never heard the term "skinny fat" before joining this forum

Options
1246

Replies

  • babyblooz
    babyblooz Posts: 220 Member
    Options
    This thread is about to get awesome! I'm grabbing some popcorn.

    Just make sure you do a few squats while chowing down or your *kitten* will be skinny fat.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    Options
    I don't get how someone can be forced to feel shame because of what someone else said. For me, shame comes from within, not from other people. IMO that's a character flaw and people who can be shamed by others should be ashamed of themselves.

    Oh really, when I was a little kid I was raped by my stepfather (and that is putting it mildly) and I felt shame about my body, so I guess that was a character flaw in me. I have worked very hard to overcome it, not saying that I have not (and of course I am responsible for myself and I am now an adult). But, it's a very ignorant thing you think and say here.
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
    Options
    The term skinny fat has been around for a long time, maybe even prior to internet. I first heard the term about 15 years ago.
    It is ok when used in proper context - normal BMI, but fat % considered overweight or obese.

    There doesn't even seem like there are any good cheap ways to even measure body fat % in the first place, yet we are judging people based on it.

    A tape measure? I know a few years ago I found a spreadsheet online where you take measurements with a tape measure, insert it into the spreadsheet, and it would spit out BMI and BF%... When I get home I will try to find it again... while it isn't as accurate as say calipers in a trained professionals office, it can at least give you a clue.... and then there are the scales you can buy, etc... again, may not be highly accurate but at least it's something to go off of.
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    Options
    I'd never heard it before coming to MPF either. I must not get out much. It seems like a passive aggressive term used by heavier or fit people to try and make thin, perhaps less fit people feel bad about themselves. It just seems mean spirited.
  • sss1966
    sss1966 Posts: 110 Member
    Options
    That's a new terminology to me too x
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
    Options
    I'd never heard it before coming to MPF either. I must not get out much. It seems like a passive aggressive term used by heavier or fit people to try and make thin, perhaps less fit people feel bad about themselves. It just seems mean spirited.

    That's how some people use it... but that's not what it is intended to be used for nor mean.
  • lacurandera1
    lacurandera1 Posts: 8,083 Member
    Options
    This thread is about to get awesome! I'm grabbing some popcorn.


    False prophet. I tried to make your prediction manifest but.... :sad:
  • MurphysLawTD
    MurphysLawTD Posts: 310 Member
    Options
    I thought it referred to those who were naturally thin, but had terrible eating habits. I grew up super thin but ate *kitten* all the time.
  • x_ItNeverEnds_x
    x_ItNeverEnds_x Posts: 134
    Options
    at first i thought people were talking about women who are skinny but with thick thighs or arms.

    then i see pictures of what people are considering "skinny fat", and it's pretty much skinny people who don't have that beach body.

    stop being insecure, people. any person who is fat or obese would kill to be "skinny fat"

    I don't want to be skinny fat. I was overweight, now in the normal zone. Skinny fat is small but squishy. I want to be lean and firm, not jiggly with a muffin.
  • erinsueburns
    erinsueburns Posts: 865 Member
    Options
    sure, there's such a thing as "skinny fat". I used to see them in the gym- they'd kill themselves on cardio machines, ignore the strength training section, and their *kitten* were thin, but pretty much hung to the backs of their knees. Zero muscle tone.

    Weird. What kind of cardio were they doing that didn't use their glutes??

    Honestly, too much treadmill not enough running on real ground. Treadmills don't require you to push off the same way that running on real ground does. Especially if you are holding on to it.
  • Melampus
    Melampus Posts: 95 Member
    Options
    How exactly would having too much fat cause nutrient deficiencies? Surely that was due to poor diet and/or malabsorption issues. Either of which could exist regardless of your BF%.

    This, of course, illustrates a commonly made mistake: two things occur together therefore one must cause the other. The number of times the assumption is made is incredible. Sometimes it may even be right but unless a mechanism for cause and effect has been found one can never be sure there isn't instead a common cause to the two things observed.

    Perhaps the most significant for people here is link between obesity and health problems. I don't think there is any doubt that there are health issues that are more common for people who are obese. The fact that this has been observed does not mean, however, that the obesity causes the health problems. It may do, or maybe a poor lifestyle (junk diet and lack of exercise) causes both the obesity and the heath problems. It could even be a combination, i.e. the poor lifestyle directly causes some health problems as well as causing obesity which in turn causes other health problems. If the relationship is not as simple as "obseity causes the health problems" that would explain why some people may have those same health problems without being obviously obese.

    Of course that does not mean tacking obesity is not a good idea but perhaps it may mean some options for doing so are better than others. Eating hardly anything would not be a good option whereas a diet that matches the energy you eat with what you use in exercise, which you take enough of, and is a good source of the other nutrients you need surely must be good for you.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    Options
    I don't get how someone can be forced to feel shame because of what someone else said. For me, shame comes from within, not from other people. IMO that's a character flaw and people who can be shamed by others should be ashamed of themselves.

    Oh really, when I was a little kid I was raped by my stepfather (and that is putting it mildly) and I felt shame about my body, so I guess that was a character flaw in me. I have worked very hard to overcome it, not saying that I have not (and of course I am responsible for myself and I am now an adult). But, it's a very ignorant thing you think and say here.
    Children can not be reasonably expected to have all the same 'character' qualities as an adult, so that obviously doesn't apply to children regardless of whether they had traumatic experiences.

    As an adult you say you are responsible for yourself, so what exactly is your problem with adults being responsible for themselves? Isn't that part of what "being an adult" means?

    What exactly am I ignorant about, and can you inform me so I am no longer ignorant about it?
  • Southernb3lle
    Southernb3lle Posts: 862 Member
    Options
    First time I heard it was from Pauline Nordin. It's a skinny person who is skinny but not alot of muscle.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    Options
    I don't get how someone can be forced to feel shame because of what someone else said. For me, shame comes from within, not from other people. IMO that's a character flaw and people who can be shamed by others should be ashamed of themselves.

    Oh really, when I was a little kid I was raped by my stepfather (and that is putting it mildly) and I felt shame about my body, so I guess that was a character flaw in me. I have worked very hard to overcome it, not saying that I have not (and of course I am responsible for myself and I am now an adult). But, it's a very ignorant thing you think and say here.
    Children can not be reasonably expected to have all the same 'character' qualities as an adult, so that obviously doesn't apply to children regardless of whether they had traumatic experiences.

    As an adult you say you are responsible for yourself, so what exactly is your problem with adults being responsible for themselves? Isn't that part of what "being an adult" means?

    What exactly am I ignorant about, and can you inform me so I am no longer ignorant about it?

    I never said that I had a problem with adults being responsible for themselves. I'm not sure where you got that from.

    I do know enough about the complexities of people not to say such blanket statements. And how can you not see how ridiculous it is that you said that people who feel shame should be ashamed of themselves, lol. Where to even begin on that.

    And some of the people on this site are 18 year olds that are still struggling with a distorted sense of body image and goals because they have not had the chance to learn yet. I'm only saying that I am personally aware of that and of other things. I'm not saying anyone else has to be.

    It's not my job to inform you. And it's not even a requirement that you choose to be. I just have an opinion on what you said.
  • emmalouc93
    emmalouc93 Posts: 328 Member
    Options
    I want to be skinny fat! Not everyone wants amazing muscular tone. Slim and curvy is the way to go for me.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    Options
    I do know enough about the complexities of people not to say such blanket statements. And how can you not see how ridiculous it is that you said that people who feel shame should be ashamed of themselves, lol. Where to even begin on that.
    Now you got it. Where to begin, by laughing. Then end, by laughing. Be sure to tip your waitress.:laugh:
  • BigDave1050
    BigDave1050 Posts: 854 Member
    Options
    This is what I think of when I heard skinny fat.

    after_zps2156aa01.gif


    When I was a teen, I was way skinny (160Lbs when I joined the Marines) and I was considered Skinny fat because I was "Soft". I can assure you that boot camp Changed that, after all the exercise and double rat meals, I graduated weighing 180lbs of muscle. When I got out of the Marines I just got Fat!
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Options
    at first i thought people were talking about women who are skinny but with thick thighs or arms.

    then i see pictures of what people are considering "skinny fat", and it's pretty much skinny people who don't have that beach body.

    stop being insecure, people. any person who is fat or obese would kill to be "skinny fat"

    Count me out of that category! I would much rather be fat and strong than to be skinny and weak.
  • Melampus
    Melampus Posts: 95 Member
    Options
    How are you guys measuring body fat percentage?

    I did see a journalist in a documentary being told he was "skinny fat" but that was after an MRI scan to look at the amount of visceral fat.

    I also wonder about percentages - how meaningful are they?

    As an example, if I eat a particular diet which has a certain percentage of energy from each of the main food groups I would be able to quote how much energy comes from fat, lets say 30%. If I then make one single change - I miss out two pieces of toast - that would mean that I was eating less carbohydrate. That means, as a percentage the proportion of energy from fat is now higher but that is because it is a bigger part of a smaller whole. The actual amount of fat in my diet would be unchanged because I had not changed the quantity of any of the things I eat that contain it. If you use the percentages as the yardstick you would conclude that my diet was worse for me by having less toast in it but in practice it may match my energy expenditure better.

    Likewise with the relative percentages of fat and lean body mass. If I have a certain percentage of fat which, lets assume, falls in the category of being too much, if I then built some muscle (and get heavier as a result) that means the fat is now a smaller percentage of my total mass. Does that really mean I am healthier?

    There will be some variation in the amount of muscle someone has and where they have it depending on what they do. Someone whose exercise consists mainly of walking, running, or cycling would tend to have more muscular legs and a less muscular upper body that someone who rows or goes rock climbing and the variation happens because the body maintains the muscles at the strength required for what you asks of them and no more.

    I wonder if this is another case where an absolute may be better than a relative. At the moment we have an approximate target weight range based on height (BMI) and then a target percentage of fat. Would we be better off to say that we should have a certain weight of fat, related to height, and that the amount of muscle is allowed to vary?

    As an example, for my height a healthy BMI would mean weighing between 56.7kg and 76.6kg. Using the healthly fat percentage for a man as quoted earlier in this thread that means having between 10.2kg of fat (56.7 x 18%) and 19.15kg of fat (76.6 x 25%)
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    Options
    I do know enough about the complexities of people not to say such blanket statements. And how can you not see how ridiculous it is that you said that people who feel shame should be ashamed of themselves, lol. Where to even begin on that.
    Now you got it. Where to begin, by laughing. Then end, by laughing. Be sure to tip your waitress.:laugh:

    :wink:

Categories