"You're too skinny"

[Ryan TN 348]

Yeah, good plan. I am doing the couch to 5k right now with a 5k race coming up in a couple weeks, after that I think I'll scale back the running and work on swimming and cycling. I'm already wearing a knee brace for stability.

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[Itsjustjustin 70]

So I'm hearing this phrase alot now. At first when my mother and my MIL said it, I didn't pay much attention to it, after all, mothers want you fattened up. But people at work are telling me this, just wondering what others think. Is it because people still remember the old me I'm guessing? I am down to 176, my goal weight is 175, but my bmi is on the heavier side of normal. I am still around 15%body fat. Probably one of the differences in men vs women maybe? Thoughts? I really don't pay it much attention. I want to stay between 170 and 175, maybe put on a little muscle would be ok.

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I am about the same height as you, 5ft11-6ft-ish. As a younger man I was a fitness buff and my best weight was actually 165-175lb in terms of combined movement, endurance and strength. I can see why you are happy at 175 and it's not actually "skinny", just slimmer than the average American adult. If you do some strength training, you can have pretty big muscles at that weight too - I used to have a 17.5in bicep at 175lb.

I am not 26 anymore, am 56 now and about halfway to my weightloss goals @ 244lb. I plan to try to get down at least to 195lb and/or a waist size of 36 and then to reassess. If it's possible, I may look to get down to 175lb again too. I am a scientist in the pharma industry and read the research literature a lot, and I can tell you that purely from a health perspective - living a long active life and avoiding or at least postponing chronic diseases, avoiding injury and debilitating joint conditions, it's hard to exercise too much or to be too thin,

My long term goal outside of weightloss that I've been working on is to do a triathlon this year. I've picked one in my hometown to do on Aug 20th. The way I see it is those extra 5-10 pounds is just more wear and tear on the joints in the run.

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From one fellow Tennessean to another, I must say it is cool that your journey in a sense culminates on April 20th with the triathlon where mine begins (Scheduled for sleeve at 1pm). It makes me hopeful and excited for my future and happy for your present. Good luck!