Is really going on a diet the only option??

[Chattenoire]

I'll start by saying that I do like my body/body shape for the most part. I like exercising but I don't like looking strong, in fact just a slimmer version of myself would be ok too!

I'm shortish (1.59m) with a longer torso. I look athletic (or that I work out in my DHs words) and I'm a size 8. I'm heavy though! I also don't like following/having to plan a diet.

I do around 5hrs+ of spinning every week plus walking the dogs. I also do some weights while on the bike.

I see people of my weight (68/70kg) and I definitely think they look bigger than me.

I don't think I eat much, I tend to eat the same every day for ease (apart from dinner).

Breakfast: coffee and 1/4 of a digestive
Snack: 1 banana
Lunch: I slice of toast with one slice of cheese (it tends to be some sort of protein)
Snack 2: 2 carrots + 40g hummus
Snack 3: 50g of full fat greek yoghurt+ 8 blueberries and 3 pecans

Dinner: varies but so far this week:
Mon: 300g of steak plus 4 onion rings
Tue: 3 sausages plus a serving spoon of mash
Wed: three egg omelette+ 2 slices of bacon+ one baby potato

My goal I guess would be to get to a size 6 in proportion to how I currently look.

I'm actually part of both but never pay much attention to what they post (I think there one PZ group that uses a 3rd party site).

That being said, I do take at least 3 PZ sessions per week. I now religiously do a Christian Vande Velde every weekend + 2 other random PZ ones during the week (I did a 30min one with Wilpers today).
The rest are an assortment of rides.

I'm 68kg and 5 foot 6 and I'm definitely a size 12 too.

No idea how OP is a size 8 at 5 foot 3. I'm amazed! You look great OP.

When I was younger I was the same height and weight and a size 12 I still have those clothes and they're definitely too big for me now.

Ignore the idiots being cruel. When you're short the weight hangs very differently. They don't get it.

So I am a very similar shape to you - or was until I hit peri. I am now a size 12/14 but still only weigh 8st 10lb (but my body's ideal weight is under 8st). All that is by reference to show I do understand.

You're not eating enough. You need to go lower carb but eat way more - lots more veggies and some lean meats/fish too.

Start with a decent protein heavy breakfast eg three eggs on a half a slice of toast with full fat butter. Don't skimp on it or your metabolism won't start.

I also find eating with the kids and not eating after 5.30pm til 7am the next morning helps a little too.

Sorry OP, either this is a wind up or as another poster rightly said, you are in disordered eating territory!

@Haroldwilson

Yeah this sounds like disordered eating to me. You're a size 8, that's thin, find something else to worry about.
But she's not thin. Her BMI is 28/29. People seem stuck on clothes sizes. I am a size 8. I am bigger than I was 20 years ago. My clothes from 20 years ago are a size 8 but I can't fit them.

Size 8 isn't tiny anymore. You can see the OP has some excess body fat. A little? No. But she's not 'thin' and with a BMI of 28/29 she's not a crazy deluded person. She sounds like she wants to be slim for her build and height and that would be a size 6 in her mind.

Separately the food diary sounds a bit whacky. 1/4 digestive?

Many of us can't eat 3 meals a day. There is no biological reason for more people to eat 3 meals a day.

I eat 1 big meal and 1 small meal a day. Some days I will have one meal and a snack. I'm not hungry

But I do have clothes from 20+ years ago they are size 12 and they're too big. I was the same weight, but I definitely look smaller/fitter.

But yes I want to be slim for my build. Granted at my current size I don't look overweight, but I want to look slim which are different things for sure.

No one means 1kg of muscle weighs more than 1kg of fat 🤣 they mean size for size, a cup of muscle or a cubic cm of muscle weighs more than the same of fat

@downwindofyou oh you’d be amazed by the lack of basic science concepts!!

I think you are just muscular and have heavy bones! Remember that BMI is a generalisation and we are not all the same. I am almost the same height and weight as you and I am a size 12 (and definitely could do with losing some fat). You do not look overweight at all.

That's not much veg. Frankly what you eat is the way to lose weight. Fruit is just sugar, so maybe an egg instead of a banana every other day?

Your calories don't seem that high with what you have listed - do you weigh absolutely everything? Keep a food diary like My Fitness Pal (ignore the exercise calories they are way overestimated).
But also you may already be at a good weight/size for you. I look my best at 75-80kg. I can diet down to 70kg, but I look gaunt and it's hard to maintain. I'm 178cm.

I did track it for a whole year, and I've maintained that diet, so I don't need to weight it any more.

With even more calorie restriction I can lose maybe another 2kg, but anything below 67kg is virtually impossible these days. I also don't see much difference in those 3kg if I'm honest.

My dc is similar to you, she weight trains, plays rugby etc, muscle weighs more than fat! She is perfectly proportionate without dieting as are you

I’m about 68kg, 5 foot 6 and am definitely a size 10.
It’s all about muscle mass. I naturally have a more athletic frame with muscular legs and arms so am heavier than a lot of people who are actually larger than me. Just proves that BMI is not very accurate at all. I would be extremely thin and look quite gaunt if I ever went down to the lower end of what is classed as a healthy weight for my height.

It's the same for me, I think my "perfect" BMI is 24, but I haven't been able to get there since I had the baby

Body shape has a lot to answer for though.I'm a size 10 at 59 kilos and 5'6, but I look much bigger because I have big norks and short legs, and having had five kids, a bit of a tummy. So although my BMI is perfect and I'm fit (I run and cycle), I look chunky. A few years ago I got down to 52kg, felt frail and ill (people thought I had cancer), but I was STILL a size 10 and chunky. Sometimes there really isn't all that much more you can do.

Size 8 is not what it used to be. I'm overweight, average height, and I fit into size 8 in some brands. My old size 10 and 12 stuff from 20 years ago is tight on me.

OP you might be interested in callanetics if you want to shape up more without building a lot of muscle. There are old threads on mumsnet about it. Yoga and pilates are other possibilities, easier to go to classes on anyway. I was in the best shape of my life when I was doing regular aerobics and yoga. Toned and slim but not muscley. I was also walking and swimming but nothing hectic with those.

Size 8 is not what it used to be. I'm overweight, average height, and I fit into size 8 in some brands. My old size 10 and 12 stuff from 20 years ago is tight on me.

This. Twenty-five years I was always a size 8. Now I’m a 6 or even a 4. I’m definitely not smaller than when I was 20!

But I'm definitely smaller than when I was a size 12 20+ years ago, I still have those jeans!
My waist is 26in and it used to be 30in (back then) so it does add up

Eat some more protein for breakfast
And yrs it's disordered eating op.

Why eat a quarter of a biscuit at all? It has
no nutritional value and it won’t be doing your dog any good either.
I would lose the sausages which aren’t healthy and up your fruit and veg quotient. Anyone who divides a biscuit like that has a problem with food. Sorry. I have a family member who sounds very like you in their attitude to food. They have an eating disorder.

Work on a bit of self love. What the fuck is 1/4 of a digestive

It's just my routine! But that doesn't mean I do that with everything. There are just some things that I eat that way, but it doesn't mean that I split all food that way.

You look fine though, like a perfectly normal woman. This dissecting of your body and how athletic you look and what size you were 20 years ago doesn't really matter does it? It's sad to worry about it this much, and I say that as someone who's obsessed over my weight for years