Living in the city of thin people
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intrepidelephant wrote: »I live in Toronto, which is a city of very thin women. There are a lot of Chinese girls who are absolutely teeny-tiny. The rest of us aren't far behind. Seriously, walking down super-fashionable Queen West, nobody is over a size 8. I'm 5'6 131 lbs, 25 inch waist, and always feel big boned, even though I know I probably look the same as everyone else. I went to London, UK and the girls were much heavier in general than Toronto girls. Does this happen to anyone else?
I am 5'10" so will never look as tiny as a petite woman who is 5' tall.
But on a university campus, where I work, I fit in fine as a thin, tall woman. When I go visit home in Massachusetts, I look emaciated compared to people there. I am in the Netherlands at the moment and am thin for my age, but not outstandingly so and just slightly above average height.
When I travel to Chile, I am 8" too tall and stand out like a sore thumb.
If I go to NYC I am average.
Yes, context is important. I think one of the things that helped me stay thinner even before I lost weight is that I am always surrounded by 18-21 year olds at work.
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Cliff Notes:
Chinese people live in Canadia. Not China apparently....and big bones.0 -
I think the OP was just making an observation. Why are people getting so offended? I've traveled all over the world and I've made similar observations. So what?0
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It is hard to live in the land of skinny people. I live in China, and I'm a westerner. I'm skinny now, but I wasn't before and yet I'm still huge compared with the Chinese women. I've had to get over the fact that I have to buy a large when I'd buy a small/medium in the West.
The big thing that has helped me get over it? Realizing that I'm not them, and I'd never want to look like them. For me, being healthy means having muscles. My job can require some physical labor at time so I'd never be able to do it if I looked like them.
Many of the Chinese women are all skinny fat. Skinny as twigs but no muscles/muscle tone. Mostly due to the fact that that's the preference, and more western Chinese have told me that the men prefer their women not to have visible muscles. In fact there's a term for woman who have muscles and aren't afraid to do work that requires using muscles "nu hanzi" (kind of translates to woman-boy). A lot of women are afraid of becoming a nu hanzi. I've seen women at the gym struggle to do a weight exercise with a 1 kg weight and stop as soon as they break a sweat. This is not typical of all Chinese women though. There are a small percentage of Chinese woman (most of my gym friends including one woman who's nothing but abs and muscles) who do enjoy weights. But they're like 1 in 20 women. And it's a bit unfortunate to say that in a way we all have come together because we don't want to be skinny fat.
I may get stared at at the gym, had to work to convince pump instructor at the new gym in the area I moved to that doing weights heavier then the men was my normal and I wouldn't hurt myself. But ultimately, I'd prefer to look healthy and muscled than skinny fat. Let them stare. Maybe I'll inspire somebody that you're not going to get huge and muscled from doing weights.
Plus having an *kitten* is so much nicer than all the women who look awful from behind because they have no butt to hold up their pants. Needless to say, living where I do has made me never want to be skinny fat.
Don't measure yourself to them. Measure yourself against you.-1 -
intrepidelephant wrote: »I live in Toronto, which is a city of very thin women. There are a lot of Chinese girls who are absolutely teeny-tiny. The rest of us aren't far behind. Seriously, walking down super-fashionable Queen West, nobody is over a size 8. I'm 5'6 131 lbs, 25 inch waist, and always feel big boned, even though I know I probably look the same as everyone else. I went to London, UK and the girls were much heavier in general than Toronto girls. Does this happen to anyone else?
https://www1.toronto.ca/City Of Toronto/Toronto Public Health/Performance & Standards/Health Surveillance and Epidemiology/Files/pdf/Surveillance Indicators/Overweight and Obesity_2014.pdf
According to the above, as of 2012 32% of adults in Toronto were overweight and 12% obese.
Do they all live in a Fat Ghetto, sequestered away from all the super thin people? I guess London just likes to let their fats roam free?0 -
Iwishyouwell wrote: »Do they all live in a Fat Ghetto, sequestered away from all the super thin people? I guess London just likes to let their fats roam free?
This really made me laugh! Seriously OP, google obesity rates in Europe, US, Canada- wherever. There will be some pockets of population where the rate is higher but they probably correlate with overall population size- I think wherever you go, you are going to see people of all shapes and sizes, and if you are noticing certain body types more than others, you might just be seeing them more often because you're actively looking. We see what we want to see.
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I'm living in Ohio right now and the opposite is true for me. I'm 5'2" and most of the women I meet at 5'6" or taller and have a larger frame. In Atlanta, where I grew up, it seemed like a bigger mixture of body types and sizes0
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This is ridiculous. I think it's supposed to be....otherwise it makes no sense. I was born and raised in Toronto and it is not full of skinny/thin people. If the OP is serious then I think she has a very myopic view of her surroundings.
Bottom line - who cares what other people look like. Be healthy and live your life.0 -
intrepidelephant wrote: »I live in Toronto, which is a city of very thin women. There are a lot of Chinese girls who are absolutely teeny-tiny. The rest of us aren't far behind. Seriously, walking down super-fashionable Queen West, nobody is over a size 8. I'm 5'6 131 lbs, 25 inch waist, and always feel big boned, even though I know I probably look the same as everyone else. I went to London, UK and the girls were much heavier in general than Toronto girls. Does this happen to anyone else?
So move to London if you seem to think its full of fattys, then you'll look thin in comparrison!0 -
It's like what Redpandora56 is alluding to, it really comes down to perception.
I live in NYC. This is often considered a thin, fashionable place. And yes pockets of the city, especially Manhattan and parts of gentrified Brooklyn, are filled with skinnier, more fashion conscious people. If you are prone to notice them almost exclusively it can be very easy to walk away thinking that "everyone" in NYC is thin or fit, stylish and conventionally attractive.
Which is wrong. There are millions of fat people here, scores of folks who don't dress in the latest looks, lots of people who wouldn't generally qualify as conventionally beautiful, hot or handsome. But still, so many people see what they want to see.0 -
One thing to keep in mind is that you are not looking at a scientific study when you walk down the street. You probably fixate on certain people and don't even register certain other people. You are probably tending to seek out the thin people and not looking at everyone. So what you probably mean is that the people in your competition pool are really thin.0
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Depends on where you are in the city as well, I suppose. If you're hanging around ouside Harvey Nichols or the Lois Vuitton store, you're more likely to encounter whippet thin women.
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I opened this with the assumption that it was about Los Angeles (backing out of thread).0
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Elsie_Brownraisin wrote: »
i LOVE ab fab!0 -
Sheesh people...again, it was just an observation. Not a scientific study, not a personal criticism, just a general observation. It's happened to me lots of times. After living in France for several years, I came back to the U.S. and the first thing I noticed was how many fat people there were. Now I live in a big city in the U.S. Granted there are lots of fat people here, but I've noticed that when I go to rural areas, practically everyone is fat, especially children. General observation, no judgement...certainly not based on scientific studies...0
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The UK is just a chubby place0
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FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »5'6" and 131 lbs IS thin.
Agreed. You mention wearing size 8. Well I'm 5' 6" and 135 lbs and wear a 4 or 6. So you should be "thinner" than those women in 8's....0 -
Yes, I'm fairly sure that the average woman in England is heavier than the average woman in TO. The average American woman is a size 14 I think; IDK what the average size is exactly in England. The US has some skinny-mini locations, like Seattle, but here in the South where I live, not so much lol.0
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