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The Skinny Supermodel Gene

Valiant

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Thought about this supermodel thingy. People who are thin and still eating a lot, they should have died during infancy, if things would have been as they should ;) I don't say that to be cruel, it just is.

I get fat from looking at a cookie (I've weighed 240 pounds at one time in my life, and i'm 5'7 tall). Well that period of my life is gone due to a lot of swimming, working and eating less. But still, i'm glad that I can get sufficient nutrition better than them, effectively making me able to survive where they would die.
 

cafe

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The women in my family tend to be very thin at least into their thirties, put on a bit of weight after menopause, but never get really overweight. My grandmother looked just like Olive Oyle when she was young except she wore glasses. I will never forget the time she told me "You have a nice figure. You're not skinny like I was." I weighed 86 lbs @5'2". I had the "advantage" of not being 5'6". With the exception of my pregnancies, I did not gain weight until my early thirties. One of my daughters appears to have inherited this. My other daughter has a normal build.

Oh, and could my grandma and mother ever put the food away! They wouldn't eat big all the time, but sometimes I would wonder where they were putting it all. I cannot eat like that, it's too uncomfortable.
 

Usehername

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My dad was the scrawny one; the article claims this gene can only be passed on by mothers.

Although I was always a "normal" weight, when I got sick (think Africa + hair falling out + year of sleeping 24/7) I wasn't able to gain weight. And I still can't do it.

My mom is getting really concerned about me and keeps handing me juice/pop drinks/making me eat all the time (i'm literally not allowed to go to bed unless i've eaten a 2nd supper now, she's that concerned about my weight).

I'm sort of
a) fascinated in the very INTJ way about how something as seemingly obvious as weight (input is related to what remains?) can be so dramatically different
b) starting to get nervous over my inability to find a healthy weight like something might be wrong.
 

cafe

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Hmm. My only siblings are two half brothers (we all have the same mom and different dads) and one of them is short and thin (though starting to put on some weight in his thirties) the other is tall and average build. The tall one is not quite sixteen, so it's too soon to tell what his body will do.

My dad is short and was thin into his thirties. My short brother's dad is short and average build. My tall brother's dad was a bit on the heavy side. Depression and grief have made him thinner in the last few years.

Are you healthy besides your inability to gain weight? I could never gain weight when I was younger and I still have not figured out the pattern to my weight fluctuations now. I was always pretty healthy though. My appetite was fine, too, just never liked eating a bunch of food at a time.
 

miss fortune

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my sister is a stick! she's built like the traditional supermodel (as is my mom and her entire side of the family) that's the tall side of the family and the size that wears sizes like 0 long for jeans

unfortunatly, I take after my dad's side of the family, which is still slim, but well muscled and with the build of healthy farm people (I have trouble finding dress jackets that will fit over my shoulders and chest sadly enough, but still manage to wear size 3 jeans! makes me wonder if I'd make a better man sometimes! :D)

on the bright side- I have tits, which nobody on my mom's side can claim! ;)
 

Usehername

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Are you healthy besides your inability to gain weight?

I am 5'7. I can maintain 117-120lbs (through sheer volume of input) for a few weeks, but then for no reason, and with no pattern, I crash and lose weight and am lucky if i can hold 112lbs. Repeat.

I get tired more easily than I think someone of my age (21) and life demands (minimal) should. I treat my body well and get lots of sleep but I don't know why I keep crashing weight. My menstrual cycle has (finally) settled in to a relatively-predictable (I know the week that it's coming but not the few days) pattern (it was 60-70 days in between two years ago, and before that it used to be clockwork 28 days).

I should probably go see my doctor again. I always feel like I'm bugging him b/c all my tests show up clear, but I still think there's something not right with me. I don't think I'm naturally meant to be scrawny. Athletic-skinny, yes. Scrawny? No.
 

cafe

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on the bright side- I have tits, which nobody on my mom's side can claim! ;)
My family bane! Thank God for padded bras!

I am 5'7. I can maintain 117-120lbs (through sheer volume of input) for a few weeks, but then for no reason, and with no pattern, I crash and lose weight and am lucky if i can hold 112lbs. Repeat.

I get tired more easily than I think someone of my age (21) and life demands (minimal) should. I treat my body well and get lots of sleep but I don't know why I keep crashing weight. My menstrual cycle has (finally) settled in to a relatively-predictable (I know the week that it's coming but not the few days) pattern (it was 60-70 days in between two years ago, and before that it used to be clockwork 28 days).

I should probably go see my doctor again. I always feel like I'm bugging him b/c all my tests show up clear, but I still think there's something not right with me. I don't think I'm naturally meant to be scrawny. Athletic-skinny, yes. Scrawny? No.
The delayed menses are a pretty good sign that you are below what is a healthy weight for you. It really wouldn't be a bad idea to get it looked into.
 

cafe

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:cry: at least they make your size! a 32 C is damn near impossible to find around here!
Ugh! Yes it would be. The 32As I wore for years were findable, but usually in the girls department.
 

arcticangel02

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Yeah, I'm not sure about the mother thing, my dad was the skinny one, too. Though he's fairly broad-shouldered and tall, and he's filled out more now, when he was in his 20s he was skinny as! My mother is of normal weight, also tall-ish.

I'm about 5'7" (shorter than both of them), and weigh just under 110 lbs. I've always been this way, and no matter what junk I eat, or how much I consume, I don't gain any weight. (Although normally I simply don't have room for very large portions in the first place.)

My sister (18) is Mom's build. Maybe an inch shorter than me, she's a few sizes bigger, but well within the range of normal.

And my brother (14), is a beanpole. He's in that sprouty stage, but he's as broad-shouldered and will probably be as tall and as skinny as Dad is.

So, I dunno.
 

Usehername

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Yeah, I'm not sure about the mother thing, my dad was the skinny one, too. Though he's fairly broad-shouldered and tall, and he's filled out more now, when he was in his 20s he was skinny as! My mother is of normal weight, also tall-ish.

I'm about 5'7" (shorter than both of them), and weigh just under 110 lbs. I've always been this way, and no matter what junk I eat, or how much I consume, I don't gain any weight. (Although normally I simply don't have room for very large portions in the first place.)

My sister (18) is Mom's build. Maybe an inch shorter than me, she's a few sizes bigger, but well within the range of normal.

And my brother (14), is a beanpole. He's in that sprouty stage, but he's as broad-shouldered and will probably be as tall and as skinny as Dad is.

So, I dunno.

You're scrawnier than me.

My problem is that I didn't used to be this way before I got sick. I used to be able to get hipchecked on skates and hold my own against big guys (assuming it was a "nice, for a girl, not wearing hockey equipment" hipcheck instead of a guy to guy hipcheck in full dress) and now as soon as I get bumped into I go flying b/c I have nothing to hold me down.

Going from 128 lbs to 117ish (I top out aruond 120 now, but generally 117 lbs) is a huge difference in my ability to play sports or just lift things or something. I dislike being this scrawny.
 

cascadeco

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I'm 5'6'', and have been between 110-115 for about 11 years now.

When I was younger, and also while in college, I ate a lot, and it didn't really matter how much I ate; I didn't gain much weight to speak of (aside from a couple of pounds in college from alcohol).

In my 20's, I have made it a point to eat healthy, and I think if I didn't eat relatively healthy/balanced diets, especially the past yr or two, I would weigh more than I do.

It's certainly mostly been genetics up til this point, but from here on out, I think diet will play a much greater role in maintaining my weight.

When in teens and college, I was more of a bony skinny; now, I'm a very lean/muscular skinny. I think the climbing has a bit to do with that. I tone pretty easily.

My mom's side of the family is stockier, although my mom was the thinnest of all of them. Women on her side though definitely tend to put the weight on as they age.

My dad's side of the family is very dainty and small. Since physically I look much like my grandmother on my Dad's side, I'm hoping physically I age like her too. She was incredibly petite up til her death.
 

Vortex

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I really hope you get checked out properly and figure out what, if anything, is wrong usehername.

On the article:
I'm thinking that I should have boys and see if I couldn't pass my robust figure on to them instead of giving it to little girls.

The boobs are a plus though, and I wear average size clothes, but I just can't be skinny. The few times I have been, I've looked extremely sick just a few pounds down from my optimal weight.
 
G

GirlAmerica

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I am 5'11 and wear a 14.
I cant imagine wearing a 6 or 8 at my height. That would be insanity.

I am curvy...not fat nor skinny.
Their sizes and weight just blow my mind. I have to watch my diet as it is...especially as I approach 40...they literally must eat like birds!
 

CzeCze

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I have the opposite gene. It's called the 'Brickhouse' gene. It's not uncommon amongst my people, I attribute it to our Mongolian ancestry or Ghengis Khan, or whoever had the genes that made the really big brawny Asians who conquered the rest of Asia. Hahaha. It's why we're so good at short track speed skating now. Hahaha. Basically I have a swimmer's build and I was never meant to be thin.

Luckily in America in this day and age, it's considered attractive to have a little padding in the 'feminine areas'. Since losing weight though, I swear I can only sit at a school desk for 10 minutes before my bony ass starts hurting... :( :( :( And my ass would still be considered big if I were back in the country of my birth.

Also, sizes are very misleading in themselves. I am 5'7 and a size 6, up to a couple months ago I was size 4. But doing casting calls with actresses who also list size 4, there is quite a difference in our shapes and builds, partially this is due to (even slight) height differences, but really comes down to genetics and composition. 2 people of the same height and weight can still have very different builds.
 

Magic Poriferan

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I have practically no ass.
I'm proportionately light and an ectomorph.
Sitting on a hard stuff does hurt like hell. :cry:
 
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