Nevermind, silly me.

Well, since you clicked this you want to know what I have to say.

How stupid can people be?!?!?! Some people my age are just...not always thinking straight. They're my height (5'4), and 105 lb. AND!!!! They want to lose 10 pounds! ARGH! Don't they know the health risks? They're already damn skinny and all they want to do is get skinnier. It's not the way to live!!! Honestly, I'm a recovering anorexic so I know how bad it can be. It just pisses me off so much that they're ruining their lives. One of the even worse things is that they refuse to listen to people telling them reason. *sigh*

Anyhoo...yeah. That's my rant. Feel free to comment, add your rants, etc.

Just...try not to be rude or flame. Thanks.

:edit: Just venting, sorry if I offend(ed) anybody.

ieevee: Then this friend of mine told me at school how her parents tell her daily how she "gets chubbier day by day".

Good God. That's disgusting of them, in my opinion. Sorry, but even if she were or weren't a perfect weight, no parent should ever put their child down like that. No decent person should make a judgement on weight without knowing the full story - weight gain and loss can be down to medical problems and so many other things people rarely factor because they just see "fat" or "thin". It's so depressing.

My dad calls me a pig because I have to eat so much and I HAVE an ED. Hearing it makes it worse and does indeed set off the sort of thoughts in anyone that can lead to disordered eating. I wish people would think before they speak, sometimes.

In regards to you, you might need to wean off the exercise if you're trying to recover from undereating. Or eat it back. Make sure you hit your BMR before you think of work-outs, sticking to strength and resistence over cardio. If you're finding it hard to stick to a goal you set, write up a food plan for the day or for the week. I had to do it at first when getting used to eating more; after a month and a bit of planning I no longer have to stick to a regimen. Quote Benjamin Franklin, never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. You can do it! :D

Warbler: 100 pounds on an eighteen year old girl at 5'4 is underweight. You would classify with a BMI of 17.2. At 116, you are/were a BMI of 20, a healthy weight. Sarjane said it already: an ideal weight, according to a BMI scale, for a 5'4 woman is between 108-132.

If you felt attractive at 116, why lose to 100 and put yourself at risk of so many health problems? If you really want to slim down go for resistance and strength training, not putting yourself in danger. If it's not about appearance, it shouldn't bother you what you look like as long as you're healthy - so please, PLEASE don't drop that low - just focus on eating well and loving yourself for who you are!

God, I'm so tired of this "17.2 is unhealthy, 20 is healthy" bs! BMI is a FORMULA for AVERAGE people. You can't blindly apply it to everyone!

Look at my pics in the gallery. Do I look unhealthy and underweight? Be honest, please.

Maha: You might not look it, but being underweight in general has long term bad effects on your internal health as well as your external - especially if you're still under 21.

Please remember:

Posting Guidelines

Calorie Count Plus's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management. Please help our moderators follow this vision and respect the following guidelines.

Promotion of starvation diets or habits that exhibit signs of an eating disorder ("pro-ana", "pro-mia", etc.) is prohibited.

This would include promotion or encouragement of maintaining an unhealthy, low weight. I know BMI doesn't facet in muscle and what have you, but under 18.5 is still an indicator of underweight.

Original Post by lalabanana:

Maha: You might not look it, but being underweight in general has long term bad effects on your internal health as well as your external - especially if you're still under 21.

Please remember:

Posting Guidelines

Calorie Count Plus's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management. Please help our moderators follow this vision and respect the following guidelines.

Promotion of starvation diets or habits that exhibit signs of an eating disorder ("pro-ana", "pro-mia", etc.) is prohibited.

This would include promotion or encouragement of maintaining an unhealthy, low weight. I know BMI doesn't facet in muscle and what have you, but under 18.5 is still an indicator of underweight.

That's ridiculous. BMI is not the same for everyone, and the blanket classification of "underweight" does not take into account my body shape. I wear size 4 jeans and XS tops--my body is oddly shaped. Especially from the back, I always look like I weigh more than people 10 lbs heavier than me. I'm very untoned and unfit--I cannot even do 5 pushups. I am thin but I carry around a disproportionate amount of fat on my lower body--I have a small chest but a relatively large amount of abdominal fat and very little muscle tone.

I am also genetically built to have a small frame. My mother was 5' and 88lbs when she got pregnant with me; now with 2 teenage kids she is a very reasonble 120 lbs and is the picture of health--even though she eats what she likes and couldn't tell a calorie from a carb. It is just the way we are built. Everyone carries their weight and body fat differently so for you to tell me that I am anorexic or pro-anorexic is just ridiculous.

I do however want to clarify that I am not obsessed with being thin. Naturally my weight settles at 105 lbs, which is where I am right now. I am comfortable with that. I went up to 116 pounds this year because I quit smoking and also spent some time in the hospital/recovering from a medical condition. Did I need to lose weight at 116 lbs? No. But the weight came off quickly with little to no work, because this is how I naturally am.

My only motivation for going down further from 105 is that I want to get rid of the excess body fat I am holding. I have quite a bit of jiggle for someone as small as me, and it just looks silly. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to want to become lean and toned. Wouldn't you want to do something about it if you could barely do 30 crunches or hold a plank position for 10 seconds?

I'd love to be 110 lbs and look fit and all that, but I'm sorry, that's just not how I am built. Sometimes I wonder if BMI charts are actually accurate for the way other races hold fat/are built (I am not white).

I have osteoporosis. This is due to dumb dieting decisions as a teenager, and has nothing to do with my present lifestyle. My weight is low not because I have too little body fat or muscle for normal body functioning, but because my bones are porous and weigh little.

I NEVER eat less than 1500 calories (which is my sedentary burn) on days when I don't exercise, and on workout days I consume anywhere between 1800 and 2200 kcal. How is that pro-ana?

I am in perfect health (apart from my bones). I actually had to beg my doctor to send me for a bone density test and tell her about my teenager-time eating habits (because I suspected something was wrong. Such low body weight just didn't seem possible given my body composition). She didn't even think about it because my blood test results have always been perfect and I live such a healthy lifestyle (now).

My point was not to draw conclusions based on numbers alone. There are other factors to consider.

warbler: Okay, fair enough on BMI. When I see posts from people wanting to be a sub-healthy weight I do get a little worried. I know it's a terrible measurement/formula by and large but I do take faith in it when it comes to the underweight category - but I was also unaware of any ethnicity differences. For this, I apologise. I believe BMI charts do differ between different ethnicities even as inaccurate a formula it is. I didn't say anywhere about you being obsessed with thinness. But again, if it came off this way, I apologise.

A want to be lean and toned and fit is beyond a reasonable goal. I'd focus on bf%, personal health/strength and measurements where you can. Scales and weight are such fickle things anyway, given fluctuations and what have you. And if it's any comfort, I can't plank for longer than 10 seconds either!

maha: I didn't say once you were undereating. What troubled me was the encouragement of upholding a low weight. I know reasons for low weights can vary - medical, metabolic, genetic. But as I said to warbler, it makes me blanch - especially in the YCC forum, as there seem to be notable influxes of girls with a bad perception of healthy and healthy means of weight loss. But believe me, I was throwing out no accusations of undereating. I am honestly sorry to hear about your osteoporosis.

maha-kisa, I think we have a very similar body type!! i'm also 5'3.5 and I weigh 105 lbs. I'm small, but not lacking in body fat--I too have very little muscle tone and I carry most of my weight in my upper arms and hips/thighs/stomach. And I too was 96 lbs at 17 due to dieting, which I agree was really dumb and unfit!! Right now I am working on muscle strengthening and not dieting.

Can you tell me more about how you developed osteoporosis? My mother reminds me about it every day--she tells me the exact same things you are saying which is quite scary! Which is, if I don't eat a proper diet now, I may be OK for the time being but my bones will be in bad shape when I'm old! How can I ward off osteoporosis? I think I may also be at an elevated risk for it because I am Asian.

I am currently reading Magic Hour by Susan Isaacs.

She makes an observation that rings VERY true.

She speaks about a rich, thin woman and makes a comment to the effect that if you saw a picture of her and heard she was from a third world country you would think she was starving and in deperate needs of help but knowing she's from Long Island, NY she's admired for her self-discipline and dedication to watching her weight.

How true! How true! SAD but true!

Original Post by lalabanana:

I do not question the girls and guys who eat well and enough but then find they are still slim. I know people with insane metabolisms. It happens.

What bothers me is the sort of thing ilovechai described, the people who knowingly starve themselves. But this doesn't always have to be someone who is skinny.

It concerns me more when I can tell someone is slowly killing themselves. Not so much their weight.

 That drives me crazy too.. One off my best friends is at a normal weight (about 130 pounds, 5'4" I'd say) but knowingly starves herself (sort of). I've known her for years but only in the past one year has she been so open about her eating habits.. She told me a while back that she eats only one meal a day--dinner--and is hardly hungry. I'm honestly not sure if she's trying to lose weight, because she's one of the most confident, secure girls I know, but it really worries me. I've told her it's unhealthy and I told her it could seriously be damaging her metabolism among other things, but she simply responds with "I'm just not hungry."

Original Post by warbler02:

My only motivation for going down further from 105 is that I want to get rid of the excess body fat I am holding. I have quite a bit of jiggle for someone as small as me, and it just looks silly. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to want to become lean and toned. Wouldn't you want to do something about it if you could barely do 30 crunches or hold a plank position for 10 seconds?

I'd love to be 110 lbs and look fit and all that, but I'm sorry, that's just not how I am built. Sometimes I wonder if BMI charts are actually accurate for the way other races hold fat/are built (I am not white).

Just as lalabanana said, if you want to get rid of those jiggles and get fit and "toned" then it is still possible to do that without being focused on losing 5 pounds. Losing just 5 pounds isn't going to tone you up, unless you do some strength training. It's possible to get toned and fit and look better without losing weight at all. In fact, you may even gain a pound or two of muscle, but you will still LOOK better. So I agree with lalabanana. Don't focus on the number on the scale,  just do some weight training and if you drop a few pounds okay, if not, it's all good.

Original Post by lalabanana:

maha: I didn't say once you were undereating. What troubled me was the encouragement of upholding a low weight. I know reasons for low weights can vary - medical, metabolic, genetic. But as I said to warbler, it makes me blanch - especially in the YCC forum, as there seem to be notable influxes of girls with a bad perception of healthy and healthy means of weight loss. But believe me, I was throwing out no accusations of undereating. I am honestly sorry to hear about your osteoporosis.

I wasn't encouraging upholding unhealthy weight. It pains me to see pictures of real anorexics who look like skeletons but keep trying to lose weight. I was trying to make a point that numbers alone don't mean a thing.  NO generic formula can determine what a healthy/unhealthy weight for a certain person will be. A Doctor can. According to BMI charts most bodybuilders are obese and are at risk of heart disease, diabetes, etc. Will you tell them to start losing weight ASAP based on their BMI alone? I don't think so. Same thing applies to people like me.

Say, I heed the advice of the majority and gain some weight to become "normal". Does BMI of 20 sound good to you? That's 114 lbs, so I need to gain 14 pounds. BMI makes no differentiation between muscle and fat, so why bother exercising if I can just sit on my butt and become "healthy"? Suppose I gain 14 pounds of fat  {shudders}. This will not make my bones denser, no, no.  But this will bring by bodyfat % to 27-28!!!!! I doubt this is your definition of health :)

When I started CC a year ago (actually, yesterday was my 1st anniversary), I was at 108 lbs. BMI 18.9. Healthy, eh? I could not do a single pushup, could not hold a plank for > 20 seconds, could not run for more than 30 seconds, my legs felt like they were made of led after a 30 minute brisk walk, I got out of breath after climbing a long set of stairs.

Now I'm at exactly 100 pounds. BMI 17.5 - underweight. I run 10 km @ 10 km/h on average. I can do > 40 regular pushups. I don't get tired from walking - I don't even consider this a form of exercise. I can do 1 hour spin class followed by an hour of high-impact aerobics, and I don't hurt the next day. I do BodyPump classes 3x/week and squat 30% of my bodyweight for 5 minutes. I can hold a plank for as long as I need to - a minute, two, three - doesn't matter.  My period hasn't ceased. My hair and skin are even in better condition because I eat so healthy. I am full of energy, I love working out. 

I am 24, and I have never been in such great shape in my life. If this is unhealthy, then I don't know what's healthy.

My weight is too low for MOST people of my height. But not for EVERYONE. It just drives me mad when somebody posts their stats (without pictures, medical history, eating history), and immediately gets attacked by a "pack of wolves" and gets diagnosed with unhealthy weight, unhealthy mindset, etc. This shouldn't be done based on numbers alone.

warbler02, developing osteoporosis was quit simple - simply not enough calcium while I was growing up. Our bones absorb calcium when it is in abundance, and give it away if there isn't enough of it in the bloodstream. The problem is that absorption slows down as we grow. Some sources say it pretty much stops when we hit 20, other say you can still gain bone density after 30. In any case, it's crucial that children build strong bones while they can. I failed. Add all this stupid uneducated dieting at 14-17, and voila.  I may still be able fix this, I'm happy I got diagnosed so early in life.

I make sure I get

• enough calcium and vit D (through food, I avoid supplements) - at least 3 cups of milk  + 2 servings of yogurt  daily, sometimes more.
• exercise (weight training works especially well for gaining and retaining bone density)
• and take birthcontrol with estrogen (killing 2 birds with 1 stone).

All this is supposed to help.  I'm still young (24), I'm sure I can still improve my bone health. Bones are VERY important, but they can be easily neglected until it's too late.

That was all kind of off-topic :) If you want to talk about this or anything else, PM me, I'll be happy to reply.

joekame, it is true that losing just 5 pounds isn't going to tone anyone up, you need to have muscles for that. BUT if muscles are covered by a layer of fat, you still aren't going to look toned. One becomes toned by losing fat AND gaining muscle (OR if they had enough muscle to begin with, simply preserving it will work as well).  There may be no difference in weight at the end, but there will be a difference in body composition (lose 2 lbs of fat, gain 2 lbs of muscle -> look as if you lost 3 lbs, but stay at the same weight).

Original Post by maha-kisa:

I wasn't encouraging upholding unhealthy weight. It pains me to see pictures of real anorexics who look like skeletons but keep trying to lose weight. I was trying to make a point that numbers alone don't mean a thing.  NO generic formula can determine what a healthy/unhealthy weight for a certain person will be. A Doctor can. According to BMI charts most bodybuilders are obese and are at risk of heart disease, diabetes, etc. Will you tell them to start losing weight ASAP based on their BMI alone? I don't think so. Same thing applies to people like me.

Maha-Kisa ~

We understand that the BMI is a generic tool and does not always apply to each individual person. 

We ask that you please understand that Calorie Count Plus's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management. 

Since we are not doctors, dieticians, or nutritionists... We do follow and reference those tools and generic guidelines. 

As a Volunteer Moderator, it is our responsibility to uphold Calorie Count's mission and guidelines designated by the site administrators and owners. 

This includes the following of the BMI which WHO suggests a healthy weight is within the 18.5-24.99 range.  While you may not agree with it, it is still one of Calorie Count's guidelines that has to be followed and upheld.

Your appreciation and understanding of the guidelines and rules are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

~ UTR
Volunteer Moderator

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ember - I totally understand how you feel. That's actually one of the main reasons I stay away from YCC (most of the time). I know how it feels to desperately want to lose weight, but, it isn't worth risking your health. You are incredibly mature for a 16 year old girl! If only all the other 16 year olds around here had your attitude! =) 

Original Post by oxymoron00:

Guess what: half of the people on Calorie Count USED TO HAVE DISORDERS, too.

 

WOW I had no idea.

ps: I wish I was naturally skinny lol but unfortunatelly I've got to work my arse off to keep this weight

ref BMI: it does NOT account for the body fat. so instead of using that, take a body fat test; that's WAY more accurate; plus many skinnie minnies can and ARE skinny fat b/c they don't exercise.