Is my mind distorted?

Well, here is a BMI calculator: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm

You're well within a healthy weight range for a woman of your height and age who lifts weights.

If you want to lose some, you have plenty of room in the healthy range before you hit under-weight, too.

If you're not happy, you know what to do!

You have the gift of making choices.....

If these social media influencers make you unhappy (clearly, they do make you unhappy!) then don't click on them.
That they choose a certain physique is their choice and you can make you own choices too.

If you don't want to gain weight then eat a bit less - that again is your choice.

No all your 10lb gain won't have been muscle especially as you say you have "some pudge". Some of your weight gain would be muscle as you say you are training well and some will be fat - that's normal when people are bulking. The people around you might be being disingenuous or just ignorant. Some muscle is different to "it's muscle".
But it's your choice if you want to bulk, maintain or cut.

Personally, I choose for myself an unusual physique for a serious cyclist - I would be faster if I detrained my upper body and cut to a weight and bodyfat level that left me hungry and looking skinny. But I have free will and the ability to make my own choices - just like you do.
I can envy other cyclist’s abilities and performance but my physique is my choice of the body I want to live in 24 x 7.

It's worth noting a lot of fitness influencers and the likes lie about their weight/measurements but also how they achieved their physiques ( use of peds, eating disorders, plastic surgery etc..).

KaleiAlanaSmith wrote: »

littlegreenparrot1 wrote: »

It might be worth changing your frame of reference and looking at other measures apart from your weight to track your progress. Maybe even don't weigh yourself for a bit.

Could you take your measurements? My weight has a tendency to move very slowly, but that inch off the waist doesn't just re-appear overnight.

How about performance? Have targets to do with lifting heavier, or running faster, or whatever else it might be.

Comparison is the thief of joy. It sounds like you have a great plan and are doing very well. The weight number on the scale is a tiny part of that picture, and does not have any bearing on your character (I know this should be obvious, but I see so many posts where people seem to think they are somehow 'bad' because of that number. Makes me want to weep)

I decided a long time ago that I get to decide what success looks like for me, not anyone else.
If I am healthy, well, and progressing how I want to with my training everything else is irrelevant.

This is definitely something I want to work on! My mind is becoming too consumed with the scale! Because my athletic performance, strength and happiness is pretty high right now. I need to get back to measurements instead. I can tell though that I've gotten heavier because I've gone up a size in shirts and bottoms, however; I cannot tell if its muscle or fat LOL.

Just as an observation: No one knows the number on the scale but you, unless you tattoo it on your forehead or something. (Please don't. 😉)

Only one data point, but: I used to be closely associated with a university's women's rowing team. Most of them were taller than you (rowers are usually tall, 5'10"+). One I knew well was 5'7" though. She outweighed your 150 by a few pounds. She looked strong, fit, gorgeous in dress-up clothes, tautly muscular after a race in her snug unisuit . . . not pudgy. Not even close. Sleek.

Women in our culture face strong influences to hit arbitrary - sometimes unhealthful, sometime even misrepresented - benchmarks in weight and appearance. You really have your head on very straight, for someone as young as you are. You're figuring this out - good show! Don't let a bunch of cultural nonsense take up residence in your head rent-free. (You're the landlady there, right?) Be strong. Be healthy.

Don't worry about the scale number, the size number. How do you feel? How do you perform? How are your health markers? And - if you must - how do you look? No numbers.

You’re not distorted and you’re not abnormal. Your beautiful and you’re strong.

I’m 5’7”, too and the past four years have had a similar arc to you.

You lift weights?

I was 125 on my wedding day (1980’s, lol) and was a stick. That was my goal weight a couple years ago, til friends and family made me realize, at 129 I looked ill.

I lost much of my muscle, even though I was weight training two or three times a week.

I have slowly put weight back on since then. I’m currently at 139 and have nice muscles. Instead of gaining size along with weight, though, my size decreased with weight as muscle mass increased. I can comfortabley wear clothes I wore at the lower weight, and even got rid of some that became too big.

I look much better at the higher weight- healthier, curvier in a developed sorta way, am getting an hourglass shape.

I’m much healthier and stronger and have more endurance than at the lower weight.

Don’t focus on your weight. Focus on your shape and your satisfaction with your shape, your strength, your abilities- if those are the things that matter to you.

I live in a scenic, photogenic historical town. Our bicycle/walking trail runs along the railroad tracks in the center of town, replete with several large colorful murals. You would not believe the number of Instagrammers who camp out on the path taking photos, blocking runners and bikers from using it while they take hundreds of photos from every angle, in every kind of light, with every hip leg thigh and shoulder thrust out at every possible angle. And the mountains of props they bring with them. Bags and bags of them scattered all over the trail.

I want to scream “Ya phonies!!!!! Get out of the way!!!!!!” at them, but I remember how my daughters and her friends were in love with digital cameras before the dawn of social media, and I swallow the insults. It just pains me to see people who are older than 16 throwing a boob out here or a provocative hip there at a fetching angle and swishing their skirts. Or pretending to be skipping.

I guess I’m old. The fakeness both outrages and saddens me. Is this what humans are coming to? The visual version of a sound bite?

Instagram? I wouldn’t look at it if my life depended on it. It’s a fake and phony world from what I see happening up there on the trail.

Now please get your damn camera tripod off the path, and no, I don’t want to wait while you and a dozen of your compatriots finish clicking.

Sigh. I’m fixing to head to the trail now to walk to the gym. Any hip thrusts there will be legit, lol.

Hugs to ya, honey. You’re cool in my book.

springlering62 wrote: »

PS I guess I’m just venting, too. 😂

It was a really good vent though…

KaleiAlanaSmith wrote: »

Hey everyone!


I train really well, joined a gym called ATHlete where we do weight lifting/cardio/athletic performance and I eat relatively healthy. I don’t track anymore but I am mindful with my choices. For four months I macro counted and stayed around 140lb. I quit macro counting in April because of how consuming it was. I feel so distorted though.

For context- I’m 5’7. I hate seeing the scale go up- especially past my highest weight 6 years ago. In no way do I want to be 125 again, but seeing the scale tip up to 150lb scares me.

I have an athletic strong build, some pudge, but I feel like a failure. Does anyone else feel like this? I want to know if my weight and height measure up to normal. Seeing fitness influencers on social media also screws with my mind as well I guess. Since they’re my height but 15 pounds less. Something about being 10 pounds heavier in one year makes me feel sick, but I know I shouldn’t think like this. People around me say it’s muscle. Is it really? No way you can gain 10 pounds of muscle in a year. I don’t know. I guess I’m just venting.

You're doing two things wrong. Not tracking and following fitness fakes...I mean influencers.

Try an experiment. For two weeks track your food, spend more time outside, less time online, delete all fitness influencers.

I bet you'll drop some pounds and gain some sanity.