Thin=Unhealthy?

[Lenusik]

It's a lifestyle that you have to make a commitment to. So many people are not willing to make that commitment. I don't think it's vain to want to look good. This is for ME, not anyone else. I've never done well doing things because others expected them and exercising is not one.

This is exactly the point. Of course there are cercumstances and medical conditions. And it would be fulish to generalize. But I still believe that our mindset and effort are stronger that genes. I could be politically correct if needed, but why. Adopting exercise and healthy habits for a lifestyle has not killed anybody yet. Eating a lot of bad food and no exercise have.

[Brina]

What about women with PCOS, or other endocrine or thyroid disorders?

Sorry, but PCOS is an excuse. I have it - have had it for years. I could use it as an excuse - in fact I have used it as an excuse in the past - and sit around wearing a size 20, or even bigger. Instead, last year i decided that this was within my control. I started working out. I stopped eating so much junk food and starting eating a diet of mainly protein, vegtables and fruit and whole grains. I still allow myself treats, but I limit them. In that time, I am down 20 lbs, improved my body fat ratio and gotten much stronger and fitter. I look better and I feel better. I am still not skinny - I will probably never be skinny - but I am no longer considered obese.

[CR400]

Thin doesn't equal unhealthy unless the person lives an unhealthy lifestyle, like smoking, drugs, eating disorders, lack of meaningful exercise, or a number of other things we might think of. Also I have to keep reminding myself that going to extremes to get thin could make me unhealthy even if I do weigh what the tables say I should.

Right now I am back up to a weight that for my height 5'5 says I'm obese 182lbs. Yes I am still fat with room to improve but I can do something at this weight that I couldn't do at the 173 I was at. I was angery that I had gained almost 10lbs back over the past two months, it was really depressing. Until I went to the gym a few nights ago and easily put up 410lbs on the leg press and could have done more. Apparently that 7lbs of other based on body fat was muscle. I had stopped lifting in February and could only do 290. So on some occasions heavier can mean healthier. Oh I never thought I'd say it but after all that I may actually love hills. Until I run into that 105lbs person. I think to make races even we all should trap on those weighted vests and try to climb with the weight of the biggest person in the race. Watch tiny not even be able to turn the cranks over. Amazing how hard it is to produce 400+ watts to climb a hill.

On a side note I don't think I ever want to be that thin it is unsafe. For the most part even psycho men won't mess with a woman who looks big enough to put up a fight. However even women will take on the real little ones. Why, for the average woman greater weight means greater strength. Even in the world of power lifting the heavy weight women way out lift the feather weights.

[roughingit]

I'm not sure why I keep reading this thread...I've always been within the range of average and y'all are making me feel fat. Okay, so at 5'5" and 150 I certainly would like to lose some weight...like 20 pounds of it, although my SO says I look just fine.

In American culture, thin is better. I'm pretty sure if you took a random poll of high schoolers for example, and gave them the choice of being a not healthy size 2 or being a healthy size 14, almost all of them would take the two.

Personally, I think anyone that wears a size under 6 is actually delusional about their size and really still in the children'd department. I'm sick of having to find my size 10-12's in the large section! I'm a medium dangnabit! Size 6 is small. No wonder women are made to feel like cows, they can't decide on what size is what, why can we just buy by the inches like guys?!

[caligurl]

Personally, I think anyone that wears a size under 6 is actually delusional about their size and really still in the children'd department. I'm sick of having to find my size 10-12's in the large section! I'm a medium dangnabit! Size 6 is small. No wonder women are made to feel like cows, they can't decide on what size is what, why can we just buy by the inches like guys?!

you can't make a blanket statement like that.... cuz there are a LOT of other factors.... i do wear under a size 6.... and i'm still carrying a few extra pounds for me... i'm not fat... but i do need to clean up the eating and get rid of the excess baggage.... but i'm small all over.... so ya... i wear size small jerseys (usually... sometimes i have to get a medium cuz i have broad shoulders.. partly from working out).... and it's actually quite irritating to me when i do have to practically shop the children's/teens department to get clothes that fit! even with my excess baggage... i still can wear a size 0 in several brands of jeans.... at the most a 2 and when that excess baggage is gone.. those same 0's hang on me... but that's all thanx to vanity sizing.... i should really be wearing.... probably a 4... if you check sizing from the "olden" days..... if the stupid manufacturers didn't keep making smaller sizes bigger to appease the majority of the lazy public.. that love to sit around on the couch and eat fast food all week! but still want to go to the store and buy they same size clothes they used to... well guess what! they aren't... cuz the manufacturers are just making them bigger... still calling them the same size.. but making them bigger! and as for shopping in the ladies (not teens) department at mervyns or kohl's.. forget it.. they only go down to a 4.. and even in my "fat phase") they hang on me... there's just something WRONG with that! so not only does tv... and movies... and magazines add to the "thin is in"... but so do the clothing manufacturers.... vanity sizing SUX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but anyways.. to tell me i'm dellusional about my size cuz i wear a 0 or 2 is just as bad as all the other blanket statements.... i'm NOT dellusional... i DO have excess weight... and i eat... sure i eat healthy all week... but on weekends i totally blow it... and i blow up!

there are WAY too many considerations to make blanket statements!

[maillotpois]

What about women with PCOS, or other endocrine or thyroid disorders?

There are several women on this board who could ride circles around my size 2 butt all day (and night!), yet weigh half again my body weight and have spoken openly on this board about struggling with weight and body image . There are other mitigating factors in many, many people's lives that stymie their best efforts to be "thin" or "healthy". Some of them are medical, some are genetic, some are unfortunate circumstances imposed on women by other people. As a stranger, and sometimes even as a friend, you just don't know the whole story.

Wow - great post FGG!

[Lenusik]

although my SO says I look just fine. It is not for anyone to say how you look. it is your decision.
I'm pretty sure if you took a random poll of high schoolers for example, and gave them the choice of being a not healthy size 2 or being a healthy size 14, almost all of them would take the two. - What kind of choice is that. May I suggest that thin and healthy is better.

Personally, I think anyone that wears a size under 6 is actually delusional about their size and really still in the children'd department.

- Actually, I wear size 2 and pretty sure that this is my size. I do not shop in children's department - I am 31 and have curves to my body. It does not mean that women who wear size 6-8 are not attractive or unhealthy. it all depends on how you feel about it. But if a person is much heavier than a normal weight, no matter how good this person feels about herself, it is not healthy, especially in the long run. I've learned it looking at my mother and a few other women.
Why looking for excuses.

[Eden]

Personally, I think anyone that wears a size under 6 is actually delusional about their size and really still in the children'd department. I'm sick of having to find my size 10-12's in the large section! I'm a medium dangnabit! Size 6 is small. No wonder women are made to feel like cows, they can't decide on what size is what, why can we just buy by the inches like guys?!

Yeah whoa - Do you think it is easy being this small????? I am 5 feet tall and I currently wear a size 0 - everything is too big on me, but a child I am not. Do I get treated like a child sometimes and does it piss me off. Sure does. Can I buy kids clothes - no siree. I am small, but I am still shaped like a woman. I am not delusional, I'm just small and fit and to tell you the truth I don't really care if you don't like being a large cause at least they make stuff in your size.

and also I totally agree with Caligurl - sizing has changed. At my same weight now I need to buy a 0 and sometimes can fit a 2, but I used to wear a 5 at one time. Every year sizes keep getting bigger and I am at the end of the measuring stick - what's next size 1/2.....

[Crankin]

Eden, I have the same issue. Clothes are getting bigger while the sizes get smaller. A few years ago I weighed less and wore a petite 4. Now i wear a 2 or 0 (which is ridiculous). I am a 52 year old woman who does not and will not shop in the kid's dept. In fact, i was at a vintage store last fall and saw a really cute dress in a junior size 3. It looked like something I had in the sixties. I couldn't get it over my hips. The only 2 stores I can walk into and buy off the rack are Ann Taylor and the Loft. I order almost all of my clothes from J Crew or Banana Republic on line. Banana Republic did just open a petites store in a mall not too far from me. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I could walk into a store and buy a t shirt. Yes, I am short and I weigh what I should for someone five one. But I am a woman with curves and a couple of jingly parts that remain despite the exercise.
There was just an article about this in the Boston Globe. It is a real phenomenon that clothing manufacturers are doing to the public because people don't want to admit they are getting bigger. I confirmed it when I went to Europe last year. I tried on a skirt to buy that said it was the equivalent of an American size 4. It was way too tight, so I bought the next size up, equivalent to a 6. That's my "real" size!

[btchance]

The clothing sizes really get on my nerves also. I'm 24 and can still wear the same clothes as I wore in middle school when I developed hip bones, even the fitted stuff for showing horses and ballet, and I weigh within 5lbs of what I did then. Back then I had no problem finding stuff small enough for me in a size 5. Now, I can't find anything that fits me. Any dress, lab coat (even the xs) or anyting outside of the Junior department (ie my work clothes) has to be taken up to fit. I have to buy jeans in size 1-3 that are still loose in some areas, even though I have those old clothes hanging in the closet that say 5. That's a lot of the reason why I don't like to shop. Anytime I find anything that I like, it never fits.

Oh, and I was looking at the life insurance charts from the 50s and 60s where they give what they viewed as the appropriate weight to height ratio, and according to those I'm ten pounds over weight. However, people are always telling me that I'm too skinny. Has our views on what the appropriate weight to be healthy is really changed that much over half a century?

[Brandi]

You know we can all get upset about this that and the other but the bottom line is" ARE YOU HAPPY "? And if not then try and do your best and try to do someting about it. My mom had to work out to build muscles to look bigger then she was. it took a lot of effort on her part. Yet i have to exercise to maintain. And I could loose 5 or 10 but if I don't? Oh well I still think I look pretty good for 37 year old hard working women. I just try and that counts for a lot! Besides my husband still like my body and that really counts for a lot after 19 years. And he saw me at my prime. Things have changed a bit. lol

[bikerz]

You know we can all get upset about this that and the other but the bottom line is" ARE YOU HAPPY "? And if not then try and do your best and try to do someting about it.

Brandi you hit the nail on the head. I'm pedaling my way through all the weight I have still to lose, and I'm happier than I've ever been, in spite of a pretty rough year. Sure I'd love to have been blessed with a speedy metabolism and a functional childhood, but too bad - I got what I got, and I'm just thankful I finally got in gear (heh heh) to become healthier, and as a result happier. It's a journey, that's for sure - now I also have to contend with feeling like I want to do my 20s and 30s all over again, as a new, more active, me, but whoops - I'm in my 40s! Many more miles still to go!

[salsabike]

Wow - great post FGG!

I think fixedgeargirl and maillotpois pretty much have it right. Nicely said.

Not sure any of us have enough knowledge to make accurate assumptions about why others weigh what they do, on either the large or the small side.

[RoadRaven]

Yes - what the recent gals have said - I don't think many of us are critiquing the small sized women here for being "thin" or "small"

What has come to be in the dock on trial is the perception foisted on us that thin/small is fit and fat/large is unfit...

I think this board is a living testimony to the absolute fact that fit and healthy comes in many shapes, at many ages and from sizes 0 (I didn't know you could get a size 0 in adult size) to the XXXXXs....

Fitness is a lifestyle and life choice, not a tape measure or a set of scales

[mimitabby]

You know we can all get upset about this that and the other but the bottom line is" ARE YOU HAPPY "? lol

I'm not sure the bottom line is "are you happy" i could be happy eating 2 lbs
of chocolate every day but my arteries are going to seize up.

at age of 54 now, the bottom line is; am I healthy? I find that exercise
makes me feel better, a total flip from when i was 20 and exercise was something i considered unpleasant and something to avoid.

I think as you get older the game rules change. What good is it to have everything but your body doesn't work anymore?

and an aside to those that blame obesity on medical factors; check out the
obesity rates among the poor in countries like Zaire and India. It is becoming more and more apparent to me that health problems in our country (obesity, cholesterol, joint issues, etc) are brought about by our unhealthy life style of sitting, driving and eating.

But hey, that's why we're all here right? Happy bike to work day!

mimi