Ok. This is not what anyone thinks... Well it might be I don't know. This is NOT a plug about a new diet, or about me trying to lose weight, or about my weight loss goals. This is actually a Bi*ch session.
Hmm. Ok. Yes I am trying to lose weight - but then again what American isn't. This country has become so obsessed with weight. Am I fat? seems to be the question on everyones mind - however nobody is addressing the am I too thin question..
I remember in middle school and high school we had classes about health and eating right. All classes included the obesity issues - but they also talked about anorexia and bulemia. I fear that with the focus being on getting children and adults healthy we are neglecting the children who are the right weight and they are starting on that dangerous road to being too thin.
Ok - what started this rant. I'll explain. I have been looking at healthy ways to start a life style change. One big way for me will be to curb my calorie intake. However, I want to do this the right way to make it a life style change not a yo-yo diet. I have been doing research on how to calculate the number of calories a person needs for basic body function based on height, weight, age, sex, and activity. I have discovered that for me I need about 2400 calories a day to maintain me at my present height and weight. So for me to lose weight based on what I have looked I could drop to about 2000 calories and need to start exercising. None of this is news to me. I've been taught this and told this most of my life. But there are somethings you have to just reach that point by yourself.
My rant starts from some of the comments I am reading on websites that provide these calculations for you when you plug in the right numbers. There are adults and adolescents commenting and asking for advice. One comment was this "I am 5'4 and weight some where around 125 pounds if i want to weight 105 pounds how many calories should i eat a day??" I looked up this BMI. Currently this person's BMI is 20.9 (right in the normal weight category) - the lower weight puts her at 18.0 in the underweight category. Another comment was " if it was so dangerous to eat less than 1,000 a day then why does the calculator tell me i need to eat 920-1120 to lose weight? cant be that bad. thats 5'5" and 115 pounds that i typed in. and the lower the weight goes, the less they tell me to eat - calculator shows as low as 800 something calories per day"
These make me ill. I did leave a comment about less that 1000 calories is usually a medically controlled diet with lab work and all. But the comments were making me sick to my stomach. Numbers have become an obsession. Why should a 5'5" person weigh less that 115 lbs? I don't understand. I did write in my comment on this particular site that if you have a pudge or flabby arms that toning and sculpting might be what you really want because weight loss is not going to make a certain area shrink you lose all over!!!
I don't really have a number in mind accept for a size for clothes. And on top of that it isn't something unrealistic. For those of you who read this and know me - I am not aiming to be a 4 or 6. I would look and BE sick at that size.
Now that I have put in my two cents. I want to ask for comment, criticism, or rude gestures. I would like to know that the rest of the world thinks about this....
