I HATE being short!

There I said it... For those of you that were blessed with height, I am insanely jealous.. Not only can you reach stuff, but you get to eat more.. I have my thing set at sedentary, because I work in an office, then I log my exercise.  My daily intake is supposed to be 1300 calories because if I do not work out I ONLY BURN 1600!  WTH!!  I usually eat 1500 if I work out, but still, my taller friends get to eat so much more and I am almost at my goal so the weight is just NOT coming off anymore!  I go up a a few pounds and then back to where I was, then up a few and on and on... I am SICK of being a SHORTY!!!!  (I am 5'2 125 right now) I had to rant... sorry.. *grumbles*

Oh no no no sweetie, love your short height! Embrace it! Look I am 4'11"...yes not even 5 feet tall. I teach high school kids and I exude more fear than my taller counterparts :)

That being said I love my height, no matter what I am cute..LOL...and I never have to worry about a guy being shorter. In fact I have never met a guy that didn't dig petite women! And for the diet thing, 10 pounds lost on us shows, it's awesome...I'm also lucky I gain weight all over so I lose it evenly, hence when I was weighing 170 I didn't look like a huge butterball just yet...LOL

Sure I would like to be taller, but this is all I know, I love being a cute shorty, love my short legs which look so cute in heels...and even if I am the shortest in the group the tall people always have to bend my way..hehe ;)

And it's not being short, it's petite

Like my husband says "good things come in small packages"!!!

You're not short.

I am.

I'm 5'1.

I can beat that : 5'0" even.

) :

1550 on sedentary. It's so very sad. And that's using teenage calculators (I'm 17). Being short is definatly a disadvantage when it comes to eating, especially in the society we live in.

I wear heels because that's how I make my jeans fit.

OK, I wear them ALL the time, with everything, but I started years ago because my legs were too long for petites jeans and too short for regular jeans (but my arms are short and my torso is, too, so I have to wear petites tops). You should see me when I go bowling with friends. I have to flip my jeans up when I put on the bowling shoes to compensate for the loss of my 4" heels.

I just can't get myself to tailor jeans. And besides, you really can't just lop them off and have everything look the same. Fashion is in no small part about lengthening the leg, thereby looking slimmer.

If it makes you feel better...I'm 5'11" and bump my head all the time.

Fortunately, I do love being freakishly tall most of the time despite all the challenges...including a developed phobia of low ceilings and an eye rolling reaction to the overused movie line "that's a huuuuuuuge b****!"

Original Post by skookum:

If it makes you feel better...I'm 5'11" and bump my head all the time.

 

I had to board three different planes the other day, and when I stood up in my seat after each flight, I smacked my head on the top of the plane—because I'm not accustomed to any ceiling being too low for me.

Hmmm, trying being 5ft 2 and a guy! I'm even shorter then the average bangladeshi (where I am from originally). But overall I haven't found it to be a major disadvantage in life. However when I was younger it used to bother me but over it now - well in a manner of speaking.

The thing about being short is that it doesn't take too long to hit obesity. At my heaviest I was around 190lbs. I know some people on this forum who are trying to get to that! In total I have lost about 54lbs since that time (most of it since 1st Dec 2007).

It is also true that when you are shorter every pound you lose has a bigger impact.

The best thing about losing weight has been getting clothes that fit a whole lot better. I've gone from a large to a small (UK sizes) in shirts and from a 40" waist to 30" waist. Whenever I used to shorten trousers when I was obese they used to look odd. There were only few types that I could buy that didn't look too bad. Large sizes in shirts meant the sleeves were bigger. Wearing 3/4 length trousers in the larger size meant ankle length baggy trousers for me.

So now I am suddenly in the right range for someone short. I think I could probably fit into some of the clothing for kids :). Ok so I still have to shorten the trousers but at least they don't look too bad.

Solution to being short - make friends that are tall :)

I thought that losing weight would make clothes shopping easier for me. I thought that since the stores I shop at only order one 2 in most items, and one or two 4s, that being a 0 or 00 would give me more opportunity to snatch things up before they are gone. I assumed, well, there have to be fewer people who are that small, right? I didn't lose weight to wear a smaller size—I didn't actually expect to have the weight loss change my size so much—but after I'd lost the weight and my clothes no longer fit, I went shopping and just assumed when I arrived at the mall that it would be an easy thing to find clothes.

It is actually much harder. The fact is that most adult stores just don't carry clothes that small. I'm sure they did 20 or 30 years ago, but now they don't. I generally have to shop online—which I hate, because, of course, you can't try anything on. I also can't find a pair of nice trousers that don't swim on me. I'm reduced to buying jeans in the Juniors department. Those are my only pants for the time being: dark-wash jeans (dark so they look a little more upscale than regular jeans). Even petites pants don't fit right anywhere on my body, and they are also just a little too short for my legs.

And the truth is I really am not that thin. I still have hips and a booty. I know a number of women smaller than I am. And I have asked my male friends many times to evaluate my size: they don't think I am super-thin either. So it shocks me that I can't find clothes. What do the truly tiny people do?

As for the OP's weight-loss concerns, I will repeat the call to vary your exercise routine. The body gets used to exercise, so you have to shake it up, offer it something new.

And I would also suggest trading in the light weights for heavy ones. Your injury may prevent you from going all out, but heavier weights are going to do you more good in the long run if you can deal with them.

 You are absolutely lovely, by the way. The pics in your gallery are gorgeous. You should be very confident in your appearance.

I get ya 100%.  I am 5'3" and 145lbs, and boy do I feel stubby. 

Just like you I wear heels because I feel like I have to.  Thankfully Banana Republic came out with a petite section so I don't have to hem everything, sometimes I get to wear flats but wearing heels makes me feel less chubby.

I'm like 5'3.8, almost 5'4 and surprisingly I wish that I was shorter.  I wish I was like 5'2 or something around there.  Short people are so cute.  I so wish I had your height even 5'3.8 isn't that bad either. Lucky You!

I'm going to try to not sound mean... but, I think it's really sad that you hate being short.  I'm only 5 feet and like half an inch!  There is absolutely nothing wrong with being short.  You can't change your height and you really need to learn to be happy with who you are.  Seriously!  Grow up!

If losing weight will make you healthier and happier, then go for it and don't give up.  My daily calorie goal is 1400 and I've listed myself as lightly active.  I try to run 3-4 times a week.  Try... sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Hope that wasn't too harsh.  Good luck!

Let me preface by saying that I love my height. It makes me unique. I love being called "Little", I love being the tiniest person in the room. I like that people see me as someone they might like to pick up and toss around - I can't imagine not being short.

but weight loss is so freaking hard. Using teen calculators, sedentary I need 1550 to maintain my weight. Teens shouldn't eat less than 1500 calories - so where does that put me? if I were to be sedentary, a 50 cal defecit everyday equals a 350 calorie deficit every week, meaning theoretically I need to keep that up for 10 weeks to lose a pound. and that's assuming I eat exactly 1500 calories - what happens if I eat *gasp* 1525 calories? Clearly we shorties need to be more active than the normal person to lose weight - while most people can do it with diet alone, that seems a near impossibility for a girl like me who's 4'11", 125 lbs, and only a couple pounds away from overweight. As I was explaining to my beautiful best friend who's 5'7" and 130 lbs, if we were both to sit on our ass all day, you could eat 1000 calories more than me just to maintain your weight. 1000 calories to me is almost 3 meals, it is close to TWICE what I eat in a day (1500 calories). 

To lose weight I have become very active, which I'm thankful for, because I'm healthy, but it's still discouraging to work super hard and see the same number on the scale week after week. I lift weights now and it helps my body composition a lot. The pounds don't fly off, but this summer when I was 112 and muscular I looked pretty skinny, and my starting weight was 118, so those 5 or 6 lbs made a world of difference. I gained the weight back (and then some) my first semester of college and even though it was only like 10 lbs none of my clothes fit. It's rough being so sensitive to tiny fluctuations in weight. 

There's my short rant :-P

Should have eaten your vegetables

I hate it, too, for the most part. Being 5'4" is a pain in the rear. The men's equivalent of petites is called "Boys' 8-20." I feel silly every time I'm sorting through there for business clothes and vaguely skeevy buying kids' underwear.

Small amounts of weight make a much bigger difference - it's both bad and good. If my father gained 15 pounds it wouldn't show much, nor if he lost. If I gained that much it would show immediately. However, losing 15 pounds has made me go from flabby-looking to almost slender, only in need of a small amount of muscle gain and toning / losing a couple pounds of fat off a few remaining trouble areas.

Really??  Most of you are taller then I am!!!  I'm 4'11 and 127 lbs.  I don't HATE being short.  There are just a lot of times that I don't LIKE it lol.  I don't like it that I can't find jeans that are short enough (unless I'm a size 0-1 which I'm not).  I don't like it that I can't reach anything without climbing up on countertops...  I've become very creative on how to reach things and it makes my hubby crack up at me   AND a normal woman who wears a size 8 doesn't look chunky but I do.  So that does bother me. 

But do I hate it, NAH. 

I sometimes wish I was 5'2".  I'm not quite 5'1" but I'm 142.8 lbs so I look short and stocky.  I think it helps that I live in Hawaii where the average height for both men and women is much shorter than the mainland U.S.   

My only challenge is finding clothes.  By the time I find clothes wide enuf to fit my butt, it's usually waaaay too long.  Rolling up the excess length of my pants is out because I end up w/ hula hoops around my ankles.  Anything I buy needs an additional $10 alteration fee tacked on.  I once had a dress trimmed so much that the seamstress made a stole out of the material she cut off.

My friends and I joke that that if people were shorter, we would have less impact on the environment.  Less material for clothes means less cotton grown or more material to go around.  We'd use less lumber building homes, consume less food, and use less water to bathe.   Short people rule! 

Actually you can tailor you jeans to look the same!  It's called "grafting" or "keeping the orignal hem".  The seamstress will cut off the finished bottom of your jeans and sew it on top of length after its been shortened.  It looks so much better than just having your jeans hemmed.  Both Macys and Nordstrom alter jeans that way for about 20 to 22 dollars.  I go to an alterations shop and they do it for 20.  Its worth every penny!  A good trick is if you find a pair of jeans you love, by two pair!  Then go to the tailor with your highest pair of heels and a pair of sneakers/flats and have each pair tailored to fit your high and flat shoes.

Hey - ok Im short too, and i've always felt that our bodies don't adhere to the rules of the AVERAGE person. Is it okay then for us to under eat by 100-200 calories? Ive always wondered that. If I have to eat my BMR akak 1200 cals to lose 1lb a week (which was calculated for me on a website), does that mean that because I'm a bit smaller I wont necesarily go into conservation mode if I go under that 1-2 days a week?