This is the question I need to write down and keep with me daily haha.
I have been both. When I was younger I was always on crazyyy diets and struggled with eating disorders on and off for years. In turn, I was very very tiny. Lowest was just about 80 lbs at 5'2. Right now I'm 130 (and several years older) with a goal to slim back down to 120. For me those 10 lbs can come about in a healthy and fit way, or in a quicker, cocaine and cigs style.
As I read everyones posts I kept saying "thin" over and over again in my mind. But realistically, even though myself and some others thought or said that (even if just at first) we don't really chose that.
We all could be cocaine and cigs skinny. We could starve ourselves or put our bodies through insane diets and crashes to get down to our version of skinny, but we're not. We are here instead, listening and supporting each other as we try and lose weight the fit way, even if that just means healthy dieting.
So all in all, though every ounce of my body says thin, I know my answer is fit...
definitely thin. i spent my whole summer killing myself at the gym 6 days a week to get 'fit' but then when i stopped working out and just walked everywhere and dieted.. i ended up losing more weight and now my clothes are too big for me compared to when i was fit. i think it also depends on the body type because some women look better fit as opposed to thin.
I think both verisons of you are fit. One instance you're gym rat fit, and the other you're active healthy foods fit. It isn't that you said "screw the gym" and went on a liquid diet to bring your numbers down...so I'd say the smaller/thin you is just as fit but in a different way
So all in all, though every ounce of my body says thin, I know my answer is fit...
great answer. I've abused my body enough, now I just want to eat healthily and exercise so I enjoy it and it contributes to my mental and physical health.
I think walking is a great exercise, walking and eating healthily seems fit to me.
to OP find a treadmill near cute guys next time, ha!
Good question. I'd rather be thin. I love exercise, and I do it because it helps get rid of the jigglies (plus it just feels so darn good), but in an honest head-space, I'd have to say thin. When I was 240 I was doing spinning classes, BodyPump classes, BodyStep classes, and I was keeping up with the rest of 'em, so I was pretty darn fit (for my standards) when I was overweight (granted, I wasn't healthy because I was so overweight, but I was pretty fit). Today, I still do spinning and all that good stuff, but my body is smaller weight-wise and I love the way I look today. So, I choose thin.
It is what I find attractive, it's what I aspire to. I mean, sure, I would like to be able to run a mile or do 100 crunches, but if it came down to it I'd rather be androgynous and waif like than muscular or feminine. Honestly I find "heroin chic" to be extremely attractive.
I have to try and keep myself in check tho, these aspirations and views have caused me issues in the past with disordered eating.
I want to look good, but I don't need that to be "thin". It is smaller than I am now, but probably not all that much smaller. I have sort of a stocky build and when I notice women that are attractive to me, they always have the same shape. I don't think of waify women as attractive. I actually feel a little horrified by the idea of being thin because I think our culture is so creepy and messed up about it. I would rather not be part of that problem to the extent I can help it (but I do think it's like racism, if you're raised in this culture you've got it, I'm afraid).
I would also like to be "fit," but I don't need an extreme level of fitness. I have NO desire to run marathons. But I would like to live a relatively long life. If all of my labs/blood pressure/etc came back good, and I could somehow know that I was in shape enough to live until I was hit by a bus or something, I wouldn't feel the need to get beyond that fitness level at all. I don't see "fit" as an end in itself.
I agree with the comments about it depending on the definition of fat. I would not take my 245 pound self back no matter how fit. At the same time I would keep my 165 pound me who can lift weights and do zumba for hours over a 115 pound me who couldn't do those things.
I am not even really aiming for thin at this point. I don't know that I will ever get to 115, and even if I do I probably won't stay there because I will start working toward putting on more muscle. I am actually trying to do the dreaded bulking up. I don't want to go to the extremes of pro body builders, but that is mostly because I refuse to use steroids and do it in an unnatural way. I do plan to build as much muscle as my body will naturally allow though. I don't care what my scale says. I care what I can do, what my doc thinks, what I think when I look in the mirror, and what my husband thinks.
As for the guys going after the skinny chick instead of the 250 pound athlete, that's very true. However, those are probably not the type of guys the athlete wants anyhow. Besides that, there's so much more to life than attracting a guy. I'm married, but I am married to a guy who likes the look of a fat chick. I didn't let that stop me when I decided to do something about my health (and for me that is not a synonym for weight, I didn't care about my weight until the doc said I was diabetic). When I started I thought what I was doing might cause troubles and he might leave me, but keeping him wasn't worth shortening my life. Getting or keeping a man is not the most important thing in the world.
As for the guys going after the skinny chick instead of the 250 pound athlete, that's very true. However, those are probably not the type of guys the athlete wants anyhow. Besides that, there's so much more to life than attracting a guy. I'm married, but I am married to a guy who likes the look of a fat chick. I didn't let that stop me when I decided to do something about my health (and for me that is not a synonym for weight, I didn't care about my weight until the doc said I was diabetic). When I started I thought what I was doing might cause troubles and he might leave me, but keeping him wasn't worth shortening my life. Getting or keeping a man is not the most important thing in the world.
So, so true fitgirlygirl! My husband thinks thin is the end all be all, both for himself and his partner. He's nice to me about it, but has admitted that he's embarrassed about my weight and would like for me to be thin. He was around 60 or 70 pounds over weight before he started losing a while back, and I *never* felt that way about him. To me, he was the same exact guy I married, and the extra weight didn't affect the way I saw him at all. Sigh... Anyhow, it has kinda made me wish that I had met him (or whoever was meant to be husband, if he couldn't handle it) fat. Attracting a guy with your tiny little waist may have its pitfalls. And like you said, it might not attract the kind of guy you want anyhow. All of this said -- I have no desire to be thin for him. Quite the opposite, I'd rather not be thin and see if he can rise to the occasion.
There are 250lb female athletes who could kick all sorts of butt in whatever sporting arena they find themselves at home in. Put a dress on one of them and sit her down in a bar next to her 125lb friend. How likely is it that a guy is going to look at her and think "oh, the heavier woman is so much fitter than the thin one next to her!" before coming over to buy one of them a drink? Who is he more likely to buy a drink for? Put a business suit on that same 250lb athlete and see if "healthy" is the first word that pops into a hiring manager's mind when she's sitting on the other side of an interview table.
Martini - this is SOOOO correct - I have watched Danni Samuels current world discus champion grow up, she is a close family friend.
Now this is a mega fit 23 year old. And she is not a big blobby girl, she is tall - 6foot ish, and a fabulously big strong athlete with greath technical skill. AND SHE IS FIT!!!! Unbelievably fit, and not "fat" at all. This is the link to an article on her. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225851498359
She is totally beautiful, and a world champion athlete - but does she conform to society's most converted image of " stick thin" - no way! Put her beside a movie star...
And I'm guessing she would not be the first one in that bar noticed by men...
Martini - this is SOOOO correct - I have watched Danni Samuels current world discus champion grow up, she is a close family friend.
Now this is a mega fit 23 year old. And she is not a big blobby girl, she is tall - 6foot ish, and a fabulously big strong athlete with greath technical skill. AND SHE IS FIT!!!! Unbelievably fit, and not "fat" at all. This is the link to an article on her. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225851498359
She is totally beautiful, and a world champion athlete - but does she conform to society's most converted image of " stick thin" - no way! Put her beside a movie star...
And I'm guessing she would not be the first one in that bar noticed by men...
Yeah, I don't think she's going to have any problems getting men to notice her, she's very pretty!
I just checked her weight 82kg, which is pretty much exactly what I weigh but she's also 182cm (so just under 6ft tall) so she's still at a healthy BMI range, not fat at all (especially since she's very muscular too)!
ETA: if that is the definition of fit vs thin here, sign me up!
Last edited by runningfromfat; 08-31-2011 at 07:55 PM.
