BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Body Image can you be too skinny?

The studies can't be accurate for everyone, which means that one person who undereats may thrive and live longer - while the next person isn't happy or healthy at all doing it.

I think the idea is to find what works for you and go with it.

But - and I'm thinking of you, PinkLulu - deliberately starving yourself can't be healthy for anyone. What are your friends and family saying? Can you trust them and their opinions?

Thank Heavens my parents live six hours away and I live alone. I am currently on leave from work for eight weeks, so that is not an issue. No one takes notice of my eating habits - I do not give them a chance to.

I am very skinny and always have been. Both my parents are small people. I am not just skinny though...I am small. I am short and have small bones. I love to eat and I do but people are always telling me to eat more and pratically want to force food down my throat. I just don't get bigger and I can't help it. I have tried gaing more weight through excercise and eating healthy. I look healthy, but I guess I must be unattractive to men cause I am skinny.

Ooops, I didn't consider the possibility that skinny women would feel unattractive! Sorry, Chichick.

If you look healthy, as you say, then I think you're not in the skinny category that involves skeletal women with every bone showing. That's not healthy or attractive.

My husband's the same: no matter what he eats, he doesn't gain an ounce. He gets tired of eating! I WISH I were in his or your shoes!

Yea, I know what kind of skinny you are talking about. If I was 5'10 and weighed what I do know then I would definitely look unhealthy and certainly unattractive. I have seen some of the models on the runways and some don't look very good.I just wanted to make sure no one was saying skinny girls in general were unattractive. I certainly am skinny but don't look like a model or anything. I think of myself as ordinary and their are a lot of features I don't like about myself.

I think it's possible to be too skinny, just as it's possible to be too large.

I think you're too skinny or too large if it's negatively affecting your health and/or your self esteem. But I don't think that a particular weight should be considered too skinny or too large. It depends on height, bones, etc etc...

AMEN!!!!

Well said! As a mature gal, the one really good piece of advice I can give to younger women is simply this: Do not abuse your body. Over-eating, starving yourself, both are damaging to long term health. And trust me, you're going to want to maintain good health! So many women, young and more mature, feel pressured by images from the visual media, to endeavor to make their bodies resemble the enhanced illusions they see presented. Young women denying themselves the nutrition necessary to build strong, healthy bodies, may end up, in their maturity, with numerous health problems. And unhealthy, ill women are not perceived as attractive, in the least, in any society.

Too true Jeanine (you are lovely BTW)



It's so sad that so many of us women (and I include myself in this) base our self worth on what men think of our bodies instead of what we ourselves think. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

My body, eating habits, and metabolism were so out of whack that I made the decision to have gastric bypass to lose weight. I realize this is the opposite of being too skinny, but the funny (not ha-ha, but ironic) thing is I suffered from anorexia when I was in high school. After my rape in college I just traded one eating disorder for another.

Both are about body image, self esteem, and self worth; and usually negative at that.

I love what you said, Jeannine, about not abusing your body. Treating yourself with love and care - by NOT starving yourself or overeating - is so critical.

Yet, even just today I could barely finish my workout because I was starving! Bad, bad body image writer.

Michelle - are you happy with your surgery outcome? I think you have a blog; I should read it...