5'7" and 120lbs? Sounds perfectly reasonable and healthy. To best reach that weight I would advise you to do as little physical activity as possible, and eat a diet very low in protein. This will ensure that you lose as much muscle and bone density as possible.

Good luck.

Oh... my......

Thank you for your very unhelpful comment but I am sure I know my body more than any strange man on the internet. We aren't all built the same , I won't carry 120lbs the same as the next girl and she won't carry it the same as the next girl. Too make sweeping statements is unfair just because you think you're some sort of expert so you think you can judge women who are or want to be smaller.

Nor have I said thats my goal weight but its something I'd consider if I reached my current goal weight and was still chubby which with my frame is quite possible and I was that weight before and still chubby.

To say what you have said is to say women at that height and weight must all be unhealthy and thats simply not true.

I am telling you how to best achieve your goal. It has nothing to do with "sweeping statements" about health, fairness or how you're built. If you are attempting to weigh 120lbs at 5'7" your best bet is to get rid of as much muscle as possible. The best way to do that is to not exercise and reduce protein intake. The simple fact is that you were (according to your stats) 335 lbs at one point and therefore you would have had quite a bit of muscle at one point.

You can take my advice or not. Your choice.

I won't comment on your goal, these things are very personal! That said, I know I personally do better with more flesh than not and leaning down enough to hit 120, with my frame, is a terrible idea. Too much muscle wasting. 130 should be very doable, especially given that I'm not done having children and want something not too challenging to maintain/get back down under when postpartum.

Weight is somewhat irrelevant, really, when it is a look your going for. I'd focus on what you can comfortably maintain with your specific body, and what aesthetic you want to achieve (provided it isn't entirely wacky and unhealthy to try and attempt with your body ;) ).

5'7 and 120lbs is a perfectly reasonable size for a normal person. Yes, overweight people carry more muscle mass just by the fact they are carrying a larger amount of weight all day long, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all overweight women have tons of muscle mass once the weight comes off. Most overweight women are quite disappointed to find the opposite (men get away with this a little easier). OP should just work towards her goal and if she suddenly finds herself with an excess of muscle mass then she can deal with it, but I wouldn't pre-emptive strike it like that.

XD I only said I was considering lowering my goal. The main topic on this thread was whether the models who have the look I'd love to have were fudging their numbers or not because I don't want to have to be 108lbs to get that look. As for if I have excess muscle mass from when I was 335, I doubt that. That was years ago and I wasnt 335 for long, most of my overweight years I spent at 220-240 . I was involved in football (soccer) and cadets but that was when I was a normal weight. I may have gained muscle from just being overweight but being I spend all day researching I doubt itll stick around.

I have seen a lot of really low goal setting around here lately. I never know what to say because in the end, I think most people decide how much time and energy they want to devote to staying a certain weight and they often decide that being able to say, "I'm in the 120s" isn't worth it.

As I understand it, the most conservative estimates (doctors chart and such) say 100 pounds even at 5' and five extra pounds for every inch in height after that. Those standards were set along ago and considered to be the very low end.

Obviously, everyone will do what he or she likes but 120 for a 5'7" inch person is going to be a full time job and IS 15 pounds lower than any doctor I've seen has ever recommended.

My doctors have actually said 120-130 for my body type and height. I have health issues that prevent me from eating pretty much any 'bad' food. I will never again be able to eat like I used too and will have difficulty eating like a normal person. Its hard to even eat what I eat now. So staying in the 120s if thats what I decided to do would not be an issue at all. I lost weight because my liver was not functioning correctly as well as a host of other issues. I didn't lose to be skinny but its a happy byproduct of an otherwise terrible situation.

And again I also never said I was actually going to 120 only its something I'd consider if I was unhappy at 135 but the reality is 135 might be too heavy for me to maintain with my food difficulties anyways unless I ate nuts all day to make calorie numbers.

I honestly did not want to get into my health issues again on this site but the simple fact is food hurts me in various ways and thus is not pleasurably for me, I eat to survive and eat what won't hurt me. Its not my fault I am not doing it cause of some crazy ideas or trends , I used to be able to gorge on whatever I wanted, but now my body rejects almost everything and I am being tested to see whats going on. This is my new normal with food and its something I have to live with. I do not eat like everyone else cause my body does not function like everyone elses. I wish it did. But this is my new normal. I understand its difficult to understand for those who don't have body issues with food.

If you have a very specific diet, why not just focus on staying on that diet and let your weight naturally settle?

Actually one of my best friends is a former model... she did mostly runway... but she would actually lie about her height because she was usually too tall a lot of the time for most jobs... but not for runway... those girls are tall... I have a another good friend in PR so he always invites me to the shows that he handles during Fashion Week here in nyc.... and I'm 5'9" and I feel like a midget around those girls... and I won't even talk about how skinny they are because that's a whole other story...

Now from what I've seen I wouldn't be surprised if models were "fudging" their stats that they might be putting out online, but as far as going for jobs they get weighed and measured and if you're not exactly what they want... well than that's pretty much it...

The other thing too is it really is true that the camera does add 10 to 20lbs... because I also have several friends who are actors and have been on soaps and TV shows... and they are so thin in person, but on TV they just look like they're a normal weight... which still never ceases to amaze me...

I'm sorry, but I must disagree that 5'7 and 120lbs is not realistic or difficult to maintain or takes a lot of work. I think that is projecting weight issues onto the rest of the population. 5'7 and 120lbs is not abnormal.

Well because I need to lose weight for my health issues and I do not want to blindly trust that the few foods I can eat won't be over my calories and cause me not to lose the weight I need to. Though judging by the amount I can eat before getting sick if I let it settle naturally I would be dangerously thin so I also count calories to make sure I am not dangerously low even if that means adding in a high cal cookie or nuts to make sure I am not eating like 500 calories a day. Basically counting calories keeps me safe from being too high or too low. My diet restrictions make the going too high pretty much impossible but I am a very paranoid about it anyways , but I'm mostly at danger of being too low.

If I let my body naturally settle without any hand into it I'd probably end up 90lbs with the way I eat if I do not monitor it. Thats why I have doctors I see that help me with my food issues and weight issues. They aren't afraid of me regaining they are afraid I won't be able to stay above underweight because of my food issues.

Also everyone has a goal weight or body aesthetic they have in their mind. Why should I be different? I'm already abnormal enough , can't I have that little bit of normalcy with having an ideal body image in my head like most other people? Grant me some normalcy.

The actual number is really irrelevant. As long as you're eating a healthy amount of calories, exercising, and taking care of your body, it really doesn't make a difference what the scale reads. You can determine if you need to modify your eating or exercise routine as you get closer to where you want to be.

In terms of modeling for fun, I'd do it! Go ahead and take pics and create the portfolio! It sounds like fun :)

Thank you. I started this thread out of curiousity if the girls that had the look I'd loveee to have fudged their numbers cause I was curious at too what ballpark I'd have to aim for to have a chance at all of getting where I'd love to be. I offhandedly said I was reconsidering my goal weight cause I have so much chunk left on me and I'm small framed and 120 is lowest I'd ever go and boom it blew up into this omg 120lbs is unhealthy thread!!!! I sort of expected it cause I have noticed that on this site there is quite a bit of paranoia surrounding slimmer weights. I'm not talking underweight numbers, but if a number is 5 or 10lbs below the 'norm' and 'average' people tend to go on these tangents about it. I don't imagine this a fun environment for people on the slimmer side of the weight scale. I imagine its partly culture and for people used to being large it can be difficult to imagine being healthy at the lower end of the norm for a height. Thats my ideas about why this thread turned the way it did lol.