I'm at goal, but am I too skinny now?

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  • pkw58
    pkw58 Posts: 2,039 Member
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    People say things when you lose weight that are ridiculous. You look great. Exercise and weight training will make you feel even greater. And help you sleep. Which all adds up to making you look great.

    I do believe that the BMI can be wrong either way.. within the top or the bottom of the range..I went to see a performing arts doctor/therapist and it was pretty amazing how much lower my weight could be vs the "insurance charts" I had looked at and the on line calculators. Go see a specialist for peace of mind.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    Congratulations. You're not too thin. You have done great.

    I would stick to your goal and start exercising to build some muscle. You will look even MORE fabulous.

    Nerd fitness is great. Love that site. Also look up the NY Times 7 minute fitness routine (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-minute-workout/).

    Frankly, I just walk an hour a day and use a Pilates ball as a chair at work and have lost MANY inches since I've been maintaining. My two sons - who look like models and have great shoulders and abs - just do 20 pushups and 20 situps every day before bed, plus a LOT of walking and carrying around heavy backpacks. Fitness doesn't have to be expensive.
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
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    I am backing others and saying, you do not look too thin.

    You have to remember people are comparing you to how you used to be, and you are now much smaller. So people might start thinking you are too thin.

    If you want to keep improving your body, I think you should concentrate on increasing your muscle mass.
  • garnerish
    garnerish Posts: 67 Member
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    There's also a problem where being overweight has become somewhat normalised.

    You see people at a healthy BMI and they do often look almost too skinny because everyone's gotten used to seeing a bit of pudge.
  • derykl
    derykl Posts: 4 Member
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    Great, thanks for the additional advice, all helps. I think the general consensus is that I could definitely use a bit of improvement to composition/muscle and I don't think that's a major problem or would need to be expensive or overly time consuming. But despite this there isn't any recoiling in horror (though I'm sure there'll be one eventually!), which is a good sign, and I haven't overshot and gone too thin.

    I used to dread any talk of gyms or other organised exercise as I had the same vision that I think many others do - that you have to spend every free waking hour trotting along on a treadmill bored out of your mind or spend hours shifting weights (instead of minutes). Or that you have to start playing around with protein supplements. But it seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong, that unless you have certain ambitious / competitive goals you don't need to spend your life on it to see some great benefits, or do anything too special to an already decent diet. In fact to get here, I've been getting away with a pretty traditional balanced diet (which my body is quite happy with compared to before when the nearest it saw to a vegetable in an entire week was the bit of shredded cabbage in a doner kebab on a Saturday night), and not the low carb / high protein paleo etc that many recommend (I love rice and pasta).
    It is perhaps going to be more important now with the muscle stuff, but then I'm not looking to "get ripped in 6 weeks" but quite happy with small, gradual, sustainable long term improvements.

    Compared to the effort of losing a third of my own body weight, a 15 minute strength workout a few times a week really doesn't sound too difficult, even if it takes just as long (a year) to see clear results.

    Currently I try to go for a 20-30 minute brisk walk every lunchtime which I am fine with, it gets me into town for a look around. A lot of the time I cycle to work and back now, it's not far (downhill there, 7-8 mins, uphill back 12 mins) but with these extra activities even though they're short and sweet I think they add up and also just the overall "more active" mindset helps.
    Some other times of the year will be more tricky (Northern UK. We get a lot of rain), maybe that's where the gym will come in, will have to see what happens.

    Fortunately I do really enjoy at least one physical activity: mountaineering.. which is one major reason I wanted to get my body under control. That's fairly seasonal again in that it's more of a spring/autumn thing (too hot in summer, and many of the fells can be quite dangerous in the icy winter) but something else that helps. I'm hoping to be getting into it for regular weekends again within the next few weeks as summer tails off.
  • viross5000
    viross5000 Posts: 5
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    Congratulations, amazing weight loss achievement. I agreement with others, not too skinny - I think you could stay at this weight, or drop a little lower if you want a bit more of a cushion and either would be fine. Resistance training will give additional definition.

    I wanted to respond on the comment about people saying you're too skinny - I had similar comments from friends and family after losing weight. The same people were the ones who told me I looked fine when I was three stone heavier (I didn't, I was clearly overweight). As someone else said, I think it's partly to do with overweight having been normalised, and partly to do with what their perception of you is. I have tried to block out what others say and choose what I think looks healthy, know is healthy by verifying BMI for example/body fat % etc and can maintain (i'm never going to be able to obtain a bmi of 18 because my 'comfortable' maintenance calories at that weight are just too low to accomodate my life and choice of eating. Another thing that helps is making sure you have clothes that fit properly - too big clothes make you look smaller than you really are!
  • junlex123
    junlex123 Posts: 81 Member
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    Fortunately I do really enjoy at least one physical activity: mountaineering.. which is one major reason I wanted to get my body under control. That's fairly seasonal again in that it's more of a spring/autumn thing (too hot in summer, and many of the fells can be quite dangerous in the icy winter) but something else that helps. I'm hoping to be getting into it for regular weekends again within the next few weeks as summer tails off.

    Not sure what type of mountaineering you do, but if there's a lot of climbing involved you might consider looking for an indoor climbing gym to improve when outdoor trips are out of the question.
  • larrodarro
    larrodarro Posts: 2,512 Member
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    Great, thanks for the additional advice, all helps. I think the general consensus is that I could definitely use a bit of improvement to composition/muscle and I don't think that's a major problem or would need to be expensive or overly time consuming. But despite this there isn't any recoiling in horror (though I'm sure there'll be one eventually!), which is a good sign, and I haven't overshot and gone too thin.

    I used to dread any talk of gyms or other organised exercise as I had the same vision that I think many others do - that you have to spend every free waking hour trotting along on a treadmill bored out of your mind or spend hours shifting weights (instead of minutes). Or that you have to start playing around with protein supplements. But it seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong, that unless you have certain ambitious / competitive goals you don't need to spend your life on it to see some great benefits, or do anything too special to an already decent diet. In fact to get here, I've been getting away with a pretty traditional balanced diet (which my body is quite happy with compared to before when the nearest it saw to a vegetable in an entire week was the bit of shredded cabbage in a doner kebab on a Saturday night), and not the low carb / high protein paleo etc that many recommend (I love rice and pasta).
    It is perhaps going to be more important now with the muscle stuff, but then I'm not looking to "get ripped in 6 weeks" but quite happy with small, gradual, sustainable long term improvements.

    Compared to the effort of losing a third of my own body weight, a 15 minute strength workout a few times a week really doesn't sound too difficult, even if it takes just as long (a year) to see clear results.

    Currently I try to go for a 20-30 minute brisk walk every lunchtime which I am fine with, it gets me into town for a look around. A lot of the time I cycle to work and back now, it's not far (downhill there, 7-8 mins, uphill back 12 mins) but with these extra activities even though they're short and sweet I think they add up and also just the overall "more active" mindset helps.
    Some other times of the year will be more tricky (Northern UK. We get a lot of rain), maybe that's where the gym will come in, will have to see what happens.

    Fortunately I do really enjoy at least one physical activity: mountaineering.. which is one major reason I wanted to get my body under control. That's fairly seasonal again in that it's more of a spring/autumn thing (too hot in summer, and many of the fells can be quite dangerous in the icy winter) but something else that helps. I'm hoping to be getting into it for regular weekends again within the next few weeks as summer tails off.

    You are doing great, and look good just as you are. But lifting will make you look and feel even better. It sounds like you are getting plenty of cardio already. I bought two dumbbell bars and slowly added weights as I needed them. You are young enough that putting on muscle will be pretty easy. {I have 21 years on you, so it's a little tougher for me} Eating enough protein is important, even if you are not lifting. I try to get enough without much of the powder. Plain Greek yogurt, chicken, fish, seeds and nuts are great low calorie protein sources. But as long as you do exercise to keep within your goals, low calorie foods are not necessary.

    Larro
  • wbandel
    wbandel Posts: 530 Member
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    I lost a bunch of weight with cardio, but mostly just adjusting my eating habits (80lbs). After I dropped to a normal weight I was really boney but skinny fat. That might be what people are noticing in your case. I found that going to the gym and just doing even a bit of work on the weight machines was enough to help put some muscle on top of my bones again so that I wasn't so scrawny and sickly looking. You could even do free weights at home. You could probably stay there or keep going to your goal and then just focus on regaining muscle.

    Best of luck!
  • TonyStark30
    TonyStark30 Posts: 497 Member
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    If you decide to put the muscle on the best advice i can give you is to keep losing the weight now, regardless if you get calls skinny. Its better to continue losing the fat you want to lose now bfore changing how you go about it.

    Once you are as lean as you want to be in life, then go about adding muscle to be the size you want to be.

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