How chubby am I? How to gain muscles as a petite person

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Kittycatrosa
Kittycatrosa Posts: 5 Member
edited August 2020 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I was wondering if others consider me chubby. I’m 4’10” and over 20 years old. I try to track my calories and keep under 1500. When I am consistent and dedicated to tracking my calories, I can eat around 1200 calories a day. I know I’m not overweight however I can tell I have little muscle tone and still have to lose the 10 lbs (?) I gained before puberty which was about a decade ago. I have excess fat tissues all over my body besides just my arms and legs from the pictures above. Even when I was 92 lbs, I still looked like this :( Before COVID-19 I was going to gym daily and lifting some 30-40lb weights. I will say on average I'm 95 lbs but fluctuate 2-3 lbs every day which I understand is normal to fluctuate. I don't believe the bone density, muscle mass, and fat % is accurate from my scale. Anyone else visibly notice my flabby arms and legs?

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Replies

  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
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    You aren't chubby at all.
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 595 Member
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    You are half of a chubby person. As in, you would have to DOUBLE your weight to become chubby. Seriously, your life must be pretty okay if you need to invent something to worry about.
  • Kittycatrosa
    Kittycatrosa Posts: 5 Member
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    Mithridites wrote: »
    You are half of a chubby person. As in, you would have to DOUBLE your weight to become chubby. Seriously, your life must be pretty okay if you need to invent something to worry about.

    Thanks, what would you describe me instead as? Skinny fat? Unfit? I'm trying to explain my problem with my doctor and she also thinks I'm not fat or chubby and thinks I'm healthy when I don't feel healthy.
  • Kittycatrosa
    Kittycatrosa Posts: 5 Member
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    harper16 wrote: »
    You aren't chubby at all.

    Thanks for responding to my post. I cannot help but feel unhealthy from looking at the loose skin I have on my body which makes me think I'm chubby.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Kittycatrosa wrote: »
    Mithridites wrote: »
    You are half of a chubby person. As in, you would have to DOUBLE your weight to become chubby. Seriously, your life must be pretty okay if you need to invent something to worry about.

    Thanks, what would you describe me instead as? Skinny fat? Unfit? I'm trying to explain my problem with my doctor and she also thinks I'm not fat or chubby and thinks I'm healthy when I don't feel healthy.

    You don't look skinny fat or unfit. You look like a slender, well-proportioned person. The "loose skin" you're seeing . . . I don't see it.

    That doesn't mean that you can't want to gain strength or more visible muscle. Those are fine fitness goals to have. But the issue here is that you're judging yourself way harder than anyone else looking at you!
  • Kittycatrosa
    Kittycatrosa Posts: 5 Member
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    Dogmom1978 wrote: »
    You don’t need to lose weight, but you might want to consider lifting weights. If gyms by you aren’t open yet and you don’t have equipment at home, start with some body weight exercises. Don’t expect to put on muscle quickly or without eating proper amounts of protein though. If it was easy to put on muscle, more guys would look like the Rock. 😜

    Thank you. I am planning on buying 2 15 lb dumbbells for my at-home workouts. I have been trying to watch my diet and avoid processed foods, sweets, and grains 90% of the time. I primarily eat steamed vegetables daily with some ground meat or dumplings but I can tell I need to get more protein in my diet. I do not drink sugary drinks, sweets but I do like eating a bowl of noodles or brown rice once a week.
  • littlegreenparrot1
    littlegreenparrot1 Posts: 694 Member
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    A grown up woman of 20 will necessarily weigh more and have a different weight distribution to a child of 10.
    If you cannot see that is perfectly healthy, normal and natural please seek help with that.

    I would suggest you try some different sports until you find one you like, and start focusing on what your body can do rather than what it looks like. Because it looks great, and that might help you to adjust your perception.
  • Kittycatrosa
    Kittycatrosa Posts: 5 Member
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    Mithridites wrote: »
    Kittycatrosa wrote: »
    Mithridites wrote: »
    You are half of a chubby person. As in, you would have to DOUBLE your weight to become chubby. Seriously, your life must be pretty okay if you need to invent something to worry about.

    No, not skinny fat! I can clearly see your Quadriceps and biceps in the pictures. Your body appears to be in perfect health. Your self-perception and body image are the things that need improvement. Perhaps your doctor can send you to someone to talk to before you actually develop an eating disorder. You sound like that’s the path you’re heading down.
    By the way, the 10 pounds you so resent having gained since you were a child were essential for you to go through puberty. Without them your body would never be able to sustain a fetus. You’re a woman at 20 and expecting to have the same body as you did when you were a child... that’s disordered thinking, do you see?

    I can see what you're saying and do agree I need to change my way of thinking when it comes to my body. I always see improvements in my body and health. I should stop focusing on the scale but focus on getting rid of the loose skin on my body which makes me unhappy. I can kind of see some biceps in my arms but very little progress. I outlined the visible problematic areas (I know my entire body has loose skin which needs to be toned besides the ones I outlined) that I wish what it would look like if I was more fit. iy8ygwipsm98.jpg
    .
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,986 Member
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    @AnnPT77 can you explain to her about "flabby arms"? I remember you had a great post about this, but I can't find it at the moment.
  • ExistingFish
    ExistingFish Posts: 1,259 Member
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    I'm 5', I weight 123lbs. That is only two inches taller than you but 30lbs more.

    When you raise your arms like that, your tricep is lax. Your tricep, while lax, looks like hanging fat - it is not, it's loose (not flexed) muscle.

    When you are sitting like that, your hamstrings are not flexed and the back of your legs has a normal distribution of fat on it.

    Your calves look like they have a normal curve?

    You look fine. If you want to look firmer, you need to lift weights. I don't mean 15lb dumbbells either unless that's all you have got. If you can get your hands on a gym membership it would be fantastic. It may depend on your comfort level going to the gym in the current climate.
  • ExistingFish
    ExistingFish Posts: 1,259 Member
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    You are a mature adult, you aren't going to look pre-pubescent. You gained 10lbs before puberty BECAUSE YOU WERE GROWING.
  • ExistingFish
    ExistingFish Posts: 1,259 Member
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    There is no secret to gaining muscle as a petite person. In fact, some would argue you have an advantage for certain movements because of the way your limbs work on lever action and it's just a shorter distance. You also have less ROM for big lifts. Your progress will show faster because the muscle has less room to expand and you have less volume of body fat.

    I've done New Rules of Lifting Strong (My best recommendation), Strong Curves (I only did the advanced, not as good for beginning), Jeff Nippards Foundations program (Stephanie Buttermore also has a similar women's physique foundations program) - the NROL is a long program, 9-12 months. It's longer, but it's progressive and well planned. Jeff/Stephanie's plans, as well as the Strong Curves, are 8-12 week programs.

    I am shooting for 1400-1500 calories trying to lose the covid-10 (lbs) I picked up.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,702 Member
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    SuzySunshine99 wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 can you explain to her about "flabby arms"? I remember you had a great post about this, but I can't find it at the moment.

    I think ExistingFish did a pretty darned good job of it, but here's what I said on another thread, just FTR:

    . . . everyone, even very fit people, have some underarm tissue that moves when they hold their arms straight out. Relaxed triceps do that, with gravity. I'm not saying you have zero arm fat or whatever, but I'd bet that some of what you're calling "bat wings" is perfectly good muscle. For every single woman in real life I've discussed this with (there have been quite a few), part of what she was calling "bat wings" or some other ugly name was actually triceps muscles. (This is one of my pet peeves, TBH). Triceps are slack/mobile when relaxed, and only tighten up when they contract to do work. When you hold your arm out straight, they're relaxed.

    Hold your arm out horizontally, then grab a handful of the hang-y bit with the opposite hand, grabbing up as close as you can get to the upper arm bone with your fingertips. Hold on.

    Next, while continuing to hold on with the opposite hand, take the extended arm and flex it like you're a bodybuilder. Get the upper arm at an angle above your shoulder, curl the lower part of the arm down toward your shoulder, curl the wrist downward/inward, and just generally work as hard as you can by positioning and intention to tighten up every bit of your arm that you can, especially that upper arm. (Basically, it's the position in my profile photo, but with the elbow up so the upper arm is raised maybe a 45-degree angle above horizontal, and tightened. In my photo, the triceps muscles aren't really engaged.)

    Anything that you have grabbed with the opposite hand, that you feel tighten up or get firmer when you do the flexing, is muscle, not fat or loose skin. It's just that when that muscle is relaxed, especially with the arm outstretched, gravity makes it hang a bit. (If it didn't, how would it contract to do work?) Any large/long muscle in your body can act like this, such as hamstrings. The triceps just happen to be located in an area where its easy to see them and obsess about it. Sometimes women misidentify some hamstrings as fat, too - in the seated, relaxed position, part of the upper thigh squishing out horizontally is just relaxed hamstrings. If one raises the leg while lying done, but keeping the hamstrings relaxed, they'll wobble, too.)

    Even quite fit women (and men) can typically make the upper arm area wobble, if they hold it in the right position with triceps relaxed.

    OP, your photo - the one with your upper arm held horizontal, with the red line slashed across it? Classic example of how an arm looks, with relaxed triceps.

    I agree with others: You don't have any significant or problematic amount of fat or loose skin. You have what looks like a normal, healthy adult woman's body.
    Kittycatrosa wrote: »
    Mithridites wrote: »
    You are half of a chubby person. As in, you would have to DOUBLE your weight to become chubby. Seriously, your life must be pretty okay if you need to invent something to worry about.

    Thanks, what would you describe me instead as? Skinny fat? Unfit? I'm trying to explain my problem with my doctor and she also thinks I'm not fat or chubby and thinks I'm healthy when I don't feel healthy.

    The bolded, that's the issue. You do look healthy - your doctor is saying that, we're all saying that. You may think we're "just being nice". Trust me, I'm not nice. And I don't baldly lie to people, not to strangers, not to friends.

    You don't think you look healthy. Self-perception. That's the issue.

    You're not fat or chubby. You're not "muscular looking", but you're not abnormally under-muscled, either.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,476 Member
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    Mithridites wrote: »
    You are half of a chubby person. As in, you would have to DOUBLE your weight to become chubby. Seriously, your life must be pretty okay if you need to invent something to worry about.

    If the OP would double her weight she would be in the morbidly obese category, not "chubby".

    With that said, OP, your weight is fine as others have mentioned, on the lower part of a normal BMI. Also as others have said, you may well like the results of a good resistance training program.

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