Reply #99: There's as huge a difference between slender and anorexic as [View All]

there is between chubby and morbidly obese.

The real problem is that some doctor says X is the ideal weight for someone who is X tall, and that is nonsense. Genetics determine a lot, and someone of Germanic extraction is going to be heavier at the same height than someone of Chinese extraction - it goes back to what made for survivability during the ice ages.

Nevertheless, that 'ideal weight' could be a guideline allowing for 20lbs plus or minus, and either way is perfectly healthy. I am 60lbs over the prescribed ideal and usually feel fine - but with my bad back it is important for me to shed 40lbs of it, if I want to avoid any more surgeries because 90% of it is belly fat. I walk or bike to work every day, and usually walk @ 3 miles a day. It's not that I'm so terribly undisciplined - it's my heritage. Same heritage as my sis. Her hubby has a similar heritage, I would think, but he is making choices that will kill him. And his choices are being reflected in his kids, as well.

As you said, it's about health, not thinness. And health includes good choices.