"underweight"??

Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on my back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of weight! But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105 lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance. I tend to eat a healthy vegetarian diet and work out a few times a week. Has anyone ever had a similar situation?

amyliz569 wrote in message
...

Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would
suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on my
back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know
that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was
slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of weight!
But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105
lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the
side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance. I tend to eat
a healthy vegetarian diet and work out a few times a week. Has anyone
ever had a similar situation?

At 5'4" I would imagine you're starving as a model so it is a good thing you
are a scientist. Use your scientific background to your advantage and do
some research. I suggest starting he www.stumptuous.com/weights.html

--
Matthew
185/177/160
To reply by e-mail, heat things up a bit.

amyliz569 wrote:
Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would
suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on
my
back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know
that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was
slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of
weight!
But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105
lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the
side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance. I tend to
eat
a healthy vegetarian diet and work out a few times a week. Has
anyone
ever had a similar situation?


--
amyliz569

If you lose 5-10 lbs you will be much more than "slightly" underweight,
you will be extremely unhealthy. And your "excess" fat might be
something you can never eliminate, unless you become so emaciated that
your fat is at a dangerously low level; some people just have fat
deposited in certain places. You might want to try muscle building, but
definitely do not lose more weight purposefully.

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 17:25:06 +0000, amyliz569 wrote:

Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would
suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on my
back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know
that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was
slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of weight!
But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105
lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the
side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance. I tend to eat
a healthy vegetarian diet and work out a few times a week. Has anyone
ever had a similar situation?

Change your workouts to focus on muscle growth with weight training.
Increase the protein in your diet as well. (generally vege's tend to not
get enough protein).

Check out www.stumptuous.com/weights.html and www.exrx.net

In your case, the focus on weight training and muscle growth will make your
muscles more defined giving you a better appearance for modeling and will
probably also help in eliminating that little extra fat you say you have.

Just remember - your body needs some fat and if you lose too much, you will
experience health problems.

Quoting amyliz569 :

Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would
suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on my
back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know
that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was
slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of weight!
But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105
lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the
side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance.

At your height, 105# is *more* than low enough to have a totally kick
ass bod. Even by "model" standards.

If you're truly dissatisfied at how you look at your current size, I'd
recommend you stop focusing so much on scale weight and work on
building muscle mass.

With a good body composition, you could probably weigh, say, 110-115#,
still wear a 2, AND look better than you do now.

Oh, and you'd be able to eat calories than you do now.

Lift heavy, lift hard. Emphasize compound exercises; deep squats,
deadlifts, etc.

Eat well. Rest.

see also
http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html

I tend to eat a healthy vegetarian diet

*cough*
Are you getting enough protein?

and work out a few times a week.

What's your current workout?

"amyliz569" wrote in message
...

Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would
suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on my
back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know
that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was
slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of weight!
But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105
lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the
side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance. I tend to eat
a healthy vegetarian diet and work out a few times a week. Has anyone
ever had a similar situation?


--
amyliz569

At your current weight and height, your Body Mass Index is 18.0. As your
doctor noted, this puts you into the "Underweight" category. Assuming
you're 25 years old, you are around the 9th percentile for weight (compared
to US averages for 25 year old, 5'5" women). If you're 35 years old, your
weight would be below the 2nd weight percentile (meaning, 98% of 35 year
old, 5'4" women weigh more than 105 lbs).

Given that you're already in Underweight territory, losing 5-10 lbs would
probably be a bad idea.

Are you menstruating regularly? If not, this is a major warning sign that
you are jeopardizing your health.

If you are menstruating regularly, then perhaps you just need to focus on
making some small changes in body composition. To see if this is feasible,
you should have your body fat percentage measured. Women should generally
have body fat percentages above 15% for best health.

You can get your body fat estimated at a health club (generally with
calipers), by using a "body fat" scale (but these can be somewhat
unreliable), or by using the "Navy" method (from this website
http://www.he.net/%7Ezone/prothd2.html , or from my WeightWare software).

If this indicates that you have some fat to spare, then you could follow
some of the previous suggestions to increase muscle mass and burn fat. But,
you're already close to the danger zone so be very, very careful.

Finally, are you *sure" that you have "excess fat". Ask some of your
friends and family if they see "excess fat" on you. Many people have
distorted self-images (technically, "body dysmorphia") and see "problems"
that others don't. This can lead to eating disorders, so be very careful.

--
GG
http://www.WeightWare.com
Your Weight and Health Diary

I agree with what everyone else has said. You are underweight. Some
people who are very thin still have bits of visible fat that they find
unattractive, and perhaps you fall into that category. (As opposed to
having anorexic tendencies and just seeing yourself wrongly, which is
also possible.) The best approach to dealing with this, as others
have noted, is to add some muscle through weight training.

The other night I watched an episode of a TV show called "Faking It".
This is a show that takes a person and has them train for a month to
do a completely different career than they have in real life, then
puts them into a competition with three other people and has judges
guess who's "faking it". In this episode, the subject was a young
woman who worked as a photographer's assistant who they trained to be
a swimsuit model. She was as skinny as the other models they showed,
but had a less attractive look to her body -- just sort of string
beany and lank. The first thing they did was take her to a trainer
who said, "I want you to build some lean muscle to give you curves and
definition." And she did look better after a month, and will continue
to do so if she keeps it up.

For the record, pretty much all the movie stars do weight training.

Chris
262/130s/130s
started dieting July 2002, maintaining since June 2004

Originally Posted by Matthew

amyliz569 wrote in message
...

Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would
suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on my
back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know
that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was
slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of weight!
But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105
lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the
side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance. I tend to eat
a healthy vegetarian diet and work out a few times a week. Has anyone
ever had a similar situation?

At 5'4" I would imagine you're starving as a model so it is a good thing you
are a scientist. Use your scientific background to your advantage and do
some research. I suggest starting he www.stumptuous.com/weights.html

--
Matthew
185/177/160
To reply by e-mail, heat things up a bit.

I make more money as model...by far.....

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 03:12:17 +0000, amyliz569 wrote:

Matthew Wrote:
amyliz569 wrote in message
...-

Hi all. I recently spoke with my doctor about something that would
suitable to lose a few (~5-10) pounds. I seem to have excess fat on
my
back a little and my thighs are larger than I would like. I do know
that I am not overweight, but he informed me that he believed I was
slightly underweight and should gain, not lose, this amount of
weight!
But then there is the excess fat! ugh! I am about 5'4" and 105
lbs...about a size 2....I am a scientist and a freelance model on the
side in LA, thus why I am concerned about my appearance. I tend to
eat
a healthy vegetarian diet and work out a few times a week. Has
anyone
ever had a similar situation?-

At 5'4" I would imagine you're starving as a model so it is a good
thing you
are a scientist. Use your scientific background to your advantage and
do
some research. I suggest starting he www.stumptuous.com/weights.html

--
Matthew
185/177/160
To reply by e-mail, heat things up a bit.


I make more money as model...by far.....

Well, if your livelihood depends on your body, then you need to take the
best care of your body as possible. I realize that being a model requires
certain levels of "no fat" on the body, especially if you are an underwear
or swimsuit model. Obviously you are not a runway model, as you are too
short for that line of work.

But, again, I'll suggest - instead of starving yourself to lose more
weight, I would highly recommend that you get into weight training. Lift
weights. Start small, and work your way up. I'm not telling you to become
an olympic lifter. But if you can challenge your muscles, make them work,
they will grow.

With muscle growth will come a bit of added weight (possibly, in your case)
but you will probably also notice some fat loss.

But doing this will also require you to get more protien in your diet. I
realize as a veg this may not be as easy. But, consider some alternate
sources - soy tofu, protien shakes, etc.

You can lose fat and gain muscle and still have smaller measurements and
still gain weight (per your drs advice) and still look fabulous in a size 2
and get your modelling jobs.

Just follow some healthy advice. Focus on healthy eating and exercise. I
promise - you won't bulk up.

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 07:33:30 -0700, Matthew wrote:

Well scientist don't make much. Anyways to be very successful as a model you
don't need to lose any weight, you need to gain about 5-7 inches. I don't
think anyone here can help with that one. But you have gotten some good
advice about improving the look of the body you have.

cough not all models are runway models that have to be over 5'10" tall.
There are plenty of other types of modelling out there that does not
require great height.