To think I am not too skinny?

[WhatALovelySingingVoice]

I used to be quite overweight - at my heaviest I was around 13 stone at 5'2 but over the last year I've been trying really hard to lose weight and I'm now 9 stone.

I really don't think 9 stone at 5'2 is anywhere near too skinny but ever since I've reached this weight a couple of months ago I've been getting comments non-stop about how "skinny" I am.

Last week both my mum and my sister pulled me aside to tell me they were very concerned as I am "wasting away" and they really think I should say a doctor as it's not healthy being "this thin". Then later on that day my sister sent me an e-mail with links to various websites with information about eating disorders, anorexia and the health risks of being underweight with a message saying I really should get checked out . Then yesterday my mum gave me a huge half hour lecture about being too skinny and went on about a TV show she'd seen about people who were too skinny and the effects on their health it was having .

I've also had other comments from other people about how they think I've lost a bit too much, how I looked better this time last year, etc.

But really...I'm not too skinny am I?

Am I being unreasonable or are they?

actually isn't a bmi in the overweight (not obese) say 25-27 range associated with lower mortality generally, with this especially being the case for slightly older 40+ women

a lot of the advice about weight and waist size is really based on middle aged men and their risk for heart disease?

www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/08/slightly-overweight-people-live-longer-so-it-time-rethink-our-dietary-advice

Yes, Mitchy, it is. Think of the 80+ year olds you know. Aren't most of them a little cuddly?

My mum is 83, 5'3", 11 stone and size 16. I'd say she is fairly typical among her friends.

She was 5'5" and a slender 9 stone until she hit the menopause!

Mintyy
one of the great concerns facing the medical profession is that people used to get fat in their middle / later age
now they get fat as children
it is likely that the damage to their cardio and insulin systems will be life limiting
but the data is not in place because those people have not reached old age yet

Yes, I can see that might be possible Talky.

But look at The Queen, look at the Queen Mother, look at all sorts of octogenarians. Mostly they have a bmi of over 25, I would say .

I do worry when I see very fat children or teens.

Mintyy
The queen Mum, like many, many upper class old ladies was comparatively slim and lean well into her 50's and then plumped up.
She also never let her weight fluctuate ....

The mahoosive issue facing us is people putting their systems under immense strain at a young age
and nobody knows what will happen, but the precautionary principle is te sensible one

Wait....people SHRINK??? Someone who was 5'5" ended up 5'2"??? Is this normal? Bloody hell. :(

rabbit
yes of COURSE old people shrink.
My mother has shrunk 4 inches in the last 10 years
as did her mother and my two great aunts
DH's dad shrunk 5 inches in his 70's

the role of poverty in spreading obesity is not discussed nearly enough though, all this chat about food and exercise is a great way of missing the point that social inequality is a greater threat to public health than Greggs

Exactly middle aged spread but if we are already cuddly where do we go at middle age.
Surely they're just bigger as after 80yrs metabolism slowing down plus a couple of pounds a yr extra from 40s.

Maybe you cant accept any creeping weight gain and should weight what you did at 20 when 50.
Also a lot of the older generation are being kept alive on medicine. Both mil (50) and DM on blood pressure meds. dM on aspirin. Nan on heart meds.
Medicine has come on it doesnt mean they are healthier than the generation before them.

What is the comparison though?
What did people used to weigh in the 80s?

Ironically my DDad , the only healthy/ thin pensioner in the family is the only 1 to have had cancer. But then he exercises so much but eats lots of cakes/sweets.
Watch supersize vs superskinny it makes you wonder if anyone eats properly or thin people just eat junk but less of it.

None of my grandparents were alive when I was born. Both my parents died before I left university. DH's dad died when he was at school, his mum is still alive but she is extremely tall. Maybe she used to be even taller, I don't know. But I don't actually have anyone in my own family who has made it to 'elderly'. And I don't go round with a tape measure measuring random senior citizens on a regular basis.

Bloody hell. I'll end up under 5' if I last long enough. :(

naty I don't eat junk! nor does my sister. But I suspect we aren't what you would call a scientific sample. As for what did people weigh in the 80s - well, my sister and I weighed what we do now (in the late 80s anyway. In the early 80s we were still young teens). We both have clothes from the 80s we still wear. Because we are both a bit tight.

we don't have to measure people personally if we accept the existing evidence that overweight people have more favourable outcomes than 'normal', underweight or obese people with underweight people enjoying highest mortality

am just personally not a fan of Being Fat or bothered about own mortality to the extent that am going to start eating sausage rolls

Bloody hell naty! Your mil is 50 and on bp meds? Is that caused by obesity?

Dh is 50 and we have just celebrated his birthday with 30 guests, ranging in age from 41 to 62 average definitely around the 50-mark and none of them are on long term meds for anything at all (except perhaps anti depressants and hrt ).

Private medical care would keep the Queen alive anyway.
In that way you are right about poverty.

But in general i dont think poverty is an excuse/reason.
Also dont you think thats a bit rude to people in starving countries.
'We're in poverty in the uk so we're becoming obese.
To blame what makes them too thin for making us fat.
Possibly depressing circumstances leading to lack of effort, overeating, unemployment, education in food preparation being cut out.

MIL Possibly a genetic thing (siblings with no indicators had heart attack in 50s and another recently a stroke (as did my DM heart attack but she smoked)
You can get high BP from having it during pg too.
Unless people have check ups would they know?
A lit of people used/still find out after heart attack.

Its a bit like t2 diabetes apparently lots of people dont know they have it.

I dont want to skrink either :)

it's not an excuse, poverty and poor diets and obesity have been going hand in hand for hundreds of years - eg the prosperous Pima people when settlers came and diverted the Gila river (17th? 18th century?) and left them impoverished and starving, became incredibly fat

there are obese people in starving countries, childhood obesity sort of exploded during the Great Depression when people were starving

I don't really understand the association but the poorer you are the more likely you are to be obese and this isn't a new thing nor is it strictly confined to rich nations

Naty, I think you possibly have an ill-informed view about what it is like to be 50!

Of the 30 people at dh's party I can safely say that only 2 have a bmi of more than 30, and even then they would be just over the 30 mark (ie. not in the 4 stone+ overweight category).

But then we are all quite privileged and middle class.

Interesting thing is that only one is really thin. She always has been the same, for the 25 years I've known her.

Eating more protein is supposed to keep you full for longer, maintain blood sugars.
Would that make sense?
Stress/depression

Though i have seen several very thin vegetarians

Even just a sense of i must eat while i can as there may be no food tomorrow.

Nah, you're fine--I'm a healthy size 8/10 at 6'0 and 9st10, so 9 stone sounds just right at 5'2. :)

Mitchy - I was responding to Talkin's rather rude 'of COURSE people shrink'. I have never had any elderly relatives. I don't read scientific literature about peoples' height. And I don't walk round with a tape measure. How would I know that old people shrink?

Rabbit
did not mean to be rude, just amazed that people do not know
especially on a thread about weight where many posters are pretty well informed about the issues of TDEE dropping by 3% per decade of age as well as the impact of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis on older people.

Shrinking can be avoided but it involves exercising a lot even as you get old

oh

I don't even remember what I was responding to, am just sort of on transmit only at the moment and happily broadcasting to myself without really receiving much incoming information

is interesting though, the truly fat vastly outnumber the starving millions even where you wouldn't expect it

Do you know their bmis though and weights or is that an estimate?
At 5'10 10st my dad is very thin looking for nowadays but think his bmi is 22/23.
dH 16st 6'1 is bmi 29-30 or so.
So yes 4st overweight but not what most would call obese, though technically..
I do see a lot of men with pot bellies around.
I think that is the cause of the thread, how many of us can recognise normal weight.

I suspect what we assume to be overweight is often obese, though just looking at nhs man 5'10 would have to be 15 st to be obese but only 12st 9 to be overweight
Healthy 9'3-12st 7.

You are right i only know the group i know.

Vegetarians still eat protein ... Nuts, eggs, dairy, some veg is high in protein, some pulses etc.