How about boys?  I've had a problem with being too skinny at various points -- at my thinnest I weighed 140, which given that I'm 6 foot 1 was too damn thin.  At that point one person called me "toothpick legs", someone else called me "string bean".  I didn't have an eating disorder.  The only thing that fixed it was to start lifting weights, so that I had more muscle mass.    In this country, a much more common problem is to be too fat.

I'm with you in that the common problem these days is to be obese and your case is a bit different I think. You weren't exactly trying to be thin and have chicken legs, were you? I do think that weights are essential to any workout/fitness thing - without it, you lose mass but don't replace it with anything.

 

There are an article somewhere (must find it!) about how it's better to be fat and fit than thin and unfit - too many people lose the fat but don't replace it with muscle.

I heard that news story fairly recently, that it's healthier to be 30 pounds overweight than to be 30 pounds underweight.  My daughter recently said, "Daddy, you said you wanted to put on some weight, and you got your wish -- you have a pot belly!"  It's weird to have a little flab there, but as long as it doesn't get bigger, I'd rather be this way than to look like I'm starving.

As long as you're not sitting on your ass all day everyday and eating every high-fat food around, I think you're okay with a pot belly! Everything in moderation is better than denying yourself or bingeing.

Good advice!   Moderation is key.

It's slightly different with boys because many boys can eat and eat and eat and not get any fat - they just get taller instead. At least in the growing stage, anyway. My brother's like that, he gains height, not width. I expect he'll get a bit thicker in his middle age, but that's normal.

Most girls (in general) don't have that sort of metabolism, though. And there's a difference between having a certain body type and to being emancipated. Some people seem chubby no matter how much they diet, and that's okay. One should concentrate on their health, as a healthy person will usually be more attractive than an unhealthy person (it's a law of nature) no matter what the propoganda says.

Thanks for the comments, it's a good reminder that some people don't have as much control as they'd like over their own bodies.  The hype and propaganda is that people can be or do whatever they want, that we have total control over ourselves, and therefore if we are unhealthy it's our own damn fault. 

Decisiontime, if you still have that issue, my siblings have the a similar thing. Go to a chemist and get Sustegan can if it is in your country (I think that's how it's spelled) the chocolate hospital kind is nice, but ask which type you need, there's different kinds. It just helps with the low weight thing, we get heaps of tins in bulk at a time and my brother and sister have cups of that between meals. Seems to be good for them. My brother mixes it in a shake sometimes. If you can handle it, whipped raw eggs is something he's started on too.

Thanks, at present it's not an issue, I'm about 10 pounds overweight, but my guess is that in my elderly years being too skinny might rear its ugly head again.  I googled Sustegan and I only see a few hits, all from Australia.  But I've had success with a combination of lifting weights and drinking protein drinks.

Must be an Aussie thing then, tis good though. (Course, I don't need it)

I agree. Women these days have such unrealistic expectations about their bodies.

It's getting a bit ridiculous. I think there needs to be a balance between obesity (unhealthy) and insanity (unhealthy). When women like Jennifer Love Hewitt can be called 'fat' at a size 2, we're losing it.

Oh, but there are healthy thins, like my siblings who just have to eat heaps and drink hospital strength drinks to keep a normal weight. They find that just as hard to gain weight as anyone would to lose it.

 

Me, I get the thighs bigger usual, lol, so I guess I'm not too thin, but I'm not too big either, lol! (At least, so long as I  Eating healthy... but too tired to do much else about it at the moment with the first week of work.

 

Even harder over the holidays (which I don't have now, only public ones) with so many people organising dinners and lunches. I thought at work I'd lose weight, but everyone offers biscuits and there's food at meetings too, lol.