Cheryl was Cole is...

[40thisisit]

Far far too skinny, it's not attractive, how does she stay alive?

As for the picture of Megan Trainer (I'm not sure who she is so not sure what influence her job has on body), if she's 21 as said upthread, then she looks like she's heading in the direction of being a "bigger girl". She is borderline at the moment heading into heavier set, though seems to be dressing well. But any bigger and she won't be able to hide it. She's certainly not "slim".

"role-models" begin at home. It's better they want to be slim and healthy than overweight or obese.

Sadly role models may start at home, but they certainly don't end there. My daughter should be low risk for eating disorders. No one in our house is overweight, no one diets, we don't own scales, we eat normally. My daughter weighs 47-48kg, has a BMI at the bottom end of the healthy range - and considers herself fat :(

People who think that adult women who have the shape of an anorexic teenager are "healthy and toned" are part of the problem.

I just don't buy into the argument that rich, thin, successful, female celebrities are bad role models and should be blamed and made responsible for causing anorexia in young girls, whereas, rich, fat, successful, female celebrities are not role models and therefore cannot be blamed or made responsible for causing obesity in young girls.

She does actually look like she's put a bit of weight on, which is good.

She was dangerously underweight in the summer and I say that as someone with a DD who is underweight according to the BMI chats. She's early twenties and I know she eats a huge amount of food so I'm not worried about her. But Cherly looks much, much slimmer than my DD adm you have to consider that the camera adds weight.

Someone that young should not be at the top end of a healthy weight range

That makes no sense though.

A 'healthy weight range' is just that - the weight that, when within it, is classed as 'healthy'.

My ds's are very opposite ends of the weight spectrum. Both within the NHS 'healthy weight' range for their height and age but ds1 pretty much skims the top of it and ds2 skirts along the bottom.

They have completely different body shapes. Ds1 is tall and broad and has massive head, feet, hands, shoulders. His bones probably weigh more than all of ds2 put together! Ds2 is average height and very slightly built. They have the same amount of 'fat' on them to look at. You can see the same ribs etc. They're both as active and fit and healthy as each other, eat the same and so on.

But that's why there is a range - to take account of different body shapes. You can't uniformly decide that anyone at the top end of their healthy weight should try and get to the bottom of it

SummerNights - you are absolutely right. And that comment just shows how size zero culture has warped people's thinking.

There are many people who are never thin at any point in their lives because of genetics. Or because they decide not to fight their genes and eat nothing just to fit in.

People who think that adult women who have the shape of an anorexic teenager are "healthy and toned" are part of the problem.

Who has the shape of an anorexic teenager? Cheryl Cole doesn't.

What age is she Misti?

It's entirely possible to be that weight, be healthy and still have "flabby bits". I would occasionally say I was fat, as a shorthand for "I'm feeling fat/bloated/have an inch or two in the middle I'd like to not be there/I shouldn't have eaten so many takeaways or steaks this week/I haven't done much exercise".

Do you think she looks healthy The Fairy? With hollows in her cheeks you could sink a golf ball into?

I struggle to understand how anyone could think Cheryl looks a healthy weight.

misti I get watching your child go through anorexia is going to be tough, which is why I'm not responding in the way I would do if you had just made unpleasant remarks about my childs shape without that mitigating factor. However some of us are adult women who are skinny and toned, and perfectly healthy with it. And more importantly I have a young girl who already has the figure you kindly describe as 'anorexic teen'. Insulting the body type of someone like me, let alone the physiche of my dd, isn't the way to prevent other girls suffering what your daughter has.

Can someone post a photo of her last night so I can see what we're talking about here?

Well said Lurked.

I think she looks fine.

I'm 5'4", I weigh 48kg. I am healthy. It's possible to be thin and healthy and threads like this piss me off.

Well according to the NHS Fairy you have a BMI of 18.1 and are underweight.

Being underweight is no more healthy than being overweight.

Well my doctor has no worries about Summer, so hey ho I'll live with it!

I hate, hate, hate these threads. Yes, Cheryl watsername is thin - but people have such a warped view of what healthy looks like now, that they see overweight as "normal." By comparison, Cheryl's bound to look thin.

When I lost a fair bit of weight, going from a BMI of 24 to one of 21, I was the healthiest I'd ever been. I was a size 8/10 and smashing my PBs in every race.
But I had my mother telling me I looked "gaunt" and instructing my DH to make me eat more. Nice.
Would she tell my morbidly obese sister that she looked fat and to eat less? Would she hell. Because that's seen as offensive, but slim-bashing is ok.

As for the role model thing, as a pp said, it begins at home. You're a far worse role model to your kids than Cheryl is, if you're teaching them that it's normal to eat badly and that it's ok to have a go at slim people about their size.

Children are bound to be influenced far more by what they see at home 24/7 than what they see on ITV for an hour on a Saturday.

For most adults, an ideal BMI is in the 18.5-24.9 range.

^ That comes from the NHS page about Body Mass Index. It says most adults, it doesn't say everyone^!

Lets not pretend that she isn't very underweight.

I understand people not liking others pointing it out but denying it is just silly.

Of course it couldn't say everyone. There will always be exceptions to any rule - someone suffering from medically caused water retention may be over the BMI. Someone who's lost a limb will be under.

My understanding though is that when they say 'most' they mean everyone other than those that have a 'drastic' reason to be outside it. Not your typical adult (which i'm assuming you are).

Would you find a picture of an overweight celeb and post it in similar style on a fat shaming thread U2?

Someone specifically asked for a picture Fairy.

If, on a thread that has progressed to a discussion about general weight/health/BMI, someone asked for a picture of Meghan Trainor (labelled fat earlier) or someone labelled obese, then I would post it. Why not?

I think she looks fine in the side on photo -her arms look toned, not bony.

Isn't she small in height too? So just petite.

Why isn't it ok to look the way you want to look, even if to do that you have severely limit your calorie intake? What if Cheryl and VB want to look as thin as possible because that's just what they want to look like? If when they look in the mirror and see "thin" looking back at them, that makes them feel good about themselves? They don't owe it to anyone else to look a particular way.

I am so, so over the skinny shaming thing. I'm slim, a healthy BMI, toned from hours of exercise and EVERY SINGLE DAY somebody comments about my weight / figure / diet / exercise regime as if it's ok to do that - sometimes positively, sometimes not. If I get a cold, as I have had this week, it can't possibly because I've picked up a virus - no, it's because I'm too thin, don't eat enough, spend too much time in the gym. How come fat people get colds too? It's not slim people who are costing the NHS billions.

I'm a normal person. What life must be like for the Cheryls and VBs of this world doesn't bear thinking about.

People seem to be assuming/insinuating she has an ED. she might, she might not, none of us know and it's pointless to speculate. In the very next breath people are saying she should gain weight as she's a role model. If she did have an ED then she can hardly just gain weight that easily. And hearing constant criticism of your weight/body when you have an ED makes you worse, it will never improve things. I also don't think people like everything to be easy, Cheryl=too thin=causing anorexia in teens. ED's are far more complex than a lot of people seem to realise.

I won't comment on Cheryl and her weight as I don't know her and her body shape and size is none of my business.

Zoom in and look more closely. Her chest, where her straps are, looks concave. Her collar bone is sticking right out. Her arms, to me, look like she's suffering from a very very mild case of excess skin due to weight loss.

She's probably at the mid-upper end of underweight IMO - but still far from ideal.