I started out at 314 (was once 340s) and currently 295. Someone suggested this forum when I mentioned that.
So here is my thought for the moment. I was wondering if anyone else doesn't look their weight and how that feels for them. At 295, most...even docs, would guess I was 225. I am a size 20, have always been an exerciser, so I'm what my skinny friends have dubbed "tight"...and I add, for a fat chick. (Hey I don't mind the word fat, I have it, so there.)
This isn't a boasting topic of oh look at me, I don't look my weight, it's more about how weird that is. I watch shows where they mention someones weight and I think at first gee, I look like her, but she's 75lbs less than me. Well, 75lbs is a lot! And I'm not body dysmorphic, I see my real self in the mirror and in pics.
Then there are the moments when I'm so stunned by my own numbers because, the reality is I have 150ish pounds to lose. My goal is 140 (I'd be happy with 160), I am truly big boned (frame) and know that less than 140 would be doubtfully pleasant or healthy for me).
So then when I see something like The Biggest Loser and the man is my weight but looks horrible...well you can imagine the thoughts that go through my head.
It plays with my head is all I'm saying.
Anyway, that's my thought for the moment and my first how u doin' from NJ to you folks.
I know exactly what you mean. I weigh 320lbs. BUT..I'm only 33% bf because I used to lift weights a lot and box. I don't look 320lbs and nobody ever believes that I am. I went in for minor surgery once and the anesthesiologist thought I was lying to him about my weight! The doc even told me I had "great muscle tone" [that was nice to hear from a doc who was operating on my butt ].
I know I'll never be 130lbs and I don't want to be that. I still want to be my 200lbs solid muscle woman Even then, I still don't think people would believe how much I weigh.
BMI isn't for everyone to use as a tool for weight loss/gain. Even my doc doesn't use it because he says there are too many variables that it doesn't take into consideration.
A 300lb person who has 10% bf and is a weight lifter is morbidly obese according to a BMI calculation.
My father is severely underweight according to his BMI. He weighs about 120lbs. He's been that weight his entire adulthood, but if he were to be tested, he'd show up as anorexic! And the man eats non-stop! It's almost sickening! LOL!
I was 316 at my highest, and yes I look overweight, but I'm really tall (6 ft.) and dress to not draw attention to the fat. Years ago I was getting a prescription and the doctor asked me how much I weighed to write it for the correct dosage. At the time I think I said 220 and she thought I was kidding and would have guessed 160-170. The other day I was talking to a good friend who tells it like it is and we were discussing the ban that China has put on foreign adoptions to obese individuals. He was taking the stance that that may be in the best interest of the child healthwise. I said, "Do you think I would make an unfit mother?" He said, "Of course not, but you're not obese." I said, "Um, yeah, I am." Then we went back and forth with the "really's?" and the "yes, really's" and the "you don't look it's"...
This is a longwinded answer to a your question, but yes, we all carry our weight differently and are all made up of different percentages of fat vs. muscle, and it's all hanging on different sized frames. It can make a huge difference (no pun intended!).
I agree, it's not a boasting thing-- it also has downsides. One is that it doesn't change the reality of what my healthy weight range is, so I may not look as unhealthy as I could, but I certainly am. Another is that I have to work as hard as everyone else to lose the pounds, but no one can really see it and my sizes rarely change, so there isn't that to look forward to with any frequency. Oh well, I'll be in better health...!
A lot of "looking your weight" is based more on stereotyping than on reality. What does "200 lbs" look like? "300?" It depends on too many factors even beyond height to calculate mentally.
In some ways it's an insulting question like telling a person they don't "look" their ethnicity. When people tell me I don't look my weight, I say "yes I do, this is exactly what X weight look's like... on me, and on many other women with my shape, height, body type, and activity level."
I don't really look my weight, either. Whenever I get weighed at the doctor's, the nurse would always slide the big weight to the "200" spot, and I would have to tell her to move it up...nope, not the 250 spot...the 300 spot.
At 310.5 pounds, I wore a size 22. While that may be good because I'm not necessarily as large as other women the same weight, it's also very difficult because as I was losing, weight, my size changed veeeeeeeery slowly. I was still a size 22 at 262 pounds--almost 50 pounds lost and still the same size pants--talk about frustrating!
Part of it is our misconceptions about what certain weights "look like." I have always been fairly tall and well proportioned (until I hit 325 lbs at least, when my bust stopped keeping up with my hips as I gained), so I've always had people say I didn't look my weight. My mother on the other hand is extremely short and pear shaped (although that implies she's more proportional than she is, as she's not built like a pear as much as a bottle neck gourd with a butt which sticks out in the back, and is twice as big as her bust), which makes her look a lot bigger than she is.
I had a roommate in college who weighed 170, and at 5'7 was overweight by ideal weight chart standards, but she was extremely active (had been a track star in high school) and looked absolutely amazing. She had full (but not huge" breasts, and looked absolutely amazing in anything she wore (she also was blonde and tan - and was too nice to hate for it, ugh some people have all the luck).
Was she "really" overweight? Was she just so over-muscled that this is what she was supposed to weight? I don't know, but it has taught me that when I get to the point that I look and feel fantastic, I sure hope the number on the scale is the last thing I'm worried about.
I completely relate to the "not looking your weight" thing. No one ever believes how much I weigh, and I think it has a lot to do with how I carry myself (good posture), as well as the clothes I wear and my body frame. I would also stay at the same size for a long time, even after gaining 50 or so pounds, which was probably the worst thing for me before I started weighing myself. I didn't know how quickly I was gaining. Yeesh.
A lot of "looking your weight" is based more on stereotyping than on reality. What does "200 lbs" look like? "300?" It depends on too many factors even beyond height to calculate mentally.
Kinda like not looking pregnant.
I don't think most people would peg me for being a 300 pounder (people I know). But then again, they probably can't fathom that someone over 250 isn't in a scooter or bedridden because it simply isn't their reality. Cool for me if I don't look like I weigh more than a linebacker, but the reality of it is that...I do.
So much of weight is definitely individual. I know people who weigh what I do and can't walk around the block. And then I know people my weight who jog. People carry weight differently and their body handles weight differently.
Camryn Manheim in her autobiography talks about being turned down for a role because she wasn't fat enough. She weighed 225 lbs at the time, and the casting director said something to the effect that she wasn't fat enough, that they wanted someone truly hugely obese, "like over 200 lbs."
every single person's body reacts differently to weight. im sure you have had it where you are the same weight as an enormous basketball player... i have, its hard to believe, but that is just straight proof.
I'm like Jilly where I'd go to the doctors and I would always have to tell them 300 when they put the marker on 200. I still do it. I've had my BF done a couple times and although I know the only true way to get it done is through a water immersion test but BF monitors consistently put me at about 170 lbs for my lean mass. So I don't think I can ever be 150 lbs or less. I'm already starting to drop out of plus sizes and I'm still well into the 200s. That is why my goal weight is 199 because I want to get there and then I'll see where I go from there.
When you don't look your weight
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