This past Sunday, my Dad sort of freaked out on me and told me to stop dieting becuase I was getting "too thin". This is total nonsense because a) I've been much thinner in the past, & b) I see girls at night clubs and in malls that are way thinner than I am and they look good. I responded by reminding him that with my body's amazing ability to rapidly gain weight, I could gain back every pound I've lost over the past 5 months in 2 weeks flat. Anyway, I do look pretty bad in the neck and chest area where my bones are sticking out. Not to mention that I've gone from a smaller C cup to an A cup. But, my thighs are still huge and I'll eventually start to lose in this area, right? I wear a size 8 and although they are very big in the waist, the thigh area is still snug. Therefore, I can't reach my goal size 6 until I lose my thunder thighs. My parents say "oh, it's genetic, get over it... blah, blah, blah. I feel that this is an excuse! They are telling me to "settle" for what genetics dictates and I strongly feel anyone can change the way their body looks if they so choose.
So anyway, I felt guilty for upsetting my dad and ate a whole (small) ziploc container of my mom's oatmeal raisin cookies. I also went off the diet for a few days and now I feel like complete and utter... well, you know what. My pants are also tight in the thigh area! It's amazing how last Friday I felt halfway decent about my appearance and now I feel like a miserable failure.
By the way, I wasn't exaggerating about the rate at which I gain weight.
Halley, how tall are you dear? and how much do you weigh now? I'm just curious--and no, you are not a miserable failure for eating cookies!!!! Silly girl
At 5'4", at age 42 I got down to 128 pounds. Oh, did I hear it! I was too skinny; wasting away to nothing; and I looked "old" because my face was thinner. So I tried to gain some weight, and ended back up at 155 eventually b/c I got off the wagon. Don't listen to those naysayers. If you are taller than I am, I'd say probably stop losing weight soon. But if you are quite short, 127 sounds very reasonable. What's important is how you feel about yourself, and if you feel good, just smile at the negative people and go on your merry way.
What is your WW goal weight set at? You should also check with your doctor to see what they say a reasonable and healthy weight and BMI is for you.
I tend to carry my weight in my lower body - hips & thighs- and when I lose it is very noticeable in my upper body-ribs, face & neck- so you might be going through the same thing.
Don't beat yourself up over some cookies - it is not a huge deal and if you go back on plan right away you should be okay
I have a very supportive boyfriend who loves me at whatever weight, when I first joined WW in January, he was very supportive because he knew how frustrated I was with my health and ability to be active. But at first he said, just make sure you don't get too skinny, I told him I dont think even my bones are skinny. He says"well I don't want you to go under 200lbs" and I thought he must be kidding, considering how high my weight is, getting to 200lbs would be quite an accomplishment, but if I have the ability to get under it you better believe I will. My goal is health first and I want to be in the "normal" or should I say "not overweight or obese" for the first time in my adult life......
Do you do thigh toning exercises? That might help get the weight off your thighs. I dunno, 122 seems really low to me but I am pretty big so dont put much stock in that!
Yeah, I definitly recommend seeing your dr and see what he/she says. If he/she does say you are getting too thin you may have to just deal w/that though. But parents are and will always be worried about thier children. That's just the way it is. It could just be that your dad was taken aback by your appearance if he hadnt seen you for a while or something and didnt know you had lost as much weight as you had. It doesnt mean you are too skinny, just that he didnt know you were as thin as you are.
Those thin people you see in bars, etc. are not necessarily healthy. If you are basing you weight loss on that, you need to get a reality check. The suggestions above are great, especially seeing your doctor. What do you eat in a day? Maybe we could help more if we knew that.
Before I got married, I weighed in at 210. This was my highest weight. I had been a chunky kid growing up and was not an active adult, until I got engaged. Then I started running and eating what I thought was the right way to lose weight at the time--in the mid 1990's (no-fat, all-carb). I lost 75 lbs. One day on a visit to my parents, my dad blasted me. "You've lost too much weight" "You're wasting away" "Your cheeks are sunken in". It hurt me that he was saying these things, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how foreign it was for him to see me as a thin person. I was always heavier and he had never seen my cheekbones. It is tough when you feel like people you love don't support you...but that's really not what's going on. They love you and just want to make sure that you are healthy. Make sure your choices are for your health and not just appearance. I can remember thinking that if I could lose enough weight to look like the girls in the Victoria's Secret catalog, then I'd really be thin. It's a vicious cycle. Just make sure you are healthy.
I think what they're really responding to is the fact that drastic weight loss often changes your appearance so much that it can seem like "something wrong," to people who are familiar with the "old you." I think it's almost a gut-level reaction to you not looking like yourself to them.
Also, especially if you're older than 25, fat on the face can make your face look smoother than it really is (one of the very few advantages to being overweight), so losing weight in your face can make you look a bit "tired" in comparison (because of fine lines that were there all along, but camouflaged by fat).
And of course, especially in America where almost everyone is at least somewhat "overweight," we don't really have a good idea of what a healthy weight really looks like, and I think there's still an inborn tendency to see a little extra fat reserve on a person as a sign of health (an insurance policy against famine?).
I still haven't lost enough weight to know how I'll respond to these reactions, but I'm hoping since I spent almost 40 years ignoring people who told me I SHOULD lose weight, that I'll be able to ignore them telling me I SHOULDN"T.
Do a quick assessment of your BMI and make sure you are not in the 'unhealthy' range...
As far as your legs go...I know this seems counter-intuitive, but you might try weight-lifting. I also have very large muscular thighs and weight-lifting with running has helped me tremendously...
My parents haven't quite reacted the same way yours have...I know they're proud of me but when I hadn't seen them in about a month they asked me a lot of questions about my weight loss...they just wanted to make sure I'm doing it an okay way...it's kind of funny because now I'm kind of my mom's 'coach'...she asks me if she can eat this or eat that and I tell her, "Mom, you're on WW, you can eat whatever you want as long as you have points for it..." (but I do give her pointers and have her load up on veggies, etc...)
When I got down to 120, (this was years ago) my mother freaked out. She contacted her doctor and said I had anorexia nervosa, she screamed and sobbed. I was very healthy, jogging and lifting weights and full of energy and joy. I finally went down to the local university on her nickel and had a full assessment, including being dunked into a tub of water to get a precise body fat measurement. They checked me from head to toe and said that my weight and body fat was perfectly healthy for me. A few years later, though, when I was trying to conceive, my OB said that my low bodyfat may be holding up my ability to conceive so I did intentionally gain ten pounds (and got pregnant at the age of 40 naturally), so maybe I was too thin for some things. I don't know if my OB had real evidence or just anecdotal.
I just wanted to post a quick reply to ya about the other "girls" that are skinny and look good. yes, they DO look good - and believe me, I DO know what you're thinking and where you are coming from - because ALL of my friends are those skinny little girls that LOOK healthy and whatnot and I CONSTANTLY compare myself..but I can assure you - just from knowing my roommate alone...she's about 5'5 and maybe 140 pounds - she's thin but NOWHERE NEAR "healthy". for example - yesterday she ate a bag of cheesenips around noon and that was ALL!
and she's ALWAYS complaining that she's not hungry / can't eat, etc...and i think, honestly, a lot of that has to do with her (she's extremely insecure & has low self-esteem) - with her wanting to show people that "I don't HAVE to eat...look at me, look at me!" sort of thing she has going on right now. (btw, she's about a size 8 - used to be a 0 in high school).
I posted about my roommate before and now that i really DO look at her eating habits I'm VERY happy with the way I eat (about 4 or 5 times a day) - but I also exercise and I'm SO much healthier than she is. Even though I've got 30 pounds on her (plus about 4 inches of height...lol).
As far as your parents go. Just sit down and talk to them - or better yet - if you're more comfortable with this - write them an email or a letter. They ARE your parents and parents will always think you're "beautiful" no matter what...but at the same time - for example, my mom HAS told me that I'm "too thin" before (at my lowest of 160) - but she also knows how easy it is for ANYONE in our family to gain weight (my bro lost 100 pounds - and my mom - as much as i LOVE LOVE LOVE her - she and my aunt both could stand to lose weight...) and she just wants me to be happy.
So for once, I'm going to say, "dont' listen to your parents"...lol - but seriously - just remember this IS about health it's not JUST about the way you look (although, again, believe me, I know a lot of it is)...
I understand about gaining weight rapidly. That's why I have to keep myself in check and when clothes start getting snug, it's time to lose a few pounds. I try not to weigh myself. People make comments without thinking. Make sure you don't focus on "skinny". I have an athletic build. Small upper body with thick thighs. The one thing that I found that really helped was pilates. I do weights on my lower body only once a week. I do pilates 2-3 times a week (when I do cardio). It works on sculpting your body and with weights, I have to continually add weight to really achieve change. I do home pilates videos and they're great. If you're living a healthy lifestyle (ie.,eating right, exercising right) you shouldn't have to defend yourself. I was bulimic so defense was always my first instinct. Now it doesn't bother me when people tell me that I don't need to watch what I eat because I'm "thin". It should become a lifestyle and correcting a few extra pounds is much easier for me than 30. (Been there, got the t-shirt, don't want to go back!!!)
Lets face it the number on the scale is just that a number, You can be very healthy at 150 and at 120.
I have a daughter that is 100 pounds and is 5'4'', she is very very thin. She eats all she wants, never went on a diet, she can have 3 slices of pizza and burn it off in an hour, that is just her metabolizm, my fear is that she eats ALOT of junk.. chips, candy, pizza, etc and remains at that weight, she is a garbage disposal. I don't think she is healthy, she never eats a salad, a peice of fruit or god forbid anything with fiber in it. When I tried to talk to her about a 'healthy' diet, she became angry with me and told me I was calling her anorexic! I never said any such thing.. all I want is for her to eat WELL AND HEALTHY. She is a young adult and I can't make her do anything, but i'm concerned.
The scale is such a small part of our health. Someone weighing at 160 might have a tremondous amount of muscle mass and is extremely fit, while someone else at that weight is all flad with no muscle....
Mauvaisroux - Yes, I also carry my weight in the hips, thighs, & butt! I explained to my parents that I'll keep following the program until my body takes fat from the bottom. Their response? They said it's not in my genetics to have thin thighs and it probably won't happen. And big thighs are definately in my genetics on both sides of my family.
I only attended 4 WW meetings and they wrote down my initial 10%
goal, which was 14 pounds. I don't think I attendedthe meetings long enough to set an actual goal weight.
I'm 5'5, but I've been much thinner and I've also had smaller thighs in the past.
I went to my parents for dinner on Sunday and totally blew the diet! I think I'm eating more when I'm around them so they will see that I'm eating.
I know they are just afraid I'll go to the opposite extreme and become too thin. I haven't lost as much weight as I want to lose. I'm trying to up my points (above 20) every day to avoid having a low maitenance point range.
I gain weight very rapidly due to my hypothyroid and goodness knows what else. I have the most embarassing stretch marks to prove it. They are pretty darn bad (and I've never been pregnant).
Too Thin?? I don't think so.
