Anyone else's aesthetic standards for their body actually increased as they got older in adulthood?

MalkienChrysantheum

I'm not talking about in terms of compensating for lines, wrinkles, middle age spread, etc., but I mean everything else considered pretty much equal, you now have much more advanced goals in terms of your body fat percentage, muscle tone, overall shape, etc.? It's funny how as life goes on, the more I realize that I'm such a late bloomer in so many more ways than one. I've never been fat enough throughout my twenties that people called me out on it, but I was at best 20-25% body fat at any given point. Now, I want to reach athletic body fat percent of sub-20%, get into competition level at 12-15 percent, but be able to maintain year-round at no more than 18%. I'm not going to waste energy kicking myself for not doing this years earlier and maintaining since, but I'm driven like a wild animal to attack for this now. You would think that as a teenager or early twenty-something, the aesthetic standards are higher, but not for this one...

middlehaitch

I work harder in my 60's to retain a decent amount of LBM than I ever have.

I never worried about it up until I hit my 50's, and never thought I would ever workout 6 days a week to maintain a higher standard than I did when I was younger.

When I was younger I thought I would be old and past it by 60!

I am also pretty vain now and work out hard to maintain a good visual figure.

It surprised me when I hit my weight goal and really loved what I saw, and what I could do.

Cheers, h.

gettingreallyfedupnow

Not sure about aesthetics, but I get annoyed when people say things like 'you can't expect to be the same weight you were when you were young'. Really, actually, I was fat when I was young too. I'm exactly the weight I was as a teenager, but I'm finally doing something about it.

middlehaitch

gettingreallyfedupnow wrote: »

Not sure about aesthetics, but I get annoyed when people say things like 'you can't expect to be the same weight you were when you were young'. Really, actually, I was fat when I was young too. I'm exactly the weight I was as a teenager, but I'm finally doing something about it.

That is funny. I am the same weight I was when I was in my late teens, 20, 30, 40, and 50. Took a 30lbs bloop in my 50's.

I just have a higher fitness level now and a better sculpted body.

Cheers, h.

LKArgh

MalkienChrysantheum wrote: »

I'm not talking about in terms of compensating for lines, wrinkles, middle age spread, etc., but I mean everything else considered pretty much equal, you now have much more advanced goals in terms of your body fat percentage, muscle tone, overall shape, etc.? It's funny how as life goes on, the more I realize that I'm such a late bloomer in so many more ways than one. I've never been fat enough throughout my twenties that people called me out on it, but I was at best 20-25% body fat at any given point. Now, I want to reach athletic body fat percent of sub-20%, get into competition level at 12-15 percent, but be able to maintain year-round at no more than 18%. I'm not going to waste energy kicking myself for not doing this years earlier and maintaining since, but I'm driven like a wild animal to attack for this now. You would think that as a teenager or early twenty-something, the aesthetic standards are higher, but not for this one...

You are 29. I do not understand this post.

VintageFeline

aggelikik wrote: »

MalkienChrysantheum wrote: »

I'm not talking about in terms of compensating for lines, wrinkles, middle age spread, etc., but I mean everything else considered pretty much equal, you now have much more advanced goals in terms of your body fat percentage, muscle tone, overall shape, etc.? It's funny how as life goes on, the more I realize that I'm such a late bloomer in so many more ways than one. I've never been fat enough throughout my twenties that people called me out on it, but I was at best 20-25% body fat at any given point. Now, I want to reach athletic body fat percent of sub-20%, get into competition level at 12-15 percent, but be able to maintain year-round at no more than 18%. I'm not going to waste energy kicking myself for not doing this years earlier and maintaining since, but I'm driven like a wild animal to attack for this now. You would think that as a teenager or early twenty-something, the aesthetic standards are higher, but not for this one...

You are 29. I do not understand this post.

It's relative. She's older than she was when she was 19 and our perspectives do change decade by decade. I don't think being 29 changes that.

Anyhoo. Yes. Although I don't think it's age related for me but more lifestyle change related. I'm a former gymnast and dancer but was overweight whilst the latter. It didn't overly bother me. Sure I's have liked to have been small and althletic bbut not enough to do anything about it. Then I started to lose weight last year after getting even bigger and as I approached my "usual" size and where I thought I'd stop and be content, I find I have no desire to be content to be overweight and squidgy. I want to get into a healthy BMI, I want my workout efforts to be physically visible through a lower body fat percentage. I want to be hot!

So yes, my personal aesthetic desires have very much changed and only in the last year.

Maxematics

aggelikik wrote: »

MalkienChrysantheum wrote: »

I'm not talking about in terms of compensating for lines, wrinkles, middle age spread, etc., but I mean everything else considered pretty much equal, you now have much more advanced goals in terms of your body fat percentage, muscle tone, overall shape, etc.? It's funny how as life goes on, the more I realize that I'm such a late bloomer in so many more ways than one. I've never been fat enough throughout my twenties that people called me out on it, but I was at best 20-25% body fat at any given point. Now, I want to reach athletic body fat percent of sub-20%, get into competition level at 12-15 percent, but be able to maintain year-round at no more than 18%. I'm not going to waste energy kicking myself for not doing this years earlier and maintaining since, but I'm driven like a wild animal to attack for this now. You would think that as a teenager or early twenty-something, the aesthetic standards are higher, but not for this one...

You are 29. I do not understand this post.

Well as a 31 year old woman I know exactly what she's talking about. As she said, it's not about lines, wrinkles, etc. it's about having a new level of respect for your body. 29 isn't old, but it definitely is older than being in your teens and early twenties. It's so common for people, especially women, to hear that after somewhere around 25 their looks are gone and their bodies will turn into absolute trash as the years progress. Those of us who are educated about fitness know this isn't true, but as a whole society is led to believe that after a certain age women magically become overweight and, unless they were fit as a teenager, there is nothing they can do about it. I weigh less now than I did in 3rd grade. I was 120 pounds back then and came from a home where proper nutrition wasn't a focal point. My weight fluctuated with growth spurts and activity, but even throughout middle school I was 120 to 135 pounds, in high school I hit my maximum of 190 pounds, and I when I lost weight after that, my lowest was 111 pounds. Earlier this month, I just hit my lowest weight of 109 pounds and I actually have visible abs for the first time in my life. I'm 112 now and building muscle, but to actually have as much muscle as I do is a new thing for me and I love it.

Like @MalkienChrysantheum, I have more advanced goals in terms of fitness. I've lost weight before and when I was 111 pounds at the age of 21, I didn't look half as good as I do now. The difference was back then the only focus was a number on the scale and the silly belief that weights would make me look bulky whereas now I'm lifting weights and strength is my primary focus. I am much more disciplined about my physique now than I ever was in my teenage years and early twenties. I was obese in my teenage years then when I turned 18 I did something about it, so I completely understand the late bloomer feelings as well. I also have similar feelings of "If only I did this five years earlier", but I know dwelling on the past will get me nowhere.

Phrick

No, not as far as aesthetics go. My goals for fitness, longevity, and disease management drive my continued pursuit, not looks. But I've also never been a very girly girl, never really gave a fig what anyone thought when they saw me, and didn't really have any kind of self-loathing when I was fat, either. My primary reason for losing weight was that I was told I needed surgery but that they wouldn't do it until I lost 40+ pounds. So I lost 115 and "magically" don't need surgery anymore!

amusedmonkey

As a teen I had no weight-related personal body standards and I was pretty okay with being obese. Not just muscling myself into self acceptance, I was genuinely fine with the way I looked and had no intention or desire to change. After about a year of weight loss, I somehow started paying more attention to the way I looked being slightly unhappy, which was odd to me. Possibly because my changing body felt unfamiliar and the "in between" phase is kind of neither here nor there. I somehow acquired new goals. In addition to being healthier I know I want to look thinner, not just be thinner. I still want to keep some fat, so no specific body fat in mind, and I will probably end up maintaining slightly overweight for various reasons including simply not feeling that the thin look is "me", but that's a world of difference and a hell of a change in standards from the 300+ lb me. I find it odd that it struck a little later in life than usual. I'm a late bloomer I guess.

scolaris

I'm 53, 5'6", and I've been every weight between 100 and 200 lbs as an adult... wow, huh?
When I was under 25 I was just struggling to gain & resume menses after a teenage bout of anorexia athletica. Despite a lot of wheel spinning that way, I wasn't very strong at all. I finally weighed about 124 lbs age 26 when I got married & that felt like a HUGE accomplishment. I trained hard to put on that weight, and finally began eating in a non disordered way.
Between about ages 29 and 39 I had two full term pregnancies and my weight climbed into my 150s. I felt very strong & noticed I didn't get colds and flus as easily above 140. I was so grateful to be able to get pregnant and breastfeed in a healthy way.
In my 40's my weight ballooned. It was a combination of stress & lifestyle. We completely redid our old house. I lived over a year with a portapotty, a BBQ and our YMCA membership for showers. I entered a prolonged peri-menopause but didn't really recognize the signs. I launched two small businesses (I only retain one). My second daughter had an orthopedic birth injury that was scary at the outset (it resolved beautifully). My 'teen' mother died of pancreatic cancer in her 50's in a matter of weeks. I'm still a little sad about that... I'm sure all that very tumultuous change took a toll on how I regulated anxiety and engaged in self care. I was a classic 'fit fat' insofar as I could perform heavy labor on some of my garden design project sites or take a long hike or bike ride some weekends but I did nothing in a sustained routine way. And I ate like a man, matching my 6'2" husband portion for portion, drink for drink. I felt overwhelmed & out of control. I was still cooking virtually everything from scratch for my family, too, which meant when I wasn't at work I was in the kitchen. Kind of like putting the fox in charge of one's hen house!
In my early 50s I knew this had to STOP or I was going to be a 250 lb 60 year old woman with some sort of lasting health marker I would only regret. I tried the 'magic bullet' things like low carb, paleo, etc and then a friend suggested MFP. It all just clicked. I like calorie counting! It works well for me.
So far I've lost 25 lbs. I'm not trying to hit my lowest weights again because I believe my current LBM is about the same as my total weight at my marriage. I would like to be in a healthy BMI range. I would like to get a DEXA scan so I can work on recompositioning to a lower BF percentage that's realistic for my age. I would love to trade my stock tankinis in for a few proper bikinis. I miss bikinis. I haven't worn one since that second pregnancy at 39. So maybe I don't have a more stringent fitness aesthetic, but it certainly seems like a more detail oriented one...

Francl27

Lol, absolutely not. Besides, I'll never reach the aesthetic goal I was going for because of the pouch of loose skin that I have anyway, and I have no desire to spend hours doing something that I find extremely boring (heavy lifting) just for vanity purposes. There's more to life than that...

Springfield1970

I've got higher standards than when I was in my twenties. I have more knowledge and less excuses for a start.

Maxematics

Francl27 wrote: »

Lol, absolutely not. Besides, I'll never reach the aesthetic goal I was going for because of the pouch of loose skin that I have anyway, and I have no desire to spend hours doing something that I find extremely boring (heavy lifting) just for vanity purposes. There's more to life than that...

There's a difference between aesthetics and vanity though. I can't speak for the OP, but my aesthetic goals with regard to fitness have zero to do with vanity. I couldn't care less how other people view me. I'm not attracted to other people; I live a life of celibacy so improvements to my body are of no benefit to anyone else. I have these goals because I want to see how hard I can push myself. Losing weight is one thing, but I know that I never pushed myself to strive for more than that in the past. I want to see how much stronger I can get and what my body will look like when I try to work to my limits. I want to be able to look at all aspects of my life and say I worked to my highest potential. I used to suffer from depression and having structure with exercise, my diet, and sleep has completely reversed that. It's those improvements that bring about my discipline and drives me to do more. When I go running or hiking in the park, I feel a high because it feels like that's where I belong. I could spend hours in nature running and walking. Heck, if other people weren't in the park, I'd probably dance and skip too. There's something about using my body for purposes other than mundane, everyday tasks that uplifts me and makes me feel stronger physically and mentally. It makes me feel free.

Everyone has different objectives with regard to health, fitness, and their own body. Just because OP has certain aesthetic goals doesn't mean she's spending hours in the gym or that's all she thinks there is to life.

cityruss

In my teens and twenties I really couldn't have cared less. I was overweight, playing regular sport, believed I was healthy and was loving life.

Hit my thirties, career and family life took over sporting endeavors and I decided I wanted to lose weight, now the weight has gone it's all about the aesthetics and weight training.

It's funny how life's goals change.

Seeing the progress over the past three years I do wish I had got serious about weight training a lot earlier on.

MommyL2015

My goal was to get down to the weight I was before I had my first child and get more energy. I have surpassed it and my energy levels are really awesome today. Aesthetics? Don't care because there are things that I can't do anything about like stretch marks and the loose skin around my belly from five kids (including a set of full-term twins. I was enormous.), so I don't worry about things I can't change. I also have no desire to lift heavy things because I'm lazy and too broke for gym memberships or buying equipment.

But I'm happy and look good in clothes again! So maybe I'm a bit vain when it comes to that, but I am in no dreamland when it comes to realizing that I will never have the same body I had in high school. Same weight, but definitely not the same body. It's a good thing though because I had zits and crazy hormones and lots of teenage angst. I do wish I could have the same all-over skin that I had, it was so smooth and I could spend hours in the sun with no worries about sunblock or burning and just have a crazy beautiful golden tan that everyone was so jealous of. Today, if I just look at the sun the wrong way, it turns me into a boiled lobster.

4leighbee

Yes. I'm much more knowledgeable and patient. Everything I do surrounds one principal concept: avoid injury so you can keep running (which is mental therapy). In the process of strengthening my body with compound lifts and core-focused training, I have discovered the joy of watching my body change and become - at times - impressive (to me ... don't care much about others - okay that was a lie). Also, I've had time to wax and wane with my training, and I have learned a lot about my body's responses to different kinds of exertion. I find it fascinating in a way that I just didn't care about when I was young.

leanne0627

Im not sure if its from age or just losing weight but after losing almost 50 pounds my goals have changed. When i started i just wanted to lose some weight and be smaller and healthier now i have certain look im going for with lifting and exercise that when i started i never even considered. I think for me the fact i was able to acheive weight loss gave me the confidence to keep going to an even higher standard of fitness and looks. All the compliments have helped too. Total stranger will mention how beautiful i am now. For a girl that was over 200 lbs in high school and 230 in my 20s and had noone ever compliment me it has increased my self esteem tremendously. I also find i spend more time on my hair and makeup now. Not quite sure why on that one but maybe when i was heavier i just wanted to hide in big clothes and no makeup? But im definitely way better looking now at 35 then i was at 19 or 25...so totally a really late bloomer and i feel better than ever.

Heartisalonelyhunter

Yes. I look better now in my late 30's than I did 10 years ago, even though I weigh about the same. I think some of that is just having more confidence but I definitely think my body is better. Not sure why as I've just had another baby and I don't really exercise that much (I used to exercise more and I looked worse?!) but I'm happy with my shape.

Rabidrunner

Well, I know that I have to be more conscious of it now that I'm in my thirties. When I was in my twenties I drank like a sailor, ate like a glutton, and partied like an animal. Paid absolutely no mind to what I ate though I was extremely active so it probably didn't really matter. I have no idea what my body fat would have been, but I'd be willing to guess it was below 20%. I hovered around 120 lbs (I'm a little over 5'7) and was extremely fit.

These days I have to actually plan out my exercise regime, watch what I eat, and the thought of partying makes me want to curl up in the fetal position. Thankfully I'm very slowly working my way back to that level (currently 21.6% body fat, see - now I know these things!) and hope to be back there in a month or two.

zyxst

I have enough anxiety over what happens when I die. How I look or my physical fitness is so far on the back burner they're falling off the stove. Besides, the only way to fix my body is with surgery and heavy medication.

Packerjohn

I hate to hear the words you're in great shape for your age