Too Skinny?

[chubber]

300 pounds is a balloon

 

[Virtual ghost]

Anyway, I don't want to dismiss their concerns but I really don't like how everybody keeps trying to fatten me up. There's nothing wrong with me, is there? I just wanted to vent, so I thought I'd vent on here amongst strangers. haha.

I think that you should listen only what medicine/science says about ideal weight for each person. I never had more than 10 pounds extra from my ideal weight and I trully don't think that is actually a problem that needs to be solved.

 

[gromit]

Haven't read the whole thread so I apologize if someone else brought this up but the only thing I'd be concerned about from a health/fitness perspective would be female athlete triad. Are you still menstruating regularly?

What happens if body weight/body fat % gets too low (I forget the exact numbers) is you stop menstruating. Your hormones change, and you can develop osteopenia or even osteoporosis.

So if you are concerned, I'd check with your healthcare provider.

 

[prplchknz]

Haven't read the whole thread so I apologize if someone else brought this up but the only thing I'd be concerned about from a health/fitness perspective would be female athlete triad. Are you still menstruating regularly?

What happens if body weight/body fat % gets too low (I forget the exact numbers) is you stop menstruating. Your hormones change, and you can develop osteopenia or even osteoporosis.

So if you are concerned, I'd check with your healthcare provider.

i was 110 in highschool. i did not have an eating disorder i just suck at eating regularly and went for a physical and apparently thats 10lbs too light that i had to get weighed weekly and see a nutritionist. because it raised a few flags plus my blood sugar was really low, basically if i didn't have my food obession and the ability to cook and being really good at it to the point that people ask me to cook for them, and not being rude by not eating when everyone else. i'd probably starve to death. and not because i want to be super skinny but because i'll sometimes forget to eat until i get i'm dizzy have a headache and feel like i'm gonna pass out. or i will eat something that usually is delicous and objectively there is nothing wrong with it but i get worried it's been drugged/poisoned or i take a bite and i immediatly start gagging and want to puke even though its a favorite food of mine.

well i guess it's a combination of not be able to decide what i want and partially forgetting.

 

[Poki]

I used to be told in high school I was way to skinny. I was 135lbs, but solid which made me look almost sickly skinny. I was ripped and muscular though. I ate anything and everything, we did a project in high school and tracked what we ate and I was upwards of 10k calories some days. 4 pb&J sandwiches for breakfast, 2 lunches, snacks, thirds during dinner. I was just really active.

Of course I am now around 210 and I am fat to me, obese according to bmi, most would just say I am healthy. Good mix of muscle and fat. I want back down to 170-180 lbs though. That puts me in 32 pants, size 34 are getting snug right now, 36 is comfortable, but sags a bit and can pull off without unbuttoning them easily.

 

[Poki]

That's almost exactly my weight at the moment. Somehow people still call me thin, but if they saw my love handles, they might cover their eyes in horror.

Exactly, damn love handles. I have traps that rise up off my shoulders and back that sticks out as much as chest so with lats I have a decent v shape from front, back, and sides. just way to much fat imo for what I am comfortable with. I miss skinny to a degree Most guess my weight at 170-180 right now.

People tell my niece she is fat because she has a slight pudge, drives me nuts. Then others say she is to skinny because her arms. She looks good to me. Those others just wanna talk crap because she looks skinny, but has a couple "issues" so they have to point them out. It's crap

 

[violet_crown]

Anyway, I normally don't talk about my height, weight and measurements but for the sake of this discussion I will. I am 5'2" and weigh around 110-112 lbs. I have an hour glass figure with measurements being 35-24-35. According the health/weight charts, I'm ideal. I have a perfect hip-waist ratio, a fantastic BMI and an athletic body fat percentage; I literally have the measurements of a movie star now. So, what gives?

I'm the same height, weight and roughly the same measurements as you, but feel like I need to lose weight. I've danced ballet for close to 15 years now and was a part of a professional company until last March, so I'm well aware that my standards for what "looks good" are kind of fucked.

My question for you is if you're happy with your body, then why do you care what other people think?

 

[Poki]

Insecure people love to point out flaws in others.

Yeah, I have family that does it to me. Because I have gone from crazy skinny up until I was around mid 20 and then put on weight, 135 -200. They like to point out things even though they are not any better and in some cases worse.

 

[Poki]

I love it when flawed people need to focus on others' flaws instead of their own. (sarcasm)

I got it a bit from my dad growing up but my sister got it worse because she was more visibly overweight. He would forbid her from eating second servings at dinner time when everyone else was allowed to eat more and openly chastise her in front of friends.

She really wasn't that bad and grew up to have a nice figure, yet has had insecurities about weight ever since.

That's crap, I may tell someone the need to exercise, but it's usually driven by being wore out easily not weight. I have another cousin who is very big boned and pretty big, but she plays volleyball, is very active, always out and about. It's just genetics with her. I took her on jet ski on December and I could barely keep the thing a float, couldnt plane it. Went crazy and she had a blast and thanked me for it. Very nice and sweet person, just big due to genetics.

 

[Poki]

Yeah, I never got it. She played soccer throughout high school and was big boned but not large. She looked good, aside from an awkward chubby phase she went through in junior high and early high school. Many kids go through an awkward physical phase.

I think his own father constantly berated him, so he's had a lot of insecurities that have been projected onto his own children.

The crap that we as a society propogated do to our own issues. Gotta love those unhealthy loops..being in mbti I think I am suppose to refer to them as tertiary loops...lol

 

[hjgbujhghg]

I am the same height, 5'2 and weigh 104 lbs. According to BMI and all the measurements, my weight is completely normal for my height, yet still I almost constantly get comments like; "You're too skinny" or "You should put on some weight."
I don't know why people do that, but I think our culture is fooled by the idea of women having "female bodies", and by female bodies I mean slightly overweight women or women on the end scale of normal BMI. I do not consider this idea of beauty either healthy or attractive.
It's ironic how it is seems as cruel or unsympathetic to say to obese or overweight people to lose weight, but having comments about the weight of those who are on the slimmer side is seen as completely okay. It really irritates me how people can be so close-minded or limited in their view of healthy body.

 

[SiegfriedSchtauffen]

The most important thing is what you would like to see in the mirror and not others' opinion. They are often only jealous, don't let yourself dragged down. As a man 5%, as a woman 10% fat is far from being lethal.

BTW, how do you measure it? I think its pretty difficult to measure and I usually don't do it, anyway, you will notice if your six pack starts to appear... As a general rule of thumb I think if you have some "bacon" that can be grabbed under your skin then you are pretty far from death and you are rather on the other side of the scale where you *should* lose fat (fat, not necessarily weight). Actually you should work terribly hard with very special and cruel diet to get to the minimum or lethal body fat percentage so you pretty much shouldn't worry especially with 19%, I would worry about how to get to 10% that is pretty much attractive no matter if you are a man or woman... Again, start worry when you see your six pack and your skin gets extremely thin (It will probably never happen if you don't start researching how body building competitors do it...).

I personally prefer having minimal fat (as a mesomorph) and despite this I was rarely at 3-5% even with brutal daily 3 hour training and very strict diet. I feel great even when my body weight is far below average (e.g.: 65 instead of 75 with seemingly zero fat under my skin). I like being skinny, having minimal fat (not necessarily with a terribly skinny body), and prefer women with low body fat (Actually not everybody likes when there is a lot of things to grab...).

 

[uumlau]

You're fine, [MENTION=16382]Ene[/MENTION]

I have some thoughts how people might think you're too skinny, beyond the "jealousy" and other derogatory reasons.

If what you're used to seeing is a bit of pudge, seeing bone is rather unusual. When I was 17, I was 6'1" and 135 lbs. I had my ribs pointed out to me by more than one person. (Ah for those days when I could eat two hamburgers for dinner, eat plenty of snacks, and I was STILL super skinny due to teenage metabolism!)

Another thought is that if they've seen ANY anorexia pictures, it can be difficult to differentiate slightly protruding bones on someone who is lightly muscled and the somewhat more protruding bones of an actual anorexic who is losing muscle mass.

That's about all I can do for ego boosting. To get more of an ego boost, you'll have to post a bikini pic and got all the "Wow, you're HOT!!!" comments from the teenage boys on the forum, and I don't think you'd be entirely comfortable with that.

 

[OrangeAppled]

I think some of our ideas of "ideal" female bodies seem to date back to 50's hollywood. I.e. Jane Mansfield

Who had a tiny waist and was much smaller than your average woman today. Hollywood ideals have never been average nor attainable for most women without surgery or other extremes. Those ideals produce the likes of Kim Kar-frankenstein. The cartoonishly hourglass body was no more average then than it is today. Nonetheless, average women back then were thinner, even if the ideal was a curvy shape (but still decidedly slender), often attained with the use of corsets/girdles (look at how weird their rib cages were then...). Nothing more naturally "womanly" about those ideals than current ones.

 

[Ene]

You're fine, [MENTION=16382]Ene[/MENTION]

I have some thoughts how people might think you're too skinny, beyond the "jealousy" and other derogatory reasons.

If what you're used to seeing is a bit of pudge, seeing bone is rather unusual. When I was 17, I was 6'1" and 135 lbs. I had my ribs pointed out to me by more than one person. (Ah for those days when I could eat two hamburgers for dinner, eat plenty of snacks, and I was STILL super skinny due to teenage metabolism!)

Another thought is that if they've seen ANY anorexia pictures, it can be difficult to differentiate slightly protruding bones on someone who is lightly muscled and the somewhat more protruding bones of an actual anorexic who is losing muscle mass.

That's about all I can do for ego boosting. To get more of an ego boost, you'll have to post a bikini pic and got all the "Wow, you're HOT!!!" comments from the teenage boys on the forum, and I don't think you'd be entirely comfortable with that.

Yes, I believe that you are onto something! I think that some people aren't able to diferientiate. That explains a lot and somehow, you know me well enough to know that there will be no bikini pictures.

[MENTION=6561]OrangeAppled[/MENTION] you are right. A friend gave me some vintage clothes from the 60s &70s. They are sizes 6&7 and they are the equivalent of 0-2 in current fashion. All of them have tiny waists.

 

[Ene]

I'm the same height, weight and roughly the same measurements as you, but feel like I need to lose weight. I've danced ballet for close to 15 years now and was a part of a professional company until last March, so I'm well aware that my standards for what "looks good" are kind of fucked.

My question for you is if you're happy with your body, then why do you care what other people think?

I think maybe I just got aggrivated by the comments. I think that so long as my fat is within the athletic range (which is perfectly, medically safe), then I am happy. I don't need to weigh less or more. I just need to stay toned and strong. That's what looks beautiful to me, and it just pees me off a little when somebody decides to corner me and accuse me of being anorexic when I have great muscle mass. [MENTION=18559]Inis Mona[/MENTION] btw, I like your reference to a double standard.

 

[chubber]

So the emperor was never naked?

vs

You're healthy and nothing physically wrong or any kind of self inflicting harm done and you enjoy it and you know what is going on.

 

[OrangeAppled]

Her body was presented as an optical illusion. Kind of.

I didn't say those ideals were more natural either. Did you miss the point of my comment? I should have written "some of our unnatural ideas of ideal..." Don't attribute themes or points to my quotes that I wasn't making or weren't implied in said post.

To some degree, ultra thin waist with pointy boobs and round ass as the ultimate female body has persisted, with some evolution and naturalization, but is still exaggerated. Just look at Disney Princess waists.

I wasn't attributing anything to your post. I was continuing the conversation. Chill out

 

[Dyslexxie]

People are jerks and will always judge regardless of how you look. 18% body fat is perfect Victoria's Secret model so I wouldn't even worry.

 

[nonsequitur]

18% bf is fitness model territory. And here is a good article about why athletes should throw away the scale and ignore BMI:
144lbs: Why Female Athletes Should Toss the Scale and Get a New Perspective | Breaking Muscle

Let's face it, the general population has no idea what anorexia looks like, and their judgments of "normality" has shifted together with the median BMI. It's more borne out of ignorance than anything else, and people would rather stick to what they know than learn that they're wrong. I just ignore the naysayers.