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?

User147 i do work out. I am pretty lean and quite strong i think but it has only made a small difference to my weight - having said which i do eat more now which is good. I do think many people would say i am too thin and i wouldn’t necessarily disagree (again my sisters say this, interestingly my husband doesn’t. He wouldn’t mind of course if i put on weight but he has no problem with thin. I think many other men would find me unattractively skinny but i don’t really care about that). But i am so used to me at this weight that much more would seem odd now. I have been warned that menopause could change everything!! I did have two very healthy and good sized babies and put on about two stone each time but pretty much all of it was bump.

@wonkywheels. What is your normal daily diet?

People assume I don’t eat! But I do.

Large Fruit salad and coffee for breakfast

Huge salmon salad with half an avocado, two tablespoons of cottage cheese, beetroot, tomatoes, leaves, spring onion and grilled salmon. Followed by greek yoghurt with granola and raspberries and honey.

A fruit salad in the afternoon.

Huge pile of steamed veg with chicken and rice for dinner (or cod / salmon / turkey)
Bowl of blueberries
An apple

Bowl of frozen yoghurt and fruit tea before bed. Sometimes small bowl of granola with couple chopped dates and almond milk as well.

I think it’s what’s required to maintain that weight.

I got down to 8 st 4 at 5’4 when I was 18. For most threads on here thats a head tilt and “it may look ok on you but i’d feel flabby at that size”

At the time I don’t even think I looked “thin”. I have an athletic body type. But it took 800 calories a day and 2-4 hours exercise to maintain that. Unhealthy and unsustainable.

I’m now 45 and 11st. Eating about 1200-1500 cals and doing 1-2 hours cardio, and/or strength class nearly every day. I know I an not underweight, or too thin, in fact the opposite. But to drop the stone or two I “should” i’d have to get obsessed with calories again and be very strict about not exceeding 1000/day.

So for me my weight is “too low” when i have to cut my food intake to obsessive levels to lose any more.

Oh goodness bluezozo, i eat a lot more than 800 calories. That would be tough!! And i do less exercise than that. That is interesting actually as people often say oh lucky you, you must have a high metabolism. I don’t know if i do although maybe ... i always thought i have a relatively small appetite. I also think i might do a sort of intermittent fasting thing without really thinking about it. Anyway i reckon i eat on average about 1500-1800 calories a day but i don’t track that at all so could be way out! But three good meals most days plus snacks (and a bit of wine some days). Anyway this is one reason why i don’t think my weight is a problem as such, because i don’t have to restrict/obsess to maintain.

People extoling BMI < 18 as healthy (for anyone but the truly legless) sounds like Pro-Any delusions. I am very uncomfortable with some of this thread.

tbh OP, I feel like if you have to ask the question then you are probably at high risk of being too light. The NHS guideline that BMI should = 18.5+ is good advice.

Worrying that people are saying things like 'flabby' at a low BMI. Sounds like eating disordered thinking.

OP, I think your posting history suggests that you are experiencing some issues with body image, your weight and thread titles like this point strongly to disordered eating. I also recognise several posters with similar issues on here and think this thread is attracting some unhealthy perspectives. Please consider seeking help - not reducing your body fat - before you get sucked deeper into this spiral. Trust me, you don't want to wait until its too late.

When it starts impacting on health-loss of energy, hair loss, dry skin, periods stopping.

Having contributed to this thread it might seem hypocritical to say that i agree with the points above. But i do. I think this is an extremely complicated subject and i have tried to show how this is complicated for me. I often call myself functionally dysfunctional on this but that isn’t necessarily something to aspire too. I do agree that sticking to a healthy bmi is the right thing to do so if you feel your thoughts on this are spiralling and becoming obsessive OP please do get help as others have said. I know it is best to do so before things go too far. I will bow out of this discussion now!

I think it'd be best to ask to ask either a friend/family member you trust or your GP.

As some people will be fine/healthy at the bottom of the BMI range (18-19ish) eg, a tiny lady with size 3 feet, my Filipina inlaws etc but some won't be.

@bluebluezoo
You are 5’4 and weigh 11 stone
You eat a restricted diet of 1200 to 1500 calories a day
You cardio workout almost every day for 1-2 hours

I don’t want to concern you - but I wonder whether you may want to get your thyroid checked? Your bmi is almost 27. Overweight. With your diet and lifestyle you should be losing weight and not that weight. Unless I suspect there may be an underlying health issue

@wonkywheels
When you say functionally dysfunctional - how does manifest itself?

A lot depends on age.

I weighed just over 11 stone (5'6") for about a year. The weight was going on and on, and I tried cutting down food to around 1200 calories and I was running for 2 miles a day. The weight did not move.

I'm nearly 59. My weight is now 9st 3 (and I need to put on a couple of pounds, I look a bit haggard), and I only lost that by dropping to 800 calories a day and running for 3+ miles five days a week.

When I was younger I could drop weight by cutting down to 1,000 calories for a month, and I'd lose 1/2 - one stone. Post meno I've found it's practically impossible to eat little enough to feel normal if you don't exercise like a mad thing!

I would take care when getting older with extensive weight loss in particular and very low weight is linked to things like osteoporosis.

@Amibeingdaft81 hello - said i would bow out but to try to answer your question, it really is complicated.

Functional because i don’t obsess about my weight or food, i actually think i have a fairly healthy relationship with food. I don’t have good or bad foods, i don’t count calories. I eat what i want, when i want, and the amount i want. In essence i listen to my body and eat when i’m hungry (without guilt) and stop when i’m full. So sounds ok, right? Kind of what a lot of nutritionists / dieticians etc advocate?

But Dysfunctional because i accept that being thin is a big part of my identity and possibly my self esteem. I make no judgements on others about weight but i do judge myself. A close relative has recently been diagnosed with anorexia and is very ill which is devastating. One side effect is that this has caused me to confront the extent to which we continue to share similar (though for me nowhere near as extreme) thought patterns and traits. Just one example is black and white thinking - eg if i’m not thin i must be fat/if i’m not the best, i must be the worst. Etc. The difference is i can manage these thoughts now and see them for what they are.

Also while I don’t consciously manage my weight perhaps the control element of this has become so deeply embedded and internalised over 25 years that it is a part of who i am.

Hope that makes sense.

OP, you do not need to reduce either your weight or your body fat. If you are enjoying the training, that's great, and there's no reason not to continue, but be aware that as you increase your strength, you are likely to gain weight from increased muscle size. This can be a good thing.

I know an adult woman who weighs just under six stone. She is tiny. She's also 4'10 and seriously ill with cystic fibrosis. She is not allowed to be on the waiting list for the lung transplant she desperately needs because at her current weight, the general anaesthetic is too dangerous.

So, no, I don't believe adult women at 5'5 should be weighing 6 stone.

NHS BMI calculator says that I, at 5ft 1, would be a healthy weight from 6.45 stone to 9.6 stone. I'm shocked by that to be honest, I was only ever under 8 stone when really ill and looked and felt terrible. I feel best between 8 stone 12 and 9 stone 6, in case that helps any.

don’t want to concern you - but I wonder whether you may want to get your thyroid checked?

Tsh is normal, although that was done in the lab I work in, not officially

Been like this for 10 years since second child. It has crossed my mind but symptoms are so vague, and i don’t actually feel unwell.

Should go to the gp for an over 40 check really. It’s getting an appt!!

I am 5’5”. When I drop below 8 stone I look unwell. Right now I am 8 and a half stone and have a bit off at on me. Towards 9 stone I look bloated

I think I remember reading that over 40 you shouldn’t go below 24%. Below 20% is considered top athlete.

And what about top athletes over 40?

@wonkywheels.
Beautifully written and insightful. Thank you.

It is interesting though - because you say that you don’t deny yourself anything but then in next breath how acutely aware of how being thin is important to you. The two seem at odds with one another.

I would be so curious to know how you square these opposing positions on a day to day basis in terms of what you actually eat?!!

Blue - definitely head to docs and get a thyroid test. Especially if feel bit run down as it is pointing to a very sluggish metabolism.

"When it starts impacting on health-loss of energy, hair loss, dry skin, periods stopping"

Periods stopping is quite extreme (loss of energy and dry skin are quite usual) so I'd say someone is too thin BEFORE that point.

OP consider if you would have been happier never knowing what your body fat was? I wonder if knowing it has given you something to chase and feel dissatisfied about.

Start thinking more about health and happiness and less about numbers. You are a healthy weight (many would find it enviable) and you body fat is healthy but you do not seem to be happy in your own skin. I think if you need to think about what you want to achieve and why.

Hello again @Amibeingdaft81 yes, i do recognise it is a rather strange contradiction but i think the answer is in the last sentence. I stay this weight eating pretty much what i want - but perhaps what i want is less than others as a result of habit developed over many years? So maybe i am more controlling than i think about food, it is just very deeply internalised? Which if so is dysfunctional but in a way that is functional especially because i would certainly take action if i got any thinner, not least because i have a daughter and i know already that in some sense how i look (not just how i eat) affects her own perception of what is healthy.

I was just reading another thread on here about ‘3 things i think about everyday’ and was so sad to read how many posters listed their weight in negative terms. I guess i do think about my weight in passing but not in a way that makes me feel sad or concerned. So that’s even more confusing in some ways because in some ways my approach to food/weight does seem quite functional in that sense.

Feel like i’m slightly derailing the thread ...