I Do Not Want to be Thin

TheVirgoddess

I'd like to be healthy. I already love myself. Thin is a pretty relative term that I'm not going to bother commenting on.

My goal is to get to a healthy BMI, so my chances of being healthy are maximized. I don't want to be overweight because the more weight you have, the more at risk you are. So it makes sense that people have goal weights in mind.

AliceDark

aubrey_11_baker wrote: »

If that is your goal, please assess why. If you are attempting to conform to pressures put on by the media, health magazines, and fitness nuts, then maybe you should take a step back and re-evaluate your goals. If you are attempting to look like them, chances are you will fail. Simply put, most of us do not have the time or motivation to be at the gym 2-4 hours a day to achieve a body like those we all envy.

Oh sweet jeebezus, am I ever sick of this stupid stereotype! The VAST majority of thin people don't spend 2-4 hours at the gym every day. We're not making ourselves sick or miserable, eating only lettuce and running on hamster wheels. If you assume that you have to endanger your health and hate yourself in order to be thin, of course nobody would want to do that. It is a very convenient excuse for not making changes, though.

I'm considered thin by most standards. I love myself and love what my body can do. I eat WAY more and exercise less than most people assume. I don't live on lettuce or rice cakes -- ice cream is a food group in my world, and I eat REAL dessert every day (cookies, chocolate, ice cream, etc.).

If you're going to pull the HAES card, you have to remember that the E stands for every. It includes thin people too.

Serah87

aubrey_11_baker wrote: »

All too often at the beginning of weight loss journeys I hear people say (mostly women) that they want to be thin. Or, I want to lose XX amount of weight and be a size X. Why is this their ultimate goal? Why isn't the goal, instead, to be healthy? Why isn't the goal to love yourself?

I currently weight in at 232 pounds (13 pounds less than when I first started!). My goal is not to be thin. I love myself and I love my body, but my main goal is to become a healthier version of what already exists; losing weight is part of that process. I'll say it again: my goal is not to be thin.

If that is your goal, please assess why. If you are attempting to conform to pressures put on by the media, health magazines, and fitness nuts, then maybe you should take a step back and re-evaluate your goals. If you are attempting to look like them, chances are you will fail. Simply put, most of us do not have the time or motivation to be at the gym 2-4 hours a day to achieve a body like those we all envy.

Love yourself. Embrace the changes that you see in your body and use that as motivation. Find the ideal proportions for you. Not all of us will look good as a size 4.

I do not want to be thin. I want to find MY perfect size.

I see jealousy and excuses in your writing.

CObluegrass

I want to be as small as I can for my joints. Approaching 50 in a couple of years and my feet, ankles, knees, hips and back feel every pound, especially after having surgery on two of those body parts. I don't need to be a size 0, or even a 2 or 4 but I want to be as small as I can healthily be. This is for the rest of my life, I don't have a goal line, a goal weight, an end date. It's just every day. Not sure when I'll switch to maintenance eating...when I feel it's right.

SuggaD

I want to be thin and healthy. Why? Because I'm faster with less weight. And then there are aesthetic reasons. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be thin.

KnM0107

Well, I Do Not Want To Be Fat...

I have always loved myself, which is why I lost weight. I feel better physically and I am happier now that I don't have excess weight crushing my knees and preventing me from being as active as I wanted to be.

ew_david

Sarauk2sf

What is your definition of thin?

I am relatively lean. Being lean has nothing to do with whether I love myself or whether I a trying to conform to any stereotype. In fact, I do not conform to the stereotype of my demographic and I am perfectly good with that.

OP, your post makes a lot of rather ignorant assumptions and is condescending and, basically, pretty terrible. People can have preferences regarding aesthetics and, shocking, I know, they can be different to others, as can motivations and reasons as to why they doe something. Stop trying to put everyone in your box. I would not like being in it at all. My athletic performance would be negatively impacted, potentially my health and well being, and I would have aesthetics that I would be less happy with if I were to settle for being rather overweight (and no, preference for a certain BF% =/= hating yourself if not at that BF%).

karyabc

i agree with you, and just to add my personal goal is 185lbs and my healthy BMI max limit starts at 160lbs so yeah.. i'm planing to rock the hell a lot 185 lbs of deliciousness overweight

2snakeswoman

I want to get rid of the horrible habit I have of stuffing myself silly over things that have nothing to do with hunger. In the process I will become thinner; I trust in the process. I don't have a particular weight in mind. I do want to shrink out of the obese category; I know that for sure.

Hornsby

rainbowbow wrote: »

I'll be honest with you... why do people want to be "thin"? Because you cannot be truly healthy and be fat. H.A.E.S. does not exist; it just doesn't.

You dont have to be "skinny" but our bodies were designed to be lean and strong, period. And that isn't something that requires 2-4 hours in the gym.

Edited to add: I'm not even talking about aesthetics here, just the fact that our bodies were not designed to hold excess amounts of fat for an extended period of time. Since your post seemed to focus on the "look" of being skinny.

yup.

jemhh

I want to be thin because I've done the fat thing and didn't like it. I was unhealthy and lazy and it didn't feel good or look good. When I started partaking in healthy and active behaviors, I felt better and looked better and, in turn, have ended up thin and will end up even thinner.

I really don't envy anybody else's body. I might look at a woman and think that she has great arms or legs but envy? Nope.

mumblemagic

I know that to be healthy I need to be around 60 - 65 kg. To get there I need motivation. A picture of my favourite actress is more tangible than the reduction in health risks, particularly as I have not experienced any health affects of being overweight. So, when my head is arguing with my stomach I tell myself if I don't eat this chocolate bar I can look like Alex Breckenridge. There is no reason why desire to be healthy and desire to be pretty should be mutually exclusive, and I don't think wanting to be pretty is a bad thing in itself.

tephanies1234

I didn't start this journey in the overweight category. I was at the high end of the normal BMI "healthy" category. I wanted to be smaller and carry less weight because I noticed how an extra 15-25 lbs of fat was making me feel like a ton of bricks when exercising. I want to be lighter and full of energy for exercise. And stairs. 'nuff said.

Need2Exerc1se

I want to be thin. I honestly don't think I'll ever be as thin as I'd like, because I'd have to give up too many things. That doesn't stop me from wanting it. Nor does wanting it stop me from being happy now. Working toward a goal does not mean I'm not happy now.

I don't envy the bodies of others, except for the young. And that's not really envy, it just makes me miss my own young body.

MoiAussi93

My primary goal is to be healthy. However, I definitely feel that I look better than I did when I was obese and I have much more confidence. Now I am relatively close to goal, and vanity is playing more of a role (I doubt losing a few more pounds will significantly impact my health at this point). There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good!!!

Everybody wants to look good. That is fine unless you go to dangerous lengths to do so.

Zombieinkpot

I want to be thin, and strong, and love myself and healthy. Only three of those things I have total control over.

IpuffyheartHeelsinthegym

I'm a size 2 and I love myself and my body. I'm not thin, I'm athletic and that and being healthy has always been my goal.

CorvusCorax77

I think all the points being made here are great. I think OP is right on to say she wants to find her perfect weight and that might not be "thin." And I think folks who want to be thin are right on to say they want to be thin. I don't think OP meant to body shame thin people....

That all being said .... OP, it doesn't take 2-4 hours in the gym to be "thin." "Thin" is about body fat percentage and that can be done solely with controling calories in vs. calories out. I lost most of my weight just by cutting my calories in. Gym time is about fitness.

To me, a "healthy" body would be a fit body, with a reasonable amount of body fat. Because I love my body, I want it to be healthy. So I try to keep my body fat percentage reasonable (I'd say for me 23% is the high end of my reasonable spectrum and 16% is probably at the low end). I also try to keep fit by working out. But working out in a healthy way would NOT be 2-4 hours a day. Even 1 hour every day is pushing it, in my opinion. I do maybe 1 hour four times a week, and then about 20 minutes twice a week, and then one day of whatever.

Hellaine

Yeah, I'm already healthy and in good health. And now I want to be thin. I have a job where being little will make me more money (call it shallow but it's how I support my family), I wanna look good in a wider majority of clothes--and without clothes *saucy eyebrow wiggles* Guess I won't be the poster girl for changing years and years of vast societal pressure, as much as I commend the idea.

I also want to be not judgmental of other people's reasons for starting and mainting them self into a physically healthy style so, you know, at least I have that going for me.

Lyndonbearsmommy

My goal is to be thin. I want to look good. I don't like the extra weight I carry. I don't like my larger arms. I don't like having a "muffin top". Why is it wrong that I don't like these things and want to change them?

trainulana

rainbowbow wrote: »

I'll be honest with you... why do people want to be "thin"? Because you cannot be truly healthy and be fat. H.A.E.S. does not exist; it just doesn't.

You dont have to be "skinny" but our bodies were designed to be lean and strong, period. And that isn't something that requires 2-4 hours in the gym.

Edited to add: I'm not even talking about aesthetics here, just the fact that our bodies were not designed to hold excess amounts of fat for an extended period of time. Since your post seemed to focus on the "look" of being skinny.

I_Will_End_You

I was already healthy and thin before I lost weight. I wanted to look even better. Why wouldn't I? If I have the discipline and desire to do so, why not try to look the best I possibly can?

And I have never spent 2-4 hours in the gym per day. I don't even spend ONE hour in the gym every day. (Unless you're talking the gymnasium for volleyball playoffs, I've done that for 5 hours.)

amusedmonkey

First of all, I don't want to be thin (by most definitions of thin). I want to be at the upper edge of healthy BMI because I like that look. Am I in any way better than those who like the thin look on themselves just because I have a higher weight target? Do I love myself any more than others do because my vanity ideal is different from someone else's?

Now of course I want to be healthy, it's why this whole weight loss thing started after all. And I love myself. I loved myself even when I was super obese, so if I were genetically lucky to be healthy at that size and set "love myself" as a goal I would have stayed obese.

Since I'm losing weight to improve my health I see no issue with striving to look good in the process, to myself and to other people. Unless it leads to unhealthy behaviors, wanting to be liked and accepted by others is normal - blame evolution if you don't like it, but this is just how humans roll.

beets4us

At this point, I am not even thinking about whether I want to be thin or not. I am just trying to not be overweight anymore! I'm someone who gets intimidated by ultimate end goals. Right now, I am just keeping my eyes on the prize of being under 25 for my BMI!

aubrey_11_baker

Lyndonbearsmommy wrote: »

My goal is to be thin. I want to look good. I don't like the extra weight I carry. I don't like my larger arms. I don't like having a "muffin top". Why is it wrong that I don't like these things and want to change them?

My point here was simply sharing how I feel. I'm not saying everybody should share my point of view. I'm not saying if that's what they want, people shouldn't strive to be thin. Just saying what's on my mind. Love yourself because I feel that's the most difficult part of the process.

usmcmp

aubrey_11_baker wrote: »

Lyndonbearsmommy wrote: »

My goal is to be thin. I want to look good. I don't like the extra weight I carry. I don't like my larger arms. I don't like having a "muffin top". Why is it wrong that I don't like these things and want to change them?

My point here was simply sharing how I feel. I'm not saying everybody should share my point of view. I'm not saying if that's what they want, people shouldn't strive to be thin. Just saying what's on my mind. Love yourself because I feel that's the most difficult part of the process.

You also made a claim about women who look good spending 2-4 hours in the gym daily. That's really not accurate at all and portrays having a great body in a negative manner.

Yes, we should love ourselves and we should do that from the beginning.

aubrey_11_baker

Sarauk2sf wrote: »

What is your definition of thin?

I am relatively lean. Being lean has nothing to do with whether I love myself or whether I a trying to conform to any stereotype. In fact, I do not conform to the stereotype of my demographic and I am perfectly good with that.

OP, your post makes a lot of rather ignorant assumptions and is condescending and, basically, pretty terrible. People can have preferences regarding aesthetics and, shocking, I know, they can be different to others, as can motivations and reasons as to why they doe something. Stop trying to put everyone in your box. I would not like being in it at all. My athletic performance would be negatively impacted, potentially my health and well being, and I would have aesthetics that I would be less happy with if I were to settle for being rather overweight (and no, preference for a certain BF% =/= hating yourself if not at that BF%).

I'm not condemning thin people in any way, shape, or form. I'm just saying what's on my mind. God the internet is a harsh place.

aubrey_11_baker

Ugh. This is why I refrain from ever posting anything here. Make 1 mistake and everybody jumps you like a pack of wolves. So much negativity. I was in no way saying people shouldn't be thin and lean. I'm just sharing that that isn't my personal goal and it doesn't have to be everybody's goal. Looking for support and most of what I see here is negative backlash. Thank you to those who liked my post and may have found a bit of motivation.

Hellaine

"I posted an entry with a pretty judgement stance on a public forum, I can't believe people have the audacity to reply! This is my opinion; no one asked to hear yours!"

...seriously?