Weight goal differences in African American women vs other races
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It may also be regional (or community) specific. Here, it is very rare to see anyone of any race (it's relatively diverse) that is overweight much less obese. If they are, they apparently don't leave the house. The neighborhoods are also designed to encourage walking, running, biking and hiking. Yoga pants, running shoes and SUVs. Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's within a mile of each other. Part of the reason I decided to get fit again was I felt I stuck out like a sore thumb compared to everyone I saw around me.
It wasn't anything that was said to me, but I am not blind.
You sound like you live where I do. I'm by no means large (muscular 140 lbs size 2/4), but I'm bigger than a lot of women walking around town in their lululemons.2 -
Davidsdottir wrote: »It may also be regional (or community) specific. Here, it is very rare to see anyone of any race (it's relatively diverse) that is overweight much less obese. If they are, they apparently don't leave the house. The neighborhoods are also designed to encourage walking, running, biking and hiking. Yoga pants, running shoes and SUVs. Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's within a mile of each other. Part of the reason I decided to get fit again was I felt I stuck out like a sore thumb compared to everyone I saw around me.
It wasn't anything that was said to me, but I am not blind.
You sound like you live where I do. I'm by no means large (muscular 140 lbs size 2/4), but I'm bigger than a lot of women walking around town in their lululemons.
For my height, I was what some might call "zaftig" But, here, in comparison, in my mind, I just looked lazy.2 -
Part of it may be where fat is carried. I'm Latina and along with Black women, we tend to carry weight on our butts, and thighs. We can be overweight, but from the waist up, we look small.
Im built that way lol but Im neither latina or black. I have a smaller upper body always have.0 -
Yes, there are differences in overall body composition. Some of them are genetic. Some are pseudo-genetic.
Yes, I just made that up. Some things(childhood diet/activity/etc) that impact adult body composition, bone density, musculature, activity vary between cultures and subcultures. These factors aren't exactly genetic, but they do tend to trend within social, ethnic, and economic groupings. A diet higher in beef will affect both palate and to a lesser degree nutrition and body composition in different ways than a Vegan/Vegetarian diet or a diet based on lean fish or fowl. Hormones, micros, etc these are factors that we're only just beginning to consider the impact or ramifications of, but when you a Southeast Asian(Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc) in the US eating a more traditional diet to one eating a more traditionally American diet, it appears superficially, that the one eating the more traditional American diet(regardless of calories) does appear more American in height/body composition. Than one who grew up eating a more traditional "ethnic" diet. There's no reason to think that within social/ethnic/economic subcultures within the US that that would not also be the case.
Just something to think on.4 -
I started at a 6 and am currently at a 4. If I tried to attempt 0-3, my family and friends would stage an intervention. Some people think all girls should look like 0-2 and some people think 3-5 are completely normal. Many would think 8 & 9 look too manly. It's so interesting to hear different perspectives on this.
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stanmann571 wrote: »Yes, there are differences in overall body composition. Some of them are genetic. Some are pseudo-genetic.
Yes, I just made that up. Some things(childhood diet/activity/etc) that impact adult body composition, bone density, musculature, activity vary between cultures and subcultures. These factors aren't exactly genetic, but they do tend to trend within social, ethnic, and economic groupings. A diet higher in beef will affect both palate and to a lesser degree nutrition and body composition in different ways than a Vegan/Vegetarian diet or a diet based on lean fish or fowl. Hormones, micros, etc these are factors that we're only just beginning to consider the impact or ramifications of, but when you a Southeast Asian(Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc) in the US eating a more traditional diet to one eating a more traditionally American diet, it appears superficially, that the one eating the more traditional American diet(regardless of calories) does appear more American in height/body composition. Than one who grew up eating a more traditional "ethnic" diet. There's no reason to think that within social/ethnic/economic subcultures within the US that that would not also be the case.
Just something to think on.
Huh. You just blew my mind. I'm way smaller than the rest of my relatives and have almost an Asian bone structure. I grew up despising meat and ate very little of it. And that was before they started shoving hormones into everything. I wonder if that has something to do with how I grew (or didn't).2 -
Cutemesoon wrote: »I started at a 6 and am currently at a 4. If I tried to attempt 0-3, my family and friends would stage an intervention. Some people think all girls should look like 0-2 and some people think 3-5 are completely normal. Many would think 8 & 9 look too manly. It's so interesting to hear different perspectives on this.
Out of those, I'm closest to 8, but want to be more like 9. I started five years ago like 2. I hate that they actually call one of them "normal."8 -
mom23mangos wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »Yes, there are differences in overall body composition. Some of them are genetic. Some are pseudo-genetic.
Yes, I just made that up. Some things(childhood diet/activity/etc) that impact adult body composition, bone density, musculature, activity vary between cultures and subcultures. These factors aren't exactly genetic, but they do tend to trend within social, ethnic, and economic groupings. A diet higher in beef will affect both palate and to a lesser degree nutrition and body composition in different ways than a Vegan/Vegetarian diet or a diet based on lean fish or fowl. Hormones, micros, etc these are factors that we're only just beginning to consider the impact or ramifications of, but when you a Southeast Asian(Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc) in the US eating a more traditional diet to one eating a more traditionally American diet, it appears superficially, that the one eating the more traditional American diet(regardless of calories) does appear more American in height/body composition. Than one who grew up eating a more traditional "ethnic" diet. There's no reason to think that within social/ethnic/economic subcultures within the US that that would not also be the case.
Just something to think on.
Huh. You just blew my mind. I'm way smaller than the rest of my relatives and have almost an Asian bone structure. I grew up despising meat and ate very little of it. And that was before they started shoving hormones into everything. I wonder if that has something to do with how I grew (or didn't).
Obviously there are very real genetic differences that set a scope or scale, but all you have to do to observe the impact of diet is compare the adult population of North and South Korea. There are also second and third order/generation effects, usually observed that as prosperity(food availability) increases, children tend to be taller than their parents(obviously within the standard limits, and obviously there's variability here as well.3 -
Cutemesoon wrote: »I started at a 6 and am currently at a 4. If I tried to attempt 0-3, my family and friends would stage an intervention. Some people think all girls should look like 0-2 and some people think 3-5 are completely normal. Many would think 8 & 9 look too manly. It's so interesting to hear different perspectives on this.
I think I'd say 0-2 are all "skinny" as is 8 (that's a REALLY lean "athletic"). I'd say 4 is "normal", I'd guess 25% body fat which is healthy for an adult woman. 5 I *might* call a little "chubby". 9, is again really lean. You can be muscular with higher body fat than that.5 -
Like some others have mentioned, I believe this not to isolated to the black community or cultural preferences; it's symptomatic of society getting used to a fatter idea of what "normal" weight looks like.
Interesting read with some key statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
highlights pertinent to this topic:
- Overall, 36.5% of US adults are obese (not just overweight)
- Among non-hispanic blacks, the obesity rate is 48.1%
- there's also a section with maps which show geographic distribution for obesity, which I found interesting.
Because of familiarity, an obese person is now perceived as the new "overweight", "overweight" is the new "normal/healthy", and those at an actual healthy weight are perceived as too small or skinny.
Beyond those societal factors, individual perceptions play a large role as well. I'm a 29 y/o white adult male smack in the middle of healthy BMI who lifts weights and hovers <15% body fat. I get comments that vary from "woah, looking a little 'bulky', have you thought about cutting back on your lifting?" to "why are bothering trying to cut fat? if you lose weight you'll just look scrawny." depending on the individual offering these sage words of wisdom.
I definitely see where you are comingfrom with this, but I do believe some races carry weightdifferently. Some have more muscle and weigh more thenthey look0 -
I started at a 1 and I'm currently at a 3 or 4...Cutemesoon wrote: »I started at a 6 and am currently at a 4. If I tried to attempt 0-3, my family and friends would stage an intervention. Some people think all girls should look like 0-2 and some people think 3-5 are completely normal. Many would think 8 & 9 look too manly. It's so interesting to hear different perspectives on this.0 -
I started at a 1 and I'm currently at a 3 or 4...Cutemesoon wrote: »
Are you happy with your current size? Or are you trying to get back to a 1?0 -
Cutemesoon wrote: »
I started at a 1 and I'm currently at a 3 or 4...Cutemesoon wrote: »
Are you happy with your current size? Or are you trying to get back to a 1?
I actually wanted to get to a 3 or 4 from a 1. I love the way that I look now, but I would like to be a mix of a 4 and 8...Im pretty toned now, but want a thicker look.1 -
Davidsdottir wrote: »It may also be regional (or community) specific. Here, it is very rare to see anyone of any race (it's relatively diverse) that is overweight much less obese. If they are, they apparently don't leave the house. The neighborhoods are also designed to encourage walking, running, biking and hiking. Yoga pants, running shoes and SUVs. Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's within a mile of each other. Part of the reason I decided to get fit again was I felt I stuck out like a sore thumb compared to everyone I saw around me.
It wasn't anything that was said to me, but I am not blind.
You sound like you live where I do. I'm by no means large (muscular 140 lbs size 2/4), but I'm bigger than a lot of women walking around town in their lululemons.
For my height, I was what some might call "zaftig" But, here, in comparison, in my mind, I just looked lazy.
Da wusste ich ja gar nicht, dass Du Deutsch sprichts! Zaftig is doch geil, oder? :-)0
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