just wanna be a little bit less

this post was not constructed to offend. if you have an issue with it, that's your prerogative. just like this opinion is mine.


a conversation i had on msn yesterday.

hideki: i'm gonna tell you sumfink. this may change the way you look at me. i.. i... i.. weighed myself on some scales at target and.. and... my home scale is TOTALLY WRONG.
me: err... okay. how do you know the scale at target isn't wrong?
hideki: cause i used two.

which made me think. why is body weight [or mass, for the anal] SUCH a big deal with people?

is how much a person weighs really of such great consequence? i'm not even talking about people being overweight or obese here because that's more of a health issue, and i'm talking about a social/psychological issue.

me: so how off is your home scale?
*btw, his home scale usually says he weighs 49kg, which is really really light for a guy*
hideki: a lot. i'm 43 kgs!!!
me: shit.
hideki: nah, just joking. i'm more than 49. TT i'm fat.

hmm... since when is 49 kg fat for ANYBODY our age? unless you're only 4'8" or something, in which case, i beg your forgiveness.

me: so you weigh what, 50 now?
hideki: no. pschh.. one kilo. you can't call me skinny anymore.
me: 51? that's not fat.
hideki: no, it's a lot more. like, 3000g more.
me: can you just tell me outright how much you weigh?!?
hideki: i'm 54 kg *does crying thing*
me: -__________- i'm pretty sure you're still alright.

maybe it's just me, but isn't 54 kg for a 16 year old male [albeit a kinda short one] ok? maybe even on the skinny side? we spent time in year 8 health class taking everybody's height and weight so that we could calculate our BMIs [body mass index]. and not one person in our class was overweight, if anything, people were underweight.

but still, people all around me keep saying they're fat, or they need to lose weight, or they need to start dieting to get to the size they want. one of my friends, at fifteen years of age, went on the Jenny Craig program because she thought she was fat. yeah, she had put on a bit of weight, but she was nowhere near FAT. just because she weighed more than she used to. she did end up losing all the weight she'd put on, but only because the food she got from Jenny Craig was in really small portions. really, i can eat three times what she had for lunch and still have room for dessert.

we're 16. we're supposed to be growing. we can't compare our weight now to how much we were when we were 13. that's... just... odd. it's like saying "i'm so fat. i'm 45 kg now. when i was 8 i was only 25."

to satisfy my in-built busybody-ness, i asked a few people how they saw themselves. the two girls i asked said that they saw their weight as around average. going well, right? but one said she felt that it would be good if she was a little thinner. she actually felt that she NEEDED to be a little thinner. the other girl said

"i lyk to b thin so i can eat as much as i want to and not get fat. i think i'm normal"

but if you eat as much as you want to when you're thin, how do you draw the line for when you become "fat"?

"when my stomach is bulging"

ha ha. right. that happens to most people after every meal.

provided, that is, you actually eat a proper meal.

just so you all don't say i'm biased, i asked a couple of guys how they saw themselves as well. both saw themselves as having a healthy weight. one of them said he didn't need to lose weight, but he'd like to tone up XD but that's another story altogether.

some of my friends seem to have a semi-obsession with weight. what gets me is, it's all about the figure on the scale. they look and feel fine but the weighing scale doesn't have a nice rounded number like 40. hello? 50 is a nice rounded number too!! one friend once told me that she weighed herself everyday. every. single. day. [sorry to the people who do this] then other people went "yeah, i do that too." i was kinda baffled as to why because it's not like you're gonna put on 20kg overnight or something. one girl said she weighed herself three times a day. words do that no justice.

i don't have weighing scales at home. the household i live in has never ever owned a weighing scale. as a result, i've never thought about how much i weigh as being a big issue. it will not bother you if you just don't step on the scales. trust me, if you are getting really fat, SOMEBODY WILL TELL YOU. in my case, it's jane ["ohmygosh kim. did you get FATTER?"]. and ignore the stupid boys or bitchy girls who walk past and call you fat because they're probably just jealous of your curves.

and it takes being VERY VERY heavy to become obese. moey worked out, for example, that for me to become overweight - just overweight, not even obese - i'd have to be around 62 kilos. for me to be obese, i'd have to be 77kg. that's more than my six foot tall cousin weighs.

it's the people around you that say you have to look a certain way. it's in your friends who are thinner than you, those skinny girls on home and away, myer catalogues, the weirdly shaped manequins they use in clothing shops. but is it better to be thin? chubby people can be hot too, ok. there was an era where fleshy was nice. and it used to be in china that the fatter you were, the more beautiful you were considered.

now don't go out and immediately get fat la all of you [like anyone would anyway].

but just keep in mind. finding out that you're a little bit heavier, is not a good reason to start an eating disorder. or an exercise disorder.

it just means there's more of you to love.