I think being thin is overrated

[Nikia]

I've been have digestive problems lately, which the doctor thinks is IBS. Anyway, over the course of about a month, I have lost 10 pounds which I did not plan. I am 5'5'' and my weight went from 130 lbs to 120 lbs and falling. My previous weight is considered thin by some as it is a healthy weight, but my current weight is closer to the media ideal and not even quite there. There are women of my build and weight who at 130 lbs do actively diet to drop 10 pounds like I did involuntarily.
In addition to being cold, the other thing that I have found annoying at my shrinking self is that I don't have protective padding on my frame anyway. It hurts to lay on my side because my ribs and hips do not have cushioning anymore. I look in the mirror and see that my stomach fat which I thought was ugly has mostly disappeared. On the otherhand, ribs and hip bones that stick out don't really seem attractive either. Worst of all, I don't know if I will be dropping more weight as I don't know if I will be able to eat normally again soon. If I had started out having problems when I was this thin, I'd be really too thin by now.
From this experience, I'd like to advise people of normal weight who want to be thinner for appearances to consider not trying to drop weight. I don't think that being thin is that great.

[theivoryqueen]

1. umm.. is that condition catching??

while I agree that we as a society place too much emphasis on being thin, I'd like to try it out for a while to see how the other half lives....

[coloradodem2005]

3. I think full-figured women are quite attractive most of the time anyway.

I don't know if you are but that is my $.02.

[Susang]

10. You don't want it

Trust me, I've had it most my life. It is extremely painful and often embarrassing. Plus, it can cause malnutrition, bone density loss among other such "attractive" problems.

At my worst I weighed 96lbs at 5'7". On top having to deal with my IBS symptoms, I also had to endure people thinking I was anorexic or bulemic. Trust me, it ain't no fun at all.

[Mara Steele]

2. AMEN!

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I've also been underweight due to health problems and much prefer the weight I'm at now. I have good muscle strength, a healthy appetite and I feel like I have more authority to my presence than when I was extremely thin.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. It's ridiculous that society holds Hollyweird up as the standard

The thing that makes me crazy is that Hollywood seems to have nothing between "thin" and "fat". One of the gals on Sex in the City said that a writer from one magazine told her that their staff was glad to see some actresses with some curves. She said that she's a size 2 or 4 and she considers herself THIN not "curvy". Seriously, if a size 2 or 4 is "curvy", do you have to be a size 0 to be thin? BULLSHIT! I heard Suzanne Somers a couple of years ago say that at 5' 6", she was asked by a director to get down from her natural curvy size 8 to a size 6. She had the guts (and the money in the bank) to tell them, that a size 8 was fine, take it or leave it.

Personally, I think that all this emphasis on thiness has a backlash effect. There are plenty of women whose best healthy weight might put them at a size 10, 12 or 14 depending on their height. They WON'T be able to get themselves down to a size 4 or 6 no matter what they do, so they just say "Screw it. If I can't be a size 6, I might as well be a 16", and eat too much and don't exercise. Goals have to be achieveable in order for people to work to achieve them. If our standard of beauty and body size were more reasonable, maybe people would be more willing to do what's needed to be at a healthy, attractive weight.

[Nikia]

7. I noticed that when I read the gossip magazines

At one job, there was some downtime and one of the women brought in all the magazines like National Enquirer, Star, ect. There would be articles about how they feared that an actress who had recently lost 5-10 pounds was anorexic. Then there would be articles about how actreses that had gained 5-10 pounds were blimping out. From this, it seemed that a female entertainer that was suppose to be perceived as sexy had to be in about a 10 pound weight range.
Many people think all women are suppose to be like this so the weight loss industry tends to focus on women. The emphasis should be on being healthy, not being thin. A person who is a healthy weight range should not do anything that is even minimally harmful to their health to lose weight and should realize that they don't need to lose weight at all. I believe that a couple of the fen phen deaths happened in women who weren't even medically overweight.

[Ellen Forradalom]

5. Queen Latifah, for one, is a goddess

one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen.

[mvd]

13. Don't forget Kate Winslet

Queen Latifah is pretty IMO but Kate is about as pretty as any of the popular, thinner celebs. And Kate's not super-thin.

I'm not big on criticizing people for being thin, but if it's apparent that someone just isn't eating much, it's a problem.

[samplegirl]

6. I hate being thin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been thin all my life 5'1 and I have never been much over
93lbs. I'm always trying to gain weight and as I have gotten older
I can see that weight plays a major part in good health.
Even though I have been thin all my life and actually very healthy
until recentl, had I weighed more things would of been easier.
Its just as insulting to have people come up to you and ask...
what size jeans do you wear????? Do you eat???????? or my god my
dog weighs more than you.
As for being cold........im always cold....and when you drop weight
your thyroid goes out of wack as well. Start to take some good
vitimins.....and a good Amino it helps with the coldness.
"I hate being thin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im always trying to gain
weight.

[LynzM]

8. I hear ya...

I'm not extremely thin, but thin enough to understand the complaints... the always being cold is the one that bothers me the most. I sleep with a pillow between my knees, if lying on my side. You might give that a try.

Good luck with the digestive stuff. I hope they find out what's going on and get you some help, soon! :hug:

[DavidMS]

9. It is...

Just look an an aneroxeic...

What I feel is healthy (and IMHO attractive) is proportion. Or a person with big bones can be very attractive if they do their part with diet, excercise, etc. Just as a thin woman with aneroxia is ugly. American society is in trouble because we feel that thin = pretty while realy proportion = pretty.

This is all IMHO, though.

[amazona]

11. the worse thing about being thin...

I'm over 40, and I find the very worse thing about being thin is how it ages the face.

[skooooo]

14. i'm glad i got a full face...

..cause you're right.

[pagerbear]

12. I think that

...in cultures where having babies is valued, a more healthy, more "curvaceous" figure for women is appreciated. In the mostly white American society that is presented on TV and movies and in most mainstream American advertising, having babies is usually not that important. Not so important as in tribal cultures, where procreation is very important for increasing and maintaining the population, for making new laborers, and for taking care of parents as they age. None of these are really immediate issues for the American culture presented in the entertainment or advertising media, where everyone, including the elderly, is financially independent and self reliant.

Having said all that, however, I will add that researchers have discovered that no matter how skinny or curvy a culture's ideal, the basic proportions (bust-waist-hips) that are found appealing, as expressed in ratios, don't really vary from culture to culture. In other words, whether the ideal is emaciated (as in American pop culture) or curvy, the "idea" proportions of bust-waist-hips remain the same.

Typically for me, I have no source for this information. I've seen it in TV documentaries and read it in magazines and newspapers, none of which I can reference. I think it's easy enough to find, though, if you are proficient with Google.

[watercolors]

15. Found protein supplement helps

my husband recently lost 11lbs in less than a week. He was not overweight either. Muscle mass is gone in arms and legs,he looks terrible. He is 70 and has always worked out at the gym. I am making sure he eats well and we have added a protein supplement drink as a snack 2 daily, nutritionist said it will help build muscle. Illness can really affect your weight badly, so being comfortably over is not bad, especially older people.

[SarahB]

16. I understand on the cold thing.

I'm your height and I used to be heavier, but still now I'm in the 140's, but I used to be hot all the time. Now the heat doesn't bother me and everyone complains how I don't turn on the air conditioner. Brrrr.... :scared: