What, really, is "too thin"?

Sabine_Stroehm

Too thin, to any given person, is like porn - impossible to define, but you know it when you see it.

But like porn, it's rude to talk about.

hmm. I think it's necessary to talk about.

Well, YEAH, in some circumstances. However, I generally refrain from discussing porn with strangers.

Ummm. okay. That's an odd comparison then.

I thought we were talking "what is too thin".

To clarify - IMO, it is rude to comment on or discuss someone's weight, either too thick or too thin, unless asked specifically to do so.

The comparison was that pornography, like "thinness" or "fatness", is notoriously difficult to define and varies often by person. However, again, like pornography, a person's thinness/fatness is rude to discuss without being specifically asked to do.

I thought you were saying you thought it necessary to talk about porn, which I agree is important in some circumstances, but not in general company.

To me it can be rude, and it can be just uncomfortable. To me, a thread like this, leans toward the hypothetical *I* think someone's too thin, but what, really, is "too thin". That is uncomfortable to talk about, but may NEED to be talked about.
Does that make sense?

blytheandbonnie

'Too thin' is just like 'too fat'. It's only a problem if it affecting your health in a negative way. I think that if people are used to seeing you at a certain size, when you get to, or closer to, your ideal weight, you look unnaturally thin to people who are close to you. They are used to you at your old weight. Stay healthy, and they will get used to the new you.

kestrel359

yikes, that makes me a little queezy to look at. is that real or a photoshop?

I'm 90% certain that it is not photoshopped

SurfyFriend

Too thin is when you are less healthy than you would be at a higher weight due to lack of fat and/or muscle.

blytheandbonnie

Too thin is when you are less healthy than you would be at a higher weight due to lack of fat and/or muscle.

See. Healthy is the important thing!

RiverDancer68

yikes, that makes me a little queezy to look at. is that real or a photoshop?

The girl on the left is Luisel Ramos, and she actually died from complications due to anorexia (as did her sister :sad: ) When you start to have health issues, you are too thin.

Aviva92

yikes, that makes me a little queezy to look at. is that real or a photoshop?

The girl on the left is Luisel Ramos, and she actually died from complications due to anorexia (as did her sister :sad: ) When you start to have health issues, you are too thin.

oh wow, real it is!

RiverDancer68

My ribs have always been visible, even when I was at my highest. I got told that I looked too thin when I was around a 18.9% BMI....I put on weight and honestly am not happy. I didn't think I looked too thin, and I was doing super intense yoga (still am, just not daily) and eating a ton! I had a lot of energy and felt great....didn't have any health issues, but was getting a tiny bit disordered in my approach to how and what I consumed.

RiverDancer68

My ribs have always been visible, even when I was at my highest. I got told that I looked too thin when I was around a 18.9% BMI....I put on weight and honestly am not happy. I didn't think I looked too thin, and I was doing super intense yoga (still am, just not daily) and eating a ton! I had a lot of energy and felt great....didn't have any health issues, but was getting a tiny bit disordered in my approach to how and what I consumed.

And, by that I mean, I started to notice that I would get panicked if I ate over my calories on days that I didn't work out...I learned to relax that, but maybe I relaxed too much

Umeboshi

Too thin, to any given person, is like porn - impossible to define, but you know it when you see it.

But like porn, it's rude to talk about.

hmm. I think it's necessary to talk about.

Well, YEAH, in some circumstances. However, I generally refrain from discussing porn with strangers.

Ummm. okay. That's an odd comparison then.

I thought we were talking "what is too thin".

To clarify - IMO, it is rude to comment on or discuss someone's weight, either too thick or too thin, unless asked specifically to do so.

The comparison was that pornography, like "thinness" or "fatness", is notoriously difficult to define and varies often by person. However, again, like pornography, a person's thinness/fatness is rude to discuss without being specifically asked to do.

I thought you were saying you thought it necessary to talk about porn, which I agree is important in some circumstances, but not in general company.

Agreed!

wackyfunster

BMI is not a good indicator. Look at body fat% and lean body mass. For most women, 18-22% is 'optimal'. For most women, below 15% is not healthy or sustainable for long periods of time. For guys optimal range is maybe 10-14%, with under 6% being problematic. The area in between the two is questionable, and varies based on build and genetics.

arlenem1974

I think it also depends on how you carie it. My niece is almost 14 and wairs a size 0. I see her in a bathing suite and she looks good not skinny at all.

darleyschroeder

If your healthy and eating well and can be active then you're not too thin in my opinion. When your weight affects your daily life then it is a problem.

People are quick to call people to thin because America is used to overweight and obese citizens. I see more people overweight or obese than healthy people. That being said, coworkers would sometimes tell me I was "thin" when I was overweight still.

darleyschroeder

I think it also depends on how you carie it. My niece is almost 14 and wairs a size 0. I see her in a bathing suite and she looks good not skinny at all.

Maybe because she is just 14....I am sure things will change for her as she grows into adulthood. A lot of teenage girls have an awkward super thin time. I used to look kinda anorexic when I was 6/7th grade, but I ate like a horse and was very active.

brevislux

Different people have different standards. I've heard people say I was too thin, but I'm insanely healthy and actually really strong. So if you feel good and you like the way you look, it shouldn't matter to you.

pkw58

I agree with all the posters who "know it when they see it" and "america has a distorted view of "healthy". My weight range by most charts for my height has a range of 40-60 pounds. I felt like crap at the higher end of the range.

"Too thin" is when you can't keep your energy level up to be functional and enjoy life. Same can be said for "too fat".

"Too thin" is when you are always in a bad mood because you are hungry. Same can be said for "too fat".

It's all about the balance.

MooMooooo

When I took up the gauntlet to lose weight, my primary reason was to be healthier. And to be a good role model for my kids. I think I have done pretty well, maybe losing a little more than I had planned, but I do plan on lifting even more to gain some muscle. Still haven't quite figured out how to do that, but I'm sure I will.

But I digress a bit. A friend of the family (well, to be honest, a friend of my husband) flat out told me that I am getting too thin. I may have been at the lowest end of healthy BMI when being told that, but that does mean normal weight in any case, so I don't get the comment. What is too thin? Or is it that people think normal west is thin because so many of us are overweight, that we have skewed and distorted what constitutes thin and fat?

If someone is jealous and calls you 'too thin' then I guess you must be.

LOL - just joking.

Too thin is subjective - *I* think too thin is when you (as a woman) lose your period. Whatever weight that is for you - but that definition excludes female body builders who may have a good BMI but such low body fat that they lose their period too.

At the end of the day - what you decide you want your body to look like is up to you and no one else.

wigglypeaches

BMI is not a good indicator. Look at body fat% and lean body mass. For most women, 18-22% is 'optimal'. For most women, below 15% is not healthy or sustainable for long periods of time. For guys optimal range is maybe 10-14%, with under 6% being problematic. The area in between the two is questionable, and varies based on build and genetics.

This! This is an excellent answer! I'm seeing a lot of talk about our body image being skewed by the prevalence of obesity, but I would like to point out that our views are equally conditioned in the opposite direction, as well. I don't think you have to be supermodel thin to be too thin. If you body fat drops below a certain level, it's probably too thin whether you like the look or not - as a culture, our idea of thin is often as or more distorted than our idea of fat. It's an easy line to cross, especially when losing weight is already a focus.

runner2runner

You only have to look at pictures of runway models to see what too thin is. Not all of them are like that. I've seem some that do look healthy, but there are those whom you can see are too thin. If when you look at a person all you see is just bones then you know that person is too thin. I don't care if a person says they feel fine and healthy, but when they're so thin their bones look like they're going to rip right through their skin, that's not healthy. I've seen people like that and I always more about what's going on with the emotionally more than physically. Although a healthy weight does vary from person to person, I personally think there's an average limit for everyone which if they go below that they basically entering the danger zone. My brother and I have relatively small frames, although I'm slightly bigger than him. We were both once dangerously underweight at different stages of our live and we both remember people telling us that we were too thin. Although we did work out, it was our eating habits that failed us. We simply changed that and we were back on track. For me weight traing helped a lot since it helped to pile on a lot muscle and put on significant weight as a result. My brother still looks thin but he looks a lot healthier than he did before.

mactaffy84

It depends on the person. But regarding the OP's specific issue at hand, only you can really know if you have body dysmorphia/a distorted body image. You say you're at the low end of your BMI: Do you think you're fat? Do you think you still need to lose weight?

No, I don't think I'm too fat at all. I feel good, better than ever, in fact. I was just surprised. This particular person is overweight (and says it as a fact), but I don't think my "thinness" or "fatness" really is anyone else's business. I'm glad to see that I was on the right track. Thought maybe I was being too touchy!