Are you more concerned about being healthy or losing weight? - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

missingmyerica · 02-24-2008, 06:08 PM

After reading some posts lately, I started thinking about this. I think when I was in my 20's and 30's I just wanted to be thin. I didn't really think about nutrition, just the numbers on the scale. Now that I'm....gasp....42, it's become so much more to me. I really want to be healthy. I know the weight will come off, slowly but surely...but this time it's about feeling good.l It's so amazing how eating clean can make you feel so amazing. I have a strong family history of diabetes and heart disease, but for some reason I never thought about it until I hit my 40's. I truly didn't care about nutrition as long as my jeans fit. What are your thoughts?

WebRover · 02-24-2008, 06:10 PM

Healthy #1. Losing weight's a very close second, very nice side-benefit.

nelie · 02-24-2008, 06:14 PM

When I first started losing weight, I ate healthy as a means to lose weight and it worked for a while. I also found it easier to maintain my weight by eating healthier foods. Then I realized that eating healthy was important to me, more important than losing weight. I did realize that I needed to lose weight but my first priority became eating healthy and second priority was exercising and cutting back portions so I lost the weight.

I am also probably different than others though in that I never had health problems or felt I was in danger with my health or felt that my weight put me in danger for health issues. I also think you can link things like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc more to what people eat than to their weight although weight can cause issues.

dgramie · 02-24-2008, 06:25 PM

I guess for me as bad as I want to lose weight being healthy is more important. I want to live a long life. My dad is in a nursing home after suffering a bad stroke. I dont ever want to live like he has to live. My grandmother was blind from diabetics. I truly love losing weight but I am feeling so much better and I love that I am not winded now. For me being healthy is most important.

2beautiful2Bfat · 02-24-2008, 06:26 PM

I'm probably the odd man out but I just want to be thin and being healthy is a side benefit. Now I do consider myself to be qquite healthy and have never had any real issues because of my weight but since losing 20 lbs I do feel much better and love the way I eat now. so health has become more important to me but if I really had to choose I just want to be thin!!!

JayEll · 02-24-2008, 06:57 PM

I finally realized that I couldn't BE healthy UNLESS I lost weight. For years I tried to pretend that I could be healthy and fat, but it was an illusion. As I got older, everything started to hurt from just the difficulty of moving so much of me around. Everything was just harder to do. And I knew that my mother had developed diabetes, and that the risk of diabetes goes up tremendously with being overweight or obese.

So for me they went hand in hand. It's health I'm after, and that includes getting to a normal weight and staying fit.

Jay

doIlookfat? · 02-24-2008, 07:11 PM

Just like 2beautiful, I am the odd man out. Losing weight is my #1 goal right now. I am not "unhealthy" at 165, so eating to "be healthy" is not what I think about right now. I'm in my 30's so my priorities will probably change as I get older, but for now, I just want to lose this chunkiness and wear clothes in my closet without looking like the Goodyear Blimp!

I was afraid to admit this to anyone, but since you brought it up, I might as well fess up. I'm sure I'll get a lot of backlash because of it!

Heidi

2thinme · 02-24-2008, 07:18 PM

I have to to be true too...I think my first goal is to be thin with health as a close close second....the reason I say this is that although I would not do anything to purposely damage my health in order to get thin....I do use products that some would think not very healthy to help me to become thin...i.e.--sugar sub. sf cool whip and the such....

jellydisney · 02-24-2008, 07:27 PM

For me it is primarily about being thin. I'm in my 20's, so vanity is my biggest motivator. But I do realize that the choices I make now are going to affect how I feel and what I look like 10, 20, 30 years from now.

fiberlover · 02-24-2008, 07:42 PM

For me it's health - however, when I first started trying to lose weight (in my 20s!!!) I just wanted to be thin, I assumed that I would be healthy if I just got the weight off.

Now I know differently. Plus, I have realized that my body is going to show signs of having been overweight once I lose it all. I revel now in my new muscles, strength and endurance.

PhotoChick · 02-24-2008, 07:54 PM

Both equally.

I'm not going to deny that being thin is something that I crave and want and am looking forward to more and more.

But there are also health issues in my family as I've mentioned before and I do work at being thin in a healthy way because I know my family and personal risks. And I do love the way I feel when I eat healthily.

So .. I"ll say both equally.

.

ennay · 02-24-2008, 08:11 PM

healthy with out a doubt. It even bugs me that I sometimes dont get as much healthy fat as I would like in the name of weight.

horsey · 02-24-2008, 08:20 PM

Me too, getting older YIKES, the big 40 this year! Makes you think doesn't it? I read in a diet book that 40 is a big turning point, you can either go down the road of health/nutrition/exercise OR... we know the other alternative. I want to be HEALTHY and have energy, I'm an older mom and it takes a lot. I'm also moody, have stressful work and I have to eat right to balance myself. Yes health problems in the family add to it, my father died of cancer a few years ago and I want to live long a long healthy life for my boy. PLUS I want to look good. I feel better when I fit in my clothes, take care of myself, wear flattering makeup, hair, nails, the basic stuff... When I'm fat I can't wear anything right and every morning that's depressing. I found it easy to be thin in my 20s, but now it's harder but I think you get more respect when you are fit and thin in your 40s.

nelie · 02-24-2008, 08:21 PM

I think there is something else that I may have in my brain that others don't. I fear being thin. Being my current weight is scary at times. I still fear going into the misses section at stores and being called out as a poser. It is one reason I've been buying a lot of my clothes online or that I work with the speed and stealth of a ninja in a misses department (ok not quite).

It was a difficult change for me to go below 300 lbs because that is where I have been since I was in high school. So I had to struggle for every weight loss 'event' since that time. It is facing the unknown that scares me.

So I don't crave being thin because I'm perfectly happy with my weight as it is and I have been for a long time but I know I can go lower. I think going lower will benefit me in the long run. Unfortunately, being happy with my weight makes it a struggle to really lose weight but I try and do

Going under 200 is very scary to me and it is why I've had to fight the urges to just stay where I'm at and go for it.

baffled111 · 02-24-2008, 08:44 PM

That's interesting Nelie. What is it that you think you're afraid of? You are doing a fantastic job for a person ambivalent about weight loss.

(Although perhaps your kettle bell obsession helps!)

Put me in the vain camp. I like to look good and wear clothes well and not feel uncomfortable with my body. But I also am very much enjoying the health and fitness aspects of it all. I love feeling strong and fit and energetic and healthy. I also find that the health aspect of watching my diet enables me to interact positively with food and to stay out of the shame cycle.

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