Am I "too thin"?

[Sparklfairy]

Prepared to be flamed and haven't name changed! I put on and then lost in lockdown. I went from a 42 inch hip to 36... so my measurements were 38-30-42 to 35-26-36.

But I feel... bony. I'm 5ft7 and I'm not feeling this 'skinny? Maybe I was just always a little chubby but I do feel thin. I have hip bones and bum bones, I feel uncomfortable in the bath sitting on my arse... that isn't normal, right?

It's to do with body composition. You have highest muscle mass late teens, early twenties. When you diet, you lose fat & muscle.

To preserve muscle mass, eat protein & strength train. Exercising beyond 30 mins is catabolic, again using muscle mass to fuel it. I'm not saying exercise for shorter periods, just be aware of this.

Basically, need to build up your muscle mass again.

If you gain weight from increasing calories, it's generally fat, so over time with repeated diets people get fatter overall.

I wasn't rude at all. You said you feel too thin and uncomfortable yourself. Nobody here knows if you are or not. I don't know what you expect from the replies? Yes you're too thin or no you're not? Who knows?

I’d say probably healthy OP, though if you feel uncomfortable I second weight bearing exercises and squats.

"She said that she normally weighs 9.5 stone but had put on weight. She then said that she thinks she weighs around 60 kilos. "

So she put on quite a bit of weight in the middle and hasn't always been the same weight, which is what you claimed. Also, she seems not to know how much she weighs now so it might not be 60kg.

"That’s a big difference, and someone who naturally lies at the top of the normal range would be too thin if they lost 3st."

What science is this based on? How do you prove your theory that someone has a 'natural' weight and that person would be too thin when the BMI charts says they're fine?

@Gwenhwyfar

"That’s a big difference, and someone who naturally lies at the top of the normal range would be too thin if they lost 3st."

What science is this based on? How do you prove your theory that someone has a 'natural' weight and that person would be too thin when the BMI charts says they're fine?

Read Why We Eat Too Much by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. He’s a surgeon and his book draws on and discusses the numerous scientific studies that have been done on the body’s natural set weight that it will try to return to.

Additionally I am sure you are aware that everyone has different builds and bone structures. If that wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be a 3 stone weight range of healthy weights at each height. You can’t say that a person is healthy at X weight, yet would still be healthy if she gained 3 stone of fat, surely? Healthy means that the fat level is of an appropriate level. It also depends on ethnicity - those of Asian origin become overweight/obese at lower BMI than other races and could be a healthy weight (and therefore not flagged) yet be at high risk of diabetes.

Also, a BMI anecdote is me and my friend. We are the same height and wear the same dress size (12). I can fit into her jeans, she into mine etc, so we have similar measurements. There is a 2 stone weight difference between us though.

" He’s a surgeon and his book draws on and discusses the numerous scientific studies that have been done on the body’s natural set weight that it will try to return to."

Not all experts believe in the set weight theory. If they did, there'd be no point every telling anyone to lose or gain weight.

" It also depends on ethnicity - those of Asian origin become overweight/obese at lower BMI than other races and could be a healthy weight (and therefore not flagged) yet be at high risk of diabetes."

Yes, this is accepted. It's why the waist measurement recommendations are lower for south Asian men living in the UK than for white men.

The point I was making was that everyone is different and people can have the same height and quite different ideal natural weights which is why not everyone will be healthy at the bottom of the BMI healthy range and not everyone will be healthy at the top of the healthy range either.
Whether or not you believe in set point theory, it’s been shown time and time again that following calorie restriction, the body eventually returns to it’s pre-diet state. It happens in over 90% of cases which is why most people have been on a diet countless times in their life rather than just once.