So this is what overweight looks like?

[OrangeLavenders]

I'm quite surprised. Checked the scales a few weeks back and I weighed 12 stone. Visited my GP for something else recently who confirmed that yes, I was quite bit over BMI of healthy range.

I've lost 7 pounds in just over 10 days. Nothing ridiculous. Just normal eating with no snacks and counting calories.

I just thought overweight looked a lot bigger than this? Scary how in 2020 we actually have a warped idea of what's a healthy weight and what isn't. I thought I looked perfectly fine but the reith is different.

Anyone else think a lot of us think what we might see as 'fine' is actually an overweight person?

I'm not a self conscious person so feel free to tell me I do in fact look clearly overweight! It doesn't bother me as I'm happily changing things. Although I'm sour about not having many luxuries anymore treat wise

OP I looked like you 5 years ago (or very similar I guess...I was 11st 2 and I'm 5'4). Overweight, sure, but not hugely and I looked good in clothes (size 12 were very comfortable).

I'm now 56 and post-menopausal...(I'm not excusing myself at all!!). My weight has sky-rocketed and I weigh a horrible 13st 12. It's awful...and I'm very much doing something about it now though (have lost 20lbs over the past 12 weeks so it's coming off!)

You're right to check it now...I wish I had 'seen' the increase as it was happening. I was aware of course, but I blocked it out...closed my conscious eye to it. That saddens me now, as it would have been so much easier to have got rid of the odd 2lb - 3lb increase...rather than the 2st - 3st!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! 🤦‍♀️

In your OP you say you've just lost 7 pounds so it's no surprise you don't look overweight to most people, in your photo.

People do realise that a lot of the reason women (and men) were tiny boned and very slim in the 50s and 60s is partly because there was a war, and then rationing went on into the 50's! Plus lots of people were very poor and truly didn't have enough to eat.
If you grow up half starved, yes, you will have tiny bones and be very thin!
Lots of people then would also have been naturally small, just like today, but in dress sizes the proportions changed somewhere in the late 80s, I think, because women in general were taller, had bigger arms, sturdier legs, even much bigger feet. This happened because the general population finally could afford to eat enough.
And from the side OP you just look like you have a chunky booty, which is fine!
A lots of cultures prize the bootay
Honestly, I really wouldn't worry. Get plenty of excercise and eat healthy food to be healthy, don't worry about the scales.

Keep at it Carlotta. The tdee calculator is a good start. I've knocked a stone off since Christmas and I'm still at it, not easy for us shorties! Join us on Aspiring August weight loss thread if you feel like company

Thank you! I’ll check that out

If you grow up half starved, yes, you will have tiny bones and be very thin!

People were not half starved during the war or after it.

From the British Nutrition Foundation...

"...many people consumed a better diet during wartime food rationing than before the war years and this had a marked effect on health outcomes; infant mortality rates declined, and the average age at which people died from natural causes increased."

Full text...

tinyurl.com/yxc2zq2k

@HepzibahGreen the point about feet is a good one! I have size 7 feet which probably would have been considered elephant-like for a woman at that time and certainly not the norm it is today! Very tall women were also few and far between whereas now, teen girls of nearly 6ft isn’t really a strange sight. I am not saying that there isn’t an obesity crisis now (there very clearly is) but I think the argument that people should still look like they did in the 1950s isn’t a realistic one. When people are given more access to food and nutrition, they grow larger as well as fatter. Remember also that there has been a substantial increase in life expectancy since that time too and despite the increase in weight, the decrease in smoking habits is likely to equal better general health.

Your mirror is really tilted which makes you look slimmer (common tactic in clothing store changing rooms). Put it at a 90 degree angle to the wall and you will see things very differently.

If you grow up half starved, yes, you will have tiny bones and be very thin!

I definitely didn’t grow up half starved. My bones are very small - shoe size 3.5 - and I’m not in the least thin. The bollocks people spout here ...

You look great, so i'm guessing that you're someone whose healthy weight is very much at the top end of the BMI scale. I'm not much heavier than you at 12st 9, and a fair bit taller at 5'9", and definitely look fatter. I don't start to look slim until my BMI is much nearer the 21 mark than 24. That's what the wide range is for I guess.

@VinylDetective not everyone who is small is half-starved of course! I think the point is that on average people today are taller and broader than the average 70 years ago. Fair enough if you’re small with small bones but to say to people with larger frames that they too should emulate some ideal from over half a decade ago is dumb. I’ve heard some people say that 10 stone is too heavy for a woman which is bollocks because it all depends on height and build.

Hey. Vinyl Did you read the bit where I said "Lots of people then would also have been naturally small, just like today"
No? In too much of a hurry to be nasty? Thought so.

Duh...yes, not everyone was tiny because they were half starved BUT, lots of people in poor areas both before and after the war, bloody were! I have elderly relatives who remember the war. Their abiding memory, as children in the war, was of being very hungry and very cold a lot of the time. Maybe for some people, especially rural people, it was a good healthy diet but believe me, a lot of people went hungry.
Even in the 80s, where I grew up, people from poor areas were noticeably smaller and less nourished!

At the same weight as you I was massive! So for me 12st is definitely overweight. You must have a lot of muscle to look like that at 12st.

I'm the same weight as OP, but 5ft 8in, so you'd think I'd look slimmer. I just got changed now and looked at myself in bra and pants and I look like someone's hung huge lumps of pizza dough all over my body

I am 5ft 2" and weigh 11 stone 11lbs but don't look as good as you!!

I think we'd all be happier if we all got our heads round the fact that you can be overweight, even in the obese range, look great, and still need to lose weight for health reasons.

You look fab OP and I'm really surprised that you are in the overweight category.
What clothes size do you wear?

and still need to lose weight for health reasons

What are the "health reasons" though if you are in the overweight zone for BMI, but currently fit and healthy, waist measurement below the risk for diabetes, cholesterol and blood sugar not an issue, low blood pressure and resting heart rate?

Health reasons include 13 different types of cancer and other disorders such as MS......

Honestly if I looked like that I would walk everywhere naked! I would be so, so, proud of myself if I lost enough weight to have that figure.

You look amazing OP! But also normal! Thank you for showing what a normal woman looks like, it’s not all 6 packs and yoga arms straight after giving birth!

The biggest risk for cancer is age. Something will get you in the end. The biggest risk for most conditions is stress.

Yes, the biggest risk for many disorders is age. But there's a significant difference between modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Age is not modifiable. I don't think "stress" has been evaluated as a risk factor for "most conditions".

I am obese on the BMI charts. But I think I’m ok.

@Sallyspoons

I am obese on the BMI charts. But I think I’m ok.

You can be obese and also 'ok' But being obese is a health risk. So if your idea of ok means looking fine but with elevated health risks then yes you're ok. However if you mean you don't have elevated health risks because you look fine then no you're not ok.

@Graciebobcat

and still need to lose weight for health reasons

What are the "health reasons" though if you are in the overweight zone for BMI, but currently fit and healthy, waist measurement below the risk for diabetes, cholesterol and blood sugar not an issue, low blood pressure and resting heart rate?

I think the older you are the more risk being overweight is as opposed to obese. You're right that being just overweight isn't a big health risk but of course as most of us have experienced overweight can turn into obese very easily. It's better to check it while it's less of a hurdle to overcome.