body image confusion: 5'6'' girls!!!!!

i am 5'6'' (obviously), 17, and i now weigh 116 pounds. i have not gotten there a healthy way, and i think if i hear from other girls about the same frame as me then i may be motivated to stop this terrible diet path that i'm on! so what's your age, weight, and tell me if you're happy-ish with your body! ***Thank youuu***

i am 5'5, 100 lbs, and UNHAPPY with my body. it's important to realize that weighing less doesn't always make you feel better about yourself or even look better. i felt and looked better at 120, but now i am having a mental issue with allowing myself to gain weight. also, i am 19- definately old enough to know better, dangit. i think i'm probably small-medium frame. i've always had broad shoulders though. anyway, if it makes a difference, the only change in my body that i can see from 120-100 lbs is that i had better muscle definition and didn't look so emaciated. so stop now, especially if you didn't get there a healthy way. it could spiral into something you never expected. sorry i'm so pessimistic about the whole thing, i tend to get frustrated with myself, but i am now on a healthy path. feel free to private message or email me if you need any support or anything. also, check out 'the real ed recovery club,' its been instrumental in my recovery. now, i'm off to go be treated to acapulco (mexican food!) and i plan on enjoying and savoring every bite!

i'm having huge problems as well allowing myself to simply maintain a healthy weight. i have this odd notion in my head that if i'm not loosing, i must be gaining. i can't seem to shake it, but i definitely do think that i've lost enough weight to be comfortable with my body. i just can't stop cutting calories. 

ok, first of all--despite the screen name I don't look really fat--I'm in fact only two sizes above where I was 20 years ago, at your age.  I'm an inch taller than you, and got down to 109 the summer before college.

It was a mistake.  Healthy weight for us tall girls goes up to almost 150 pounds if you look at BMI.   I still have difficulty with healthy eating patterns--skipping meals is my first thought for losing weight, not watching what I eat.  Fact of the matter:  I was pretty hot at that age, but I never understood that because I wanted to be size 5 or 3 or 1 .... impossible.

I'm much happier now that I don't read fashion magazines that push a new diet every month.

Exercise and eat well, and enjoy your life.  May it be a long and happy one..

 

I'm 5'7" and 167,  but at my prime I was 140 and I'm pretty happy with that.

Of course, at the time I was 16 and wanted to be thinner, but looking back, that was pretty good, and thats what I"m shooting for at 21 years old. 

im 5' 5.5"-5' 6" and 104 lbs and im not happy with my body.  i don't think that i ever will be.  i've gotten here in not the healthiest way and i don't see my bad habbits stopping anytime soon.  i'm sure that you look great at 116 and my advice would be to maintain and be healthy.  if you still feel dissatisfaction with your body, it probably has nothing to do with your body but something deeper.  seek guidance for other areas of you life that might have potential problems and look for satisfaction in other things.  the scale and some flashing neon number will never make you happy.

I am 5'7 and am trying to recover. My lowest was 94 and my highest was 132. Right now I am around 102. I am hoping that I continue with this recovery. I just keep telling myself that I was so determined to lose so now I have to be even more determined to be healthy.

I started losing to look more fit and then just became obsessed. Please stoppp while you are ahead...gain gain gain....I am 21 and I wish that for the past year of college I could just go back in time and change every bad ed habit that ever existed. Hopefully one day I will get over this. YOU GUYS WILL TOO!!

I'm 5'6" and 122.5-125 depending what scale I'm standing on.  I am HAPPY with the size of my body but am not happy with my body composition.  This is the first time in my ENTIRE life I can say that I'm happy with my body, and I've been a lot bigger and a lot smaller.
My heaviest was 186 lbs about 2 years ago. My lowest was 108 lbs while in highschool when I was having issues with an eating disorder.
I thought at the time that 108 lbs looked great, but looking back I was frail, too thin, cold all the time, and never had energy.

Now, at this size, I'm working on building muscle-since I've lost about 50 lbs this year- and getting strong.

Have you tried weight lifting? If you aren't sure about whether you are healthy(your BMI is obviously low) maybe you should get a body composition test done, and start some strength training. It will add healthy body mass and will add some confidence when you see results. Thinner does not always mean healthy.

Original Post by prettypopcandy:

 

I'm 5'7" and 167, but at my prime I was 140 and I'm pretty happy with that.

Of course, at the time I was 16 and wanted to be thinner, but looking back, that was pretty good, and thats what I"m shooting for at 21 years old.

 I am right there with you! I'd love to add you as a friend. Back when I was 17, I was between 130lbs and 140lbs...Not that I know precisely, as I hated scales (and still do). I remember thinking I was chubby (I've never been one with defined high cheekbones, and saw my chubby face as an inaccurate indicator of my weight).

 

Now I'm 21, soon to be 22 (god I'm getting old, where do the years go!?) and in September when I was last weighed I was at 173lbs  (goal 130 to 140lbs). Not happy, but not obese. I look back at my 17 year old self and kick her in the butt for that poor self image.

I think, as hard as it is to lose weight the healthy way (and Ive done both - I used to be bulemic), it's the best. And you can only compare yourself to you...And maybe family who have similar builds and genetic battles to fight. If I compared myself to the unrealistic "skinny" girls in the media, or even in society, I would end up right back at bulemia and would never be able to appreciate what an amazing body MY body can be when I treat it right.

Good luck everyone, I know I need it! 

I'm 5'6", 30 yrs old and I weigh 120lbs (size 2). The highest I've ever been is 135lbs at 21(a bit too chubby) and the lowest was 119lbs at 27 ( a little gaunt)

I can say I am OK with my body as of now- if I drop 1-2 pounds I look kind of sickly and old as I end up losing fat on my face. I am pear shape so I keep working out and trying to drop my weight hoping that by miracle my butt and thighs will decrease, so am stuck in this rat race. I am trying to build some muscle and tone now (I have 21% bodyfat) but if that increases my weight I'm ok with it.

In my opinion 116 lbs at your age you should be fine- just dont lose anymore weight- focus on being healthy and building muscle. Good luck!

Don't worry about your lovely pear fat2fit,  I'm guessing your caucasian?  Not to be stereotypical or anything but try to appreciate you curves, cuz not alot of other white girls have them.  I'm black so I've long accepted the hips & booty, but  I garauntee men like it more than us girls realize.

 And smccarth627, i'm totally adding you as a buddy!  I used to be bullemice too, :(

but i'm doing much better now.  The healthy way really is the best way and your right, we can't compare ourselves to the unrealistic media image.

Thanks for the good luck! 

Im 5'6" 23 girl, my weight when i was in high school was 110 or 115 i think, after that i was weighting 118 at College a few years ago, then i went last year to weight 150, now im 130, size 7, my problem is that im curvicius woman, eating too much crap the fat goes right to there, is horrible, looking to be around 122 and 125, but is hard to get there, I know i could be there long time ago, but is hard, every time i geting close i get myself so much confident that i end gaining the weight i loose every week aroun 2.5 pounds, during the weekends with ym boyfriend..... when i was single i did it easy, but in a relationship is hard,

Original Post by prettypopcandy:

Don't worry about your lovely pear fat2fit,  I'm guessing your caucasian?  Not to be stereotypical or anything but try to appreciate you curves, cuz not alot of other white girls have them.  I'm black so I've long accepted the hips & booty, but  I garauntee men like it more than us girls realize.

Hi prettypopcabdy- I'm Indian so the "junk in the trunk" is very genetic!

I guess no one's happy with what they've got- and I've developed this aversion even more after moving to the US where almost every one has slim hips. Ah well- i should be happy that my hubby loves the curves atleat! Thanks for your encouragement  :)

I'm 5'6, 120-125 pounds and very happy with my body.  For a long time I was very worried about what the scale said and how many calories I was consuming.  Calorie count helped me get a clear picture of what I was putting in my body, but now I just eat well and excercise regularly and have settled at my healthy weight - never felt better.  A couple more pounds make me feel more womanly and I have much more energy than I did when I was trying to shave off more pounds. 

Its important to find what's right for you, and not try to fit into someone else's mould!

I'm 5'4" and 125, and that's where I think I'll stay, God willin', until I die if healthy old age.  I did the starvation fad in high school (down to 100), gained 29 pounds with pregnancy 15 years ago, but basically this is the size I "default" back to and I actually love my bod!  In the past few years my boobs have grown (?) from a B to a D---don't ask why!  But my waist and butt have not budged, and with exercise to keep toned, I feel pretty okay at 40.  My concern now is nutrition...I've discovered soy, have given up mammal meats (still do fish) and have decided that "white carbs" are a maturing woman's mortal nemesis!  Not near menopause yet, so all this could change later, but for now, I'm more into the quality of food than the quantity. 

 

 

i know this post is old but i came across it and thought i would reply. i'm 18 and 5'6''.. 2 weeks ago i was 111 and pretty happy and now i'm 113 and not happy anymore.. i know i have an issue but my first goal is to be 110... i noticed that my boobs were getting smaller and i was unhappy with that so thats why i decided to gain a little, and i know 2 lbs seems like nothing, but it's made me unhappy so now i'm trying to lose again. =/ i guess my point is that if youre pretty happy with your weight try to maintain it, because if you make yourself gain a little you might be so unhappy that you revert back to even worse habits than before.. and if you lose too much then youll look back at your old weight (that you were once happy with) and be disgusted by it. i think you are at a fine weight, everyones bodies are dif though and fat and muscle are distributed differently so try to just like the way you look in the mirror, thats the healthiest thing

I'm 21, 5'6" and around 118-119. I feel and am healthy and look okay I guess, but I just want to get rid of a pound or two to have more visible abs (now you can only see the top). I have a small frame and bone-composition of a bird, though, so the numbers on the scale don't mean too much to me, the tape does.

I'm 5' 6" and I weigh 144 right now.  I'm down from 150 last month and that was down from 158 the month before.  I've been on the South Beach diet for 5 weeks now and it's going great.  If anyone is thinking about this one, I recommend it, I think it's a good healthy diet and not hard to stick to.  Immediately I lost weight on this diet, but after the first two weeks I started working out and gained a bit of it back.  I"m not back down to what I originally lost on the SBD and I'm hoping to get down to 130.  I'm pretty comfortable with my body as it is now, but I would still like to see some of the weight come off.  I know I can look better.

I am 5'6" (obviously) and 125lbs. I think most days I can genuinely say that I am happy with my body. We all have problem areas, but that's what general exercise is for.

At my lowest I was 115 - I did not look good. I've always been a little curvier in my shape and that low of a weight didn't sit well on me. At my highest I was 132, and that was okay, but my stomach got a little rounder. So I started going to the gym and have maintained at around 125 all year. 116 may not look bad on you, but it is definitely at the lower end of the "healthy weight" for a girl who is 5'6".

Good luck!

Hey, I'm seventeen and 5'6" also. =]

My heighest weight was 130lbs, and my lowest, 90 lbs. 90 lbs for our height = a 14.5 BMI, so I guess my weight wasen't healthy. I had a lto of physical problems at the time, like not being able to digest anything, could never get warm, lost a good amount of hair, and basically, did not look good. I didn't see that of course.

I think though, that maybe instead of focusing on the weight aspect, you could look at the other aspects that come along with an unhealthy weight [and relationship with food], like being in the hospital for months, having your mom watch you as you sleep, EKG's, depression [almost always accompanied with malnutrition+weight loss], being isolated from everyone, and just generally unhappy. I'm about to graduate, and I wasted [am still wasting] my High School years. I'll never be able to get them back.

116 is at the low-end of healthy for our height. I can promise you, it doesn't get better as you get thinner. =[

I'm only 5'4", but to put things in perspective like a lot of the other girls posting are doing, I'm around 100-105 pounds and not very happy with my body.. hardly any more than I was when I was 150 or 92. I think I was most happy with my body when I was around 115-120. I thought losing weight would make me look even better, but it seems like I ended up losing just muscle, so I'm trying to gain some of that back now :)