Short people: does excess weight look different on us?

[PresidentBarklett]

Aware that's a really stupid title, with a lot if variables, but genuinely struggled to word it. I know it's all about context but here is my query:

I'm 5'3 and I've lost nearly 5 stone on MJ, taking me down to 11 st 12 and a size 14/16, depending on the shop. I have about 3ish stone to go till my self imposed target (still haven't quite decided where that will be as its off the edge of the map - never been below 11 stone as an adult).

People have noticed my weight loss, which is nice. However, I'm still objectively fat - by BMI (29.8 at last count) and by eye - less so, but still very noticeably overweight. This is fine, happy to keep going.

However, it feels like my chance to look 'slim' is ticking away with every lb I lose. Its not my primary motivation (that would be my family history of heart disease) but I would hope to look slim after all this. However, gauging how my body has changed due to a 5st loss, I'm not sure how much more visible change I could expect with the 3st loss hopefully still to come. Googling what a 3 st loss looks like it... looks like a lot less than what I would hope to achieve.

I guess I'm just very much hoping that on shorter bodies a few lbs can make a bigger difference as I just don't see how 3st could effect the changes I would hope for. I'm not asking for the body of a 20 year old or a model. Im come from robust peasant stock amd thats fine. I cant think of a way to phrase this without sounding shallow but, yknow, I would like to look objectively slim.

Any experience of the visual difference 3 stone can make to a shorter body?

I think it makes a bigger difference. My weight has changed a lot since pregnancy and postpartum weight loss.

I'm 5ft 1" and this is how I look at different weights (and how attractive I feel):

6.5 stone = underweight, not attractive
7.5 stone = very slim, attractive, but not ideal figure - no curves
8-8.5 stone = my ideal weight, slim, hourglass figure
9-9.5 stone = chubby but hourglass, attractive
10-10.5 stone = slightly overweight, attractive
11-12 stone = look overweight

I'm a bit shorter than you, so you'll probably look slimmer than me at a higher weight, but hope this helps.

I’m afraid to say I am your height and did not look “slim” even when I weighed 6st (many years ago, I am now 10.5st and look decidedly fat). It isn’t dysmorphia, I have looked at old photos fairly recently and still definitely looked thick even when I was objectively a low BMI (I think I was around 17.5 at my lowest).

I have solid thighs and bum and cankles, and no matter how thin my top half gets, I am never going to look lithe or lissom or any of those things! Still better for my health to be a normal weight than obese though.

Thanks for all the perspectives everyone - I appreciate it. I guess the takeaways are that exercise and building muscle matters, that genetic body type makes a difference but that, given that, a stone here and there does make a noticeablely bigger difference on a shorter body.

I'm definitely happy with not being 'slim',which now I think of it conjures up images of willowy, fashionable French women. I just want to look normal,which seems within the realms of possibility looking at all the replies. So that's good.

Thank you to those being kind about my weight loss. I do credit the WLI. I've managed to lose this amount before without medical aids and very much accepted the compliments as my due because that took GRIT. This one has still taken work and mindful choices and a bit of what felt like denial here and there, but all of that has been much more manageable with the medication. Pleased to say I actually do feel like 8.5 stone will be doable. Before, when I got to this weight, I was always waiting for the wheels to fall off but now I feel like they might hold.

Off to dig out my dumbells!

I do think for me as someone who is 5’ 2”, any extra weight of course looks worse on me because I don’t have anywhere to carry it. On a tall person, where’s more area to distribute the weight so it’s not as obvious.

Yes, those last 3 stone will make a massive difference. I’m 5’ 2”. I started at 76kg, which sounds like approximately where you are now (I don’t know imperial and too lazy to convert it). I’ve lost 10kg and it’s made a noticeable difference. Ideally, I would like to lose another 10kg to get back to where I used to be comfortable, even after kids. I know that I will look significantly different at 56kg than 66kg.

do you take body measurements? It’s really eye opening to demonstrate how much your body has changed. If you haven’t yet, start now. I think it will really help you understand the differences. I hold the measuring tape out to where I started and get a real visual of just how much my body has changed.

its funny, 5 years ago at 67kg I felt bad because it was a new high for me. Now, at 66/67kg I feel good. It’s all about perspective, as I know I’m much less fat than I was.

the one piece of advice I would give (which I need to take myself) is to exercise, particularly using weights. You don’t have to lift massive weights, you can use your body as the weights by doing squats, lunges, etc. Building muscle will make you look even slimmer for the same weight.

well done on your achievement to date, keep going. It will be worth it.

Yes, I do take body measurements and so glad I did. My waist has gone from 40" to 32. Definitely reviewing those figures gives me a boost when needed. Not tried to holding pout the tape measure trick though - think I will!

Thanks for your kind words.

So I am 5ft3 too. I was a size 16/18 at my biggest at over 14 stone. People only noticed I had lost at 12 stone and a size 14. I would say I start to look slim at the lower 11s where I am a 10-12. Recently got told I had lost weight and look chiselled. Yes chiselled. I had lost 7lbs to get that comment. Now I think every few pounds lost will notice as I am smaller. I am aiming for 10 and will see how feel then. But the difference between 10st and 12st will be stark as it’s very noticeable between top 11s and bottom. Especially when compared to noone noticing a 2 stone loss between 14st and 12. I am older (48) so want to sit at 25 bmi, no less than 24. I just think I will look better at top end.

I went from 13.5 stone to fluctuating between 9.5 and 10 stone, and I can see a big difference. Dress size has gone from 14-16 to an 8-10. My big bit of advice, and I cannot recommend it enough would be start serious weight training at a gym now, up your water and protein intake, supplement if needed, and make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Throw in some cardio if you have time but weight training has been the key to me getting a slimmer figure, especially as a 5’3, late 40’s peri menopausal woman who doesn’t want to live on 800 calories a day. I wish I’d started it sooner in my weight loss journey. My goal is 9 stone but am taking it very slow now as want to maintain and improve my skin tone and muscle mass. Don’t be worried about fit young things at the gym, I was at first but now actually realise they are all quite nice, get hellos and complements from them now too, even got asked advise from some young lads on proper form the other day. It’s done masses for my confidence and as you can tell I can’t recommend it enough! Xx

I'm 5 3 and look slim under 8 stone. I like eating too much to stay that for very long though!

Well done, OP!

WLIs are incredible aren’t they.

I’m 5’4” and have lost about 4.5 stone so far. BMI was 39, now 29.

im also now a 14/16.

I’m so happy with it. I look and feel very different. I’m 55 and have got a new lease of life!

im going to keep going but not sure how much more I really want to lose - maybe only another stone?. I don’t feel I want or ‘need’ to be really slim…

do you have a goal in mind?

This will sound like I’m being sarcastic and I’m honestly not but can I applaud your kind words about yourself. It’s very refreshing. I’d love to be have the confidence to describe my body as attractive.

Have you talked to the doctors about lipodema, because it is not normal at all to not look slim at 6 stone, it’s underweight and most people would look extremely slim at that height and weight and bordering on dangerously so. You may have an underlying condition if it isn’t dysmorphia.

This is nonsense. I’m 5ft 2.5 and weigh just under 8 stone. I eat a good vegetarian diet that includes cake every day. I have a pretty active life and am way past menopause. I spent a lot of my life at nearer 9 stone and would not have said I looked slim but I do now.

It’s not really insane is it, it’s just a different person with a different metabolism replying to the OP. Enjoy your curry and wine. 🍷

Yes but you decided to speak for everyone under 5ft 3… 😁

Yes it's insane. The suggestion that grown women, even if petite, are surviving on 800 calories a day, is insane.

I'm 5 1' and weigh 7.5 stone on average and I look slim but not at all skinny and I still have 28ff boobs and a bit of tummy as I'm apple shaped. Once I get to 8 stone I start looking chubby and it shows on my tummy and face so it's obvious.

I eat quite a lot as I love food always thinking about what to eat next, so to compensate I do at least 25K steps a day which includes 20-25k of running a week. I like being active and love running so it's not a chore for me.

Well done on your weight loss!

Well I look very slim at 8stone and shorter than you OP. Was almost 12 stone when I started MJ a year ago.

Im a size 6-8, wear kids clothes, measurements are 34/24/30.

What I don’t look is skinny, bmi is 23. I look slim, curvy by the measurements about and healthy.

I’ve got the above measurements wrong bust 30, waist 24, hips 34

I am 5.3” and dropped from 77.6 to 65 kilos (which is 10.2 stone - I had to convert as I have forgotten imperial measurements now, living in a metric country).

It’s still over 25 BMI but I have wide hips and a muscular build, so I look slim now and I have had comments on the weight loss. I am size 10 for tops and dresses, 12 for bottoms. The bottom size would probably be smaller if it wasn’t for my wide hips, as the waist fitting now gapes.

I also weight train as well. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Are you still on MJ? That’s a phenomenal weight loss. I’m the same height and would love to be 8 stone again. What did your daily diet look like when you were losing the weight?

Im 157 cm, used to be 160 🫣 and now weigh 7st10 or so. I look slim but not skinny.

In exactly the same situation with similar measurements. I am disappointed that a pair of size 16 high waisted, no stretch trousers fit and are not too big. Looking back at old pictures helps and I can see my jawline returning so that it a visible improvement that I can't deny. We are getting there.

well that poster was saying “we” rather than I, I think that’s what has made people reply like they have. Her opinions were worded about people of a shorter height, not herself personally. If she’d have said I have to eat 800 calories to be eight stone or I look better but she wasn’t, she was telling us shorter people what we’d have to eat calorie wise. Unless she’s queen Victoria and uses we when she means I?

When I was a teenager, I did need to stick to around that to maintain my weight around 7 stone. Which meant fasting for multiple days, and only eating one small meal on days I did eat. It wasn’t healthy. I still didn’t look thin! Tiny waist, big boobs, bum and hips. Measurements were 30-18-36

In my 20s, I was very active (cycled 20 miles a day (commute to work) plus running, gym etc. I was able to maintain my weight around 8.5-9.0 stone by doing all that. Measurements were 36-22-40.

Some people just have very slow metabolisms. It was amazing when I was breastfeeding and I could eat what I wanted and weight still dropped off me.

Like the OP I have been losing weight for health reasons. I’m aiming for 72kg which will put me in healthy BMI weight range. I am 5’7” and even at my skinniest was a size 12, however that was in the 1980s when a size 12 was a bit different to today.
I have lost about 11kg with about 8kg still to go. It’s slow going, intentionally, but I put on my usual jeans, a size 16, yesterday and they are really loose. I can pull them on without unbuttoning them. At Christmas they were a very neat fit. So the 11kg ( just over 1.5 stone is very noticeable on a 5’7” so on a shorter figure would be much more noticeable.
When you are losing weight very slowly it is difficult to see the change until you try on clothes you haven’t worn for a few months. Also because a lot of clothing has stretch we don’t notice the disappearing inches.