"Hey, fat lady!"

[Fawn]

I'm 5'3 and 125 pounds. Apparently that's perfectly average for a girl my age, but I'm out of shape so my stomach makes me feel sort of overweight. But I think it's mainly because of how "pretty" people are portrayed where I live. Regardless, I end up having to keep telling myself that it's a perfectly fine weight, but even so, I end up feeling really proud of myself if I get a lot of exercise in one day. It's sort of sad.

My Mom's 5'3" and the maximum healthy weight on the body index chart for your height is 135 lbs. Your far from fat/overweight. I hate the word 'fat' to begin with!


AND back to topic...
Ignorant kid. If I ever said that my Mom would punish me and make me apologise immediatley.

[Chazzie]

It's also quite possible the parents were so mortified they couldn't speak. Hopefully they nailed him later...........

I don't know, when I think about parents who wait til later to punish their kids, it just doesn't seem like proper parenting. If I had a kid who did that, I would definitely have them apologize right at that second, because then the kid would feel embarassed and understand better why s/he shouldn't have said what they did.

If a kid gets in trouble with his or her parents instantly, they know they did something that someone has a problem with. If the scolding gets put off, it doesn't seem like as big of a deal. Besides, I think if the parents get it through to them instantly, then they'll understand better.

My Mom's 5'3" and the maximum healthy weight on the body index chart for your height is 135 lbs. Your far from fat/overweight. I hate the word 'fat' to begin with!

Yeah, I know I'm not actually overweight. I'm just out of shape. Problem is, I'm actually too lazy to do anything about it. XP

[Rubystars]

I'm a bit overweight. One time I was at the register at my first job and some little boy who must have been in first or second grade said "She has big boobies doesn't she daddy?" The dad looked really embarassed.

I felt horrible, like I wanted to run away right then.

You could tell that it was the dad who had taught him to speak that way.

[Barefootgirl]

I'm a bit overweight. One time I was at the register at my first job and some little boy who must have been in first or second grade said "She has big boobies doesn't she daddy?" The dad looked really embarassed.

I felt horrible, like I wanted to run away right then.

You could tell that it was the dad who had taught him to speak that way.

If the dad really had taught him to speak that way, you wouldn't think he'd be embarrassed. 5 and 6 year old kids pick up a lot of unsuitable words in the school playground.

[Chazzie]

If the dad really had taught him to speak that way, you wouldn't think he'd be embarrassed. 5 and 6 year old kids pick up a lot of unsuitable words in the school playground.

Some parents are of the opinion that it's okay to say whatever you want at home, but in public, they need to keep track of their tact. But their children won't understand that. When you're a kid, the world is yours, and if you can say "boobies" at home, there's no reason that you can't say it anywhere else.

[Rubystars]

Some parents are of the opinion that it's okay to say whatever you want at home, but in public, they need to keep track of their tact. But their children won't understand that. When you're a kid, the world is yours, and if you can say "boobies" at home, there's no reason that you can't say it anywhere else.

That's what I thought the situation was too.

[Giggle Goose]

I just realized that my user title says "Loves cake."

Crap. Guess I can't fool you guys anymore. But that's actually my cousin on his first birthday with the token "cake-smeared-all-over-the-face" picture.

This is really rude of me, but there was this kid who made fun of me for being fat my freshman year of high school. I lost about 35 pounds when I came back sophomore year, and he said "Wow, GG, you lost a lot of weight!" I promptly snapped back: "You've still got a helluva lot of ugly to lose. Too bad that's not possible." Oh, that shut him up fast.

[Andara Bledin]

A quick shout out to all you younger women who think you are "fat" because of a little belly bulge: you're supposed to have that if you're healthy.

Most women have a bit of extra belly so that if and when they get pregnant, they have room to expand without so much difficulty.

Plus, a lot of guys think that little bulge is hot. I know my brother hates it when a woman is so skinny she doesn't have that little belly bulge.

^-.-^

[MMATM]

On the topic of the belly bulge:

Indeed, women are supposed to have said bulge. It is part of what differentiates the female physiology from the male. My girlfriend has said bulge, and she's a dancer (a very good one as well) and so has to do intense workouts five or six nights a week which I would have trouble surviving. She "hates [her] tummy" just like most other women I've come across, and can't understand why I like it.

Honestly, it's because she doesn't have a guy stomach. I have no bulge. Not because I'm in better shape than she is (because I'm not) but because I'm a guy, and guy fat doesn't tend to collect in the same places as girl fat.

Off the topic of the belly bulge:

My peak weight was 180-185 pounds (at 5' 10"), with somewhere between 0 and 2 percent body fat. Yes, that low body fat is unhealthy, and I rapidly lost weight and deteriorated physically when I got pneumonia that year, and have not broken 160lbs since. I got called "fatty" more than once when I was wearing my typical outfit: cargo pants and a sweatshirt. I wasn't fat, but my overall size and weight was more than average for my height, and my shape was hidden by the bagginess of the clothing, so I caught a lot of abuse when I was out of my town. As a result, I began wearing my sweatshirt sleeves rolled up to my elbows to show off my forearms (I threw javelin and discus, so they were big) and that tendency has stuck with me to this day. Just goes to show you that no matter who you are or what you look like, being called fat or other names really does have an impact.

Nowadays, I'm 5'11" and struggling to break 150 pounds, which is uncomfortably underweight for my body type. I don't have nearly as much muscle as I did just a couple years ago, and I still have the dangerously-low body fat percentage. (See "Cystic Fibrosis" on Google or WebMD or similar sites for the nitty-gritty.)
The upside is I haven't been hospital-sick in almost a year (since last December), but the downside is that if I do get sick without gaining some significant weight (either muscle or fat) first, I will end up coming out in worse shape than when I go in.

Pardon the length.

[GingerBiscuit]

I fear for our world, I really do. The other day someone called me a 'fat arse'. May I point out that if I lose weight, people beg me to put it back on because I am skeletal? My bum is the biggest bit of me, proportionally,y, but is still a 10 (about an american 6, I think?). I am 5'4" and weigh 8 1/2 stone. This is not, and never will be 'fat'.

I fear for humanity. Why is fat an insult anyway? Sure if you're a lot overweight it's often not great for your health, but neither is being massively underweight. When did carrying a little extra weight become that bad?
Women have this horribly irrational idea of what they should look like- huge breasts, super-skinny thighs, teeny tiny waists... Unless the genetic lottery have you one hell of a payout, it is impossible without starving yourself, exercising like crazy and getting surgery.

I wish there were more realistic female figures in popular magazine. By realistic I mean lots of different body shapes, with fat where women usually hold fat- lower belly, thighs and bum.


Sorry for the off-topic rant there, it;s something that really bugs me.

[AriRashkae]

I often had a similar problem. I grew up on a farm, so my entire high school career, I was 5'3" and 150 lbs. And a size 8. So, yeah, not much fat except the usual girly places.

Anyway, the week before I leave for college, I get that nifty little line that tells you to start knitting booties. Which means a new doctor on top of everything else.

I get to the office, get weighed, and am informed (very snottily) that the Freshman 15 is just an excuse, and being pregnant is no reason to start eating everything "just because I can." They tell me I need to lose 20, now.

I inform the nurse that I have been 150 for the past 4 years, as she will see when my charts catch up with me, and unlike most people my age, I'm familiar with the concept of manual labor. I then roll up my sleeve and tell her to try and squeeze my bicep in. (It didn't budge. )

sadly, after 3 kids, I no longer have those muscles. They aren't letting me gain any weight, but the only exercise I get now is hauling the youngest around.

[edible_hat]

Some parents are of the opinion that it's okay to say whatever you want at home, but in public, they need to keep track of their tact. But their children won't understand that. When you're a kid, the world is yours, and if you can say "boobies" at home, there's no reason that you can't say it anywhere else.

My mum's a kindergarten teacher, and a few times over the years she's had parents complaining about their kids swearing. Each time the parent has said something like "He must have learned it here, where the fuck else would he pick it up?"

[chainedbarista]

giggle, within this one statement is a whole lot of stupid and a whole lot of awesome:

"

Wow, GG, you lost a lot of weight!" I promptly snapped back: "You've still got a helluva lot of ugly to lose. Too bad that's not possible." Oh, that shut him up fast.

no need to pick out the awesome, of course!

[Maximillion]

A quick shout out to all you younger women who think you are "fat" because of a little belly bulge: you're supposed to have that if you're healthy.

Most women have a bit of extra belly so that if and when they get pregnant, they have room to expand without so much difficulty.

Plus, a lot of guys think that little bulge is hot. I know my brother hates it when a woman is so skinny she doesn't have that little belly bulge.

Thank you Andara, I thought maybe all of my older friends were just saying that to make me feel better when I go on my rant about how much of a fatty I am because my stomach protrudes and such. I know this is TMI but my ass is apparently getting bigger and at one point i thought it was a bad thing. My mom says that because of my "thunder thighs" I'll be an excellent mother because the baby would fit comfortably.

Every now and then I get a little discouraged by the overexaggereted idea of beauty on tv. I know I don't go to the gym but that doesn't make me a fatass either. i walk 20 minutes to work everyday and bust my ass at work and then pace my bedroom floor at night for no reason almost all the time so I'm almost never sedintary except for now of course. But now for some sick reason...I'm starting to like my body fat. I figure as long as I have my curves, I'm happy. My breasts are naturally huge even though people make stupid comments about them (like I give a shit), and I never had an ass until now...and i'm falling in love with my own ass now...exaggeration of course but I keep it modest and that's all that really matters. And this is TMI again(?) but my ex was also in love with my tummy (the whole body actually) and found my curves sexy. It's hard to find a guy like that these days since they're also getting the wrong ideas about how we're supposed to look...it's disturbing and fucking ridiculous.

But I digress. Let my child say something like that in public. I dare them. First I would apologize on their behalf before making them apologize on their own. And we're not leaving until they do either. I don't have any children so forgive me if that sounds abrasive in any way shape or form. I just know my mom would have slapped me shitless and not cared who saw because I knew she taught me better than that. And if I were in your shoes, with my short temper, I would have said something that would have gotten me fired...so kudos to you for being level headed about the whole thing.

That kind of arrogant "I can say whatever I want to my server because I'm better than them" attitide is the reason why I'm not quick to kiss ass at my job.

[Seshat]

My best friend is athletic, as I believe I've mentioned before. She discovered, winter before last, that hey, a little bit of extra fat gives her insulation. She wasn't as cold that winter as she'd always been. We both thought about it, then realised that she'd never before had enough fat to properly insulate her body. She now has just the right amount of fat (adipose tissue, fat, whatever you prefer to call it) for her body type.

She has a belly bulge. She has broad hips and solid thighs. It's almost all muscle. The bulge in the belly is actually organs - y'know, guts, uterus, liver, that sort of thing. Held in by the ligaments and the belly muscles. Women have extra organs in there, that's what makes the bulge.

Women have broad hips, because the bones tilt out and sideways more than men's do, because men don't have babies to carry.

Women carry most of our excess fat between the muscle and the skin on the thighs and butt; unless we have PCOS or some other hormone disorder which makes us tend to carry it between the muscle and the skin on the belly, like men do. A peculiarity of the way the veins run make it safer to carry excess fat on the thighs and butt anyway.

Learn how to tell the difference between muscle and bone, and fat. If you are large because you have muscle and bone, smart men love it. And you should never try to lose it - muscle and bone are healthy. Learn to love it. You're your natural shape.

Women need to carry some fat. (So do men.) Fat cushions our vital organs, insulates our bodies, and provides cushions on the pads of our hands, feet, and the part of the butt we sit on. Women carry a sheathing of fat under our skin that men don't, so a healthy woman isn't going to have the same visible muscle definition a healthy man will have. If you lose so much fat that you find it difficult to get warm in winter, find that a summer or heated pool chills you, or your feet hurt and the palms of your hands look funny, get to a doctor - you've lost too much.

If you have a lot of sub-skin fat and pass the tests in the previous paragraph, talk with your doctor about getting checked for hormone or thyroid disorders, or the other potential causes of problems losing adipose tissue. If a sensible diet and reasonable exercise doesn't cause you to lose adipose tissue and gain muscle, then something's physically wrong and you need medical assistance to lose the adipose tissue.