Skinny vs. Healthy

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When I reach my goal of 140 pounds I’m worried I’ll still be fat in other people’s opinions. At 5’3 I would be at a good BMI. I currently weigh 240 and 140 is a heck of a lot better than where I’m at right now. I want to be a size 8 but I’m worried that will be too skinny and sickly looking. Healthy lifestyles can be a lot of pressure.

140 is a healthy goal weight for your height. It's common to worry about whether or not you'll be satisfied once you reach your goal, but I believe it's a good idea to keep in mind that right now you don't really know what you're going to look like once you get there. I'd try to focus on how you're getting to your current goal now, and what you can do to be happy with your body once you get there. If you keep healthy habits it'll be better for you in the long run, both physically and appearance wise.

If you do get to your goal and decide you are still not satisfied solely due to appearance reasons, since you'd be at a healthy weight I wouldn't massively focus on the aspect of losing weight at that point, and once again mainly on what you can do to get to where you want to be in that regard.

One thing I've seen is people will try to focus on retaining their muscle mass while losing weight with exercise, or trying to gain muscle afterwards in the areas they want to focus on. Muscle helps distribute fat and if you lack muscle it can sometimes make a big difference, even if you're at the lower end of a healthy weight. Personally, after I lost a lot of weight I wasn't happy with it because I had no muscle mass.

By the way, you don't have to become bodybuilder levels of toned. The goal would be just to have the balance of muscle VS fat that you like, and as a bonus, having proper muscle mass also is good for your metabolism! Muscle uses more energy than fat, which could help you stay at your goal weight.

Losing weight is a natural effect of eating less and/or exercising more but doesn't imply superior health--anyone who says otherwise has to check themselves because they probably have fatphobia and have issues with fat people (especially women) being absolutely happy with what they look like.

The good news is all these worries about how much you weigh and what people think will go away once you hit your 30s. Don't lose hope!

Seems to me like you worry a lot about other people's opinions on YOUR body. Having a mother who has always had an opinion on my body (either too fat or too skinny), I get it.

Just focus on taking good care of your body (good nutrition and physical exercise, ideally cardio, strength training AND stretching). When you treat your body well, you start respecting and loving your body, and what others think will matter less and less.

THX for sharing this info