Am I fat?

It's just your skirt that makes you look fat. Don't ask that question.

Wow...

I'm 5'7 and weigh about 159 (after a number of injurys over the last year was close to 145 before then)

and yet I don't consider myself fat just big boned...haha

Just be happy with yourself

that depends how you carry it. I am actually of similar build, 6'1" 170 lbs, and 9% body fat. If you put on more muscle since your racing days, that wouldn't be a bad thing.

if you have to ask then, yes, you are fat.

FLa runr wrote:

if you have to ask then, yes, you are fat.

completely the opposite answer. of course you're not. By FLa runrs's reasoning all anorexics are fat.

runners are not, repeat NOT in anyway indicative of normal society. A runner's definition of 'fat' is so far off the mark it's unreal. (and before anyone says 'so if you're not a runner, why are you on this site?', well I was a runner, and a better one than 99% of people on this site, guaranteed).

Have gained 20-30lbs since my running days and at first it sat very uncomfortably with me. Now I see the bigger picture .. OK, I'm not in the shape I was, but I still have a 'good' physique and, the bottom line is, the majority of women hate the really skinny look anyway (don't listen to the women on here. Their views are as warped as the men's.)

Have gained 20-30lbs since my running days and at first it sat very uncomfortably with me. Now I see the bigger picture .. OK, I'm not in the shape I was, but I still have a 'good' physique and, the bottom line is, the majority of women hate the really skinny look anyway (don't listen to the women on here. Their views are as warped as the men's.)

Good point. I don't run on a team or anything and I never have, so maybe I don't have that "warped" vision you speak of. But when I dropped down to 160 (from 170) when I was training for a road race, I actually felt like I looked too skinny. When I would look in the mirror I felt fine, but when I saw pictures of myself (from an objective lens) I seemed almost emaciated.

ggdfgdfgdfg wrote:

About a decade removed from college. Six feet tall. Racing weight: 142. Current weight: 168.

Am I fat?

Two years out.

Six feet tall.

Raced at 155 lbs.

Am currently +180 and still run 35 mpw.

I doubt it. How much can you pinch around your waist?

I'm 5'9.6". Current weight 162 lbs., the most I've ever weighed in my life, but I look slim and athletic (built a bit like the Korean marathoner that people were talking about recently). My Tanita scale said 6.3% body fat using athlete mode. I know it's not an accurate figure, but from reading several threads on a cycling forum where people had done comparisons - Tanita vs. underwater or calipers - the Tanita's, even in athlete mode, tended to give higher body fat readings than those other methods. In any case, my current 6% Tanita figure was among the lowest that I came across in those threads, which included some decent climbing cyclists. I was down as low as 3.7% at about 154 lbs last summer.

I used to be 145 lbs for the longest time in my 20's at a higher body fat percentage (8% using one of the caliper methods), and going back further, about 135+/- (as low as 126) lbs in college when I was consistantly running over 100 mpw, all at about the same height. When I was under about 150, I'd always get "too skinny" comments from my parents and others.

Even from just looking in the mirror and pinching skin, I can tell that the difference between me at 135 and me at 155 is not an increase in body fat percentage. It is a change from being skinny to being average muscled, with possibly even with a decrease in body fat. Has anyone else had this experience as they aged? I'm now 37. A large part of transformation may be from nordic skiing in the winters now. I got as low as 152-153 last summer, but I could tell that I was getting into the unhealthy range of low body fat from overtraining symptoms. That was a bit fustrating, because I was thinking that I needed to get near my old race weight, but maybe I don't need to get to 140 to race well again. On the other hand, Lance Armstrong needed body transformation in the other direction before he started winning the TDF... (he wasn't fat before cancer, but was a good 15-20 lb heavier).

zzzz wrote:

On the other hand, Lance Armstrong needed body transformation in the other direction before he started winning the TDF... (he wasn't fat before cancer, but was a good 15-20 lb heavier).

Lance also said that once he got his body into his TDF physique, that he could only stay there for about three weeks (the length of the race) before it would shut down on him. The rest of the year, he was heavier.

By FLa runrs\'s reasoning all anorexics are fat.

well they are...