<p>" I went from 44 inch pants to 32 inch pants."</p>
<p>That is amazing. I am definitely not telling you to do what I am doing, Interesteddad. </p>
<p>You don’t think you are thin?</p>
<p>My brothers are all between 5’6 and 5’9 and weigh between 150-165. So does my dad who will be 80. So we know where I should fall. My oldest brother is going to be 56 and has less body fat than any person I have ever seen. He eats everything. He also worked out harder than most every person I know from the age of 13 until he cut back to avoid injury</p>
<p>I should add I almost always feel good exercising. Running is really the only place I can say that how I feel impacts the workout. There are days it is just harder. Lifting wise or pullups you still can get a good workout even though you do less. Running it gets in our head.</p>
<p>Hey guys, you’re not alone. I’ve gotten the “don’t lose anymore weight” comments too. I’m a fifty yr. old woman… 5’6.5" and weigh 120. I used to weigh 170. Went from size 16 to size 6. I run 15 miles a week,walk eight miles/wk. and do light workouts at home.
I’ve weighed the same for about a year now and still get comments. Just this week I made a comment at work about a “glutton for punishment” and another woman said…“You can’t be a glutton. You’re TOO skinny”. I wanted to say “Is that a compliment?” but I just smiled and moved on.</p>
<p>IDad, if memory serves me right, I think the whole concept of low intensity exercise “fat loss” came from a misapplication of energy system studies that concluded that stored energy in the form of fat was used to fuel long duration endurance events and that working at about 60% max h.r. maximized the use of fat as fuel. Hence the notion of exercising at 60% h.r. to “burn fat”. Of course, it’s not that simple and later studies reinforced the importance of high intensity intervals.</p>
<p>BTW, dropping from a 44 to 32 waiste is phenomenal and no doubt required tremendous discipline and dedication on your part. How many times along the way did you need to replace your wardrobe? Your clothing bills must have been more difficult than your fitness regimen!:)</p>
<p>dstark, I can empathize with your comments about abs. The toughest part of my workouts is actually getting myself to do ab work. On upper body weight training nights, if I wait to the end of my weight routine, I’m usually exhausted and it’s after 10 at night and I really have to force myself to do it. On my indoor cycling nights, doing ab work wearing spandex/Lycra padded bib shorts is unappealing and if it’s after an hour of cycling, I’m a sweaty mess. Sometimes I superset bi’s, tri’s and abs during my weight routine and other times I just scold myself into doing the abs. Then there are the times when I rationalize that because I actively engage my abs during all my standing upper body work, I can be lazy about it. One of the reasons I like using TRX is that every exercise engages the abs while doing a body part exercise.</p>
<p>We have “Secret Santas” at work. For some reason, my Santa has been gifting me with candy. And it’s good candy! I brought one box home (it’s still unopened) and opened the other and left it at work for others to enjoy. We have two camps at work - one group that I would consider healthy weight and another group of the extremely overweight. One of the extremely overweight attorneys commented to me that I could stand a few pounds. It is hard work to lose weight and frankly, even harder for me to maintain it. It is hard to know what to say to something like that. </p>
<p>Finally got a Christmas tree and put it in the stand. Now sabadog (it’s his first Christmas) has introduced a new element to the exercise routine. Our house is a split level, so if we are all watching television in the family room, he heads upstairs for a drink from the tree stand. Nothing like a quick sprint up the stairs. At least he’s not doing anything worse. Not yet, anyway.</p>
<p>Thank you for making this thread</p>
<p>Proper warmup before a race/running hepl</p>
<p>Sorry dropped my iPhone! I always try to tell my daughter that heart and respiratory needs to be above resting levels at the start of a race to avoid going into oxygen debt. Maybe that’s why we are breathless when we first start out.</p>
<p>I wonder if people think you guys are too thin because in comparison to the people around you, you stand out as being “incredibly good looking” because you are in such good shape now :)</p>
<p>I grew up in a family of slim people, extended family included. Now overweight seems to be the new normal, so slim people may seem to be underweight in comparison. Sad.</p>
<p>Michael- I wish it were practical to start at the beginning of this thread and read the whole thing. iDad’s journey is incredible and his wardrobe changes are well documented. You may just have to wait until his book comes out (I’m sort of serious about this). </p>
<p>You guys sound perfect to me! If you are bigger than a Kenyan, you aren’t too skinny! :)</p>
<p>Speaking of people giving you candy etc. My sister sent my family of 2 (H and me) SIX giant caramel apples with things like little M&Ms, nuts etc all over them. Besides the fact that my dental insurance doesn’t kick in until today, how did she think we were going to consume those things? They would feed a party of 20! H cut one up for us yesterday (practically took a saw since they had been in the refrig and the candy coating was NOT soft) and it was delicious (hey, it’s a fruit, right?), but there is no way the other 5 will be eaten. It’s not even the sort of thing you can bring into work (unless you bring the saw, too).</p>
<p>I’m over 1984 for the year. Shooting for 2012 miles.</p>
<p>“I grew up in a family of slim people, extended family included. Now overweight seems to be the new normal, so slim people may seem to be underweight in comparison.”
-We have Video Conferences with our team members in Germany. They ALL (different ages) look very slim. I know that they are just NORMAL and none of them is watching their diet, normal “German” intake of beer on a very regular basis. Yes, this just in comparison, as we in the USA got much bigger. Yes, very sad and extrememly expansive for the society as a whole as vast majority of the illnesses are currently coming from this condition, while less and less of resources ar available for some deseases that are NOT in our control. Obesity is not one of them, we can maintain normal weight for the human beings, it is entirely under every person’s control, no matter genetics (I have the worst one in this respect, so do not tell me that I do not know what I am talking about, I do know and I am walking the walk, not talking the talk).</p>
<p>I am not what one would call thin by any stretch of the imagination. I do think there is some truth to the idea I am thin relative to my coworkers. This morning I ordered myself a juicer. Merry Christmas to me. Shake things up a little bit.</p>
<p>Really, it’s hard to imagine thinking 5’-6" and 120 pounds is too thin. I have small bones and weighed about that when I got married. I looked pretty good, but I considered myself pretty average back then. I think like portion size, people’s idea of what looks good has gotten really distorted.</p>
<p>^Nice, congrats! I am about the same. As I do not watch my intake closely, I at least make sure to exercise a lot. Everybody should find their personal way. I can probaly loose about 20 lbs or so, but I am within the normal range for my height and I absolutely do not care any more how I lookay too late for me.</p>
<p>“5’-6” and 120 pounds " is skinny by my measure. But it is probably within normal range, I am too lazy to check. I am way heaver than that.</p>
<p>Here is a height/weight chart <a href=“The page cannot be found”>The page cannot be found; Accordingly, 120 for a 5’6" small framed woman is ok. Perhaps calculating BMI makes better sense. Below 18.5 is considered underweight.</p>
<p>I am probably medium boned and much shorter than 5’6. I cant quite imagine getting down to 120 - it would be a weight I havent seen since high school</p>
<p>At 5’-6 1/2" and 120 lbs, I think I was on the skinny side as a young adult. But I could eat anything I wanted to! Now my weight hovers more near 128, which is not a huge difference, but it all seems to be in the waist. 
What my mother used to call that middle-aged spread.</p>
<p>I never let it get over 130, however.</p>
<p>My wrist bones are very small, so I guess I’m small boned. Large hands, though…they don’t look delicate! But they get the job done (playing piano.)</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m waiting for the plumber this morning, so stretching & other exercises are getting done.</p>
<p>Now I feel too fat! I’m 5’5" and hover between 122 to 125. Was eating uncontrollably for a bit after menopause but it subsided (thank goodness!) and back to being able to just let my hunger guide me on what to eat. In high school/college I was about 115 and felt average weight. I think that was a different era.</p>
<p>I remember vaguely that as a young adult, 140 lbs seemed about right for me at 5’8".
30 years later, I doubt I’ll get back to that but I’m committed to get way closer than I am right now.
Two weeks into my new exercise plan, doing pretty well avoiding the Christmas cookies.
:)</p>