to think it’s a bit depressing how little you can eat when you’re short?

It IS unfair, but that's life. Just be glad you're not Diabetic and over 70! I am permanently hungry, tired and eat very little. And I go to the gym 3 times a week.

100% agree, it is depressing.

Perimeno has completely fucked up my body, all its moving parts and my mind.

600-800 calories a day keeps me stable, in no way does it contribute to any weight loss. Weight of which I have 4 stone extra of.

Perimeno, Insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome thrown in for good fun and I am stuck in a completely impossible situation.

Mounjaro has literally been life changing for my little 5ft 1 rotund body!

Slowly but surely the weight is coming off, I feel fantastic! Not just physically but mentally, in my head, it’s quiet, it’s calm, it’s controlled and that nasty fucking “guilt” voice is silent!!

When absolutely NOTHING I do works, nothing, not a single, solitary, sustained, uncomfortable, torturous thing works or makes even an ounce of difference, finding the one thing that works with my colossal efforts, is transformational.

I’m the same height as you and I’m a bottomless pit for food. I think this is just your body rather than a height thing.

As a short person in my mid-60's I am very aware of how careful I need to be. I eat off a smaller plate, and really minimise carbs from wheat and sugar. Doing this for years and my appetite (or stomach size) has reduced and I feel full much quicker than I used to.

I find it hardest when we go out. I was choosing a place for me and my pal to have lunch and one lovely place, the starters were pretty much 450 calories (except the beetroot and apple salad which was less - but who want to go out for lunch and eat that?), and most of the mains were 900 - 1200 calories. Add a single glass of wine... No sides, no pudding. That's more than my TDEE without anything else to eat or drink all day except water.

And in general portion size is far too big for my current appetite. I often have 2 starters. My favourite local does a kids size portion of Sunday lunch and I persuade them to serve me that. I wouldn't even mind paying the full price (although they usually just charge me the kids version) but I hate food waste and I'm put off by the sheer amount on the plate.

I mentioned I'm into strength training, I have been going for a long time and I can deadlift nearly double my own bodyweight, so I've not been mucking around. My maintenance is still 1700, and for weight loss 1400. I dread to think what it would be without the gym, but its far from being able to eat what I want.
I also see loads online about reverse dieting to get to the point that you can have much higher maintenance, and I'd love it to be true for me but it just isn't. I've been doing this long enough that if I eat more, my strength and muscle gains are very gradual, I just get fatter!
I do sometimes go running - for fitness, and just to get outdoors - though it leaves me so hungry the next day that I definitely eat back any deficit I would have created.

The reason many women with a smaller frame struggle to maintain a healthy weight is because for a lot of us, even when you keep to the calories needed to maintain, you still feel hungry/unsatisfied and you have to actively ignore those cues or gain weight forever. A small amount of weight gain is far more noticeable on shorter people. Sounds mad but I’m sure I can tell when I’ve put on just a couple of pounds without going near a set of scales.

Definitely go to the gym and build some muscle. I'm only 5ft3 but regularly burn well over 2000 calories, more if I do a couple of classes. Muscle is your answer!
It was the exact opposite for me. I put on 10% of body fat whilst I reduced cardio and increased muscle building!

Main reason was that I wasn't burning the calories anywhere as much yet my appetite increased twofold. I went back to running and the weight and fat percentage went down again.

Agree with what pp said about gym. My friend does a 1-1 Pilates session at home once a week then at least for an hour every day. She has a knee injury too. Reducing carbs helped her. Cooking from
scratch .

If it is any consolation as a tall person who is slim I can't get any nice shoes or trainers to fit me. I have to wear mens!

I had a personal assessment at a gym when I was 23 (and 9 stone, at 5'7") and it said I could eat 2,500 calories a day and not put weight on.

Trouble is FitBit is still telling me I'm burning 2,500 calories a day which is patently untrue.

Preparing as much of your own food as possible - no work lunches, eating out, buying food on the road

Well, that's already me out as my life involves eating out regularly.

I feel the same now I'm in my 50s! 😂

Good God I could eat when i was younger and stay at a steady 8.5 stone!

I don't think it's designed for most women of any height over about 35, particularly if you've had kids. The calories recommendations are laughable.

Being offered a biscuit by someone. "It's only a few calories". Hmm it's at least 100 calories. That's nearly a tenth of my total for the day. Actually that is a lot.

I do exercise, a mixture of weights, cardio, yoga and swimming, five days out of seven. Sometimes though I find high calories burning cardio exercise is actually counterproductive. It can raise cortisol levels and prevent sleep/stress out the body, and also mean that I consume more calories than I've burned off as I get super hungry.

It used to work until I was about 35 then it stopped working. It's a thing, look it up.

Let's take an extreme example so you can see how it works for small women. Baklava. I imagine baklava is very calorific - it's sugary, fatty, full of nuts. You can eat a small piece of baklava and you definitely won't feel full. (You might not want any more baklava, as it's so sweet, but you're stomach will not be full. I however love baklava. I could eat my daily requirements in baklava if left unattended.) If you are a small, older woman, the small piece of baklava you've just eaten is probably, in calories, nearly half of what you should eat for lunch if you don't want to put on weight. But you are not nearly half full.

So you either have to eat constantly healthy but filling food - which of course is what we should be eating most of the time anyway - or tiny, tiny morsels of anything fatty, creamy, sweet, delicious. And although I have a broadly healthy diet, if someone offers me a piece of cake, I quite often would like to eat it.

Yes I get you. I’m 4ft 11 and my daily calorie need is tiny. I run regularly so I can eat a bit more and not put weight on. It took me two years to lose two and a half stone.

Such a disordered thought process.

You won't exercise incase you get hungry. My god.

Well, perhaps you could start by reading the many posts in here, none of which have said 'i feel full and happy on 1300-1500 calories a day'

As I said, eating at maintenance for a petite woman means:
Preparing as much of your own food as possible - no work lunches, eating out, buying food on the road

• if you do any of the above, limit it to a starter only, or only fish and vegetables and tell them to hold the oil or any dressings. Or only eat half and throw the rest away

-eat different meals to the rest of your family
-Eat off child sized plates (to get the portion control right)
-Either eat 3 low calorie meals a day and never, ever snack, or only eat twice a day and snack on healthy food like fruit.
-either avoid certain foods entirely as they can't be in your diet in moderation, or if you eat them (eg, a pizza, or have a rich dessert with a meal) only eat one meal that day.

Just like with budgeting, it's easy to limit yourself one day. Try doing it every day, for the rest of your life, and you'll see why it's so hard to keep the average where it needs to be.

Yep.

All these calculations and apps are simply not designed with any woman in the 5' to 5'2 range.

Every portion size is geared up to feed an average man.

And we are conditioned not to waste food in the UK (attitudes are very different in other parts of the world).

Then food is a social thing.

I'm on holiday next week - DS and DH will want to eat large meals three times a day. I typically will eat two small meals a day. We are self catering for a week but have five days we can't do that. So that raises some logistical issues about what we do when. Then if we eat out a standard meal out will set me back my entire days calories in one go.

And don't get me started on food envy.

I am so grateful for the recent trend for 'small plates' but I find it difficult and am finding it increasingly difficult as I get older

I agree. When I do my fitness pal for instance it tells me I should have around 1250 cals to lose weight. If you say that on here almost everybody says no, you need at least 1500 a day and anything less is starvation. I am 5 foot 2. It's very hard when you are both short and old.

Because unless you only ever eat at home or really really plan ahead you find yourself in situations where the standard portion is more than you need. Im taking my kids out tonight for a celebration. I wont want a main, or much at all really but I cant sit there with a side salad a d water so I spend and eat more than I want.

To lose weight I have to do 1200 calories a day.

Spread that out over three meals and a slice of toast is a huge amount.

When I was younger running really helped me stay slim. Now I just worry it would make me hungry.