To think 8 stone at 5'4 isn't that slim

[Hadbetterdays]

I am that weight and height and I often get people telling me how skinny I look and that I need to gain weight.

"my recollectiin of BMI charts "

Maybe you can Google it rather than just make something up.

yy Gwen

If you are happy with it then its no one else's business. I have a friend who is similar height to you - a very slight frame and feels heavy if she gets much above eight and a half/9 stone. On the other hand, I am an inch taller than you and 2 stone heavier. I dropped below 10 stone last year and looked a bit gaunt in photos so for me its too thin.

Blimey - have I missed something or did someone put sour milk in your cornflakes this morning Gwen? And I didn't "make something up" for the record. It is my recollection of BMI charts I have read in the past.

The healthy range for the OP's height and weight, is 7st 10lb to 10st 6lb.

Sounds completely normal and healthy looking to me. I'm 8 stone 10 and 5ft 7. That's normal and healthy too.

I am yet to see someone of average height who actually does look gaunt/ill/skin and bone/anorexic at over 9.5 stone, as is often claimed on here. Never seen it. Don't believe it.

I also don't believe all the nonsense about periods stopping if you go below 8.5 stone. I got pregnant at just over 7.5 stone and am an inch taller than OP. I didn't look skinny either, just normally slim.

At under 9.5 stone**

I think it depends on how you 'maintain' staying 'slim' or 'skinny'. I met two people recently and have seen another thread online about people 'maintaining' and 'managing' their weight. All appear to have various eating disorders, rather than being 'naturally' slim/thin. Some people seem to think appearing slim is important at all costs, despite the unseen damage it does.
Op go and see your GP, get a professional opinion, rather than asking random people online. Give details of your eating habits/meals/exercise/lifestyle etc. and they can see whether it matches up.

I am yet to see someone of average height who actually does look gaunt/ill/skin and bone/anorexic at over 9.5 stone, as is often claimed on here. Never seen it. Don't believe it.

My mother would look very gaunt facially at 9.5 stone but she is over 70 and has a wide frame.

I am yet to see someone of average height who actually does look gaunt/ill/skin and bone/anorexic at over 9.5 stone, as is often claimed on here. Never seen it. Don't believe it.

Surely it's subjective? You might not see gaunt/ill/skin and bone/anorexic but they do, because they knew what they were doing to their body to get to that weight?

At 5'6 and 9.3 stone I was eating next to nothing, I was anemic, had horrible IBS, was exercising 2.5 hours 6 days a week and going to physio for a knee injury that I wouldn't let heal. I felt cold and had the flu almost constantly. When I see pictures of myself from then, I think I look like shit because I know how bad I felt. Nobody at the time said I was making myself ill or that I looked bad (to be fair I never really got any compliments either).

At 12 stone I'm eating regular healthy meals, have a far healthier exercise regime, IBS is gone, anemia is gone, knee injury finally healed (as have a dozen other aches and pains), almost never sick. I see pictures of myself and I think I look healthy and happy. And I FEEL healthy and happy. And I get compliments on my figure all the time (which isn't what I strive for, but hey).

I didn't look unhealthy or anorexic at 9 stone 3, but I was.

I also don't believe all the nonsense about periods stopping if you go below 8.5 stone. I got pregnant at just over 7.5 stone and am an inch taller than OP. I didn't look skinny either, just normally slim.

Well, it's true, whatever you believe. I am not saying it happens to everyone - I already said most of my friends were around the same weight and many were taller than me. Fact is, my periods stopped for a year. My mother dragged me to all sorts of specialists and I had various tests and the final consultant told us they didn't know why they had gone because I wasn't unhealthily thin, but they would probably return when I put on weight. Sure enough, after a year and a bit of extra weight, they returned.

This is what happened to me - I wasn't trying to say it would happen to everyone or anyone else. What I was trying to say I suppose was that everyone is different - for some 8 stone is fine - for some it's too thin.

Either way, it's rude of people to comment as they have to the OP.

My mother was a semi-professional athlete in her twenties and thirties. She didn't get a period in her twenties because her body fat was so low, although her weight placed her at the higher end of a healthy BMI.

Yes, I know a couple of athletes who's periods stopped, presumably due to low body fat. In both cases, their BMIs were at the higher end of the "healthy range." I shared a house with one of them and she was amazed (on creeping up behind me while I was weighing myself) to see how low my weight was (charming!).

My periods were like clockwork at 5' 6" and 8st 3 , worked out (martial arts / yoga) five times a week. Low BMI but it's just my fighting weight. I have athletic thighs so all my fat is squirreled away in them, which makes buying trousers a pain.

Frozen: would it have killed you to Google the info before you claimed that a perfectly healthy person is underweight?

With regards to periods most of us have a BMI threshold at which we stop menstruating, for some people it's as high as 22, others as low as 16 or so. It's likely genetically determined. Extreme calorie restriction/exercise excess/very low body fat can also cause periods to stop, again we all have different thresholds.

Gwen, I wasn't 'claiming' anything. Simply posting from my phone on an online chat forum. I said it was my recollection, so not claiming that was accurate.

I also said that those sorts of weights were regarded as pretty normal when I was growing up, but maybe nowadays people tend to be heavier, so the perception of normal has shifted.

As I said earlier in the thread, I'm 5'4 and 7st12lbs I've never missed a period in my life (apart from pregnancy and breast feeding).

I was under 7st when I started my periods, my weight went down to 7st4 after I had DS2, I still had periods every 28 days.

What happens for one woman doesn't happen for another. We're all different.

This is such a pathetic thread. There is an NHS BMI checker.
We can't see photos.
Pointless navel gavelling.

Gazing

Periods stopping if you go under 8 stone!

Major bullshit

I have an incredibly low BMI. I know that. I am 5ft 3 inches and I weight around 6 stone 3lbs. Though I've been ill lately so I would say I've probably lost a little bit of weight. I wear a size 6 clothes and can fit in to 13/14 year old clothing too

Yet I still had a healthy period cycle. I got one on time every month, apart from when I was pregnant.

I'm not supposed to have them now as I have the Mirena in and most of the time I don't but occasionally I still get a period.

FFS, it is not bullshit. It doesn't happen to everyone - it may even be really rare - but it CAN happen and it did to me!!!

Anyway, it's irrelevant to this thread which, as a PP has pointed out is pretty pointless anyway.

Everyone is different and you can be healthy at a wide range of weights as, in fact, this thread does demonstrate.

No, once you get under a certain weight, yes your health will be affected and your periods will stop

But to say it happens at this weight and at this BMI is bullshit.

Need Perhaps you'd like to give Frozen an alternative medical explanation, then? She's told us what the consultants she saw concluded, but given you think it's "bullshit", you must have another idea, yes?

In other news, my sister claims to have a peanut allergy. As nothing happens to me when I eat peanuts, AIBU to tell her and her consultants that it's bullshit she can't eat them?