Petite Female Struggles

[Libberdoodle]

Hello! 

I am a 22 year old female and I am really struggling with diet and weight. I'm 4'8" and 136 lbs which is considered obese. This is the heaviest I have ever been, and I am trying to get back to a healthier weight. However, trying to figure out what is healthy for someone so short is confusing and a bit intimidating. I've read articles claiming someone of my height should be 75 lbs, eating 800 calories a day and that just isn't realistic for me. At my lightest I was about 105, and running 6 miles a day, eating only around 750 calories, even though I liked the way I looked, and it seemed to work, it's not realistic for my lifestyle, and I was quite miserable. I am just trying to find a good balance, I work out about 3 times a week, eat relatively healthy with occasional slip ups, but I've been steadily gaining weight for the past year though, and I can't even seem to find a way to maintain, let alone lose.

I know there are other ladies on the shorter side facing this issue, and I'm just wondering if anyone has found anything that works?

[SunsetRunner]

It sounds like you would benefit from reverse dieting. When you cut calories your metabolism slows down as well. Even though you are smaller, you went below your BMR. There are only two ways to increase metabolism: (1) eat more calories and (2) build muscle. Don’t think you are going to get bulky gaining muscle because it is incredibly difficult for females to build muscle as males can. I would think of this time as a healing process. Don’t worry about what the scale says.

[bikerhiker]

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@Libberdoodle wrote:

Hello! 

I am a 22 year old female and I am really struggling with diet and weight. I'm 4'8" and 136 lbs which is considered obese. This is the heaviest I have ever been, and I am trying to get back to a healthier weight. However, trying to figure out what is healthy for someone so short is confusing and a bit intimidating. I've read articles claiming someone of my height should be 75 lbs, eating 800 calories a day and that just isn't realistic for me. At my lightest I was about 105, and running 6 miles a day, eating only around 750 calories, even though I liked the way I looked, and it seemed to work, it's not realistic for my lifestyle, and I was quite miserable. I am just trying to find a good balance, I work out about 3 times a week, eat relatively healthy with occasional slip ups, but I've been steadily gaining weight for the past year though, and I can't even seem to find a way to maintain, let alone lose.

I know there are other ladies on the shorter side facing this issue, and I'm just wondering if anyone has found anything that works?

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While I'm not as short as you, I too had some struggles in the past trying to loose weight and having to do ultra-marathons, ultra-cycling distances in order to be in a 142lbs range.  Just like you, it was eventually non-sustainable.  Today, I managed to be in the 142lbs range, while exercising appropriately and eating the proper food  portions but low in sugar and carbohydrates.

A lot of what we think is healthy food is actually *B.S*.  Most of them are laced with hidden sugars that not only raise your blood sugar level, but also make you obese.  Another aspect of most people slipping up and consuming more sugary savoury items is lifestyle.  If you live a stressful lifestyle, or in a situation that almost always promotes stress versus peace and harmony, then your cortisol levels are always going to be high.  The stress level hormone, cortisol, makes us crave for more sugary carbohydrate foods to keep our satiety (being full), but also promote fat deposits around your waist line and your hip areas.  Truly, diet is all about 90% of the weight loss.  When you ran 6 miles/day however, you were able to loose about 500 calories/day and 3500 calories equals 1 lb of weight loss while maintaining stable blood sugar levels.  This to me means that you were at least putting into your mouth food that contain more sugar than your body needs.

For example.  While just a can of 355ml coke contains 140 calories, it has 39 grams of sugar!  WHO (World Health Organization) recommendation of sugar intake is 24grams/day!  Some doctors recommend 15 grams/day  So what happens with the excess sugar that you drank off your coke?  Sugar , unlike carbohydrate, get absorbed into your blood stream immediately.  When you consume too much of the daily recommended sugar, your pancreas starts to excrete "insulin" to counteract the rising in glucose in your body as too much glucose in your body is toxic.  When your insulin level is high, you are NOT burning fat.  So in order to burn fat, you need to actually do some extreme sports, like you running 6 miles/day to burn off the carbs and lower your insulin level so your body can start burning a higher proportion of fat again.

The easiest way of course would be -- don't put too much sugar in your mouth.  That way, you always have low blood sugar level and any low level exercise routine you do will allow your body to burn carbs + fat.  Hope this helps. 

[Dominique]

Welcome to the community, @Libberdoodle!

I assume you have been using BMI as a way to assess your weight related to your height. If so, the normal weight range for your height would be between 82.5 lbs and 111 lbs (BMI 18.6 and 24.9, respectively). 75 lbs would definitely be underweight and unhealthy. Just forget about that weight and the lower end of the normal range and focus on getting closer to the higher end instead. Losing 25 pounds may sound challenging, but it’s not unattainable. You can do it without resorting to eating 800 calories. Your calculated BMR is 1235 calories and if you’re reasonably active, your total daily energy expenditure would be around 2000 calories (I’ve been using this online calculator). This means you should be able to eat around 1500 calories and still be in the deficit needed for losing weight. I would suggest you break down your total weight loss goal into smaller chunks, e.g. 9 + 8 + 8 instead of 25. Alternate active weight loss phases (e.g. lose 9 pounds in 9 weeks) with maintenance phases of the same length. This will take more time, but will prevent excessive reduction of your metabolism and the dreaded "plateaus" people who attempt to drop too much too fast usually experience.

[emili]

@Libberdoodle.. I don't know how anyone could live on 800 calories per day for any length of time. That is the equivalent of my breakfast and half my lunch let alone an entire day. Not to be a brat, but I am picking up on your phrasing.. about three days a week and relatively healthy. That kind of says to me that you don't have a strong work out routine currently and there may be a few more slip ups than days where you are on point with calories. Weight loss is work. It isn't some times it is all times. I would encourage you to reset and go back to basics. Dominique did some of the math for you so you have a starting point. Figure our nutritionally dense food that fits into your caloric allotment and figure out the activity schedule you can commit to through the week. Stay on track for a month.. you will have results. I don't doubt it for a second.

[writergal28]

800 calories?  Maybe if you're going with a semi-fast day... I'm petite myself, though not as short (5'2" ish, 94-97 lb, depending on the day) and I probably take 1,400-1,600 depending on how much I work out.  How much do you exercise?  

[DanielleinDC]

BMI is problematic because it doesn't take into account people whose weight is largely in muscle. Remember that a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat, so someone eating right and exercising may not show much change on the scale, but will drop a clothing size or two and inches from the waist. 

I am also vertically challenged, and I make efforts to eat healthy. I will confess to having a setback, given that I'm still struggling with a lingering cough and just had a death in the family that has thrown me for a loop.

[stewartm508]

Hello. I think your post is the first I've read where someone who is under 5' tall.  It is most annoying when people claim to be short at 5'2", 6" difference makes a difference in weight lose. 

I also am short, being under 5', exactly 4'9" and I was completely able to understand what you are talking about and also how you feel. I find it totally useless for men to compare their weight lose to women considering they have more muscle mass and will loose weight much easier the women. 

It is very easy to say do this, it works for me, or stick to it, yadda yadda. Although I appreciate people trying to help, in my opinion if you are not trained in health and dieting what you are saying is just opinion, and everyone has one of those. 

I have not been able to talk to someone who faces the same issues as myself until I read your post. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in a buddy support team. 

Marie