Are you happy with your weight/body?

[weightsaway]

I’ve struggled with my weight almost my whole adult life. Even as a teenager I would swing wildly between a bit waif-like to 1 stone overweight and then in my late 20s, I went up to 17 stone and then wavered around the 15 stone mark for years. I’ve recently lost 4 stone and am now a whisker away from being in a normal weight range but weight and food/portion control is something never far from my mind.

Most of my friends have always appeared to have stable weight but I was surprised when chatting recently to discover how many women ‘want to lose a few pounds’ or who dislike what they perceive to be a flabby tummy or whatever. I would look at them and think they looked a perfectly healthy size/weight so I was surprised to find out a few people have the same mental hang ups that I wish I didn’t have, when it comes to body/weight.

So thought I’d ask others the question - is your body shape/weight something you think about? Are you reasonably content with it? Maybe you’d like to lose a few or even gain a few?

NC for this!

I bloody love my body and have done for the last 20 months. !

For the first time in 30 years . 8 stone down on MJ and then treated myself to a tummy tuck and actus recti repair after they separated in last pregnancy 30!yrs ago. Nothing like escaping morbid obesity to make you appreciate your body every day .

My BMI is 18.5 and I've always been the same weight over the years +/- a couple of pounds.I feel uncomfortable when I put on a little extra and if I do it's due to eating extra rubbish, so physically I'm comfortable as I am. However, I've always had a wobbly rounded tummy - I've always done various exercise classes/walk/bike ride, on top of which I try to do tummy toning exercises a couple of times a week. It's still there, but at 59 there are far worse things to worry about and the cat seems to enjoy kneading it😹

I don't really think about my body aesthetically. It's a meat suit that carries me round and I want it to be strong and healthy enough to do that.

I do watch what I eat because I am aware health issues arise from excess weight, especially as I'm over 50. So I guess I do think about weight. I'm about 24 BMI and don't want to get any heavier than that, so I try to resist eating too much or snacking between meals, although I'm not obsessive.

I don't think having body goals means you have a "mental hang up".

I want to reduce fat and build muscle. I have a section of my inner thigh that wobbles, I have too much fat on my upper arm, my lower belly doesn't quite overhang, but nearly does, it's sort of loose and you can grab it. When I do planks, I have fat that hangs down on my belly. My neck/chin doesn't look great, very slight loose skin.

My goals are to improve those things.

At the same time I am a size 10, down from a size 16. I love wearing short skirts because I think my legs look great. I have large boobs and a tiny waist. Parts of my body look defined and toned, and I can see the hard work with weight lifting is really paying off. My feet look narrower and elegant. My hair is long, thick, and hardly any grey hairs at all. I have thick black eyelashes naturally.

The two states can co exist. I can objectively look at my body and highlight the flaws and the strengths. Wanting to work hard to improve those flaws and the areas that (in my opinion) need to be improved upon, doesn't mean I have low self esteem or mental hang ups.

At the end of the day I am overweight still. Ok, by less than 2kg, and the boobs and muscle might account for some weight, but it's still a fact I am overweight. It's right that I should aim to get to a healthy weight, and to make myself as strong as possible. I think about exercise and diet a lot, because I try to eat well and build muscle. But I also think about travel a lot. Or my other hobbies a lot. And my family a lot. And so on and so forth.

I would imagine only a few women would feel really happy with every aspect of their body.

My BMI is about 19/20 but I would like fuller, firmer boobs and fewer lines on my face.

But I am in my sixties so 🤷‍♀️

I think there's a difference between 'happy' and 'not unhappy'. Very few people would say that if they could wave a magic wand they would choose the exact weight they are currently. But lots of people are content enough with their weight that they don't think about it much.

I am the latter. I would choose about six pounds less, but only if I could decide where it came off! However, I am comfortable in my clothes and my body is healthy and fulfils its functions easily. That's what I appreciate the most.

Nope, I’m about 3 stone overweight, I’m trying desperately to lose it but since hitting perimenopause I’m finding it almost impossible to drop the lbs.
there was only one time when I actually felt really happy with my weight, I was at my lowest weight range and felt really confident. I still wouldn’t show my knees though as I think I’ll always have a hang up over them so still wore long shorts

I am happy with my weight. At school, I was very self-conscious because I filled out before the other girls in my year, and was "fat" (i.e. of an athletic build) in comparison. I have a manual job that keeps extra weight off, but has put more strength in my muscles.

As for my body, the only things that I would change are my muscle's habit of building up tension, which probably doesn't help my migraines, and having the migraines.

I think that we all probably have hang-ups, especially ones that we've had since we were young, e.g. through bullying.

Love this mindset, good luck to you in getting where you want to be!