We've killed off skinny people

[makattak]

I've realized something recently.

Growing up I was SKINNY. As in, barely any fat or meat on my bones, skinny.

I could hide on a made bed by getting under the covers and no one could tell there was a body in there.

SKINNY. As I recall, several of my cousins were similarly skinny. I saw many people in the world who were similarly skinny. It wasn't a huge amount, but there were lots of SKINNY people in the world.


Aside from my 5 year old, I don't see skinny people in the world. Not everyone is fat, but the options appear to be: Dangerously Obese, Obese, Fat, Plump, Fit, Doughy, Slender.

I do see some slender women, but they still tend to have some meat on them.

All the males that are not overweight are either fit and muscular or doughy- not fat, but not skinny as they have some fat and almost no muscle.

Am I just suffering from selection bias or are there really almost no skinny people left in our country?

[Hawkmoon]

I don't think you are suffering from selection bias ...

[Brad Johnson]

Healthy
Hefty
Husky
Fluffy
... and DAMN!

Brad

[AZRedhawk44]

We're not killed off.

I've got those genes.  I've got a cousin everyone called "Chicken Legs" as a teenager because he was so skinny. 

Environmental conditions are making it easier for us to live with lower metabolisms and more weight.

If I worked blue collar, I'd probably be 20-30 pounds lighter.  But I sit at a desk all day with minimal caloric output and have sufficient affluence that I can afford alcohol and more food than I need.

[230RN]

I remember at one point in my fighting trim of 160 lb, I was trying to cut a rather thick piece of sheet steel on the pedal operated  shear.  Yeah, yeah, abuse of the tool, but I hadda cut it.

I jumped on the pedal to no avail, then another guy came along and offered to help by jumping on the pedal with me.

"Us skinny people gotta stick together," he said after a successful one-two-three-jump episode.

No obvious harm done to the shear.

Wimmin?  Don't matter to me, tall, short, skinny, squooshy, country, city, don't matter nohow as long as they're reasonably well-groomed.

Eclectic formerly skinny Terry, 340RN

[French G.]

Dunno, suspect BMI scales say at 28 I'm gonna die. But I like 6'1" 215lb me a lot better than the 160lb me they called the white ethiopian when I ran 5K in school. 153lb me after boot camp looked like a prison camp victim. But that was probably what would have passed as normal a century ago. We live in an amazing time for access to calories.

[Ron]

About 7? years ago or so I was cycling 3-4 days a week, hammer sessions not casual rides. I also was all over my diet, lean meats only and a lot of fruit and veggies. I dropped down to around 180lbs. At my heaviest I run around 220 (puffy with a belly).

Somebody I hadn't seen in nearly a decade came into my place of work and after a friendly exchange of pleasantries he lowered his voice and becoming more serious he asks me "is everything thing alright with you? I mean with your health, you've lost so much weight". Found that pretty funny at the time 😁

Truth be told though, I was too thin despite being in the upper/middle range of bmi.

I wasn't feeding the machine enough, my disposition became somewhat gloomy and I started feeling down despite the fact I was crushing my best times on Strava ( a workout app) and climbing stronger and harder routes at the indoor gym. Even work was good with a new position and more money. Yet I had the blues.

Eventually I fell off the wagon and started eating higher fat, higher carb meals and it was like a dark cloud lifted and the fog cleared away. An amazing flip in attitude just through a change in diet.

[ConstitutionCowboy]

One of my nicknames in my teen years was "Spider Legs." Six feet tall at graduation and 115 pounds. Made it all he way up to  125 when I joined the Navy 2 years later in '66. Got out of the Navy in '70 at 165 pounds(Navy chow is good!). I peaked at 212 pounds 2 years ago and since then I've lost 35 pounds, now at 177, and on my way down to 170. I want to be able to hide behind a utility pole again!

So, Makattak, I'm doing my best to bring back the good old days!

Woody

[WLJ]

We ate all the skinny people.
Soylent Green, it's what's for dinner.