"I don't want to be too thin" - a "fat" people thing to say?

joeamendiola

To me it has nothing to do with weight. I wouldn't want to leak like I was all skin and bones. It looks sick and weak.

pikselinka

alleycat88 people make up this usually as one of the excuses to not get thin (I'm not talking about anorexic thin here).

wewon

Hi!

Just something I overheard the other day that got me thinking. Usually larger people saying that they don't want to be "too thin" or "skinny".

In my opinion both of those terms are relative so one person views skinny as 5'5 110lbs person and another may say that the 5'5 girl is skinny at 120.

So when you say "I don't want to be skinny/too thin" what are you implying? Are you saying you don't find thin attractive or are you simply saying it because you don't believe you can reach a certain weight or is it just an excuse? Like you're heavy and you'd probably like to be that weight but are too lazy to actually work for it?

I don't mean to offend anyone. When I say I don't want to be skinny I mean under 120 (I'm 5'4) and at that weight I have hip bones jutting out and don't look healthy in my eyes.

I see it as the mirror image of not wanting to be "too fat". The comment should be taken at face value, no hidden meanings behind it. No need to assume that the person is saying it out of laziness or some passive-aggressive motives.

Either extreme is unattractive IMO.

melindadunston

To me curves and rolls are two different things...Yes it cracks me up when people say they are just curvy and they are actually obese. I am still about 10-15 lbs from being at the "healthy" weight range for my height. Too me being "too skinny" is showing ribs. I don't want to be able to count every rib. To each their own but if I could snap my fingers and be that thin I would rather stay where I am.

8goodgirl0

"too thin" to me means an unhealthy thinness. There is actually a level where it becomes just as medically unhealthy to be thin as to be overweight. I know this is easy for me to say since I don't face this issue, but I'd rather be too thin and have to over eat my way to healthiness than my current situation although I seriously doubt the solution to being too thin is more cookies and cupcakes like I would dream of.

I've noticed that a lot of people mention the 'too thin' thing a LONG way off of being near a BMI of 18.5 though.

I don't quite get why you'd even mention it until you thought you might be in danger of being 'too thin'

EmBlazes

Great topic!

I'm "obese" according to all the charts but I know people started to say I was "too thin" when I last lost a lot of weight when my cheeks looked too sunken and my bones started to show in my chest. By the way I wasn't even at the top end of the "healthy weight range BMI" and that happened to me.

Because BMI is an average way of looking at things it's important to look at the whole person.

For me, although I'd love to be at the lower end of a healthy BMI, I am not sure I would be able to maintain at that weight easily. It would become only a focus on how much I was eating and in my mind that's not really healthy either.

Personally I'd love to be more athletic and as everyone knows, when you are super-active, then you can eat more

LeenaRuns

I feel like "too skinny" for me is more about health. I'm 5'6" and weigh 115 lbs. I'm very active and I eat. A lot. Of healthy food. I'm strong (I lift 3x/week) and I have awesome endurance (I run 4x/week, training for a half marathon). Other people tell my that I'm too thin, but I'm really just in the best shape of my life (and believe me, I have been "too skinny" before).

Graceious1

I think it is about getting to the point where you feel really good about the way you look and feel. I lost two stone (28lb) before I joined here and want to lose 1 more and know that I will look and feel really good there. Good luck in your weight loss, this is a fantastic forum to achieve it.

There are some great comments on here.

mwilke

I know that they say that a healthy BMI for my height (5'2") is 101 to 136, the last time I remember being in that range was when I was in 8th grade (131). Even in the "obese" category right now at 175, I think that I look better than I have in a long time. And I am healthier than I have been in a long time- and only becoming more so. That being said, if I were to weigh 101 with my bone structure- I would look sick. I think I may even look sick at 136. I would gage it as a how I feel type of thing. If I couldn't maintain a weight in a healthy way, and if I didn't have the energy to work out- then I think I would be too thin.

8goodgirl0

Many people would say endurance athletes were 'too thin'. Too thin for what?

TrailRunner61

For me, "I don't want to be too thin" means that I dont want the rest of my body to look like a skeleton when I have finally burned all the fat off my stomach. I am 5ft 3, 138lbs and my legs, feet, arms, neck, well everything but my stomach, look too thin! My goal weight is 125 and that's a healthy weight for me but I can't stand the thought of the rest of me being thinner. My ankles and knees already hurt when I lie on my side and the bones touch, my tailbone is killing me because I've lost fat off my butt and that makes biking difficult and my collarbone looks like it did when I was anorexic soooo, it's not like I'm fat and can't 'get' skinny, I just don't want to look skinny. There is a big difference between SKINNY and healthy looking. I'm hoping that as I do more lifting, my body will fill out some but it's not going to do a thing where all these bones are sticking out. I guess I'll find out when I reach goal.
I hope that clears things up for you, from my perspective anyway.

fletchleg

I've said that at the start of my journey because I wouldn't feel comfortable being that way. Its not that I couldn't do it...I''ve found recently I can do anything i put my mind too.
For me personally I would prefer to be slightly bigger. IE a UK size 14/16 then an 8-10. Its a very personal choice and I think you're over analysing what people say. Everyone finds different sizes attractive so would obviously have different goals for themselves whilst changing their body.

escloflowneCHANGED

I don't want to be skinny or thin...I want to be fit!

pavingnewpaths

"Too thin," just means thin to the point where it's unhealthy to me. Just like "too fat."
i.e too thin would be about 105 for me (i'm 5'7"). It doesn't really have to do with what I can achieve because if I wanted to achieve a goal that low, I COULD. I just think it's absurd to want that because it simply isn't healthy. Just like settling for 160 pounds would be. Because that's still considered overweight (even taking into account things other than scale weight).

LorinaLynn

I was quite thin up until my mid-20s, and don't want to be there again.

I'm about 20 pounds heavier than I was in 1998. I think I look better now, except that I wore some padding in the chest in '98 that I didn't wear this time.



But I get what you're saying. It's even more prevalent with weight lifting. "I don't want to get too muscular," as if one just accidentally ends up looking like a bodybuilder.

woundedbydust

I can't speak for others, everyone has their own aesthetic preferences and I think that's totally okay as long as they're not being derogatory towards other peoples' body types, but I don't particularly want to be thin. Mostly because I don't think 'I want to be thin' is a healthy goal for me personally - I'm prone to extremes and I think I'd wind up pushing it too far and making myself miserable in the process - but also because truth be told I quite like my body already. I've always had an hourglass figure, when I slim down I'd ideally want to keep that. Just a little bit trimmer and with a lot more energy. For me 'too thin' would be losing all of my curves.

rml_16

I just don't want too many bones protruding, I'd kinda still like to have a little 'pudge' not massive, just a little something to grab I guess. I noticed someone mentioned people who think a little bit of fat = curves. Well I guess I'm an idiot? But I want curves, which I already have! Just need to lose the weight to show them off a bit more. I do like the 'thin' body, but it's just not how I want to see myself. Slightly busty curvy red head :P, but healthy weight is what I'm aiming for!

"Curvy" is a body shape, not a size. There is a difference between being overweight and having curves. If you are a pear or an hourglass, you will have curves at any weight.

shelbyfrootcake

"too thin" to me means an unhealthy thinness. There is actually a level where it becomes just as medically unhealthy to be thin as to be overweight. I know this is easy for me to say since I don't face this issue, but I'd rather be too thin and have to over eat my way to healthiness than my current situation although I seriously doubt the solution to being too thin is more cookies and cupcakes like I would dream of.

I've noticed that a lot of people mention the 'too thin' thing a LONG way off of being near a BMI of 18.5 though.

I don't quite get why you'd even mention it until you thought you might be in danger of being 'too thin'

Not me. I'm aiming for a BMI of 19 personally. I mean people who are bigger than I was before I even started trying to lose weight (140lb) saying that they are a worried about being too thin when they've got miles before getting to the unhealthy too thin stage.

LadyIvysMom

I don't understand why fat people feel they are allowed to tell healthy people they are 'too thin'.

I know, right?

Fat people are always complaining that other people are mean to them, that society is horrible to them etc.
Yet, since I've been dieting and frequenting fitness boards like this, I've seen fat women be 100 times meaner to thin women than I have ever seen a thin woman be to a fat woman. It's pretty hypocritical.

They'll say ridiculous crap like "real women have curves" (um, no, real women come in all shapes and sizes you moron) and assume all thin women are anorexic and unhealthy. Most people, in the USA anyway, are so fat that they literally have no idea what "too thin" really means.

I did the math and to be considered "underweight" at my height, I'd have to weigh 108 lbs. In my profile picture, I weighed around 135, to give you an idea. I don't think I look fat in my profile pic. I don't look thin in my profile pic either but imagine if I was 27 lbs lighter in it. I'd probably be a twig but still be considered a healthy weight.

There is a lot of hate and cruelty towards thin women nowadays and I am really sick of it.

iLoveMyPitbull1225

being too thin is not healthy and does not look good on most people. I have said this before. I have a small frame, I am 5'4 and 124. But if I lost 10 more pounds, I would be too thin, in my opinion. there would be nothing left of me