smaller looking women who weigh more than me?!?!?!?!

Lean mass. Bone (I have a heavy frame) and muscle are more dense than fat, so a person with a heavy frame or lots of muscle will be smaller at the same weight. You can't do much about your skeletal structure, but you can add muscle.

There's a term "skinny fat" to describe people who are light in weight but still have a pretty high body fat percentage because they have no muscle.

I find this really weird too.! I've been doing so much research on body fat % and I found that I have 26.3% body fat but I weigh 193 lbs.. I've always carried my weight well but it always discouraged me that I was that much while others were like 120 and lower. But now I understand it's all about lean body mass and body fat %. I don't know how I have all that lean body mass though.

Add me to the "Gee, you weigh THAT much?" camp. I guess that's good that I don't look as heavy as I am! For me the proof was going from 130 to 140 from lifting weights, but still fitting into all of my clothes.

Now at 154, I am NOT fitting into all of my clothes at the moment, but that's another story. Working to get back down to the 140s.

I am firmly in that camp. I weigh about 9 stone and people are always horrified if I tell them.

Well, I say keep working at it. I could have given up...I guess I did a little after my 6th baby. Stretch marks, loose tummy skin, wider hips (5 boys hips never spread, last child girl....my hip bones got wider!!) And 39 when she was born too.

I was frustrated and just thought...this is it. Then last year, I said NO. I have always been fit and thin.

Joined gym...blah blah blah. Lost weight and looked good. But what about this dang tummy skin. I am now eating leaner, trying to lose fat but not my muscles...and i can see a difference. I am in no way going to look as good as you young chicks....but I was determined to not let the fact that I am a 41 year old mom of 6 let my body go to pot!

Stay to it girls...just because our bodies change from having babies, does not mean that our bodies are destroyed...we can work hard to get it the best that it can be.

And., i do have the stretch marks and when I bend over, I get that little tummy skin...but it loks a lot better than it did Jan 1, 2012!!!

One more thing....I am wearing the same size at 130lbs (now) as when I was 30 years old and weighed 115!!

As others have pointed out, part of it may be differences in height (which is obviously an important factor), but also in bone structure. You can't really do anything about either of these. The thing you can change is how much muscle you have relative to fat, which makes a huge different in how you look. There is a commonly posted picture around here, of a woman who gained a little weight building muscle, but looks a lot tighter/firmer, because it's muscle and not fat. So adding strength building to your fitness routine may be the key to getting the body you want. Also, the other thing you can do is stop comparing yourself to others so much. You don't have someone else's body, you have yours, so work on it.

I love the last line about stopping comparing yourself to others. "You don't have someone else's body, you have yours, so work on it." We all would be better off if we could focus more on doing things for the benefit of our health and not caring so much about what others think.

I concur I NEVER carry weight in my stomach. It all goes to my lower half. I weigh 194 pounds and no one can believe it because my waist is so small at 33 inches.

Guilty. I'm tall, I'm a lead-*kitten* and I lift LOTS of heavy stuff all the time.

I bounce between 165-170 now (yay for period bloat!) and I rock a 6/8 most of the time. I've had to get over the fact that I'll never be on the low end of the "normal range" for my height. If I dropped 40-50 more pounds to get to the low end I'd probably end up dead. Like you'd have to dehydrate my bones and EVEN then I may still be more that 125lbs. :laugh:

And on the bright side I'm strong as hell. I can almost bench press my body weight (I maxed out at 160lb the other day) and I can squat over 300lbs. :bigsmile:

Muscle is what makes the difference, not luck.

If you haven't read this before, learn about Staci:
http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

:drinker: STACI !!! :bigsmile:

Uh Stacey from 2009 at 170 pounds?! I weight 172 pounds and I look nothing like that. I'm flabby, I have big thighs and a big gut, big flabby biceps. I would literally kill for a body like she had a 170. I don't see why her story is so awesome. She was already thin before.