"You're So Skinny...

...you have to run around in the shower to get wet."

That is my best friend's favorite joke about me. Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else has any funny or mean things people have said to them about being thin or underweight.

Redviolin, though it may have been a bit hurtful to you.. I think the way he said it was very classy of him. =) Unless he had a different tone of voice than what I'm imagining?

The other day, a male co-worker said to me "jeesh! look at you, you're skin and bones! I'm gonna have to take you to lunch". So, I showed him what was in my lunch bag. Seriously, it's a small cooler packed with food. Then he reacted opposite. "My god! You eat like a horse!" Why yes I do.

Can't win.

A lot of women in my family have experienced eating disorders, so I'm extra sensitive about it, feeling like everyone automatically suspects I'm not eating healthy because I'm thinner. It hasn't been easy learning all this health stuff and being disciplined about doing it right, so it adds to my frustration. I now eat over 2000 calories a day and am still losing. Not a single health problem at 34. Don't even need glasses. I'm very strong and energetic with glowing skin and long, thick, shiny hair.

Yet people, with their "skinny" comments, still manage to make me feel like I'm sickly and weak.

  OHH ,,, i am always in the same situation !!!! but u know it never bother me ,, in contrast -- their comments made me feel I AM SPECIAL !! u know why??? cz many & many people r trying to reach my weight -- and i just weight like a MODEL .... thats what made others jealous !! i guess !!

     so i dont want u feel bad ,, u just need to be healthy and happy with ur wieght -- that will made u eat with highter appetite .. right : D

Original Post by minie13:

I'm naturally thin and very lean looking.  I eat healthy and enjoy running.  People make rude comments all the time about how skinny I am, ask me if I'm anorexic (which i am not), etc.  I'm not sure why people think its appropriate to comment on a thin person's weight, but not a fat person's weight.  Imagine the response of others if I said something abot someone being OVERweight...but no one bats an eyelash about comments about me being UNDERweight.

This is honestly one of my biggest pet peeves ever.  I hate it.

 That sounds exactly like me! Before my ED I always got comments like that. I still do now, but have a better apriciation for my body, and know that I am healthy and strong. It does bug me, though; people don't bat an eye when saying 'Your sooooo skinny, go eat pizza and fries', but it is insulting to say 'Your so fat...go eat salad and join weight watchers'. x(

"You're so skinny, I can see right through you" :(

I was in a health food store buying the highest calorie highest fat food I could find (I used to weigh 122, now because of severe TMJ making me unable to chew) and I bought a yogurt with (yippee) 10% milk fat. I took it to the cash register and the cashier looks at it and says "Oh my goodness, how can you eat that, you're going to get fat!" I almost had a laughing fit.

And I always get vaguely insulted when I walk into a store looking for meal replacement protein shakes and it always says on the front of the container: Lose Weight Fast! / Safe, Effective Weight Loss /Guaranteed Weight Loss Results!

I'm trying to gain weight, don't you think they'd have any meal replacement shakes for people who are, well, in desperate need of meals? Nope, I had to go to a bodybuilder's supplement store to find anything for gaining weight.

I felt so shamed walking in there so stick-thin, because the very-built cashiers treated me like just some airhead girl who'd invaded the sanctity of their bodybuilding store. When in fact before this severe weightloss I used to be a bodybuilder, and I was extremely built and used to be given a lot of respect by other bodybuilders.

Everyone tells me now: "Oh, I just can't imagine you being a bodybuilder!" "I can't imagine a petite thing like you being that big!" (Even after I show them pictures...)

I think something that could help a lot of the posters in this thread to realize is that people don't think when they speak. When someone comments on how skinny you are, in THEIR mind, that's a compliment.

I know before joining this site, becoming friends with people who have EDs and are fighting them for all they're worth, I was the same way.

I'd have thin friends who I was terribly envious of, and I would say those thoughtless things.

"Wow, you are so thin!"
"You're eating that?! I wish I could eat that and be as skinny as you..."
"Good lord, my arm is as big as one of your thighs!"

I was 5'6" and 250 lbs at my biggest. I was unhappy with myself, and depressed. Every time I saw someone who was thin, fit, even skinny, I was envious, jealous and sometimes even -sigh- bitter.

I didn't think before I spoke, and no, that doesn't excuse the awful behavior or things I've said...

What I'm trying to do is shed a little light on why some of those large/chubby/fat/even normal weight people may say those things. More than likely, some of them are just plain envious of your body structure, and say things before they speak.

Does this make it okay? No.

But maybe thinking about it like that will help those who have been hurt by those thoughtless words let go of it a little.

I said those things out of a dark, sad place. A place where I wanted so very badly to be the person I was talking to, or at least look like them. Sometimes, girls can be truly mean. Other times it's coming from a place that's just as depressed as you all can be about what others have said about them.

You get called skinny, I get called fat. And yes, for some strange reason being called skinny in such a mean tone is more acceptable than someone calling me fat.

I think neither is acceptable now that I'm more educated about both sides of the matter.

My name is Adria, and I am a former obese woman, now moderately-overweight, looking forward to being toned, svelte and healthy.
I apologize to all those I ever made feel even remotely unhappy with their bodies because of my thoughtless comments, and hope to give a bit of peace of mind to those in this thread who have been hurt by comments like I used to make.

I hope that no matter your goals for being on here, as long as they are healthy for you, you attain them.

aww thank you Adria! That's so sweet!

I think this just goes to show that we all have our gripes, regardless of size. the ultimate goal is to be healthy, right? I admire you for all that you've accomplished!

I am very lean. Part of that is due to high school sports, but the other part is purely genetics. My dad was 6'3 and like 125 lbs in high school, but ate like a horse. I inherited his body type so I have a very difficult time with gaining any weight.

I never had an ED, but my mom did when she was in highschool, only eating 3 carrots, 2 pieces a celery, and a slice of cheese for the whole day. It's a miracle she didn't have more health problems than she did. Well anyway, now unhealthy eating has caught up to both of them and they could each drop about 10 lbs so my sister and I started eating better to try to convince them to (which has worked somewhat). I lost a lot of weight and fast too, but with my frame it almost made me look sickly. Of course, my mom feared it was an ED, but after she saw that I ate about 3000 calories a day, she relaxed. I just have a crazy metabolism. I'm looking to gain about 10 lbs in muscle which is going to be a challenge.

My basketball teammates think I don't eat and when we are all together they will be snacking on Oreos and I will turn them down because I think they are pretty gross (I can only eat them if I have a craving) and I will immediately get the comment "Holy crap, I am gonna strap you down and force feed you until you get fat" It drives me crazy, but we get along, I swear.

Then they went out to dinner with me and watched me eat a huge grilled chicken sandwich, half of the rolls in the basket, and a brownie sundae and finally stopped with the comments. Now, we enjoy team pasta dinners (yay for pre game carb loading!) hosted at my house.

Sorry for the novel, guys.

my boss told me that a "strong fart will blow you over." 

yeah. . .

i like this thread.  good topic!

A while ago I had to go to my clinic...it's in the middle of this industrial park so you have to walk past all these other businesses.  Anyway, I was getting to the door, and this group of quite young blokes - builders - saw me, and just gave me this awful once over and then looked at me with this awful "I know what you are" expression.  Did the only thing one could do under the circumstances: gave them the finger and told them to go **** themselves.  They burst out laughing and now whenever I go I always stop and have a cup of tea and a biscuit with them afterwards and complain about therapists!

Well.. In Nova Scotia right now we're getting high winds.. and I have a large bag.. the wind knocked me too my butt.. which didn't help that i was with my friend that's always bitching about how skinny I am.

I don't usually get the comments, but all my friends are boys, so they just like giving me piggy backs then asking where I went.. or dress me up in their clothes, and just throw me around a lot. It's not really insulting.. I think I do the worse damage.. Haha.

Original Post by katiimenya:

Well.. In Nova Scotia right now we're getting high winds.. and I have a large bag.. the wind knocked me too my butt.. which didn't help that i was with my friend that's always bitching about how skinny I am.

I don't usually get the comments, but all my friends are boys, so they just like giving me piggy backs then asking where I went.. or dress me up in their clothes, and just throw me around a lot. It's not really insulting.. I think I do the worse damage.. Haha.

 

Hey! I know what you mean about all your friends being boys....Since I started trying to recover practically all my friends are boys...I still have a few close girlfiends, but mostly they're boys - for some reason they're just easier to be around, they don't judge me or anything - I remember the first time I put weight on the girls I knew were examining my stomach and thighs but the boys were just like "ha ha Theo's getting fa-at, hey maybe soon we won't have to introduce you as our little brother..."  

I love my rugby boys....

Huh. Theofournay, can I ask where your clinic is? Mine's smack in the middle of an industrial park too. It took me ages to find it. D:

i get comments everyday by friends and family on how thin i am. its mostly the typical "eat some cake ya twig!" lol or something like that but it frustrates me to no end how people don't even take the time to understand what your going through (for me its anorexia) and say things without thinking how they mite effect you.

I know what you mean alexa, i hate the stupid comments people make. Most of the time it's just friends and family telling me I look so good I've gained weight blah blah blah. I know it's meant as a compliment but that can be hard to deal with . I already know I'm gaining weight, that's all I ever think about or do, I dont need reminders!

But anyways, the real story I was going to post was that I went to visit my mom at her work the other day and saw a coworker of hers I hadnt seen since last year and she was like "oh you've gotten so thin! Are you trying to make us all jealous?!" That's just really annoying because it just goes to show how everyone in our society now values thinness and thinks we should all be skin and bone to be beautiful. I really don't know how to respond when people say these things or tell me "you're so thin, you're like a model! I wish I coudl be like that!" I'm just like ummm...no you don't. Please don't be jealous, this is not a healthy kind of thin. But then again I don't want to have to get into details either.

DITTO, ditto, ditto.

One of the girls in my study abroad program makes frequent comments, like, "You're so tiny, I'm so jealous!"  Her comments are so hard for me, because they simultaneously make me 1) feel good about being unhealthily underweight and 2) self-concious (because I do occasionally recognize just how skin-and-bones I look in the mirror).  The other day, I had goosebumps, and when my friend commented on how I must be cold because I'm so thin, I responded by saying (in a joking tone, but obviously I was serious), "Yeah, but I'm bulking up!"  To which the girl replied, "No!  You're so thin and pretty!"  Agh!

exactly! people are always like your so lucky your so tiny and im like yea lucky to constantly focus on having to gain weight and have people tell me that i have to 5 bajillion times a day. not to mention the constantly being cold even if it is 80 degrees outside. its sad how girls these days have this idea that skin and bones in the only form of beautiful...people will love you no matter what size your jeans are.

I am overweight but I would like to comment.

I myself am guilty of having said comments like "You are so skinny, I wish I were like you!" but now I am more aware of how it can hurt. Losing weight, it makes me self conscious to be told that there is a visible, although it is generally good it still makes me feel bad. I think no matter what weight you are comments can hurt because it makes you look at yourself more closely. Now, I also realize everyone is different and should accept themselves the way they are and if they don't like it change it themselves and not make such blunt comments to others. Still being in high school I hear a lot of comments made about weight and looks and it's really sad. I see perfectly healthy and pretty girls being put down all the time.

Lastly, I'd like to say sorry for those comments I made. I no longer wish I were like the "skinny girls" not because I don't think they are beautiful or anything but because I have to accept myself and I can't wish to be anyone else nor is it my business to comment on them.

:)

I totally agree with the post above, and I actually think it's quite brilliant that some people can see the power of comments on appearance through threads like these. Similarly, it troubles me when I hear healthy sized friends of mine complaining about the fat that they don't have. It's sad. ]:

All of you be happy with who you are, you're gorgeous! <3