I was just walking back from dropping my son off from school. I lived in a planned community that has a lot of pathways for walking and we live just off of one of the 3 lakes for the city, so there are always a lot of walkers. An Indian woman, about 50 years old or so was walking. I passed her by, but as I was passing her, she asked me a question.
She asked, "Excuse, can you tell me, I can tell you are a fast walker. Can you lose weight walking?" I stop and I tell her that I've lost about 100 pounds and most of it was done by walking. She looked so shocked she said, "Really? OMG. You look so thin. I cannot believe you used to be so fat. I'm sorry, I am fat, but you look so thin!" I laughed and said thanks, and told her that yes, I used to weigh 275 pounds. She looked shocked again. And said, "You did it all by walking?" I told that much of it was walking, but that I also go to the gym for classes and lift weights. Then she looked puzzled and asked, "You weigh 175 pounds?" I replied that yes, I do (only fudging by a pound). She then said, "I weigh 170 pounds and I look fat and you look so good and thin and fit."
And now I was shocked, I hope I didn't show it, because I would have guessed she weighed 190 or so because she was quite heavy. Not morbidly so, but she probably has 50 or so pounds to lose, easily.
She was about 5'3" so 170 will look different on her than on me, but she probably has a small frame and has little muscle mass. I have a big frame and probably significant muscle. I'm still 16 pounds from where I want to be, but it made me feel good. I get it frequently, "You look thin." I 'don't'... it's that I have muscle.
Makes me want to do even more strength training. I can see it in just the month of work I've been doing at the gym after taking some time away from strength training.
People just can't get past the numbers on the scale. My MIL weighs 170 too and she wears 1-2 pants sizes bigger than me too and we're the same height. She looks tubby. I probably look like I just need to lose a little (by today's middle age standards). I know I need to lose weight and build muscle, but when I hear things like that, it validates, a bit, that yes... it's OK to weigh more than the average person because I guess I truly don't look as heavy as the scale makes it sound like I weigh. The scale doesn't tell the whole story.
Thanks for this... Probably the most important single thing that I learned this time around... and I can never hear it enough....
I live and work in New York City and have for my entire life, so I've seen a fair amount of people in person over the years that you also see in films, on TV, and in magazines.... and it never ceases to amaze me sometimes how my preconceived ideas about how someone will "look" based on what I've heard about their "weight" compares to the reality of actually seeing them right there in front of you.
One example here is professional athletes... Now I'm not a big sports fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm a New Yorker, so I try to show some support for our home teams and I do love going to games because even though I don't really know all the minutiae, I always have a great time...
Anyway... when I hear a players stats of Ht & Wt... I always think that they sound "fat".... Well, when I've seen even Pro football players in person... Trust me they don't look "fat"... Now I know you might be saying "DUH!!!" but for me if you just put someone's ht./wt. in front of me.... I might just write them off... BUT trust me... if you put Eli Manning or Tim Tebow in front of me, the last thing I would be thinking about is how much they weighed...!!!
That's awesome!!! Those kinds of interactions are so eye opening!
I had something go similarly last week, but the other way around. I meet with a trainer every now and then and she asked me how many pounds away from my goal I am, I said about 30. She said no way I need to lose that much more (I still disagree lol). She said she weighs 150 (she's 5'8"), and she looks GOOD, shapely legs, defined arms, I would have guessed 135 or less (not that I think 150 at 5'8" is heavy, I certainly don't, I just thought she looked like less than that). But it just goes to show that weight really means nothing, especially the closer you get to goal and the more muscle you have.
Oh I think that's great! On the fact that you might be motivating her, that she called you thin (love hearing that!), and that you know (which I already knew you knew from seeing your posts and blogs) that the scale weight is only ONE indicator. Like I've posted before my mom is about an inch taller than me but SEVERAL sizes larger even when we weigh the same. She is much more scale obsessed than I am, don't get me wrong I like to see it going down--but my waist shrinking, my shoulders getting more cut, and my legs looking damn hot are more important to me. I always say I'd rather be 200 pounds and a size 2 and strong than 100 pounds and a size 2 and weak (not that that's possible at my height but it's what I say).
This just made my day
