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Originally Posted by ennie
I used to be skinny (except I struggled with belly fat). Now my arms and thighs and everything else are catching up when it comes to "volume."
I used to be size 2 and now I'm...well, I recently couldn't fit into Medium in pants  (I'm a bit in denial about this, like maybe it's the brands...[sigh]...hard time coping with the reality, since I tried 3 different brands ).
My mom tells me skinny is what attracts men and I need to lose weight. But when I started to gain weight, some men started turning heads in ways that they never did when I was skinny.
I still want to lose weight for health reasons. But should I not aim to return to size 2 in order to maintain my curves? |
Hi ennie I don't know what age you are, but as women age, our hormones become imbalanced and that can screw up our metabolism and slow it down.
And, I don't think there is an ideal weight for all women. So your mother is 100% wrong! I can't believe she's shaming you about your weight. That's terrible! Please don't listen to her. She doesn't know what she's talking about!
Men each have their own preference for how much a woman weighs. The key is, to find a man who accepts you for the weight you're currently at; that is the guy who is relationship material. The other guys who judge you for your weight, are shallow and not worth your time.
I don't think aiming to become a size 2 again is something you should worry over. Just eat healthy, and find some physical activity to do. Research now says that it's not how much aerobic or anaerobic activity that causes weight loss but how many calories are consumed.
Last year I weight more than 200 pounds despite having fatty tissue liver disease (which causes weight loss) and have a thyroid disease. When my thyroid med dose was changed and I cut out all junk food (so difficult to do but I did it), over the next 14 months, I lost about 50 pounds (without exercising either, mind you). Was it the medication dose change? Possibly. Was it b/c I stopped eating processed junk food including snacks? Possibly. Or, do I have some weird terminal illness doctors haven't caught yet (hopefully not).
My point: don't focus on losing weight to feel better about yourself. Focus on eating better so you FEEL better and before you realize it, you'll have lost weight.
The biggest hurdle women have to overcome is the hormonal changes as we age. Those damn hormones. They are tied with weight gain and weight loss. So, in addition to processed foods which definitely cause weight gain, there are female hormones that cause weight gain: estrogen, testosterone and progesterone. Estrogen creates estradiol is a form of estrogen that decreases as women age. THAT decrease can definitely contribute to weight gain. Estradiol is what regulates a woman's metabolism and when that decreases towards middle age, well, weight loss can become a real challenge.