Excess Fat

I feel like I should write something here. Plus I have to wait for all my B2B pics to upload to FB.

There's a facebook group for the support group I go to irl. The topic came up of excess fat. So I wanted to talk a little about it.

In an established thread I asked 'how does one determine how much excess fat they have?' The answer I got was 'BMI.' My response was as follows: 'I'm not a BMI fan, but it's probably a good starting point. I was once told by a trainer at the gym who did a body fat pinch test on me that I have 140lbs of everything that isn't fat. So minus the muscle I'll lose as I lose weight that sounds about right based on what I think my sister weighs and my build. But 200 is skinny for me, so anything past that is amazing.' The response was, 'I'll take the drs advice over a gym trainer any day.' I feel like my response wasn't interpreted correctly. Which is ok. I don't feel like getting more into it on there.

What my response was getting at:

This was like 9 years ago when I had this specific body fat pinch test done at the 24hr Fitness location I used to go to when I still lived at home. According to the guy who did it, I have 140lbs of muscle, bones, organs, etc. Everything else was fat. Not necessarily all excess fat because the body needs fat. Just not as much as I've got. So for the longest time I was under the impression that I will never weigh less than 140lbs. I explained this to my boyfriend probably about a month ago and he said this logic was flawed. Now I don't know his reasoning, but I now understand why it is flawed. But none the less, I must say, it is a good reference point. So it's flawed because as I lose weight, I will lose muscle as well because my body won't need as much muscle to support 280lbs as it will say 150lbs. Therefore, it is possible for me to weigh under 140lbs.

My sister and I have the same figure shape. Shes an inch or two shorter than me and we have about the same build, she is maybe a little smaller. I'm probably about a medium build. The smallest she's ever been was a size 6 in college. She is usually about an 8 or 10 depending on the clothing item, but is bigger now because she's pregnant, which is expected. So based on what I think she weighs normally, 140lbs isn't a bad guess for me.

Because BMI was brought up, I googled it and looked at 3 sites to get an average number. I'm 5 '5.5".

Here are what the sites said:

5' 5" 113lbs - 138lbs

5' 6" 117lbs - 143lbs

5' 5.5" 114lbs - 145lbs

(small build, medium build, large build)

5' 5" 117-130 127-141 137-155

5' 6" 120-133 130-144 140-159

Given these numbers I would think that I would be somewhere between 120lbs and 145lbs.

I would absolutely love to weigh under 150lbs. And I'm 99.9% sure that I will never weigh under 120lbs. Or if I did, I'd look way too skinny.

In conclusion, what the guy at the gym told me is fairly accurate. I just don't think my point came across in my original comment.

209lbs is the lowest I have ever been in my adult life. Size 20 is the smallest I've been (on bottom, I'm pear shaped.) 200lbs and a size 20 is skinny for me. When I get down to a size 18 I can say, "I haven't been this small since 5th grade." If I get down to 150lbs I can say, "I haven't weighed this much since I was 10."