For females 5'7-5'8

I am 5'8.5" and at my lightest (many years ago) I was low to mid 120s skinnyfat and it was totally unmaintainable. I am older & wiser now, and my current goal is to fit into the same size jeans as I wore then, but with an extra 20 pounds of muscle, in order to be fit & healthy and to be able to maintain the size on a normal caloric intake. I don't know how realistic my goal is, but I suspect I will find out before the year is out. :bigsmile:

Oh yeah, also, I was sick all the time back then too, and I was never once happy with the look of my body, because although my size was small, I still had fat squishing out everywhere. I know now that I wanted to be FIT, not skinny (aka, skinnyfat). And the good news is that by being fit, I can achieve the same size at a higher body weight and thus eat more daily, making it totally sustainable for life.

YMMV.
Good luck.

I am 5'8" and 125. I am working on toning up, I had 2 babies in the past 3 years and still a little flabby, but it's getting better! Some seem to think this is a low weight for the height, but it's where I have always felt my best, and I have a small frame.

I haven't posted a picture before, so it might take a few tries to work.

This is an older topic, but relevant to me now. I'm 5'8" and currently weigh 116 (BMI 17.6). I've honestly never felt better, and have healthfully and easily lost about 25 lbs in about 8 months. For the majority of that time I simply ate less food (portion-wise, not cutting anything out). I'm vegan and eat a well balanced diet, but don't count calories. I'm now working on getting back into running, gaining a bit of muscle mass and toning. I haven't felt this good while running since college! I believe I'm currently on the track to lose more (naturally), and am now learning how to maintain where I am.

BMI is such a limited scale. There are plenty of people who are perfectly healthy at an underweight BMI.

I am 5'6.5" and my fav weight of all was 110. I felt fit and loved being easily the slimmest person at work/friends etc. I tried maintainance and have done my best to accept that I should give it time, not be too skinny etc. But I hate my current weight of 118, and am now having to go back to losing. Hey ho. We live and learn.

I am 5'8 I was 261lbs. It's been 14 months I am down to 174 lbs. my goal weight is 150 that is for my body type. I have posted a pic below.

09/2012


4/6/2014

I'm 5'7" and I looked disgusting & too skinny at 110 & 120lbs. I had no muscle & looked like a scarecrow.

Right now I float around 133-136lbs and I'm happy at that.

I wouldn't go below 125 and wouldn't go above 140.

I totally agree. At that height, I've been 110 (crazy underweight looking, not healthy AT ALL, which surprised me) and 149 (a bit too much extra for me).

Aiming for 135.

I am 5'6.5" and my fav weight of all was 110. I felt fit and loved being easily the slimmest person at work/friends etc. I tried maintainance and have done my best to accept that I should give it time, not be too skinny etc. But I hate my current weight of 118, and am now having to go back to losing. Hey ho. We live and learn.

I find the bolded part funny...sorry....but really???? feeling fit and being fit are two different things...

Anyway I am 5 ft 7 and I have weighed sub 130 and hated it...

I currently am 158 and wear a size 5/6 - may even get to a size 4 at some point...I am happy with my weight (looking to get down a few more pounds) but I prefer to have 20-22% BF...

The "normal" or "healthy" weight brackets are based on averages of the female population to some extent I believe.

That being said, I will probably never cut down to anything lower than 145lbs at 5'8. Much lower than that and it just doesn't jive with the body composition and appearance that I am striving for. As far as "healthy", body fat is a better indicator than your weight.

I am 5'6.5" and my fav weight of all was 110. I felt fit and loved being easily the slimmest person at work/friends etc. I tried maintainance and have done my best to accept that I should give it time, not be too skinny etc. But I hate my current weight of 118, and am now having to go back to losing. Hey ho. We live and learn.

8lbs is pretty much negligible when it comes to appearance on someone that is your height.

Wow, my lbm is around 120! I'm 5'7". Aiming for about 147.

I have been that low but only when I was anorexic.

I am 5'8'' and now at roughly 138 lbs (62,5 kg). I'd love to go down to 125 lbs but I'm not sure if this is maintainable for me. Even at my current weight people I talk to doubt that I'm above 130, I've got quite a thigh gap and my ribs and hip bones are sticking out. It all comes down to frame size in my opinion. I am really large framed so my bones are showing even at a higher weight.
I like the skinny look though and would like to go lower and just see how it looks.
The skinniest I've ever been was when I was 13 (5'6.5'' at that time), and at 103 lbs after losing 25 lbs in a very short time due to a very restrictive diet. Don't want to go back to that weight, that's for sure.

Do any of you happen to weigh less than what is minimum for the height bracket? For example, do any of you weight 110-120? 120-128? I'd just like to hear about your overall health and if you are comfortable/happy with your size/body?

Pictures are welcome!

I've been in all those brackets. I've felt fine in all of them. I think how you feel really depends more on your health and fitness then it does your weight. For example if you're active and 130 vs a sedentary 120, you're going to feel better at 130. Here are some examples of my weight:
120, sedentary:

starting to get active, 120:

Then I took up weight lifting, active, 130:


Before when I was running to lose weight before I started lifting (still at 130):

notice my flabby *kitten*

vs the lifting *kitten* at the same weight

130lb not lifting vs 130lb lifting:


For face comparison:
140 sedentary:

130 now:

I'm currently 135 and just under 5"8 tall.

Happy to see this topic being talked about! I am 5'7" and currently weigh about 133, which was my original goal, down from 200 after my fifth daughter was born. I weighed 133 in college and felt great about it, so I thought I would again. Instead, this time at this weight (maybe since having five babies) my body has changed and I feel "skinny fat." So as a result, I have since lowered my new goal down to 122, which is based off of the bottom of the "normal" or "healthy" weight range chart for my height and my small frame. However, since joining MFP, I have been inspired by the females who lift, and CoderGal's pics are a perfect example. SO, I'll let you know as I get closer, but I want to change my body more than I want to change the number I'm seeing on the scale...but like everything it's a process. Haven't started lifting yet, and still trying to drop down to my new goal weight in order to lose some more of the excess fat.

Thanks for your kind words guys.

I don't lift nearly as much as the people who inspire me, who have had dramatic dramatic changes. The bolded part above is exactly how I felt before. Except for instead of babies I told people I must be 'old'. I thought it was a valid excuse before. I'm softer because I'm older. I'm saggier because I"m older. 'Butt' now I probably have a better shaped butt then I did as a teen. I also have a flatter stomach. And looking at some of the females in their 40s-50s here that have better bodies then I do (who use to be obese), I know exactly why I didn't feel the same. Particularly thinking about the past. I use to move a lot more in the past (ie dancing 9 times a week), hence I had a better body then compared to when I was older and lost weight to be the same weight...because I didn't move as much, so things weren't as firm. Yes, metabolisms slow. But not as much as many of us think. We can have better bodies then in our teens if we try. The problem is, finding the time to do so! And there's places to 'squat' some of it in without much effort, even if we can't do as much as we'd optimally like. Always time to do a pull up before I leave the house since I have a bar in the entrance lol. And for a few pushups before I pee for example. Unless public washroom...then ew.

Also I'd mention there is such thing as loose skin and the like. Particularly after babies. But what a lot of people do not realize is weight does not come off the same way it is put on. And after training a lot of that 'loose' looking skin turns out to be fat and diminishes after training. My butt use to droop over itself. Now it doesn't (and you can tell by multiple angles in the other pics as well).



Another thing that often happens is your pant size goes up...not because you're getting bigger...but because fat is easily squished into jeans. Perky muscular bums, not so much. Even though inches went down. It confuses many.