Weight - when is too low

[user1471514421]

What do guys consider the point where weight loss has gone too far? Do you physically notice/ see it yourself or is it others?

I lost a great deal of weight (almost half of myself) as I was obese and I'm short 5'1. I was wider than I was tall!

Around 9.5 stone everyone was telling me I'd lost enough and looked slim.

But my BMI was still overweight and honestly I think it's just that they weren't used to seeing me slimmer!

I'm now 8.12 and I'm still a bit chubby (and terrible loose skin on my tummy) so I plan on losing another stone to reduce that if I can as well as toning up. I still feel flabby. Family would hit the roof so I'll do it quietly, but you know in yourself when you still have fat hanging around and you don't feel yourself.

I’m 5’4 a few years ago I went from 11 stone to 7 stone 12. (Due to illness). I looked awful, my cheeks were sunken in, my hip bones were jutting out and my husband said he could see my ribs at the back when I was in the bath, my skin was terrible. Even though I’m not particularly tall and 7 stone 12 isn’t particularly low, I did look pretty bad. I think some people just suit different weights.

I eat 3 meals per day with snacks of fruits it's the best I have ever eaten

I look back at photos of when I had a BMI of 19.6 and I was too skinny. People were telling me but I thought they were being mean. I've since put on a stone. BMI is 21 and I look better and feel happier.

Yesmaybedefinitely yes I do get that, but when people who dont look after themselves say this it is hard to take them seriously iyswim

I'm 5 10 and until I had the children I was 8st 4lb and a size 8/10 so probably a 6/8 in modern sizing. I could stuff myself and not gain an ounce.

Now I'm 14lb heavier and a size 10/12. People are always commenting on how thin I am - i'm not. I'm a healthy weight for my height being very small boned. I could do with losing about 7lb but this seems to be the weight my body will maintain without effort now so I'm not going to bother

I’ve never been underweight, although I notice now at around the smallest I’ve been I can be a bit scraggy about the neck as my skin is used to having the double chin to cover, but with friends it hasn’t been so much their shape or appearance but how eating patterns - and a competitive element to ‘look what I don’t eat any more!’ signal that things aren’t right.

How much do you weigh? Apologies if I’ve missed it.

I often find these threads are populated by people with disordered eating looking for reassurance. I’m not sure mumsnet is necessarily the best place for advice on this subject.

PurpleDaisies pt advised I was 8st5lbs, I hadn't posted this already, just body fat

Is it not fairly simple as you check the healthy BMI online and then see if it is too low / out of the healthy range? Forgive me if I am missing something.

I noticed myfitnesspal website has a good section for those maintaining a healthy weight - looks very supportive- in case that helps anyone. Helps you hit your macros as well (enough protein etc)

How tall are you? I wonder where your bmi sits on the range.

PurpleDaisies 19.9 all normal

"Is it not fairly simple as you check the healthy BMI online and then see if it is too low / out of the healthy range? Forgive me if I am missing something. "

I thought OP was thinking aesthetically as well as from a health perspective. I would argue that being at the lowest healthy weight you can possibly be is not ideal in terms of what it looks like, same as being right at the top of it. As I mentioned above, I've been at the limit of 'too thin' once and I was still within the healthy range. Similarly, I'm chubby at a BMI of 23.

OP, obviously if it's just for health, use the official guidelines. If it's for what you look like as well, then it's a bit more complicated.

I am 5.6 and 48kg (35years old)
A BMI of just under 18.
I am naturally slim and I like it when my collar bones stick out.
A few years back I had a stomach ulcer and didn’t eat for three weeks. I was horribly ill. My weight went down to 42kg, probably what I weighed as a 10 year old child. I looked like death, it was horrendous. Since then I haven’t really been able to get my weight over 51kg, but even that seems to much to me. I think it’s when other people notice and start to comment, my idea of being slim is probably a lot smaller than other people’s, and as long as I’m eating healthily, I prefer to be smaller. Just a personal choice.

If I tell people my weight they think it’s too low. I still have 5 pounds to lose though before I fit in a size 10. Others would be two stone heavier than me and got size ten.

Your bmi is only 17 bigfatgoalie.

my idea of being slim is probably a lot smaller than other people’s

This, coupled with your weight, is very worrying and exactly the issue with these sorts of threads.

7 13 after being really, really ill and basically not eating for 6 - 8 months. unless you count beef hula hoops and cheese

This is now, with pretty much a stone back on

I'm an 8 on the bottom and barely a 10 on the top. Just about a 34C when I'd always been a squish in a DD.

My hair was falling out and breaking off so I've chopped it. Keep being complemented on the weight loss but I definitely looked/look awful and people who hadn't seen me for a few months were like WTF?! Someone told me I looked like I was having chemo.

I'm mid 40's - was always very thin as teenager, but this is the lightest I've been in 25 years and it's not a good look, though my vanity when looking at the scales feels it should be.... I'm wearing an age - not size 13 - shorts.

Off to eat half a sourdough loaf and half a pat of butter now.

Oh - BMI is 19.7 when at top weight was 26.4

Don’t everyone’s collar bones stick out, bigfatgoalie or am I misunderstanding?

I’m 5ft 2 and a big frame. When I went down to under 8.5 st my hands got veiny and my neck got scrawny.

I think when you can see ribs abd breast bone the person has gone too far.

@BigFatGoalie
I do know exactly what you mean as I too am the thin version of slim.

But that's not necessarily wrong. It has been acknowledged that BMI is now outdatwd and doesn't work gorexample on very small framed people. Other methods are used. It's a very broad rule. If you go over the top boundaries that's bad for everyone. If you are below the boundaries it's bad for most people but for some it might be ok. This can only be assessed by medics which I have been. So whilst it might sound like I have an ED I clearly don't. I' ve been assessed due to other long term heath conditions and its been concluded by frame, fat, muscle percentage us normal. I just am thin.

Genetics play a part in weight and I suppose for some people who potentially could grow up suprounded by families who are all slim or slight their idea of slim and thin could be different to someone who has grown up surrounded by with over weight or very large generally family. It does make a difference to perception and that is reasonable as long as it isn't dysmorphic.

5'6 here and I'd got overweight (and looked it) at just over 11 stone. I lost weight and trained (road running) because I'd entered a 10k race. Got down to 9 stone 7 lbs, which felt and looked good because I was fit. Got ill, and am now down to 9 stone 2 and I look scrawny. Am trying to put on a bit to get back to 9 and a half. I'm quite 'boobie' but have a small waist and normal sized bottom half.

I think it is very much dependent on your build. People's perceptions will also be skewed by your "normal" and what's "normal" around them.

Age is a factor. At 5'2, I'm about the height of a lot of 12yr olds. I'm a pear shape, so my top half is small framed and people percieve me as being small and healthy (I am!). I would hope that I weight a good bit more than the average 12 year old because I'm a mature adult with the muscle to run half marathons and the fat reserves to bear children and breastfeed them. In my teen years activities that 12 year olds are not designed to do yet. In my teenage years I looked healthy with a bmi of 18-19. I ate well, exercised, had long glossy hair and strong nails, just a naturally slight build. Through my 20s and 30s my BMI has increased and I've settled at a healthy 22-23.

If I spent a number of years with a spare stone or two on and that was my normal, people might comment that going down to my current size with small bust and hint of ribs/ clavicals might be too far, such is the difficulty of people's perceptions.

BMI does tend to work for most and it is a broad range for good reason.

If you have to put in a lot of effort to maintain a lower BMI, that can be a bad sign, especially if it dominates your lifestyle and priorities and interfers with "normal" activities.

If your health and comfort are suffering, that is a bad sign.

Gentle weightloss is easier and healthier to maintain than rapid losses. People also have more time to adapt their perceptions of you.

To the skinnies, like me, do you find that it’s when you see photos that you realise how skinny you are?

I look in the mirror and see scrawny arms but other than that - pretty normal despite very low weight of 7’5.

Then I see pics - and I realise I’m actually bloody skinny!

I think that because I eat well (albeit like you BigFatGoalie - I don’t enjoy junk and would take a huge bowl of a fresh fruit salad over a packet crisps any day, for example).