I'm short by genetics and I find people always say I weigh far less than I really am. I've had friends that tell me I looked good at 146 pounds. According to my BMI I was at serious risk for heart and health disease, not to mention heavily padded. I think that when short people are on the heavier side, the fat gets evenly distributed throughout the body. So yeah, I looked okay, but I was the same width from shoulders to legs (yuck). If you have the same problem as I do and are on atkins, tell your friends to wait and see the after results and then they'll know whats healthy. I'm really fed up having to explain why I'm on Atkins.

hi, dear 146. i wanted to give you a bit of support for your frustrations. i too am "height challenged" (the reason why i have a closet full of platform shoes, but that's another story), and i too have lots of ppl telling me that i look fine, and constantly ask me to justify the reason i'm dieting. my bmi is also in the unhealthy range, and personally, i see the reasons for dieting all over my body, and that's enough for me.

what i've done is to be a tad less than honest and tell them that i have hypoglycemia, and that aside from the lack of sugar, they never see me eat anything unusual. actually, if they never knew i was on atkins, they'd think i was eating quite well - all vegetables and lean protein. the part that sets them all off is when someone introduces a cake//box of donuts//pastries into the office and time after time i refuse it. i think they get the idea that i'm somehow better than they are, that by turning my head at their sweets, i am rejecting their lifestyle (and truth be told, i am...)

this is why the hypoglycemia line works so well... and in all honesty, i know very few people on a lc diet that didn't have a bad reaction to refined carbs, and since all bad reactions are indeed some form of allergy, i really don't even feel i am lying to them. as a matter of fact, the very first person to introduce me to low carbing was a woman who suffered from hypoglycemia, and she recovered remarkably well within the first month.

hope things get easier for you. bottom line is they really have no place in judging your lifestyle, so you have every right to tell them to bugger off.

your friend in height,
melissa

Hello, I'm not height challenged, but I still get those remarks. "Oh, why are you on a diet, you don't need to lose weight!" I think I know myself well enough to know when I need to lose weight. Don't let them get you down. You're doing this for you, not them.

Ren

Hi

Yeah, it can be almost annoying when someone said, oh, you don't look fat, when my BMI was 34! 170 lbs on a five foot (and three-quarters of an inch, darnit!) frame is not so healthy.

My beef are the GARGANTUAN thighs so generously genetically passed down on my mom's side of the family! I will continue to try to lose weight, even past the BMI goal of 24.9, to see if I can reduce these behemoths!

M

people are funny about that!

Red, what is your koolaid guy wearing today????



M

I am not height challenged either but I get that you don't need to lose weight crap. How do they know, they've never seen the unclothed me. Last night at a party we were having, someone said you don't need to diet, I don't want to see you hungry, I told them I am not on a diet I just have a different way of eating and gave them a sample menu, he then said damn you eat good. Some people just don't get it. I have never eaten healthier. They are the ones that need to justify they way they are eating, but looking down on our way makes them feel better about their donuts and cakes.

I'm a shade under 5 feet and weigh 137. Made myself a beaded belt and it's too tight. Oh well, I thought, until I lose a bit more I'll wear it as a necklace.
I was relating this to another woman at my beadwork group, who's taller than me by at least 6 inches and looks average in weight whereas I still look (and am) overweight.
Well, that damn belt fitted her the same as it does me--too tight. But on her, her waist looks slim, on me, tubby.
Amazing the difference a few inches in height makes...
Zan

My DIL is 4’9”.She is a tad heavy after two children but she is perfectly proportioned. We think that her weight should be around 105, because that is what she weight when I met her and I thought she was a lost child who just wandered in at my son’s house and not the presentation of my future DIL. But if you follow her BMI she should be under 100 pounds.

I am not sure if I am considered "short". I am 5'4 and 139. I would like to go down a bit more, just because I think I would look better. I have to shop in the petite section of the stores, especially for pants. Darn short legs.

Yeah, I still buy pants in petite, or capris, too. My legs are about 24-26 inches long and that's it! Most petites are around 29 inches, I think!

M

Hey - I'm new on this site but i just saw your note. My own doctor said I didn't need to lose weight! However, my waist is thicker than my hips! I'm 5' 2" and about 135 - I am at my best around 110-115 - so not a lot to lose but at almost 38 I'm finding it a real challenge to get that metabolism going. And, I am all for being a little dishonest when it comes to dieting - tell people you are hypo-whatever! Oris someone tries to feed you something that you know isn't good - tell them you're allergic to it! Good Luck

Mary

Jen 5'4" is not short(Text was too short so I had to write this)

red

Ahh Im different.. Im 5'4" and when I weigh 125-130 I am bony to all hell, with lots of lean muscle... but my bones would jut out of my body, nonetheless... spine, hips, collarbone, ribs.. it was great, and crazy.. of course I let that go and got up WAYY to high... and right now, Id be very happy at 140... any smaller than that and Id be the way I mentioned above.. shrug

But if I told someone who had never met me that I had weighed 130 and was 5'4" they would immediately draw a slightly overweight picture in their minds... shrug...

I am 4'10" and it's funny people at work who are used to seeing me at 210 think that I am "skinny" now at 143 (they call me that! they say "hey skinny" when they see me in the hallway and are shocked when I say "not yet, another 35 to go") I think I am still huge since I to me 100-110 is a ideal weight but someone who has never seen me below 180 cannot even imagine what I will look like at 110 but I can .