What does fit look like?

[kacie tri-ing]

So I was reading the following link on Runner's World:
http://rwdaily.runnersworld.com/2010/04/what-does-fit-look-like.html

Some of the comments are interesting.

So what do you ladies think? What does fit look like?

[Juliegoddess]

What a great question! As a bigger lady (I'm about 5'10" and 210 pounds), I don't have to tell you how cruel people are to anyone with a little fat on their bones (and this is a HUGE part of the population....sheesh). But I can tell you for CERTAIN that a couple of those people, although they were thin were NOT fit. Like, not at ALL. But of course, thin doesn't mean fit. I am just talking about their uppity-ness, looking down their noses at me because I was bigger and the unspoken taunts of "wouldn't you LOVE to look like me" sort of thing.

I feel fit. I feel GREAT. I am not thin, never, ever will be, and don't ever want to be. So the average person is never going to look at me and say WOW, she's FIT!! But my boyfriend knows for certain that I AM (hehe, yeah, he knows!) and I know I am.

Being "fit" is a personal thing, I think. It's how you feel...it's what you can do on the bike, running, whatever it is you do.

[limewave]

The Fit Look:

It's the steel glint in someone's eye's when they set out to accomplish an athletic endeavor.

It's haggard after a grueling workout when you're "not feeling like it" but go for it anyways.

It's a bad farmer's tan.

It's bruised and battered and beaten down.

To be built back up into a leaner, stronger body.

The "fit look" is the smile someone is wearing at the culmination of reaching their goals after months of discipline and training.

It's confidence.

[Pedal Wench]

I don't have what I would call an athletic body, but the other day, after a long ride, I was getting my mail and a woman, a stranger, was walking by. She said that I must be a runner. I asked why - did I look that sweaty? She said that my calves could only belong to someone who worked out.

Made my day!

[Veronica]

My naturally super thin friend, who's also blond, blue eyed and tall..I should really hate her! :D has started telling me I look like stick. Sturdy log maybe... stick?!?

She also tells her seven year old that I am the strongest person she knows. :p

Veronica

[uforgot]

I just had a checkup. My doctor said "You exercise, don't you?" I replied "All the time". (Dance teacher, cyclist, never sit down teacher!) She said she could tell and that she was not going to give me the standard "you need to lose weight" lecture. She says I'm fit because my blood pressure, flexibility and cholesterol tell her so. She said to just keep doing what I'm doing. For my entire life, the focus has always been on losing 25 lbs, nothing else. The focus came from my parents, health care providers, boyfriends, ex-husband, society and myself. I walked out of there feeling better about myself than I ever have before! Finally!

[shootingstar]

The most important thing for me, is to be able to keep on cycling for long distances. Fit my clothes that are a few years old (or even older! :o:p).

Ever since I had that scare a few yrs. ago of extreme vertigo for 1 day, where I couldn't even open my eyes while sitting (much less walk, ride a bike).... it changed my definition of physical mobility, fitness and health.

[PamNY]

I have two close friends who are big women AND very strong and fit. Both have helped me with heavy physical work in highly emotional situations (death in family, crisis move for a falling-apart buddy). "Grateful" doesn't begin to cover how I felt about their assistance.

That made me so aware of this issue that I can barely keep my mouth shut when some delicate little thing who can barely lift a briefcase snarks about weight.

[lauraelmore1033]

ugh! do not get me started!!!

Suffice it to say I don't look fit.

But I am.

[GLC1968]

Like the guy in that article mentioned, I think it varies greatly by sport.

And something I'm discovering very recently...looks are VERY deceiving when it comes to swimmers. Most of the best ones I'm enountering at the pool are not typically 'fit' looking at all. Most of the women are actually more on the 'real woman have curves' side of the spectrum...and yet they swim like fish. It's really awesome to see!

The fastest, fittest female runners I know look like typical lean runners. The best cyclists I know look like generally all around fit women (most with muscular legs) and the fittest body-builders I know look just like regular (but strong) women in their everyday walking around stage (they get really lean when a competition comes up, but they don't live that way year round).

I think men are quite different. In fact, with the exception of a few small beer bellies, I know very few truly fit men who don't look very fit. Its like when they decide to actually GET fit, their outward appearance changes. Their bodies respond. The only exception would be bodybuilders in their 'bulking' stage.

Personally, I have a LOT of room for improvement both on my fitness and on how I look, but I haven't always been this way. In fact, I remember when I last had my bodyfat tested by a pro - he did it twice because he didn't believe the number. I was 18% bf and yet I had visible fat on my lower body. When I walked into that gym with my husband for the first time a month prior, they all fawned over him (he was not fit!) and tried to steer me towards an introductory course on using the machines and nutrition. When they asked us each what our goals were, the guy was already poised to check the 'weight loss' box for me before I'd even responded. It really pissed me off. I was fit but I clearly didn't look it where my husband was out of shape and overweight and they assumed he was the one with all the experience and fitness. :mad:

[Crankin]

Well, as far as the comment about men, I am always surprised by some of the guys in my cycling group. They have bellies and are very strong riders. Maybe because they are older and have been riding for years? Not sure, here. This group does like to eat, though...
I have had experiences similar to you, GLC. I look thin, but not skinny. I have some "untoned" fat around my hips and outer thighs that will just never be gone, without more work than I am willing to do. I look good in clothes, but not in a bathing suit! Anyway, once I went to my gym for a body fat assessment. The guy thought his calipers and the electrical impedance thingy were broken when he kept coming up with 15.5% for me. This was years ago, too, when I weighed even less. Even now, it rarely goes above 18%. I guess this is the effect of almost 30 years of exercising!
Some people just will never get over the stereotype of skinny-minny is good. My (very unfit and slightly overweight) friend was bragging that she bought some "skinny" jeans and that they "had them in her size." When I told her that i couldn't wear them, because they won't go over my cycling calves and thighs, she thought it was terrible and didn't understand how someone could be thin and not be able to wear these jeans. I told her I would rather look like an athlete and that muscle is a good thing.

[tab123]

I have always had to buy pants big enough to fit my thighs and bottom, which means the pants are too big in the waist. A saleswoman once told me to stop exercising so that I could fit into a smaller size. Never went to that shop again. (At the time I weighed about 125 pounds, and I am 5 foot 9. Have not seen that weight in a while.)

With biking my glutes are an asset, especially once my lungs get a bit stronger!

[nscrbug]

In my mind, I know that I am fairly fit compared to many other 44-year old women I know. I have a bad back and deal with chronic pain on most days, so staying fit is always a challenge for me. But I do have a LOT of body image issues and low self-esteem (that stemmed from childhood), so I'm generally my biggest critic. However, it's always nice to hear comments from other women at my gym, regarding how they would LOVE to have my arms and shoulders (the ONLY bodyparts that actually DO look fit on me!), and could I show them the exercises that I do to get them that way. :p

[shootingstar]

I'm probably one of these folks: how-does-she-stay-slim-it-must-be-genes. No, I don't have problems buying pants due to developed thighs, etc. Pant fit problems is more due to problems in vanity sizing, poor cut, etc.


But I have to say....and it can get tiring to say this to various people:

I have to remind people that the reason why I look similar in weight compared to 25 years ago, when I was not cycling at that time in life, is:

Now I have to
a) expend nearly 1 hr. (or more) of vigorous exercise nearly daily
b) I cut my white carb consumption by 20% (among other things)
and the list of more minutaie can grow here. :p It doesn't get easier when natural metabolism slows down due to aging.

ALWAYS remember those who look fit and seem to look "fit", means conscious/mindful daily habits of exercise, reasonably healthy eating, etc. :) It requires effort and thankfully, happy effort due to cycling.

Am I in great shape? Probably not bad, but not fantastic either. Do I want to spend more time, money to get better? Well, maybe just a few minutes one day on strengthening. I mean I just did a 2 hr. bike ride today (42 kms.) with a few hills...a typical ride that I did nearly daily last spring and summer during the weekdays. How much more should I be devoting to "fitness"? I guess do intervals, etc. But somehow I'm not motivated to take this extra step of training unless one wanted to cycle across Canada. That has not been part of my cycling dreams. Not sure if it will ever be.

That's all. I will never be the fantastic senior/elder who is randonneuring, marathoning, triathaloning, snowboarding :p.... Simply because there are some other areas of non-cycling interest /natural strengths/skills that I'm underutilizing/not developing more (and I feel guilty about the latter. :o)

[snowroo]

LOL my trainer did the same double take at the gym. She used her machine and figured it must be wrong, I couldn't be that low body fat. Then her calipers pretty much said the same thing.

I guess sometimes it's about proportion. I don't look like an athlete. My heart rate is normally 80 (non-exercising) but now it's about 51. I know I'm relatively fit. But I certainly don't fit the "stereotype" of what an athletic body looks like. I don't look overweight, I just have hips!

[Melissa71]

I have always had to buy pants big enough to fit my thighs and bottom, which means the pants are too big in the waist.

I have the same problem. Usually if they fit in the thighs and bottom they're huge on the waist. Even in the jeans that are supposed to be for curvy gals.

[redrhodie]

I think a person's skin reveals a lot, and will show signs of poor nutrition and stress, both of which impact my idea of what fit is. I also think posture is an indicator as to whether a person is fit. A strong core is my image of fit.

[Catrin]

I have the same problem. Usually if they fit in the thighs and bottom they're huge on the waist. Even in the jeans that are supposed to be for curvy gals.

I WISH I had this problem! I carry my weight more like a man than a woman - outside of the obvious of course. ALL of my extra weight is in my stomach, and it has always been that way. No butt. Never had one, don't have one now, never will have one :p

So I try to focus on buying things that fit my legs, even if they are tight in the tummy - that is slowly going down anyway :D :o

I've been thinking about this entire fitness thing - while I do not yet consider myself "fit", I am certainly much more fit than I once was. I think I have to figure out what athletic fitness looks like rather than that razor thin image back in my mind somewhere that always pops up when I think of what fitness should look like for "me". I know it isn't THAT, too many years of Hollywood I suppose.

[Bike Chick]

Fit for me is going to the doctor for a checkup at age 52 and having a resting pulse under 50 and a bp of 112/48. Then he says to me "keep up the good work. It shows. You have the pulse of a 16 year old." I no longer take cholesterol medicine and have never had issues with blood pressure or diabetes. I also quit smoking 5 years ago. I feel good about that.

I need to lose 20 pounds and I don't "look" fit but I feel it. It's being able to run up a flight of stairs some of my coworkers can't walk up, walk all day at a quilt show and not be worn out, and having an increased energy and confidence level. If you feel good on the inside, it has to show on the outside.

You can't explain to some folks how good it feels to climb that monster hill or run 10 miles. Maybe looking fit is that glow you have because you know what it feels like.

[zoom-zoom]

My BMI is 25.3...so I am technically overweight. But I also have cholesterol and triglyceride #s that make my PCP do a double-take (he said I have the best #s of anyone in his practice) and my BP is typically 100/60. So my yearning to drop 20#s is more out of wanting to look more fit and be faster on the run and on the bike. Health-wise I don't actually NEED to lose anything.

[kacie tri-ing]

I knew you ladies would have some amazing insight. This is certainly an issue that I think about/struggle with. I love the tan lines one...that is great! I also love the knowing what fit feels like!!!