Do you look thinner than you are?

heis4u2004
heis4u2004 Posts: 176 Member
in Motivation and Support
It seems I hide some of my excess weight well. People are always amazed when I tell them how big I am. And I do have friends that weigh less than I do but look much bigger to me. I guess it is where you carry most of your fat. I am 5 foot 2 medium frame. When I was 145 pounds many years ago, my mom thought I looked sickly/too thin. According to doctors I was overweight. When I was 195 earlier this year people thought I was thinner and some even bought me clothes that was too small. Recently I am receiving compliments on my almost 35 pound weight loss (currently 161) and body fat 34.5 % and some have said I am disappearing. I will not stop until I reach a healthy body fat % of somewhere between 25%-30%.

I guess I am wondering if there is anyone here that tends to look thinner than your weight/fat% says and what kind of comments you get.
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Replies

  • shortnsweetbb
    shortnsweetbb Posts: 29
    I definitely understand what you mean! I am 5'1" and am right now at 172 after losing 11 pounds and 16 inches. When I first started my weight loss journey (for the 15th and last time!) people would say, "why are you trying to lose weight? you look good". I definitely appreciate their compliment, but at 183 pounds and as short as I am, it's not good. I guess it's amazing how well clothes hide the weight. As I continue on, I'm nervous people will say the same thing they are saying to you - that they think I'm losing too much weight or getting to small. I guess we'll see how it goes. Either way, keep it up!!! :)
  • MyouTakaraTriesAgain
    MyouTakaraTriesAgain Posts: 68
    I blame it on all the weight I carry in my boobs!
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    I look a bit smaller than I am. Every single time I go to a doctor's office, since I was a KID even, the nurses who weigh me express surprise about how much I weigh and make a passing comment that they wouldn't have thought it was quite as high. They never say it in a rude way but sometimes they seem genuinely surprised/shocked.

    Right now I'm 223 and I think I look in the 200-225 neighborhood but some of my friends assume I'm under 200 already. I think it's less to do with me looking smaller and more to do with them having a poor reference point because they're much smaller anyway. I guess when you're 135 and your tall friend is losing weight you just assume she's probably at 180-ish, not 200-something. Kind of like my ex's boss who was a size 00 just never thought about me being too big to wear non-plus sizes. To her I was big but not the biggest woman ever, so she assumed I was a 10 or 12, right? No. LOL

    This whole weighing more than I look thing was more dramatic when I was in my higher weights, like 280 I really really think I looked more like 240. I think a lot of it is the way I am proportioned and that I have a relatively thin face, neck, hands, calves & ankles, etc...compared to my very large bust, bum, hips, belly.
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
    I look like I weigh less than I do, but that's a good thing. It's a sign that all the effort I'm making to maintain my lean body mass is actually working.
  • Gingermilander
    Gingermilander Posts: 7 Member
    I think I carry my weight well. I'm 5'7'' and 203lb. I haven't lost anything for over a month but can tell I'm losing inches. I've also been working out 5-6 days a week and doing some weights once a week (included in those days- I have one off day)
  • RoadsterGirlie
    RoadsterGirlie Posts: 1,195 Member
    I think that might be the case with me. I weigh in the mid 120's, but I have had more than one person guess my weight at around 100. A 25 lb difference is quite significant, and there's no way I could actually go that low and be healthy.

    I'm also tall, so that might be part of it.
  • mmipanda
    mmipanda Posts: 351 Member
    its a bit of a mixed bag because my brain is weird.


    I dress well for my shape and people are surprised to find out how much i weigh. Also I guess having an angular face helps with that.

    But my body is a trainwreck beneath the pretty dresses & I am well aware of this, mostly.


    BUT then I get all 'heyyy I'm back to my old comfortable plateau, damn i look good' and I ignore the fact that I still need to drop a lot more. Until I put on exercise clothes and look like a fatass, then I just get cranky and self-conscious.
  • photojunkie28
    photojunkie28 Posts: 292
    yep...I will put my hand up for that one. I am 5'5 , 174lbs and 28% bodyfat. People ask me all the time why I want to lose weight. 28% isn't THAT high and I carry most of my weight in my butt and thighs and am hourglass shaped so I think where my fat is located is generally accepted by society or even liked b some as strange as that seems to say lol.

    I think most things have to do with body shape and body fat %. Identical twins could both weigh 150lbs and one could workout all the time and eat clean and look completely different than the other who say eats like a poor college student and thinks exercise is a waste of time.
  • j6o4
    j6o4 Posts: 871 Member
    I'm the opposite, people think I'm heavier. They tend to think I'm about 10lbs more than I actually am.
  • JannAtBeach
    JannAtBeach Posts: 14 Member
    I blame it on all the weight I carry in my boobs!


    LOL:bigsmile:
  • tworthen79
    tworthen79 Posts: 1,173 Member
    I'm 5'7" I weigh 194 and everyone tells me I look 160ish. And even at my heaviest which was 229, I wore I size 14. I guess my weight is equally proportioned. So according to the BMI my lowest is 118, I don't think so. I would look sick at my height and my genetics. I'm shooting for the highest range of my BMI which is 169.
  • JannAtBeach
    JannAtBeach Posts: 14 Member
    I'm 5'4" & weigh 141... 16 lbs too much, but since I have skinny arms/legs people think I'm skinny..
    I know how to dress & keep my fat areas (waist) hidden. lol
  • vaultgirlsam
    vaultgirlsam Posts: 28 Member
    I'm 5'4'' and ~ 210lbs. My whole life people have been saying "you carry your weight well"

    ...what does that even mean?
  • RoadsterGirlie
    RoadsterGirlie Posts: 1,195 Member
    I'm 5'4" & weigh 141... 16 lbs too much, but since I have skinny arms/legs people think I'm skinny..
    I know how to dress & keep my fat areas (waist) hidden. lol

    This is me. I'm really skinny up top (xylophone and all), while I'm just a little slim in the legs and waist. I think that's why people guess me lighter than I am. Come to think of it, that may have been part of the reason why I let myself get overweight since I figured I didn't look that bad, judging by my upper body.
  • rezekiel
    rezekiel Posts: 209 Member
    Exactly, thanks for the back handed compliment.
  • rezekiel
    rezekiel Posts: 209 Member
    [...what does that even mean?
    ]
    Exactly, thanks for the back handed compliment.
    [/quote]
  • marsellient
    marsellient Posts: 591 Member
    I'm with seltzermint: my doctor is always surprised by my weight. 5' 5" and 174lb. Still need to lose about 25lb. I swear it's all on my belly!
  • PhoenixStrikes
    PhoenixStrikes Posts: 587 Member
    Yes, people always seemed surprised at my weight but personally I feel like they were being kind or under estimating to spare my feelings. It's like when people guess your age they always shoot low to be safe.
  • xoTalim
    xoTalim Posts: 212 Member
    Yeah I wear my weight pretty well. People don't believe me when I tell them I'm 170ish pound.
  • retiree2006
    retiree2006 Posts: 951 Member
    Funny you should ask! I went to my usual masseuse recently and she commented that she hoped I didn't lose any more weight. I told her I was trying to maintain now and didn't want to lose more. Before I left I reassured her that I was trying to stay between 138 and 141...and she said she thought I was around 100! (Nah...it's just the flabby stuff left since I have no elasticity anymore at my "advanced" age! :laugh: )
  • vaultgirlsam
    vaultgirlsam Posts: 28 Member
    [...what does that even mean?
    ]
    Exactly, thanks for the back handed compliment.
    [/quote]

    You get me. :)
  • qtgonewild
    qtgonewild Posts: 1,930 Member
    I think I look fatter than I am..
  • brookielaw
    brookielaw Posts: 814 Member
    It's not that I hide my excess weight well---it's painfully present and obvious BUT I must be carrying a bit of muscle, too, because I wear much smaller sizes than I did at this weight in the past. Maybe sizes have changed a lot over the past 10 to 20 years and everything is vanity sized up. I wouldn't dare asking how much people think I weigh, it's bad enough that I know!
  • heis4u2004
    heis4u2004 Posts: 176 Member
    I never wore things that revealed my belly bulge and all of that in in the front. Shirts are always loose around there or just tucked in slightly. And I always tried to where sleeved shirts that hide some of the flabby upper arms.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    I think people are just really really bad about guestimating weight.
  • Giraffe33991
    Giraffe33991 Posts: 430 Member
    I'm 5'4" and usually bounce between 135-140 pounds. I wear size 4 jeans, 6 dresses and small shirts. Everyone is shocked when they hear my weight. However I am packed full of muscle, so I figure thats where it is.

    I'm not worried about what the scale says. I just want to look good and be healthy--even if that weight is "more" than what people think it should be.
  • skywa
    skywa Posts: 901 Member
    I think I look decent for 130.
    *shrug*
    Most people are shocked when I tell them my actual weight. Some assume im as much as 20lbs less. O-O But, people suck at guessing ones weight.
  • skywa
    skywa Posts: 901 Member
    I think people are just really really bad about guestimating weight.

    I SECOND THIS
  • Missjulesdid
    Missjulesdid Posts: 1,444 Member
    I am 5'5" and 241 pounds. I look slightly smaller than many women of the same weight because my weight is proportioned over my entire body. I also have very heavy legs which doesn't really get noticed unless they're bare which I avoid at all costs.. but anyway, extra weight in the legs means less weight in other areas. I have one sister who weighs 20 pounds less than I do but wears a larger size than me.. because she is an apple shape so she needs that larger size to accommodate her larger waist though the clothing might be too big in the legs/butt/bust whereas my figure is generally spot on when it comes to the sizing charts so I fill out my clothing in all areas with no baggy parts. The good news for her is that when she starts shedding the pounds she blows through the sizes really quickly where as I need to lose quite a lot of weight before going down a size.

    Recently I had my profile on a few dating sites and I got messages all the time telling me that I need to change my bodytype from "bbw/overweight" to "a little extra" I always respond telling them my weight and that 90-100 pounds overweight is not just "a little extra"
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member

    Recently I had my profile on a few dating sites and I got messages all the time telling me that I need to change my bodytype from "bbw/overweight" to "a little extra" I always respond telling them my weight and that 90-100 pounds overweight is not just "a little extra"


    I had the same thing happen multiple times when I was at 260-ish! I hear ya completely.

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