5'2 women what are your measurements?

HDBKLM wrote: »

sam33a wrote: »

HDBKLM wrote: »

sam33a wrote: »

This is a depressing thread. I've always known that I look much bigger than I weigh but it's quite shocking just how much bigger I am compared to others my weight. My measurements are huge in comparison to most people's on here. I'm 5'2 and weigh 138 lbs. Most of my weight is on my stomach. I wonder if it's because of all the crash diets I did when I was younger and then the rapid weight gain after or just lack of exercise. Perhaps a combination of those factors.

Without knowing your measurements this is a shot in the dark—though even if I knew I couldn't be conclusive—my first thought is low muscle mass? Since muscle is more dense than fat one would look smaller (and have smaller measurements) at the same weight if a greater percentage of the body mass were made up of muscle.

You wondered whether there could be a connection to past crash dieting, and I guess it's a possibility. When we lose weight we lose both fat and muscle, then when we gain weight we're mainly just gaining fat (unless of course the gain is due to something like weight lifting rather than overeating), so that muscle-to-fat ratio can become tilted over time if we yo-yo.

Thanks for your response. You're right. I do have very low muscle mass. No wonder my weight loss is extremely slow compared to others. I rarely exercise. Guess I need to start seriously thinking about my diet and begin following a proper exercise plan. I'm eating low calories but my food is very high-carb and very low in protein, that can't help.

Strictly on the eating front there's nothing wrong with high-carb-low-protein, but if you are going to start to incorporate exercise then I think you'll find it beneficial to add more protein. Protein is specifically important for muscle retention and growth, but aside from the biological benefits you may also experience psychological benefits to higher protein consumption that keep you motivated to go back to the gym (or wherever you end up doing your exercise), in the form of seeing more rapid improvements in performance, stamina, etc.

Cardio is good for fat loss and heart health but will have less impact on muscle retention/growth than some form of weight training—and when I talk about weights I don't mean the 3-pound hand weights people use during aerobics. My n=1 results in the 6 months since I started weight training is that even though I don't get big calorie burns from the lifting itself, I can now eat several hundred calories more per day than MFP predicts I can without putting on weight. Having more muscles burning their little internal motors all the time in the background of my life—i.e., even when I'm not exercising—has had a metabolic impact.

There are some great threads on the forums to point the way when you're ready to start investigating exercise plans. One is called something like 'Which lifting program is right for you', another is called 'Recomp'.

RelCanonical wrote: »

5'1'', kind of in-between 5'1'' and 5'2'' if it helps lol.

138 pounds.
Bust 37 inches
Waist (narrowest part): 30 inches
Hips: 37 inches.

I'm pretty straight up and down, body-type wise. Maybe a little top heavy in the shoulders, but nothing dramatic.

sdewey415 wrote: »

For chest, do we measure right under our breast or across?