Photo - What does this look like to you? Overweight, underweight ?

riaroma52

Hi everyone,

I am starting my healthy lifestyle journey recovering from an eating disorder I got at 19 which dissipated but left unhealthy eating patterns.

I'm doing strength training 3 times a week, cardio [swimming] 4 times a week.

Trying not to eat dessert, eatings 3 square meals with snack in-between, not drinking alcohol.




How do I look? Please don't be harsh.

Evelyn_Gorfram

First of all, you're beautiful. You've got a gorgeous face and lovely hair. And weight/body-wise, you're just about perfect by the standards in effect when I was a kid in the early 1960's.

For 2018, and IMHO, I think that increased muscle tone might be more helpful to you than lost weight. My guess is that you're in the high end of the "healthy" BMI range, where it's very difficult to lose even 5 or 10 lbs.

I think you're definitely on the right track with your cardio and strength training. Since you mentioned recovering from an ED, I'll ask you to please be careful about getting all the nutrition your body needs. The MFP diary* is very helpful for keeping track so you know you're getting enough without having to worry that it might be too much.

(*But please don't check the "I want to lose 2 lbs/week" box. A lot of people new to MFP do this, and then they wind up with a 1200-Cal/day goal they just can't stick to. Based on your photo, you're already skinny enough that - if you choose to try to lose weight at all: I'm not at all sure that you need to - I wouldn't recommend trying for more than 0.5 lbs/week. I know it's slow, but it also has by far the best chance of being successful.)

riaroma52

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

First of all, you're beautiful. You've got a gorgeous face and lovely hair. And weight/body-wise, you're just about perfect by the standards in effect when I was a kid in the early 1960's.

For 2018, and IMHO, I think that increased muscle tone might be more helpful to you than lost weight. My guess is that you're in the high end of the "healthy" BMI range, where it's very difficult to lose even 5 or 10 lbs.

I think you're definitely on the right track with your cardio and strength training. Since you mentioned recovering from an ED, I'll ask you to please be careful about getting all the nutrition your body needs. The MFP diary* is very helpful for keeping track so you know you're getting enough without having to worry that it might be too much.

(*But please don't check the "I want to lose 2 lbs/week" box. A lot of people new to MFP do this, and then they wind up with a 1200-Cal/day goal they just can't stick to. Based on your photo, you're already skinny enough that - if you choose to try to lose weight at all: I'm not at all sure that you need to - I wouldn't recommend trying for more than 0.5 lbs/week. I know it's slow, but it also has by far the best chance of being successful.)

Oh my god your wonderful response really made my day !!!!! Thank you so much for all your words

I just wanted to say you were completely RIGHT about my BMI, I am 24.7 on the calculator. What does that mean for me? Will I ever be able to loose weight? Should I focus mostly on ab and strength work outs.

73CL350

BMI is useless... it only applies to people of average height and the further off average you are it gets exponentially less accurate (squared function of height).

If I had your body ... I would focus on strength training and cardio while eating the same. Prime candidate for a recompense session as i assume you have no lifting background

Evelyn_Gorfram

riaroma52 wrote: »

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

First of all, you're beautiful. You've got a gorgeous face and lovely hair. And weight/body-wise, you're just about perfect by the standards in effect when I was a kid in the early 1960's.

For 2018, and IMHO, I think that increased muscle tone might be more helpful to you than lost weight. My guess is that you're in the high end of the "healthy" BMI range, where it's very difficult to lose even 5 or 10 lbs.

I think you're definitely on the right track with your cardio and strength training. Since you mentioned recovering from an ED, I'll ask you to please be careful about getting all the nutrition your body needs. The MFP diary* is very helpful for keeping track so you know you're getting enough without having to worry that it might be too much.

(*But please don't check the "I want to lose 2 lbs/week" box. A lot of people new to MFP do this, and then they wind up with a 1200-Cal/day goal they just can't stick to. Based on your photo, you're already skinny enough that - if you choose to try to lose weight at all: I'm not at all sure that you need to - I wouldn't recommend trying for more than 0.5 lbs/week. I know it's slow, but it also has by far the best chance of being successful.)

Oh my god your wonderful response really made my day !!!!! Thank you so much for all your words

I just wanted to say you were completely RIGHT about my BMI, I am 24.7 on the calculator. What does that mean for me? Will I ever be able to loose weight? Should I focus mostly on ab and strength work outs.

Glad my response helped.

As the previous poster mentioned, BMI is unreliable at the high and low ends of the range; but I don't find it useless at all. It's very handy for getting a "ballpark" idea of whether a given person of group is over- or underweight. And while it's most useful for people of average height, it turns out that many people are indeed, fairly close to average height . As long as you're within 5 to 6 inches, either way, of the US woman's average height of 5'4"; I see no reason not to use BMI as a general indicator.

riaroma52 wrote: »

I just wanted to say you were completely RIGHT about my BMI, I am 24.7 on the calculator. What does that mean for me? Will I ever be able to loose weight?

This is a two-part answer:

1) Can you lose weight?

Absolutely, yes, of course you can. It will be harder for you than people at higher BMI's, but it certainly can be done. You might have to restrict calories quite a bit (possibly down to 1200-1600 cal/day, depending on how tall you are and a few other things), work out a lot, and be content to lose as little as 0.25-0.5 lb/week. Also, since temporary scale fluctuations caused by things like water retention, monthly hormonal changes, and extra sodium intake would be large in comparison to the amount you're trying to lose; they can be especially disheartening is this weight range. So it's difficult, but absolutely possible.

2) Should you lose weight?

(Um, I'm a little leery about answering this question in regard to someone who's struggled with an ED. I'm afraid that whatever I say might lead to you running off and hiding in a corner where you'll try to subsist on self-hatred and half a poached egg white per day. <= that's meant to be a joke, btw. So, whatever I say, or however stupid and clumsy my jokes are, please don't do that, okay?)

My Humble Opinion is "No." I think you'd be happier with doing what they call "recomp" (short for "body recomposition"), which is where you stay at roughly the same weight while doing cardio and lifting to turn any excess of your body fat into muscle. That will help tighten up any areas you'd like to see tightened, and make you stronger and healthier. Bonus points that it will help increase your bone density & ward off osteoporosis; and extra-super bonus points that it's basically what you seem to already be doing.

Another thing to consider is that the lower you go down the weight/BMI/body-fat-percentage scale, the harder it is to maintain. People below a BMI of 23 or so frequently have to diet and exercise pretty hard to stay there, and below around BMI = 20-21 usually have to work very hard. People with BMI's approaching 18.5 are often those who approach fitness as a nearly full-time job. Returning to the ED concerns again, I wonder if putting too intense a focus on diet and exercise could be triggering or "slippery-slope-ish" for you.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about recomp myself (my own BMI is 43.7 - I have a lot of fat to lose before focusing on turning some of it into muscle). Fortunately, the boards are full of information about recomp, and there are lots of knowledgable people here who will help you.

And, of course, I'm still here for diet-related stuff, and for general advice and encouragement.

cppeace

I think you look lovely as well. If I had to nitpick I would say 5lbs overweight at max, but personally I would focus on toning or gaining muscle more than losing weight. Toning will change current weight and you may love the results.

amusedmonkey

I would be biased when I say that I wouldn't change a thing about your look, but that's only because that's the look I like and want to a achieve. You may or may not like a different look. If you do, take a few minutes to read this thread:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

It will help you achieve the results you may want without having to lose much or any weight.