Comments on: Pretty Thoughtful: I Weigh 163 Pounds

By: Anna

Anna — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:56:52 +0000

The only questions about body weight that should ever be asked:
1) Are you healthy?
2) Are you happy?

Answer yes to these two questions and NOTHING more needs to be done, said or argued about.

By: tressie

tressie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:50:04 +0000

Nothing new to add. You know I admire your bravery. And you so remind me of the hot redhead chick on Mad Men.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:33:37 +0000

Huh. It is kinda ambiguous; I just don’t understand why some folks are hell-bent on making other people feel badly about their bodies. It doesn’t make sense, and that type of thinking (body-shaming) doesn’t help anyone.

I hope that’s not what Sharon was trying to do…

By: theprettyyear

theprettyyear — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:41:14 +0000

Rebecca, we had a whole slew of questionable comments accidentally get approved yesterday. This one is kinda ambiguous, so I let it stand, but, yeah.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:52:09 +0000

@Sharon?

Did you mean for your comment to come across as thoughtless?

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:08:17 +0000

You are overweight! That’s all! I ride my bike to work EVERY day, and workout at the gym…I weigh 136 lbs. And yes, muscle does weigh more than fat!

By: saranga

saranga — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:22:37 +0000

Thank you for writing this post and please don’t ever change!

By: theprettyyear

theprettyyear — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:32:33 +0000

Science Gal, thanks for your comments. I would never blame science for something that’s not scientific! (My scientist/doctor mom would disown me.) At best, BMI is mathematics, not science. That’s why I made reference to “scienticians” and the whole thing being “scientistic.” It’s pseudo-science, as you are well aware. Correlation =/= causation, etc., etc.

I totally appreciate the compliments, but the funny thing is, I’m not sure I look either healthy or unhealthy. I also got comments (not approved) that told me “OKAY FINE YOU’RE NOT FAT BUT YOU’RE STILL OBVIOUSLY UNHEALTHY.” I’m pretty sure no one can tell from my photos/posted weight (nor can anyone tell by looking at just about anyone else) whether I am healthy or unhealthy. I purposefully didn’t say anything about my health, how many marathons I’ve run (all when I was about 30 pounds heavier, BTW), and yet loads of people completely missed the point.

By: Science Gal

Science Gal — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:50:01 +0000

Okey-doke I just want to pop a quick note here from a Biochemistry graduate. Please don’t beat up on SCIENCE for the way it is misrepresented and abused by journalists in the pay of the diet and exercise industries. They are the ones who perpetuate the BMI crap while the scientists are desperately trying to find a better way to measure what’s healthy body fat and when a good thing goes too far.

Science is not about making moral judgements but about finding useful, verifiable truths. BMI is a deeply flawed system which continues to be used because it is simple enough for even journalists and fitness instructors to understand and because it makes for big dramatic statistics like those you have quoted.

If you want to know how real scientists view most media stories on weight loss see here:

http://www.badscience.net/2005/09/dont-dumb-me-down/#more-172

As someone rightly pointed out, if you are muscular for your frame you will have a high BMI because muscle is denser than fat. BMI is a quick and very dirty way of measuring whether someone is carrying unhealthy weight but really there are a lot of other factors than height and weight that need to be considered.

The truth is that being ‘obese’ on the BMI scale is not a big health risk by itself anyway (I know this not only from my scientific background but from some time spent working in life insurance underwriting). The life companies will mostly ignore BMIs of up to 35 unless there are complicating factors like high blood pressure/cholesterol or more than one immediate family member with heart disease/strokes.

You look very healthy and well and foxy. I’m really pleased to know that you feel positive about your body. That will stand you in much better stead health-wise than yo-yo dieting which puts a serious strain on the heart, liver, kidneys, endocrine system and mental health.

This is the *real* health danger for most women who are considered BMI-wise ‘overweight’.

By: Christina

Christina — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:24:15 +0000

Thank you so much for writing this! I’m 5′4″ and weigh 165-170 lbs depending on the day and the time of the month. I wear a size 12 if I go to the stores today, but I still can fit in my size 9s and 8s from my high school days when I weighed 133 lbs average. I only worried about my size during to periods of my life, once when I was 16 and felt I was competing with my sister for boys (she was an athlete and almost a head taller than me) and then again about a year ago when my boyfriend kept telling me I needed to get in shape.

I’ve always gone on how well my clothes fit and how much muscle I have on my body compared to fat. I’m mostly muscle and have had my doctor tell me this. Now I do like to play a little game at the bar when I go and have guys guess my weight, telling them that they will not offend me as I know for a fact they will not get it right. The highest anyone has ever said is 150 when I weighed 180 lbs!

The media has us programmed to judge ourselves to critically and obsess about something that in a way is beyond ones control. Well, I’m lucky that I never fell into that trap and teach the young women in my family the same lessons I’ve learned.