Can you be too light?

[Nosaj]

Since leaving a stressful job where I ate/slept at weird times I lost a couple of stone. I have lost even more now that I am cycling regularly, however, I had two neighbours pass comment yesterday when I was walking the dog on how much weight I had lost and sounding a bit concerned that I was too thin.

Is there a diminishing benefit for cycling if your weight goes too low?

So what weight/size/look is considered normal now? Years ago kids with moobs were few and far between, being fat wasn't normal but now looking around my high st and elsewhere fat is becoming increasingly normal. Depends on your perceptions, I suppose if someone is fat and their peers are all fat then you to them will appear abnormal or very thin even if your weight is spot on.

Losing weight quickly can you give you a slightly drawn look (until your skin has a chance to get back to normal) which may make it look like you are ill.

If you are at all concerned then pop down the docs.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Mo
When I was at my worst 7 years ago (medical issues yet again!), I was 54kg (8 and a half stone). I am 5foot 6inches with a heavy bone structure. Anyone looking at me usually underestimates my weight by around 2 stone. I had dropped to a UK size 2 on the bottom half and UK size 6 on the top. I looked thin, gaunt and pale and even I could tell I was ill. I didn't need the hospital/GP/friends/family to tell me, it was very obvious.

When my weight eventually went back up to 60kg (roughly 9 & half stone) I was still a size 4-6 bottom and 6-8 top, but I was fitter and faster than I had ever been, both cycling and mountaineering, covering the route back from Corrour to Rannoch Station in my fastest every time - knocking 2 hours off it without even trying! (the Corrour to Rannoch Station via Cairn Dearg and down the ridge is a test route for us at the beginning of a holiday to guage our mountaineering fitness levels).

Family and friends all tell me I look thin now, better than I did, but thin. They are all concerned that I can not buy jeans to fit in places like M&S - sizes don't go small enough, yet (until this month and it is unrelated to my weight) I have been great for the last few years, stronger, fitter, healthier and more importantly happier than I had previously been.

Your own body will tell you what is right for it. Your times on garmin, strava or any other set route over the summer will tell you what you need to know, and if you know that you are fit & healthy and tired only because of the exercise you are doing and happy with your weight, then don't concern yourself with it. If you are finding you are routinely slower overall, have less energy, lost conentration, going down with each and every bug that does the rounds at schools, your body is telling you something and you need to listen, but if you are fit & healthy don't worry.

As mentioned above, we see so much in the papers about how being "thin" is bad for you (wrong words in the media, it should be "skinny" not thin) and how it is acceptable if you are happy to be fat or obese - well why can't it be acceptable if you are happy to be thin and healthy?

 

[Globalti]

There's still a lingering cultural obsession with weight in Britain; anybody who visibly loses weight is assumed to be ill and babies are considered well if they're nice and plump.

 

[ColinJ]

Cancer has a look?

Dying people often do have the look of death about them. Both my parents did. I looked about 70 years old when I went into hospital last summer rather than my actual 56 years. I was ashen-faced from lack of oxygen, my face was haggard, my hair was falling out and what was left was rapidly going grey. Even in recovery, I look 10 years older than I did a year ago.

 

[gbb]

^ This sounds about right in my personal experience. When I hit the weight I feel most comfortable at I get told that I'm looking too thin, but I feel at my best!

My theory is that we're all so used to seeing people who are overweight that when we see someone who isn't we tend to think they're too thin .

I agree with that theory. I'm usually 10.5 stone, circa 5ft 10 lightly built on top, have a slightly low end BMI for my height, but only slightly. Yet in a discussion with some female colleagues/ friends, they all thought I was 'skinny'

Skinny, like hell. I'm normal. Look down a high street, I 'look' skinny, but its because so many people are overweight.

If you feel good at that weight Mo, be happy. Cycle and enjoy whatever it brings.

 

[byegad]

Yes ignore the 'concerned friends'. I am 5'7" and have recently gone from 15st 10lbs (aka obese.) to 12st 12lbs (aka overweight.). A 'friend' asked me if I had been checked for cancer and/or diabetes. Considering I was starving hungry from 4th July last year, when I started my diet, until well after Xmas, I was more than a little miffed.

I intend to hold this weight until 4th July then start trying to lose enough to get me into the top of the normal range. By then some of my friends will already be collecting for a wreath!

 

[gbb]

Yes ignore the 'concerned friends'. I am 5'7" and have recently gone from 15st 10lbs (aka obese.) to 12st 12lbs (aka overweight.). A 'friend' asked me if I had been checked for cancer and/or diabetes. Considering I was starving hungry from 4th July last year, when I started my diet, until well after Xmas, I was more than a little miffed.

I intend to hold this weight until 4th July then start trying to lose enough to get me into the top of the normal range. By then some of my friends will already be collecting for a wreath!

As a guy who's never had to worry about what I eat or my weight, I couldn't begin to understand how that feels....until my wife lost some considerable weight. Loads of exercise and a complete overhaul of what she eats, and how much has left me realising how frikkin hard it must be to maintain it. She occasionally says how she gets fed up of limited choices, eating lightly, missing out on treats.
I feel a bit humbled by her (and others) determination to make it a difficult, but permanent lifestyle choice.

 

[Mo1959]

As a guy who's never had to worry about what I eat or my weight, I couldn't begin to understand how that feels....until my wife lost some considerable weight. Loads of exercise and a complete overhaul of what she eats, and how much has left me realising how frikkin hard it must be to maintain it. She occasionally says how she gets fed up of limited choices, eating lightly, missing out on treats.
I feel a bit humbled by her (and others) determination to make it a difficult, but permanent lifestyle choice.

Tell her well done from me. It is a total lifestyle change rather than fad diets that keep you at a healthy weight. I can only presume it's been getting out of a stressful job and into doing some serious cycling miles that has done it for me. I am managing to eat a decent amount of food and snacks now that would have had me putting weight on before.

 

[palinurus]

Also, tell your neighbours to mind their own business!

I could only like this once, this is to add that I like it an additional 999 times.

 

[Tanis8472]

And BMI should only be used as a guide. There are big variances such as Chris Hoy who would be classed as overweight/obese even though he isn't

I'm 6'0" and 13st 4lb and according to that i'm overweight.
Well i'm thin so not overweight .

 

[Peteaud]

I am just a bloater

 

[gbb]

Tell her well done from me. It is a total lifestyle change rather than fad diets that keep you at a healthy weight. I can only presume it's been getting out of a stressful job and into doing some serious cycling miles that has done it for me. I am managing to eat a decent amount of food and snacks now that would have had me putting weight on before.

I firmly believe (although without any proper knowledge) that exercise is a bigger boost to weight loss than the diet itself.
The wife went at it really hard, 1, 2 or 3 hours a day of hard exercise for the first 6 months, stepping, dancercise etc etc. Coupled with a strict calorie intake she lost weight very successfully, but she always knew if she went back to her old ways, it wouldn't work in the long run. Exercise doesn't figure as heavy now, but she still dabbles.
3 years later, she's still a size 8..and still keeps to strict calorie intake. Minimise saturated fats, eats plenty of fruit and veg, small meals, little or no snacks etc etc etc.

Trouble is...so many people can't, won't or refuse to entertain the exercise bit.
So many people have asked the wife 'how did you do it ?'
As soon as the exercise bit gets mentioned, especially the 1, 2 or 3 hours a day of dancercise etc...you can see their eyes glaze over.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I'm 6'3" and 13.4 stone (had to Google a unit converter for that; not used to measuring weight in stones), which makes my BMI 23.5, near the upper end of normal. Must be all that awesome quadriceps muscle mass . No doubt in the years to come, I'll be regarded as skinny, since an increasing number of people are overweight, and the definition of 'normal' weight seems to be increasing; pretty depressing, that .