Moiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! I'm not quite sure if you remember me, but I chatted with you back then when I was active? Anyways, my opinions on body weight would probably be that, no matter what the size of the person; they should not be judged. I get that some people say "Oh, skinny people think they are above weight loss", but they're not even aware as to what effect they could cause with comments like that. I believe that people have the right to alter their appearance, whether it's by face, or weight gain/loss, and that people shouldn't judge someone by their decision. It might come as a surprise to some people, but these are real people they're shaming, and by choosing sides, and shunning the other, no real positivity is ever distributed. That's just my two cents. Peace!

You know, I don't think being as skinny as possible is actually the ideal, outside of high fashion, where the models are chosen for specific qualities and to basically show off the clothes; a lot of models have odd proportions when you look at them, whether you compare them to "normal" people or idealized images of beauty. Most of the women society views as attractive aren't stick-thin, and stick-thin women like the stereotypical stick-thin fashion-model are, more often than not, jokes. Not to say that the ideal of feminine beauty isn't just that, but in recent years, it seems like there's an awareness that recklessly dropping pounds is not the way to feel better/get healthier/lose weight effectively. There's still an idealized body-type that few people are going to come by naturally (and which even the stars usually have to work hard at), but I think there's a growing recognition that you don't need to be at an "ideal weight" to look and feel great.

I've started to see more and more body positivism for all shapes. It used to be that skinny people were "the enemy," as if they were somehow responsible for fat-shaming, and that can be just as hurtful, especially if you have a medical/personal condition (ex. eating disorder, or just a super-fast metabolism) that prevents you from gaining weight. Recently it seems like more people are acknowledging that as long as you're healthy (which is the important part!) there's no "perfect" weight. You shouldn't shame anyone for their body, even if you think it'll somehow help by "motivating" them: Honestly, body-shaming over- or underweight people will likely just make it harder for them to improve. Instead of criticizing, even jokingly, being supportive and helpful and making it clear that you care about their health instead of the size of their jeans is the best option by far!

American portion sizes are just too damn high. Thus, there is the stereotype that Americans are fat. But all stereotypes have an origin and unfortunately, this stereotype is true for 1/3 of the American population. I've been 5'5" and 111-118lb since I became an adult and I've only been "skinny" shamed in the United States. I find it interesting how people keep telling me to eat more because quite frankly, I have high cholesterol.

Body image shouldn't be a person's main concern. Instead, they should manage the amount of fat in their systems so it doesn't inconvenience other people. For example, I have a friend in nursing who has a horror story of a severely overweight woman (~400lb) who went to the ER due to stomach pains. It turns out that she had a miscarriage the entire time and she never even knew that she was pregnant at a point. When the doctors went to clean out her insides, black goo exploded from her lady parts and flooded the floor with death. The worst part was the stench. No amount of Vick's vapor rub could protect the doctor's noses from the smell of rotten flesh. And the moral of the story is: manage the lipids before it gets too messy.

Maybe the key to losing weight is going gluten-free and vegan...

I think the key to losing weight, or rather to maintaining a healthy weight, is the same thing it's always been: Managing your food intake and exercising regularly. Some people find that going vegan, gluten-free, or both works for them, while other people don't do either and manage to get healthy doing only the basics of reducing intake and exercising more. I seem to recall (though I don't have any sources at hand) that some people have success just by cutting out sugary drinks and getting active as long as they don't go back to their old routine once they hit a target weight or get discouraged.

The part about the portion-size is fair, of course, but the flip side of that is that we're capable of portion-control (not eating the whole portion, getting smaller portions, etc), we just don't do so out of habit. The mental aspect seems like the biggest hurdle, which is why I advocate a supportive (not coddling) response: It can be daunting to think in terms of "I can never go back to my old routine, ever!" although you usually wind up feeling way better once you get over the hump. Ideally you wouldn't be inconveniencing other people in any aspect of your life, but most people are naturally Me-centric and "I don't want to inconvenience others" is probably less of a motivator than "I want to do this for me."

Also, your friend's story brings up more questions than it answers, with both questions and answers being kind-of to severely squicky.

I can deal with my weight as it is but really I'd like to lose about 30 more pounds. I still have baby weight and my son is almost 4 I know diet is my biggest issue but there are something about it I can't change due to food texture issues. I'm 5'3"-4" and 155lbs right now. The most I weighed was just over 200lbs when my son was born. Prior to having a baby I was 125-30lbs but despite the extra weight I am nearly back to the same clothing size so that's a plus.

I find myself to be slightly obsessed about weight these days. It's just, social media and television are putting so much emphasis on being thin. I agree that being a healthy weight is important; being under- or overweight is a health risk. However, now I'll think about it with everything I eat. Being conscious about food is good, but I kinda miss eating whatever, haha.
Fortunately I'm a healthy weight. BMI is 20,5 so I'm all happy.

My views on weight are - I don't know. I struggle, constantly, to lose weight. I have a medical issue that makes it nearly impossibl to lose weight. For instance. I ate very well all last week, I exercised each day. I had eggs and potatoes and pancakes on sunday and now, on monday and also today - I gained 4 pounds. So I ate good and exercised for 6 days and then I had normal food one of those days and I gained 4 pounds.

I hate it. I hate that it takes up so much space in my mind and I hate that I work hard and almost never see results.

I've tried crazy fad diets and yes, if you can manage to stay on them for a length of time, you can lose weight - I have lost weight but it ALWAYS comes back. Fad and quick diets don't work but apparently neither does eating healthy and being active. So. Ugh.

I currently weigh about 105-110. With my stature and body type (I am a tiny, tiny human being), this is about healthy for me. I went to college and faced the Freshman Fifteen and did have a period where I was about ten or fifteen pounds above that depending on the month, but it went back to normal when I graduated and came home. However I did have a weight problem at one point.

I have ADHD, among some other issues, and I was put on Ritalin for it when I was twenty two I think. One of the side effects of Ritalin is that it can effect appetite. Specifically, it sort of "turns off" the hunger mechanism, so even if you go a long time without food or drink, you don't feel hungry or thirsty. So if you're not paying attention, as many of you may realize is something that happens to people with ADHD a lot, you might not realize you've gone a whole day without eating a bite. Can you see where this is going?

This side effect happened to me, and I didn't really realize it until I fell under 100 pounds. And even then it kept falling, all the way down to the 85 pound range. For those who use the metric system, that means my healthy weight is about 45-50 kilos, and I had fallen to around the 35-40 kilo range. I was feeling faint quite often and I got worried about taking showers because hot shower+lightheaded spell+empty stomach=chance of passing out for a few moments. It happened once and I had to take baths for a while because I was afraid of falling and hitting my head.

Getting better was a process. I did my best to find reminders to make me think if I'd eaten yet (honestly, a video game I enjoy, Rune Factory 4, was very helpful because one of the characters will sometimes ask the player character if the're eating regularly, and that would make me ask the question of myself). I kept better track of my weight. And of course, once the doctors found out how much Id fallen, they took me off the medicine. After a year I was back and secure in the healthy weight range again.

When I was underweight I got mixed reactions. My mom thought I could wear some cuter clothes but also worried about my health; my little sister complimented me on my figure; a friend of mine noticed my clothes were baggy and voiced concern. Looking back on it, I wonder if the fact that there were people who actually saw my weight loss as positive should be worrying to me.

You know, I honestly care less about how much people weight than I do how well it sits on them. I'm 5'8" and can get up to 205 before I start looking unattractively chubby. I look best around 165. Very curvy. That being said, I'm certainly not living healthy if my weight is past X. A great website to help you watch what you eat is myfitnesspal. I've been gradually tweaking my diet towards healthy for the past 6 years. I'm getting better and better every year. I do tend to see my weight sneak up if I'm not careful and over indulge. I'm a total foodie. I LOVE good food. Healthy and unhealthy. lol. A scary thing about sugar is, Americans waaaaay overestimate what they can have in a day. You are supposed to eat two pieces of fruit a day or 2 cups. A third piece would put you past what your allowed sugar in a day is! That's how little sugar you should eat/drink. I have a harder time with protein because I dislike meat. As for walking, it's a great start, but the payoff is very slow. Join a fitness competition. I LOVE those. People will cheer you on and hold you more accountable which means more results. They'll push you. A great thing at home is to may a pay out chart for every time you leave your seat or every hour. You have to pay with an exercise set. It can be 10 jumping jacks, or 10 sit ups, etc. It really adds up in a day. There are also modifications for every exercise to help you build the muscle to do the full exercise.

Although I weigh more than is healthy for me (I don't have the energy to do everything I need to do, I try not to go by BMI since it's BS), I try to focus on good self-care and love myself however I look or weigh. I used to do some not-so-healthy things in the service of losing weight but now I'm on Weight Watchers and taking it as slowly as I need to to feed my body and my soul and be happy along the way.

A big part of what helped me was finding the Eating The Food facebook group and getting out of the orthorexic, perfectionistic mindset, and reading authors like Geneen Roth. I'm still a work in progress, but I don't hate myself anymore. And I'm generally pretty happy. My teenaged self would not have believed it possible.