96% of all women think they're too fat.

[spin-1/2-nuclei]

In some parts of the world *cough*america*cough*, 75% of women ARE too fat. So only like 20% are confused.

Having lived in both Europe and America I think some of that has to do with diet, but the other problem is that what is fat for some people might not be fat for someone else... everyone's body has an ideal size and it isn't the same for all people.

I always get accused of being anorexic (which couldn't be further from the truth). I'm just skinny... I can't help it really. I certainly don't watch what I eat... I eat when I'm hungry and I stop eating when I'm not hungry anymore.
I'm 6ft and my weight hasn't fluctuated more than 3lbs to 5lbs since I've been this height. Currently I weigh about 120 lbs, and I just can't help it, it's genetic. I have a friend who is 5'6 or so and she weighs about 140lbs, she works out every day and diets all the time, she just can't seem to get much smaller than that.

 

[Haphazard]

75% of women in the US are not fat.

I remember in gym class, I saw a few girls in the locker room complaining about the slightest curve in their legs as being "fat". It was rather disgusting.

 

[prplchknz]

In some parts of the world *cough*america*cough*, 75% of women ARE too fat. So only like 20% are confused.

wow, just, wow. I know some fat women, but no where near 75%

 

[spin-1/2-nuclei]

wow, just, wow. I know some fat women, but no where near 75%

According to this source about 62% of women are overweight - American Obesity Association - AOA Fact Sheets

"For women, ages 20 to 74, 62 percent are overweight"

But again I think part of that is because we haven't accurately defined what the ideal weight is for every woman. My friend who is 5'6 and 140lbs is technically borderline overweight but I can't imagine what else she could do to be smaller, which means that she is probably at her ideal weight right now since she doesn't have any other underlying health problems.

I'm technically underweight according to these charts but if I were to eat any more I would be at serious risk for developing heart disease and type II diabetes. I typically eat whatever I want so if I wanted to gain weight I'd have to switch to a diet of nothing but deep fried twinkies or something (and honestly I'm not even sure if that would make me gain any weight) since I currently go through a can of pringles a day between meals when I can't leave my lab. That happens at least 3 or 4 times a week and nothing. I just don't tend to gain weight.

 

[Amethyst]

Having lived in both Europe and America I think some of that has to do with diet, but the other problem is that what is fat for some people might not be fat for someone else... everyone's body has an ideal size and it isn't the same for all people.

I always get accused of being anorexic (which couldn't be further from the truth). I'm just skinny... I can't help it really. I certainly don't watch what I eat... I eat when I'm hungry and I stop eating when I'm not hungry anymore.
I'm 6ft and my weight hasn't fluctuated more than 3lbs to 5lbs since I've been this height. Currently I weigh about 120 lbs, and I just can't help it, it's genetic. I have a friend who is 5'6 or so and she weighs about 140lbs, she works out every day and diets all the time, she just can't seem to get much smaller than that.

Haha, that was me. I had to weigh under 130 for rowing, I am also 5'6, but I couldn't do it for the life of me, we went forcefully anorexic pretty much just to stay at 125 if we could, but then a shitload of problems came later, such as everyone passing out after every race, so we stopped that. I was sickened when I heard they wanted to move lightweight category to 120 lbs being the max, which I don' t know any athletic person who weighs that.

 

[spin-1/2-nuclei]

Haha, that was me. I had to weigh under 130 for rowing, I am also 5'6, but I couldn't do it for the life of me, we went forcefully anorexic pretty much just to stay at 125 if we could, but then a shitload of problems came later, such as everyone passing out after every race, so we stopped that. I was sickened when I heard they wanted to move lightweight category to 120 lbs being the max, which I don' t know any athletic person who weighs that.

I really take offense to weight classes in sports. I know to some extent they're necessary, but nobody ever takes height or skeletal structure into account and people like you end up having to starve and get sick and people like me end up having to binge out on deep fried doughnuts wrapped in bacon to gain weight and end up getting sick. There has to be a better way to make competitions physically equitable.

It also seems like when they try to force people to "make weight" they don't look as good, my guess is because it's not natural.

Like my friend that is 5'6, she is beautiful when she is her normal weight, but when she tires to lose weight she gets kinda sickly looking because her skeletal mass is larger than mine. I look skinny but I don't look boney, but when she tries to get really small she looks really boney. The worst part is that it was her doctor who told her she should try to lose some weight, not because she has any health problems, but because some stupid chart says she should. He didn't even take into consideration the fact that she was blessed with a pretty decent sized rack.

 

[prplchknz]

Haha, that was me. I had to weigh under 130 for rowing, I am also 5'6, but I couldn't do it for the life of me, we went forcefully anorexic pretty much just to stay at 125 if we could, but then a shitload of problems came later, such as everyone passing out after every race, so we stopped that. I was sickened when I heard they wanted to move lightweight category to 120 lbs being the max, which I don' t know any athletic person who weighs that.

I've weighed 110 before (after i was fully grown) but then again i;m not an athelete, i tend to weigh around 118-136 i like being closer to 118, some months i don't feel like eating and others i want to eat everything in site. i'm 5'7"

 

[Queen Kat]

Like my friend that is 5'6, she is beautiful when she is her normal weight, but when she tires to lose weight she gets kinda sickly looking because her skeletal mass is larger than mine. I look skinny but I don't look boney, but when she tries to get really small she looks really boney. The worst part is that it was her doctor who told her she should try to lose some weight, not because she has any health problems, but because some stupid chart says she should. He didn't even take into consideration the fact that she was blessed with a pretty decent sized rack.

I have exactly the same thing! I have a really broad skeleton and even if I eat very little, my body still won't look skinny. Only my face starts looking boney. I personally like myself better when I'm fatter, because then at least I have some cheeks and then my face looks healthy.

 

[Xenon]

Like my friend that is 5'6, she is beautiful when she is her normal weight, but when she tires to lose weight she gets kinda sickly looking because her skeletal mass is larger than mine. I look skinny but I don't look boney, but when she tries to get really small she looks really boney. The worst part is that it was her doctor who told her she should try to lose some weight, not because she has any health problems, but because some stupid chart says she should. He didn't even take into consideration the fact that she was blessed with a pretty decent sized rack.

Your friend's doctor told her she needed to lose weight at 5'6 and 140? What chart was he using? Most standard weight charts say the ideal weight for a 5'6 individual is 118-154 pounds. I'm the same height and my lean mass alone is around 112 pounds, so 140 would probably be pretty close to my ideal weight. I'm not an athlete and I have a pretty average frame size.

I think people really underestimate how much people naturally vary in musculature, bone size and density, and where the body is genetically programmed to store fat. Those things can make a big difference.

Here's an interesting site:

Photographic Height and Weight Chart

It's basically a grid of photos of people at different heights and weights. A lot of people don't look anything like you'd think at a given height and weight. (A lot of women, in particular, look slimmer than you'd think at a certain height and weight). I was also struck by the wide range of body types that can all look normal and healthy.

 

[Resonance]

I'm about 15lbs under the healthy weight range. I wish I could get some curves

Here's an interesting site:

Photographic Height and Weight Chart

It's basically a grid of photos of people at different heights and weights. A lot of people don't look anything like you'd think at a given height and weight. (A lot of women, in particular, look slimmer than you'd think at a certain height and weight). I was also struck by the wide range of body types that can all look normal and healthy.

Fantastic link. Thanks!

 

[Haphazard]

A lot of people don't look anything like you'd think at a given height and weight. (A lot of women, in particular, look slimmer than you'd think at a certain height and weight). I was also struck by the wide range of body types that can all look normal and healthy.

It's true. You hear all these numbers thrown around about what makes a woman "pretty"... but then you see the 198lb woman at 5'7" who looks pretty normal and can simply lift pianos.

 

[demimondaine]

It's true. You hear all these numbers thrown around about what makes a woman "pretty"... but then you see the 198lb woman at 5'7" who looks pretty normal and can simply lift pianos.

true say, true say.

 

[Katsuni]

The statistics are probably heavily biased and inaccurate.

That being said, however, the numbers of those who think they're fat really are disproportionately high... though not that high.

Problem is that the media and general social consensus in general right now, is that if yeu weigh as much as the low end of the BMI, yeu're fat; unless yeu're so severely underweight that yeu don't show up on the scale at all, yeu are FAT. If yeu can't count yeur ribs with a shirt on, yeu are a FAT BLOATED WHALE.

...

Yeah, people are stupid. For advertising that crap, and believing it.




Just remembered something I saw years ago that had me go grrrr at this very matter. On the old playstation 1, there was a game called "rhapsody", supposedly 'the musical rpg'. Honestly, there wasn't nearly that much music emphasis in it other than yeur weapons were all instruments, and occasional reference to it. It was more the "rpg for girls", and blatantly so. I enjoyed it I suppose, but it was mind numbingly stereotypical...

The part that irritated me most though, I think, was there was one part where yeur main adversary (a rich brat of a girl with a HUGE attitude problem) calls yeur character pudgy and fat... because she's 85lbs. She weighed less than I did at the time I played it and I was unhealthily underweight at the time! And she was TALLER than me! ;

This's kind of a weird, but rather blatant example of how this crap sneaks in everywhere, even in the least likely locations.

 

[figsfiggyfigs]

This survey was of women in Europe? You people aren't fat.

The women in America must be practically suicidal.

ahhhhhhhhh hahahahahah!!! I totally burst out laughing. that was so entertaining to read

 

[Amethyst]

I really take offense to weight classes in sports. I know to some extent they're necessary, but nobody ever takes height or skeletal structure into account and people like you end up having to starve and get sick and people like me end up having to binge out on deep fried doughnuts wrapped in bacon to gain weight and end up getting sick. There has to be a better way to make competitions physically equitable.

It also seems like when they try to force people to "make weight" they don't look as good, my guess is because it's not natural.

Like my friend that is 5'6, she is beautiful when she is her normal weight, but when she tires to lose weight she gets kinda sickly looking because her skeletal mass is larger than mine. I look skinny but I don't look boney, but when she tries to get really small she looks really boney. The worst part is that it was her doctor who told her she should try to lose some weight, not because she has any health problems, but because some stupid chart says she should. He didn't even take into consideration the fact that she was blessed with a pretty decent sized rack.

Yeah, weight classes need to be done entirely differently. Hell, even the BMI chart is super flawed. I'm very muscular (not gross muscles) and curvy, so that's a lot of weight say, someone with no curves and no muscles who's the same height and weight as me. They're not as fit, but our BMI is the same. It just needs to be reassessed in general.
I may weigh 150 lbs now, but everyone would guess that I weigh 120 and wear a size 6 jeans, while in reality I actually wear a size 14.

 

[Katsuni]

Yeah, weight classes need to be done entirely differently. Hell, even the BMI chart is super flawed. I'm very muscular (not gross muscles) and curvy, so that's a lot of weight say, someone with no curves and no muscles who's the same height and weight as me. They're not as fit, but our BMI is the same. It just needs to be reassessed in general.
I may weigh 150 lbs now, but everyone would guess that I weigh 120 and wear a size 6 jeans, while in reality I actually wear a size 14.

Yarr... 'body mass index' is still a descent starting point, but at the same time... muscle is more dense than fat. So someone can be slim if muscled, but fat if the same weight with low muscle mass. Weight and height alone do not tell yeu if yeu're heavy because yeu are fit or not.

There's other factors which cause problems as well; women have higher body fat than men (naturally hold more for various reasons, and breasts are pretty much almost pure fat so that's one obvious deposit location men don't have), so will naturally be 'bigger' at the same height/weight. Problem is, society has suggested women should be smaller... except that's not reasonable to believe.

Different body types and race can also play a factor; there's virtually no black swimmers in competitive sports... because they naturally have lower body fat, and higher muscle, and fat floats, muscle sinks, so they blow all their energy trying to stay above water rather than moving forwards; even a really fat black guy looks significantly different and doesn't seem "as fat" as a fat white guy. There's not much one can do about these genetic differences.

Same goes for people who are "big boned". Some people really flat out do have a large bone structure; I knew one friend of mine who was about 6'2, but his bone structure was MASSIVE. He wasn't fat, but he was never going to pass for skinny, no matter how much weight he lost. He could've been starving like an etheopean kid on tv, and still have looked fairly heavy.

So yeah, we really need a better system, but any system we'd come up with would be either too simple, and significantly flawed, but at least understandable by the average person... or too complex to understand but accurate.

We just can't win, can we? ;_;

 

[Amethyst]

So yeah, we really need a better system, but any system we'd come up with would be either too simple, and significantly flawed, but at least understandable by the average person... or too complex to understand but accurate.

I think it's as simple as 'Hey, you look pretty healthy.' You can only determine on the outside. Someone that looks healthy could still have heart disease or non-hereditary diabetes, but you can't see inner organs, only the fat, so even in that sense it's flawed, but everything is flawed in some way or another. I could be the same size and height as one girl, but she could technically be considered overweight and unhealthy because of her body type (apple, pear, hourglass etc.) and weight proportions, while I would be considered healthy because I am fit, muscular, and appear to be thin. It's all based on appearance, really.

 

[Quinlan]

So yeah, we really need a better system, but any system we'd come up with would be either too simple, and significantly flawed, but at least understandable by the average person... or too complex to understand but accurate.

We just can't win, can we? ;_;

Sure we can, just stop judging people on their body size.

Weight isn't a behaviour.

 

[JustHer]

75% of women in the US are not fat.

I remember in gym class, I saw a few girls in the locker room complaining about the slightest curve in their legs as being "fat". It was rather disgusting.

Those be the stats, homeboy. Check it out!

 

[Fecal McAngry]

I always get accused of being anorexic (which couldn't be further from the truth). I'm just skinny... I can't help it really. I certainly don't watch what I eat... I eat when I'm hungry and I stop eating when I'm not hungry anymore.

You may not realize how rare that is in America...