Weight/metabolism- am I really abnormal?

[rytonsister]

Hi
I'm wondering if anyone else shares a similar body shape/metabolism to me.

As a child I was very very thin, very underweight. So much so that I was carted off to gp and given all sorts of potions but I was just honestly never hungry. I was made to stay school dinners in an effort to get me to eat but I just never had any appetite and eating when I was t hungry made me gag. I remember once being forced to eat a trifle at school and it coming straight back up

Folks if I sent a pic to this thread of my body you would put me at least a size 16. That's what I look like at this weight .

My thinking is not disordered.

My gym stats speak for that. I currently have 40%. Body fat and they told
Me to lose 22lb to get within a healthy body fat range!

I have diabetes! I'm not making up that I'm fat! I am fat! My body does not function well at this size and weight.

Could you post a headless () pic so we can see what you're talking about? It's hard to imagine you being fat from your stats.

If you were my client, I'd get you eating more, doing a lot more recovery stuff, sorting out the anemia properly, some low-impact stuff. I wouldn't be adding to your cortisol load from your job with a HIT stuff for a while and when I did, I'd get you doing an appropriate amount. HIT should be short, anything more than that is catabolic. Add in some weights and add power and strength, so more anabolic stuff.

Have a look at Precision Nutrition, they have all sorts of infographics. I don't think you're fueling or exercising appropriately for your goals and with your stress load or your age and probably hormone profile.

Oh and my body fat stats were test twice .

I've put weight on since then. Severe anaemia put paid to the gym for a few weeks .

Back on it now.

cook I will tomorrow. I'll wear the gorgeous tight cashmere jumper dp got me that I can't wear cow I look like a stuffed marrow in it....

I wore it today. And was embarrassed. I'm fat. I doesn't matter what my bmi or scales say the diabetes and my tummy are telling me I'm too big. I look dreadful. I feel dreadful. And I'm definitely definitely too big round the middle.

whatdoyouknow ....
Are
You a personal trainer? Should I be investing in this as a solution?

I'm so clueless. Before I never had to even think about weight and now I am having to I just cannot lose more than a couple of pounds and that takes weeks.

I did slimming world once in my 30s with fab results and a
Matter of weeks was all it took to get back to where I was happy.

I believe you - because BMI is a clumsy tool. I have the other problem and weigh 'heavy'- at a BMI of 24 I was an athletic build with low body fat and my periods became erratic. At a BUPA health check I was told I could do with gaining a few pounds!.....so I can see how there most be people at the opposite end of the spectrum who weigh 'light'

Sadly I am way over that BMI now (but that's another story)

limits thank you. I'm really not making up that for me, this weight is bad. I really am 40% body fat and I'm diabetic (just diagnosed) and anaemic.

I look fat.
I feel breathless and I commented to a colleague just the other week than now when I go running my legs feel like they are made of lead.

I've had a break from running since the diagnosis of anaemia and Diabetes but back at the gym now.

I truly look dreadful. I know the fat % is right - I am carrying way too much fat round the midriff. I am tiny under my bust but then I just have this massive tummy and pot belly. My legs are slim. I have tiny tiny shoulders and hands and feet. Gloves I'm X/S and I have size 3 feet. I have a very slight build so for me this weight is truly way more than my body likes. I have a tiny frame. 10stine 4 might not sound much at all but on me it's big. I can only presume this has contributed to the diabetes.

This thread is the reason I'm battling diabetes on my own really it illustrates my problem perfectly.

No one believes me. No one accepts that a woman of 5ft4 bmi 24 and 10st 5 can actually be "overweight "

I'll post a pic tomorrow. I have an off shape really. Like I said tiny shoulders, busy and rib cage but big tummy and muffin top, pot belly , slim legs . My frame is really very small. My hands and feet show that I think being tiny . I only became a size 3 show after pregnancy. Before that I was a size 2 show up to 19 . I am meant to be small! Now I'm not small.!

Look into the research and links between artificial sweeteners and weight gain/type 2 diabetes.
All these "diet" and low fat products are full of them and they can be detrimental to our health as we age. We've cut them out of our diets completely and feel so much better for it, but they're everywhere (even in toothpaste) so it's incredibly hard to be completely ASS free (artificial sugar substitute) but so worth it.
Aspartame, Acesulphame K, Sucralose, Saccharin, plus many others are bad bad news. Go into your local supermarket and see if you can find a bottle of dilutable squash that doesn't contain artificial sweetners... near enough impossible and our future generations will suffer the consequences of Jamie Oliver's ludicrous sugar tax forcing companies to change their recipes to "healthier" versions. We're on the verge of a major health crisis in the U.K, and artificial sweeteners are the key ingredient to this.

Thing is we really don't drink or eat artificial sweeteners. No squash at all here (no kids).

I eat really cleanly. I need to adjust the carbs. But artificial sweeteners are really not a problem in this household.

This study has been posted before on MN by another poster whose name I can't remember, but it (and a couple of others) suggest that the healthy BMI bracket goes a bit too high for women on average and because at the upper end it is misclassifying a lot of people with unhealthy body fat percentages as being in the healthy BMI zone.
journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0033308
I think the main problem with implementing it in health services on a large scale is that accurage body fat measuring is too expensive or time consuming for your average GP surgery, never mind for members of the public at home.

The shifts are likely to be messing with it too. I saw someone who'd always been underweight his whole life, despite gorging himself on junk food, start to put on fat round the middle when he was working a late shift.

There is also menopause to consider. I come from a family of mostly very slim people but where women who'd been really slim their whole lives (size 8s in the 1970s and 80s) did put on weight in their 50s and later.

That's what scares me I'm not even anywhere near menopausal yet .

I'm 47 in a month. No menopause symptoms yet. I really can't afford to get bigger. I need to get smaller quick smart before the menopause.

Have you tried logging all
Your food intake with MyFitnessPal? If there are any issues with your diet then you will be able to see them. You diet sounds very low calorie to me.

flip!i did my fitness pal for 8 weeks just before Xmas.

My recommendation for calories was1400.

I never ever managed to inbibe 1400 calories.

And yet I didn't lose a bean. So I don't think calorie counting is gonna hep much .

I’m sorry I don’t believe it is possible for you to have 40% fat on a normal BMI.

I am the same height as you and at least 14 stone and have also been told I’m at 40% fat. One of us is wrong. And as I’m obese I don’t think it’s me.

I don’t doubt you think you’re big. But you also said you’re a size 12? This is not right.

And you should see another doctor because diabetes isn’t just a fat persons illness. Neither of the two people with it that I know are fat or have ever been fat.

If 1400 doesn't do it then what about trying 1200. If I want to lose weight I use 1200.

Before I never had to even think about weight and now I am having to I just cannot lose more than a couple of pounds and that takes weeks

^^

This sounds normal, well for most people. They find it so hard to lose weight. You'll find it even more difficult because you found it so easy to stay slim.

Now, if you're 5'4 and 10 stone 4 and are eating 1400 cals per day you'll only maintain your weight, not lose. I'm the same height, and to lose weight I'd need to eat a bit less than 1400 per day. Very hard but true.

The night shifts are fucking up your cardiac rhythm. Not good for weight maintenance at all.

If I were you I'd go low carb. A bootcamp has just started, I'm sure they'll let you join!

I can totally understand how you feel uncomfortable, especially on a small frame!

I believe you!

But I think what's actually more important here, in the overall scheme of things, is the diabetes and the anaemia.

Not sure how you're sorting out the anaemia, but for the diabetes I think you should definitely be looking at a low carb diet.

If it would help, as @halfwitpicker says, we've just started the latest Low Carb Bootcamp and you'd be very, very welcome to join.

But I actually think you might be better off with Dr Michael Moseley's Blood Sugar Diet. it's about serious calorie restriction - 800 calories a day for 8 weeks - but it is proven to reverse type 2 diabetes. (It's based on work being done by the University of Newcastle, so there is serious science behind it).

I know 800 calories a day sounds daunting, but if it can help you deal with the diabetes that's got to be worth considering - and the weight loss on it is very fast as well.

There's a whole website dedicated to it, and they have, I think, a forum on there, so there would be lots of support for you doing it as well.

Link to the blood sugar diet here

Ok, someone at the gym told you to lose 22lb. I'll believe you. But 3 stone is 42lb. You think you're 3 stone overweight?

Have you had your thyroid checked? Have you spoken to the GP about your pot belly incase there is something more sinister going on (sorry to bring that up) but that was my immediate thought on hearing your description of your body shape. Most post menopausal women who have gained weight do so in a boxy sort of shape from immediately below the bust. A more protruding pregnant shape, especially pre menopause, sounds more unusual.

Hello BIWI! Don't you just love insomnia?

Ryton

Two things jump out at me.

Is allthos weight on your belly? Have you been to the GP for health checks beyond diabetes just to make sure there's not a health issue causing it?

Also I agree about weight training. It sounds like you must have very little muscle tone. It's a long project as it takes ages for women to build muscle but increasing muscle will burn more calories, and make you stronger and fitter and long term reduce body fat percentage.

It many not result in losing three stone but you will look and feel like you have.

OP I get it. I’m 5ft 9 and weigh 10st 2 and this is too much for me even though I’m a size 10, slim and look healthy. I’m small framed in spite of my height and am much happier 10lbs lighter. I don’t have an eating disorder and never have, am late forties though and have noticed a gradual increase that’s hard to shift. You have my sympathies.