Can we stop trying to be THIN and SKINNY?

LorinaLynn

Pssttt... I am quite slender. I've been smaller, I've been too thin, but I'm definitely thin now. But my size wasn't my goal.

But whatever your goal is, is your business. I just hate to see people do unhealthy things to reach unhealthy goals, and there's no denying that a number of women do that. A friend of mine a few years ago who was so proud of her weight loss, and she really looked fantastic, but couldn't carry a 20# bucket of kitty litter, was doing that. Thankfully, she changed her priorities. She still looks fantastic, but she's healthier now.

I don't like to see people hurt themselves. If that makes me a bad person... I can live with that.

robin52077

I wear a size 0, or 1 or 2 depending on the brand...and I can toss around the 50 lb bags of sugar at work no problem, and I look great in a bikini (see almost naked pics on profile), so really it is just YOUR interpretation of what those words mean that is your issue.
Don't bash people for wanting to fit into their jeans that they were intended to fit into due to their natural height and bone structure. Nothing wrong with being a 0 if you have 60 pounds of plates on the bar on your weight bench in the other room....

auticus

Here's some reality....

Unhealthy is unhealthy, whether you are thin and unhealthy, or fat and unhealthy.

The thing is in this culture, fat is considered ugly. Thin is not. That's not going to change.

If we didn't care, we wouldn't be torturing ourselves to lose weight. Most people seem to want to lose weight so that they can look good. It's mostly a vanity thing.

If society gave fat people the same rewards socially as thin people, I can guarantee you that the number of people trying to lose weight would drop off exponentially.

Hating on thin people does nothing. It just makes you seem angry and bitter. Yes ... it is a genetic lottery. And yes... many of us fat people lost that lottery. You can't do anything about it other than work hard and watch what you eat.

I feel your pain. I work out in the gym several times a week and run upwards of 25 miles a week and I'm stuck with a pot belly and low muscle tone. If I miss going to the gym for two weeks, any strength gains I had are gone. On the flip side I have buddies that work out minimally once a week and have low body fat, look ripped, and have a lot of strength, and don't lose much of it by not working out regularly. Socially they get the rewards of the genetic lottery.

Use that anger and bitterness as fuel in the gym. Not on other people. They don't deserve being hated on because they are thin or in shape.

anubis609

I believe anyone can be "healthy" at any size.

If you don't like the words "thin" or "skinny," how about "slim" and "trim?"

Or if you're a dietary food product, how about "non-fat" and "low-fat?"

Diabetics can have "carb controlled" and "lower sugar."

I can go on if you'd like...

SkateboardFi

I believe anyone can be "healthy" at any size.

If you don't like the words "thin" or "skinny," how about "slim" and "trim?"

Or if you're a dietary food product, how about "non-fat" and "low-fat?"

Diabetics can have "carb controlled" and "lower sugar."

I can go on if you'd like...

tomfoolery.

Namaste1983

I prefer the word "slim"... (Hence the screen name!)

I don't wanna see no bones...

WHEN I SAW YOUR NAME I THOUGHT SLIMSHADY
NO JOKE
BWAHAHAH!
LOVE YA

jess3012

just because your skinny/thin/slim doesn't mean your unhealthy at all! neither does being able to lift a bottle of water onto a self no matter what your size!

When i was a uk size 8 i could lift bleach boxes and cases of 5l pop onto top shelfs! and i sure wasn't muscley!!

Maybe people should let other people be!

ItsCasey

It's not "thin-bashing." It's expressing frustration with women who think being thin will solve all their problems. Being thinner doesn't necessarily make you healthier or more attractive, but you have these girls/women who think the more weight they can lose, the better their lives will be. They lose tons of weight, still don't like what they see, so they keep losing more. They don't understand that being happy with your body is about so much more than being thin. If you're thin and you know you are healthy, then clearly the OP wasn't talking about you.

The biggest problem I've seen with all the Kim Kardashian-worshipping is girls thinking they need plastic surgery as teenagers in order to be beautiful. They want boob jobs and butt jobs and eyebrow lifts and botox and lip injections, etc. It's not "She's curvy, so I will love my own curves." It's "I need implants to be as beautiful as she is." I remember the same sort of ideas floating around when Britney Spears was at the peak of her popularity. She wasn't particularly thin, but she was very lean, and she flaunted it. Most girls seemed to think they could get her body by starving themselves. They didn't realize that she was genetically gifted but also that she worked out like a maniac back then (before she started smoking like a chimney and eating Cheetos morning, noon, and night).

People's ideas about how to get to a level of "happy" with your appearance are just messed up.

LisaKyle11

its a real shame that marketing in the past has been geared to very slim athletic models.
i am stoked that the rides are turning with the likes of jlo, beyonce , halle berry, kim kardashian, pin kand many more that embrace their curves:)
I love my curves i just want to tone up so that i dont have a layer of unhealthy fat sitting ontop of all my muscles!
i think if everyone focussed on a healthy lifestlye the weightloss would naturally happen and we would all be at our perfect dhape and size:)

.... yes. a TON of this is the media/marketing. i have 4 daughters and sorting through all of this is a slippery slope! overall, women should feel comfortable and happy in their own skin (and NOT based upon what we think men will like or find attractive -- ugh, a huge peeve). if we could just stop comparing ourselves to what the media slaps in our faces of what 'beauty or fit' should look like, it may be a lot easier. i can deal with it and be comfortable with how i am built and my body, but convincing my teenage daughters to accept, love, and respect how they are built is going to be a constant work in progress.

shawnscott5

Hmmm, I'm thinking really hard on how to word this right now. I'm not sure if you were being negative to "thin" and "skinny" people or not. But I will just tell you about when I was "thin" and "skinny".

When I was thin at 115 lbs, I had a ton of muscle. I was healthy and still had meat on my bones. I used to bartend and was able to lift two barstools, one with each hand to put up on the bar. I was able to lift kegs of beer, glass racks, I was physically fit.

Just because someone is thin or skinny, does not mean that they are unhealthy or unattractive. There are different levels of "thin", just like there are different levels of being "overweight". Eating right and working out is very healthy. It is healthy to be at a good weight for your height and bone structure. I am 5' 3" with a large bones structure. My "ideal" weight according to the charts is 104 lbs to 140 lbs. At 104 my bones would stick out, at 140 I personally am overweight.

To each their own.....

auticus

Being thinner doesn't necessarily make you healthier or more attractive, but you have these girls/women who think the more weight they can lose, the better their lives will be

Well if your issue with being fat is the bad image you have and not health reasons, getting thin DOES help that. We can hate that all day long but that's just the bottom line. As such, losing weight makes a person generally more attractive, and that in turn does better their life from a social stand point (again which is why most of us torture ourselves to lose weight)

Does it make you healthier? We can debate that from here to tomorrow, but in most cases going from obese to ideal weight IS healthier. Going from obese to ideal weight is also measured as more attractive in our society. The bottom line is ... going from obese to ideal weight does better your life unless you are one of those rare people that exist and just do not care what others think and your internal numbers happen to say that your sugars, blood pressure, and cholesteral are normal even while obese (rare).

Most people are not that person though. We are social creatures programmed a certain way, and obese people have a hard time achieving that internal programming because society says that obese people are inferior in many ways. I didn't write the rules, but as a former obese male, I certainly understand the mindset of not wanting to be obese anymore. You quite simply get rewarded for not being fat and you get punished for being fat. Hate it, hate me for saying it, whatever you want, but that's reality to most people and that's why we are motivated to not be fat any longer.

Maggieq87

When I say I want to be thin, I mean 199 lbs....

myofibril

I agree with the OP to the extent that I think I shift in viewpoint for men, but especially women, from skinny / thin to desiring a strong, healthy and functional physique would be beneficial.

Your tailor your methods to your goals. If your goal is simply to be thin or skinny your methods can include, though not necessarily will include, starving yourself, omitting resistance training, eating unhealthily etc. The ends for some people justify the means.

If your goal is to be strong, healthy and functional your methods will, in general, be of more overall benefit to the long term of your life. As a nice bonus though you generally end up with a pretty good physique as well. To me that is maximising your investment in yourself.

TheBraveryLover

Thin sounds fine to me. It's the word "skinny" that has a negative connotation to me that I don't understand why people use it so often. Sometimes they refer to slim people as skinny and that's just odd to me. I think it's fine to want to be thin or even waif-like; both can be very beautiful. I just dislike the word skinny. It's always been an ugly word to me. Not sure why.

sinclare

So really, this is just an argument of semantics?

It seems like nobody wants to be unhealthy, but from where I stand there isn't anything wrong with wanting to look like you've put the work in that you have by being thin.

I don't understand anyone taking a negative connotation from the word "thin" or "skinny" - to me, they're adjectives and if I wanted to offend someone those aren't the words that I would use personally. I do think it's a little offensive to say that "skinny" people can't do any heavy lifting, because that isn't true of all people under a certain weight. Let's not forget that there are plenty of lazy "curvy" people, who probably can't do any heavy lifting either. In fact, your weight isn't directly correlated with your strength at all.

I just think it's a little ignorant to call people out on wanting to look a certain way and making the assumption that it means they'd be unhealthy or weak to do so.

I'm not trying to start an argument, I just wanted to register my opinion.

I don't know what it is......thin bashing in the hope of raising the morale of fat women?

Why engage in thin or other body bashing at all?

The day we evolve out of the reptilian R-cortex need to ostracize and punish those who look “different” from “the aspired-to tribe” will be a welcome one.

this!

i love my skinny sisters and my curvy sisters...we are sisters, after all. Be kind to one another!

LorinaLynn

I'm not "hating" on anyone, and I don't think the OP was either.

Here's another example. I have a cousin who's my age (39) who thinks she's fat if she's over 100 pounds. She's weak, frail and sickly, and smokes like a fiend, but refuses to eat enough to reach a healthy weight because in her head, being very, very thin is the ideal.

I am not jealous of her. I don't want to have to buy my clothes in the children's department. I don't want to be under 100 pounds. I don't want to need to be hospitalized because my body isn't able to fight off a common cold. I pity her. I wish there was something I could say, her mom could say, her friends could say, her doctors could say to help her. But she's convinced what she's doing is what's right, and sadly, that will shorten her life.:frown:

littlemili

THIN girls may fit into size 0 pants, but THIN girls usually can't lift a case of water onto the top shelf.

Rubbish. I'm a size zero and I can lift my boyfriend. Stop stereotyping.

ohskinnyme

I am so sick and tired of hearing girls about wanting to be SKINNY and THIN. I guess it shouldn't bother me as much- but let's focus on becoming better role models for our future generations as well as ourselves.

THIN girls may fit into size 0 pants, but THIN girls usually can't lift a case of water onto the top shelf.

SKINNY girls may look good in a bikini but that doesn't mean you're healthy.

Please, females of the world. Let's work on becoming healthy, happy women. The number on the scale doesn't make us who we are- but we SHOULD be healthy, strong and happy.

This is so ignorant. Thin girls can be strong, too. You don't have to weight 140lbs to be strong.

IWillWinSkinny

I'm just gona say what probably a lot of people are thinking (cause I do that)...... Jealousy. Most people say they wouldn't want to be "skinny" - they are happy having curves etc...

But the truth is, if a magic genie came along and offered to make you look like Kate Moss (skinny in my opinion) then MOST (not all obviously) would jump at the chance of being skinny without putting all the effort in.

It's when a lot of curvy girls don't have the willpower to achieve skinny that they then decide to slate it, calling skinny people "unhealthy".

If someone was to start a thread saying overweight people can't possibly run 100 yards i'm sure all hell would let loose.... but some people think it's ok to say skinny people can't lift water?? That's the most absurd thing i've heard in a long time.

And for those of you who think I must be a stick insect with a phobia of fat people - I'm not.......I'm actually overweight myself, and I WANT to be skinny - and guess what - it DOES make you happier as well as healthier. Who loses weight and DOESN'T feel more confident when they're in a smaller dress size? Not everyone who is skinny has to have body dysmorphia or anorexia and be unhealthy ffs

Dizzle_65

If all women wwere as thin as Kate Moss it would be a depressing world and some women would look plain weird.

Fat - thin - tall - short it should all be about health.

Concentrate on what you want to achieve, why stress about others goals unless it has a direct impact on you?

Most on here would find it objectionable to hate on fat people so why is it acceptable to hate "skinny" people?