooks.

So, if you really have been eating healthy and doing cardio/weight training and have become 152 pounds, kudos =P. You can assume you have gained a bit of muscle from the weight training, so you can be towards the upper extremities of "average".