Critique my figure...pics included.

[PoosyCat]

Be honest...but not brutal, please! I've name changed for this and I'm a bit scared!

I'm 41, 5'11" and have always been a size 10/12. Just recently, over about the last year or so, I know I've put on weight. We don't have scales and I very rarely weigh myself, but I can tell just by looking at myself that I've put quite a bit on.

We're not long back from holiday, and when we got home, looking at photos of myself in bikinis, shorts and clingy dresses really upset me. I know I'm not huge, but in my head I thought I was a lot slimmer than the 'me' in the photos.

I've never done any proper exercise and I'm a bit lost about where to start. Going to a gym terrifies me. What sort of exercise would help with my 'love handles'? What else do you think I should be working on?

Also, what the hell should I be wearing day to day? I've always flung on skinny jeans or leggings as I thought I had good legs...but it seems like that was the old me. My good legs are hidden under the extra weight!

If Trinny and Susannah were still around, I'd be asking for their help! But please, lovely mumsnetters, help me to feel like the old me!

Getting a bit older hasn't meant I have gained weight personally because I work that little bit harder at the gym and eat v healthily. Much more so than when I was younger and it was all chips and wine and staying a size 8 with no effort whatsoever.
I am also honest with myself and others at it not being as easy as it was at 21. All my friends agree unanimously much like most honest women on this thread that it's harder after a certain age - possibly 35...

Maybe when I'm as old as you Suzanne I will have to do even more. which I'm more than happy to do.

Suzanne with respect your body cannot look 20 you are 50.

So you're a body builder Suzanne?

Suzanne with respect your body cannot look 20 you are 50
my hands look older
bosom, well, I've always been flat chested so there's not much to droop, my upper chest, the skin looks a little thin, little bit of thread vein going on, but no crepeynes because I've kept it out of the sun.

In a bikini, with a pair of gloves and a mask, a bit of foundation on my upper chest and I am confident I can pass for 20.

What changes do you feel are inevitable (body wise) between 20 and 50?

Fearandloathing Bodybuilder? well depends on your criteria, I dont compete but I have always trained that way

harder after a certain age - possibly 35

35?
35!
are you kidding me
I really was in the first flush of youth at 35

A 50 year olds knees will NEVER look the same as a 20 year olds!!

The aesthetic changes from 20 to 50 in a female body that has bore children is completely idiosyncratic so I'm not about to list inevitabilities as such.

I can say with certainty that there are changes that occur. And my point is that you can offset these changes by ramping up whatever appropriate training you choose to focus on.
For me personally I had a pretty unhealthy lifestyle in my 20s. I was able to still look like I was gymming it every day naturally. Now - No way I have to work to stay the same 10 years on.

Suzanne I suppose if you have always weight trained intensively as you describe since you were Young you don't know what your body looks like in its natural state with no exersise. Which is highly highly unusual. You have effectively been body building at the same intensity since you were in your 20s with no change or increase. That's not exactly the norm for most people.

And the body builder look is not the aim for any woman I know. Quite the reverse it's a v aging look. Certainly not my goal In any way!

you are sure my body must be different but you cant tell me in what way it must be different
oh well

suit yourself, but I can tell you with certainty that the key to remaining youthful is maintaining a high level of muscle tissue

Training that way is fairly intense compared to the workout routine of the majority of women. I know a couple of bodybuilders (was a gym bunny in my 20's/30's). It's a real commitment, perhaps a way of life. That's great but not for everyone.

Most women, who aren't elite athletes or otherwise prioritising physicsl training at a high level, are likely to see changes in body shape as they get older.

I would hate for any of those women to feel that was bad.

As I get older (am 46) I find I am enjoying the freedom of staying fit for health reasons rather than trying to chase the figure of earlier years. I have a big round butt now that I love. It wasn't there 5 years ago and I guess if I worked out religiously it would go away but I am still a healthy weight, I exercise and I spend my spare time doing things I enjoy more than squats.

Also, yes to knees changing with age. My knees are starting to resemble cauliflowers. Not much to be done except wear longer pencil skirts and forget about it.

I'm sure the natural softening of muscle during Pregnancy didn't apply to you Suzanne!

OP

You look fantastic and it does not look to me like you need to lose any weight! However a few weeks of cutting calories would do the trick if you really felt the need!

Pilates is good for toning up stomachs - and for backs too

And the age after which it becomes SO much harder to fight the flab is (IMO) 50!!

perhaps pregnancy has less impact if you have children in your 20's as opposed to 30's or 40's?

I honestly dont feel as if it had an impact on my body, my stomach was flat immediately I had given birth, the midwife remarked on it in surprise after my 2nd child was delivered

my knee's are both rough and scarred from various childhood incidents (falling off bike, etc)

suzanne you've admitted that you weight train - hard all your young and adult life. I think it's a porky pie that you haven't changed the intensity as you've got older.
It's not natural it's because you Train!

It's not natural it's because you Train!

This is completely illogical!
Yes going to the gym is very ‘unnatural’, every single thing about modern life is also unnatural, if by natural you are referring to the conditions under which we spend the vast majority of our evolutionary history then I have to ask do you have the life of a stone age hunter gatherer?

Is that what you mean by natural?

I didnt start weights until I was about 25 and you dont seem to understand how strength training works, doing more doesn't necessarily give you more muscle,

it would help me to follow your line of reasoning if you could please outline your criteria for 'natural'

?Suspect that by natural you mean not particularly exercising or paying attention to diet till 35 or 40 and then when the effects of this lifestyle start to manifest and accumulate (ie you get fat) you start doing something about it?

??'you don't know what your body looks like in its natural state with no exersise'
?
The idea that I don't know my body in it's 'natural state' because I have always exercised is back to front. ?
no exercise is highly UN natural
?
We are adapted for conditions in which we need to be physically active ?all our lives and the only food is very basic, not very tempting by modern standards and often in short supply
?
What you mean is that I don't know what my body would be like after 30 odd years of the damage caused by a sedentary lifestyle and bad diet. ?
?
The 'natural state' is not modern life, what you see as natural consists of 35 years of damaging your health after which it probably IS out of the question that your body can look the same at 50 as it did at 20?

Lucky to have a flatter belly straight after birth if you train.
Very strong core muscles actually increase the risk of stretch and separation (advised by obgyn, yoga and dance instructor and via several friends).
Not something worth stopping exercise for of course ... but it's a known thing!

Plus I wonder where all the still-not-sprung-back uterus was hiding? Post partum it's a great wobbly sack inside you even if you're very slim.

We don't have evidence of what women in the past looked like pre photography over 40.
But domestic history and photos from 1800s ... on loads of kids, hard physical work and poor food ... dead or very wrinkly and stooped often.

Neither training in a plush gym + nice fresh, clean superior food ... nor sitting about + dirty food is "natural".
Outside the captivity of modern life life expectancy was often 35-40. Teeth being a big killer.

I don't disagree with any of that Squiz :)
?Although we do have data from hunter gatherers in modern times.

I want to combine the health benefits of modern life with the health benefits of stone age life.
without the health harmful aspects of either
I want the best of both worlds, have my cake and eat it.

I didn't do any real strength training until after I had children, maybe that worked in my favor??

Suzanne you need to make up your mind if your "20 year old looking physique at 50" and "flat stomach straight after giving birth" is something you work at or is natural because you are completely contradicting yourself.
You came on kind of deriding people who said they need to up training and work on diet after a certain age "getting older doesn't mean lardsville" etc. no because we are working on it ! You are making out that you haven't changed your training in 20 years and you look the same - you said it. I don't believe you. I also don't believe that you had a flat stomach after birth ( maybe in your mind) for the same reason the previous poster said your uterus would be contracting back and there are chemical changes to a woman's muscle tone which occur during PG - doesn't apply to you of course.
You are happy with your 20 at 50 body so you crack on !
I'm v happy with my 5,11, size 10 lean, toned, curvy ( as in my waist pulls right in and out) but musular body and I love working hard on it that little bit more as I get older as I like to stay ahead of the game.

And no by natural I didn't mean eating junk until 35 I meant not weight training that's pretty obvious

could you please outline your criteria for 'natural' then Verity?

I dont understand why weight training isnt natural?

or perhaps you really mean normal or commonplace?
Normal is fat, the commonplace lifestyle is one that leads to obesity.

Obviously if I did the things that make people fat I would also be fat?.

I'm not casting aspersions on anyone, we are all free to live as we choose, but your body reflects the way you live

Suzanne YY re weights after. A mate of mine did that.
I've always done dance and yoga. Eaten pretty well. But my belly was a saggy hell for ages post partum and people mentioned it might be the huge stretch on my usually tight tum.
One of those things!