Oh no! Fat Goth people.

[KontanKarite]

It is hard. But as Mollymac said, it's about shape more than numbers. Do you know how hard it is to spot reduce areas?

I can lose weight all day long, but I'll always have this hourglass to near pear shape about my body. Time to start pumping iron in the upper body again. It's the only way I can ever manage to balance out my body. I'm predispositioned to lose weight on the top then down.

[LadyLucretia]

Originally Posted by honeythorn

Isolated...I'm not being funny but have you ever tried to lose 7 stone? ( 98lbs )

If you look at it as "I need to lose 100 pounds" of course it's going to be hard if not impossible. The realistic way to do it is say "I want to lose 5 lbs." Once you do that, even if it takes weeks, you say "I want to lose another 5 lbs." If you keep psyching yourself out you will never even get started, and chances are you will put on rather than lose weight.

I'm just saying that if you're immediately writing off a healthy lifestyle as being "too hard," then you're kind of admitting that it's easier to accept being unhealthy and possible getting negative attention for it.

[MollyMac]

When I train people, we start by painting the big picture.

I do not work with people who want to lose weight solely for an unquantifiable aesthetic reason. It will never be over, the goals will never be enough. And I get tired of hearing it. Just because you lose the weight does not mean you will be pretty or be a certain shape.

You start with the big picture. OK, so let's climb Everest. You don't do it in a day.

To lose 100 pounds or climb a mountain, you need a plan you can stick with and something segmented so that you can measure progress and stalls. IE - To lose 100 pounds, you must first lose 10.

How do you set about this small, attainable goal?

Basic math, pre-planning and learning to stick to a schedule. Learning healthy distraction. You need to do the math to determine what your healthy weight will be. You need to look to your family to see what genetics you have to work with/against, you need to use what you have and what the obstacles are to create the end picture.

Is this end picture workable? Immediately? No. The end picture is modifiable with every new obstacle or every new adeptness. You may always be hippy, but that does not mean you give up on spot toning and maintenance- it means you learn exercises that, bare minimum, will not add to the problem area.

You set basic small goals that will change with each goal met. Increase the challenge aspect, or lessen it if yo ufind something wrong. Will it be time based or weight based ( I do not recommend weight based- I recommend the tape measure and 28 day increments. The first 28 days of sticking with a program and measuring befor eand after will help you ste a realistic goal.)

It means learnign to separate hunger from boredom, learning somethine new, getting up more often, learning to taste and savor instead of plowing in mindlessly.

It is all a challenge and a constant maintenance. Once some clients "got skinny"- they stopped everything, assuming that the pinnacle was self-stabilising. No, it is not a pinnacle, it is a plateau that you maintain at a certain speed, and it never ends until you do.

[honeythorn]

Originally Posted by LadyLucretia

I'm just saying that if you're immediately writing off a healthy lifestyle as being "too hard," then you're kind of admitting that it's easier to accept being unhealthy and possible getting negative attention for it.

But I actually don't eat that badly. And I am not inactive. As I said, I can't drive , and I have to walk everywhere.

I didn't say it was " too hard ". And I didn't say I wasn't trying to be healthy.



Pretty much all the women on my mothers side are large. But wether that's a genetic thing or just because they eat shittily I don't know. One of my brothers is thin like my dads side of the family, he can eat and eat, I don't know where he puts it...and my other brother has put on a lot of weight since he started eating properly ( as in actual cooked food not highly salted ready meals...his ex couldn't cook ) . I don't know...

[honeythorn]

To honest, I would be thrilled to be a size 14. I'd be happy with that. I don't expect to ever be a size 8 or anything. I think at my shape I would look ok at a 14.

[LadyLucretia]

Originally Posted by honeythorn

But I actually don't eat that badly. And I am not inactive. As I said, I can't drive , and I have to walk everywhere.

I used to think the same thing, I also don't have a car and walked everywhere. Then I quit smoking and quickly gained 15 lbs. Trying to lose that weight made me scrutinize my eating and exercise habits. I realized that I had no sense of what a proper portion size was, and that I wasn't even doing enough exercise to burn off the bag of chips or candy bar I was eating every night. I'm surprised that I hadn't started gaining weight even before quitting smoking.

I'm not commenting directly on your eating or exercise habits because I don't know enough to make any sort of judgment. But if you are overweight and maintaining your weight, chances are that you are eating more calories than your body actually needs. I found that keeping a detailed food diary of what I ate, when I ate it, my hunger level and mood when I ate helped me get a more realistic picture of my eating habits. And setting realistic and personalized goals, as Molly said.

[IsolatedReptile]

Originally Posted by honeythorn

Isolated...I'm not being funny but have you ever tried to lose 7 stone? ( 98lbs )

Not quite that much. But around fifty pounds. It worked.

[Death_Mask]

I’m 5 stone and 5’1/5’2. I’ve been referred to a shrink before because they thought I was bulimic and after they got it through their heads that I didn’t have an eating disorder they got my mum to observe my eating.

I think as long as your healthy then you shouldn’t worry so much. I mean people get insecure when they realize that they need to try on a dress a size bigger but if that happened with a shoe then it wouldn’t matter, would it?

But you should still try to dress for your size, wearing unflattering clothes designed for people thinner than you just to feel as slim as them is ridiculous. Both curvy women and slim ones can look beautiful if they wore clothes that suited their figures.

[Death_Mask]

Oh and I love food. I just have a really fast metabolism.

[honeythorn]

Originally Posted by Death_Mask

But you should still try to dress for your size, wearing unflattering clothes designed for people thinner than you just to feel as slim as them is ridiculous. Both curvy women and slim ones can look beautiful if they wore clothes that suited their figures.

I agree. Like I say, I cover everything apart from my chest ( Low cut tops, I don't have my boobs hanging around or anything ). I only own 1 knee length skirt, and that was for my old job as a waitress. It's a nice skirt though, pinstripe, so I wear it very very rarely if the occasion seems suitable, and the venue is very dark . And I wear tights with that too.

I don't see the point of having fat hanging over clothes or straining to escape. I have some tight tops, but they are tight in the right places so they look reasonable I think ( I hope ). But having everything bursting at the seams just doesn't seem very comfortable at all, And if it doesn't feel comfortable, then how can anyone claim to BE comfortable in it?

[honeythorn]

Originally Posted by Death_Mask

Oh and I love food. I just have a really fast metabolism.

You can have some of my almost non existant metabolism if you like! free and gratis!

[DarkGentleman]

Didn't we have a thread discussing the same sort of topic before?

::: looking for thread ::::

AHA!! found it!

http://gothic.net/boards/showthread.php?t=5701

[Underwater Ophelia]

That's kinda different, though. That thread was more people talking about how they are overweight or not, and this is talking more about if you should care. Or something.

[MollyMac]

If people don't see it on the first 15 or so postings, they don't bother to look. Apparently there is enough interest in this thread where interest in the other died off. *shrug* No sense in policing what no one gives a damn about.

And to topic- "s long as you feel good in what you are wearing" is a nice "I'm OK, You're OK" comment, and cop-out. There is also how you really look. My ass is a size 10/11 but I will occasionally get a 12/13 because I fear "muffin top". The sizes matter little, fit is important.

It is funny what I see people do for pride- buy clothes that are the size eight that they swear they are, but a ten actually fits. They won't buy the ten, thay's rather wear an 8 and look like a sausage than a ten and look decent.

That being said, there are skinny girls who should stop "dressing fat" and frumpy, wallowing in clothes that are three sizes too big.

[raggedyanne]

Lol. Minor difference, pero muy importante. I'm not huge, but I have some stuff to hide. It's my personal thought that you should dress for the body you have, not the body you wish you had. It bothers me that people are so rude to "fat" people. If any of the complaining toothpicks understood how difficult it is to find anything that fits when all the designers are selling clothes made for someone with the body of a seven year old . . . I don't mean to sound bitchy. It's just annoying when I have to get everything altered or customized.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by raggedyanne

Lol. Minor difference, pero muy importante. I'm not huge, but I have some stuff to hide. It's my personal thought that you should dress for the body you have, not the body you wish you had. It bothers me that people are so rude to "fat" people. If any of the complaining toothpicks understood how difficult it is to find anything that fits when all the designers are selling clothes made for someone with the body of a seven year old . . . I don't mean to sound bitchy. It's just annoying when I have to get everything altered or customized.

Yeah...no. First of all, most of the people complaining aren't toothpicks. Just because you're not overweight doesn't mean you're a toothpick.

Not only that, but I work in a clothing store, and we ALWAYS have much much MUCH more clothing in bigger sizes than smaller ones. Most stores, in my experience, are the same.
The reason is because irregardless of the media influence, most people ARE overweight.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

I admire people who are a healthy weight or a bit overweight and are proud of it. I have the misfortune to have toothpick genes diabetes in the family, and a dietician for a mother (misfortune in my mind at least, but that might just be because I tend to look more at paintings that are at least 100 years old than at modern magazines). I don't know how much it hurts for other people, but just about die every time I clip my hipbone on a table or door handle.
On the other hand, I have some spiffy, unrefindable and/or expensive clothes that fit me now, and I'd rather wear them til they're threadbare than have to give them to a 2nd hand store (heh, greedy me) cuz I don't fit in them. *hugs clothes*

I hate muscle magazines. I don't understand how people can do that to themselves.

[raggedyanne]

That's always given me the creeps. Especially the female body builders . . .

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

*shudders* Women are not supposed to be completely made out of muscle, as much as they're not supposed to be completely made out of bone.

And men aren't supposed to have biceps bigger than their head. Course, maybe the reason they seem so muscley is that they have small heads.
*looks around sheepishly following sad attempt at humour*

[raggedyanne]

I laughed! The human body can only support so much muscle without the help of steroids. I find it really funny when guys build up their neck muscles to a point of looking like treetrunks. So, which is better, obese or bodybuilder to grotesque extremes?

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

Hmmm.... tough decision. Morbidly obese or morbidly muscular... I guess an obese person would at least be comfy.... :\

[raggedyanne]

And float. It's always good to be floating, insulated, and self-sustaining if you ever fall overboard into the baltic

[MollyMac]

Overkill of musculature has its own problems. In my case, I naturally have more testosterone than th eaverage female so I can bulk up easier, muscle wise. I can tend to look mannish is I overdo it.

But that is fine because it is au naturel.

Once you get into the realm of bodybuilding and the injections come into play... health goes out the window and you are, in many ways, in the same boat as someone who is morbidly obese

[james"bloody tears"]

who was the first person to come to the conclusion that goths are all either really fat or way to skinny? i wish to know so i can kick there a**

[MollyMac]

It's not a conclusion- it's a rater common observarion. And frankly, it is one that I have found to be true...

... because the extremes are all people tend to notice