Why do so many people want to be sooooo small?!

Do you want to be able to hide behind a light pole, or to be blown off your feet by a whisp of breeze? I don't understand it. There is nothing remotely sexy or attractive about being able to see somebody's skeleton from the outside of their body. It can't be any more healthy in the long term to force your body to become unnaturally thin than it is to be grossly overweight. All it really seems to do is to put you at risk of an eating disorder by making you think 'more, more, more'... (or rather 'thinner, lower, less!')

I can understand why somebody like me needs to get thinner - at 260+ pounds and 36 years old I was really starting to feel it. My vital statistics are fine - my blood-pressure has always been highish (but not high enough to need medicine) and my blood-sugar is fine, but my cholesterol was a bit high. But my joints and skeleton were starting to suffer, and I want to be able to do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it without worrying about my knees/back/ankles... So I decided to try and lose weight, and to my amazement, it's working far better than I ever dreamed it would! But even so, I have no desire to be 'thin'... my final goal is 200 pounds (or a size 16/18, whichever comes first). I'm going to be quite happy to STOP twenty pounds above where a lot of you even start!

Seriously, what is your motivation behind losing weight? Help me understand your psychology...

Well, I cannot comment on why one would want to be "skinny" as that is not a look that I aim for.

As far as small, I will admit that I feel better about myself at size six than I do at ten or twelve - probably because I am a small person and carrying around extra weight just seems like a "burden". It is an individual choice. I want to live a long healthy live, on my own terms, for as long as humanly possible. I don't want to be in the care of others for the last twenty years that I am on this earth. I am almost sixty and see so many that are decades younger than me but they are almost bedbound while I am exercising two hours a day.

I want to be a healthy weight for my frame, with healthy skin, hair and nails. That's all..

Good luck to you, you also seem to know who you want to be.

sue.....

I to wonder this same exact thing. I started out at 215lbs im down to 169 and my goal weight is somewhere 155/150ish. and im 5 f 6 inches tall. I see posts of women my height just starting out at the end goal I want. They always say im 150 and I need to lose at least 30lbs and im like HUH 30lbs! Are you crazy.......beyond me why anyone wants to look like a stick I know trying to get to a *healthy* bmi is what we should be aiming for but shoot those bmi's arent always the kicker. IT should be based on how you feel and if you really are healthy. If I dropped down to 120 I would never realistically maintain that weight I like food I enjoy cooking and eating with my family and im not sacraficing all of that just so my bones all stick out and I look like a stick with a big head.

Maybe its just my age.......but stick figures just dont appeal to me either.

I always wanted to be small. Which is ironic because I have always been extremly large, not fat but tall with a strong sturdy build. Growning up (at 12 I was 5'8 150lbs) people just assumed that I was clumbsy, and being larger then ALL the boys didn't make me feel very girly. No, from a young age people let me know that big and strong wasn't beautiful. Even as an adult I feel like being the 5'11" amazon that I have grown into breaks barriers of attractivness... Men in general don't like big women. Now that I am 30 I am more comfortable in my body, and I like who I am and how I am built very much, and with training as a martial artist I have learned to move my Amazon like frame with grace... but even now sometimes I wish I was 6 inches shorter and quite abit more narrow!

I’m 5’7 and would like to get down to 130 or so. It’s not all about being pretty and skinny, at 180 I was noticing that I could not move around as well as I used to. I love being moderately athletic and able to go running with my sister. The weight loss will also be beneficial to my career; I want to work for the state parks. You need to be able to do some demanding physical work from time to time. You have to hike the trails caring equipment and supplies. Some of the trails can run 5 miles or more. Even if your higher up in the system you have to run chain saws, move logs or weed eat.  The job can get very difficult if your not fit.

Sexy is in the eye of the beholder.

I'm 5' 2" and 111.  My goal is between 100 and 105 pounds.  I would love to look like the frail bird armed girl...but I don't think it's in my genes.  For me, the skinny skinny rib showing look is my idea of sexy.

I'm going to have the same face and personality at 100 pounds as I did at 160 pounds, so I know my beauty will not change, but I will feel ten times sexier than I did at 160.  Again, sexy is in the eye of the beholder and that is what I view as sexy.  (My boyfriend prefers curves and meat on the bones, but...he'll have to take what I end up at....and he's also okay with that [with stipulations - nothing under 100 pounds]). 

Im going to disagree slightly to the previous post. Over 180lbs I could run circles around my skinny stick friends they couldnt lift anything they had no energy and when it came to exercise they were a joke. I would get laughed at before a tennis game with a lot of them because they all assumed because I was heavier that I couldnt play the game. Guess again me and some of the stalkier more robust gals whipped their butt on the court! Its not always about weight its about how you feel at certain weights. Im sure being thin lots of ppl have more energy and feel wonderful but what about the percentage that their body is starving they have no energy and im whipping their butts out on the tennis courts=)

I imagine the constant bombardment by the media and hollywood about what is beautiful is a contributor...for me, I want to get to the healthiest "ideal" weight for me, and that is NOT 200 or even 150 lbs (granted, I'm 5'4").  Nor is it 105. Everybody's body is different, and it sure would be nice if "we" as a culture could celebrate that...oh, well.

I agree with Noelle31, wouldn't it be nice if we as a culture could celebrate our differences? I'm small by nature, 5'-3" and currently 127. I would like to get to 120, but I am making a concerted effort to be muscular. For me, that means losing it slowly, and making sure I am losing fat, not muscle. I want to look thin, but strong and muscular. However, my best friend's sister is 6' tall and very athletic looking, but not super thin, and I think she is one of the most beautiful sexy looking women I know. Everybodies bodies look good at a different weight.

Honestly, it really depends on you body shape & type.  I have no boobs or butt.  when I gain weight it goes to my stomach not to the areas I'd like (boobs & butt).  I look proportioned when I'm at a low, but healthy weight.   That said, bones are gross and are never attractive.

For me, the skinny skinny rib showing look is my idea of sexy.

That just grosses me out I dont want to see anyones ribs showing it just looks unhealthy to me.*squirms* and *ducks* from tat lol

When I was 160 at 5'11 everyone said I was too skiny, i was Ribby and hib bonny, and my clavicle was Very pronounced.  I thought I looked great, to be honnest I would like to be that thin again.  :(

My motivation was, in all honesty, to look good for my wedding.  We're getting married outdoors, in a public park, and I want all of the passers by to look at Alex and say, "DAMN!  He's one lucky guy," rather than saying, "Yo!  Check out the beached whale."

After the excitement of the engagement died off, I realised I wanted to start married life healthy.  Dating Alex, I improved my health drastically by dropping two bad habits.  Engaged to Alex, I want to continue to improve my life by dropping pounds.  Once I'm married, I want to be sure, one hundred percent, that my body is the healthiest it can be to carry his child to ensure I've done everything I possibly could to give it a good start in life.

I don't want to be a twig.  I don't think I'll get down to 120 like this website recommends.  I'd have to wait and see how I look, but after I get passed 150, I'm going by sizes, not numbers.  I want to be a size eight, mostly so I can say I'm a single digit in the pant size for the first time in.. uh.. Never, 'cause when I was younger I wore sweat pants and those go by words, not numbers.  I also want to buy as little fabric as possible to make my wedding dress, 'cause the damned thing is going to be beaded.

Try beading a corset for a size 22.  Your fingers won't be pretty by the time you're done.   x______o;

Yes I wanna be smaller and yes I am getting healthier along that path. Why do I want to be smaller. Well I have a small frame and honestly want my body to look like it did before I had kids. And I am getting there. I am now at what I weighed after my second son. I have 7-8 more pounds to go before I am at the weight I was before kids and I will be happy. Well I am happy now with my weight but would like to be a bit smaller because the last of my weight is on my stomach. Do I have more energy now opposed to when I was 160? Yep. Am I a sickly looking person? Nope. Do I eat a normal; amount of healthy food now? Yep. Just because one is skinner, smaller, thinner (or trying to be) does not mean we have an ED, unhealthy, no energy or never eat. Furthermore not all of us are trying to push our body to do something it does not wanna do. I eat 1500 cals a day and do 30 mins of exercise a few times a week. My weight is naturally coming off and this rate. I am not pushing it to do something it does not wanna do. If I get to 125 instead of 120 and my body wants to stay at 125 thats where it will stay. I am not pushing my body to unnatural levels.

Interesting replies... I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting to be thin - I just wanted to know how you chose your final goal (and why you chose that particular number rather than a larger one...)

I've known people who have literally died to be thin and it makes me very sad... I could have been one of them when I was fifteen because I firmly believed that I was a WHALE (at a size 14), but my mother caught onto me about a month into the 'apple a day' stage and told me firmly that I was too sensible to fall into that trap... and she was right. It took a long time, but I did come to accept myself as God made me.

I chose my 200 pound goal because a)I can't remember the last time I weighed that little... b)the 150 that the calculator suggested for me seemed unimaginably far away and totally unachievable to somebody who hadn't dieted successfully EVER... and c)I didn't have any joint/mobility problems until recently, so losing a relatively small amount of weight should solve them (and it has already! My feet hurt much less at 242 than they did at 265 and I feel much better in myself...) The Law of Diminishing Returns definitely applies to dieting, and frankly, I don't want it to get too much like hard work! lol At this weight it's relatively easy to drop weight - eat 1500 well-balanced calories and move for half an hour, and there goes a noticeable amount of weight. I don't want to let myself get anywhere near the point where I might have to start obsessing to make it happen. I don't think I have the mentality to manage it in a healthy way. Maybe I could, maybe I couldn't... I've gained a LOT of maturity in the last decade - but I don't want to take that risk...

The fact is that being fit and energetic and generally physically and emotionally healthy is NOT the same thing as just being thin.  

My goal in the beginning was 130. I got there and maintained there for a while. I do look good where I am at altho I still have a good layer of belly fat. I could do all the sit ups in the world and it won't change they fat there. I'll have muscle but no one would see them. Thats why I decided to drop 10lbs pounds. Because at this point its mostly belly fat (my last place to lose) that is coming off.

I see where you're coming from.

I was 18 198lbs and 5'2 with a small frame... it was really starting to affect my back and general healthy.

I am now 19 155lbs and while I'm still overweight to be honest I'm quite happy at this weight.

My goal is roughly 125lbs which is a BMI of 23. Yet I look around at others my size and they're all aiming for 100-115. It can be slightly discouraging but I like my curves... and I don't want to have to maintain a too low a weight.

Who knows i might even prefer being 140 or 150. You never know til you try though.

Most people understand American society to be beauty driven, thus these girls would rather be apart of it then laughed at by it.  

Frankly, I feel like I am expected to be small. Like, its just how society thinks now. So, I plan to lose about 10 more lbs (still within the healthy weight range for me). When I was overweight I was treated different then I am now. As lousy as this sounds, I believe I will be able to be more successful getting a great career as a thin person than I would have been if I hadn't lost weight. Its a sad truth, but there is a lot of discrimination when it comes to weight issues.

edit: not saying bigger people can't be every bit as successful as a thin person, but I'll bet in most cases they worked a lot harder to get there.

I am probably one of those people you are referring to. I am at a healthy weight and I don't even look fat yet I want to lose 10-15 pounds. (although some women on here  might consider me 'fat')

Honestly I am not sure as to what the real reason is that I want to be skinnier, 'so tiny' as you put it. I wouldn't be suprised if I am conforming to society's image of beauty, which is very thin. Women want to feel beautiful, it's very very important to most women.

I think the discrimination is somewhat warented...  I mean if i had a choice between promoting two people to a high position in a company one weighing 250 pounds the other 180 (males)  id pick the 180 provided there credentials were similar... if you cant even take care of your own body why should i expect you to be able to take care of a multi million dollar company