5 Questions that Help Determine if You’re Truly Fat Or…

…Has Body Dysmorphia Struck Again?

“What do you mean you think you’re fat!?! Don’t be ridiculous!”

That’s how my boyfriend reacted when I told him that I think I’m getting fat.

I’m a healthy woman, or so I thought until none of my clothes fit properly. Even my tank tops that I’ve had since college started becoming too tight!

I got on the scale and it read: you’re overweight again!

When I went shopping for new clothes, I found out that I’m only a couple of sizes away from when I was at my heaviest.

With those things in mind, I looked into the full-length mirror while naked and checked myself out. ‘F*** I’m fat – how did that happen!?!’

It didn’t, but here’s what did happen…

Our society equates skinny with healthy and I bought into that. I’ve been a size 4 for the last 5 years.

I eat well. I eat a lot but it’s mostly healthy. The 80/20 rule (eating healthy 80% of the time and eating whatever you want… ice cream, donuts, pizza, beer 20% of the time) is a rule I don’t really have to follow because it’s a habit now. But did I go off course because of the pandemic? Maybe a little.

With fresh eyes, here’s how to tell if you’re truly fat or if it’s just in your head:

1. Do you have good eating habits? Have your good eating habits tanked recently?

Okay, I admit that my good eating habits slipped into the 70/30 zone.

During lockdown, maybe my boyfriend experimented with trying to perfect his chocolate almond cake and maybe I was a judge that took my role seriously. Maybe gaufre liegeoise (Belgium waffles with chunks of imbedded vanilla sugar) became a routine breakfast treat. And maybe chocolate mousse made it onto the after-dinner-menu more frequently while we were in lockdown. So, I probably did gain a little weight.

But we still ate mostly vegetables and lean protein for our meals. I’ve been in the 80/20 zone for at least the last 4 months now.

2. Have you been active or mostly sedentary?

Let’s face it, if you’re a writer, you’re in a chair a lot. Sometimes I even write in bed (I use a breakfast tray as a bed desk).

Since we’ve discovered that sitting is the new smoking, I set an alarm to get up and move around every 30 minutes. I try to make it to the gym daily. I mostly lift weights at the gym 3-6 days/week. I also like to go for walks. I’ll walk a couple of miles 3-4 times/week.

3. With the answers from questions 1 and 2 in mind, what do I see when I look at myself naked in the mirror?

My waist is bigger. My chest is bigger. My arms are bigger. My thighs are bigger. My butt sits higher and it’s bigger. My thigh gap is gone.

I’ve also been lifting weights consistently since the gyms have reopened. I’ve been slowly increasing the weight and slowly beating my own strength records.

4. When you jump up and down naked in front of the mirror what do you see?

I see that almost everything stays in place. There’s a little jiggle but I like a little jiggle. Everything is pretty firm. Of course, I can squeeze some fat here and there if I want to, but adding those weighted bridges to my glutes routine really did lift my tooshie and round my hips. My small boobs appear larger because I have pec muscles (where chest bones used to peek through) giving me the appearance of cleavage. I have rounded shoulders and back muscles. My arms look big but they don’t keep flapping after I’ve stopped waving.

5. How have you been sleeping?

Spotty sleep for me. I’ve been sleeping on and off, waking up in the middle of the night. I have mild sleep apnea. For me a good sleep is 7 hours straight through the night. I rarely achieve that.

Sleep is so important for many reasons. In regard to how sleep affects whether or not you’re fat or you just think you are? Well, poor sleep can lead to poor judgement and mood. My perspective about myself may not be as positive on the days that I’ve had a poor night’s sleep. Also, if you lift weights and don’t sleep well, you’ll have trouble repairing your muscles.

So, what’s really going on? Am I fat? The verdict…

No. I’m not fat. But I’m no longer skinny. I’ve put on about 20lbs of muscle and I’ve not really lost much fat. I don’t have any bones peeking through – they’re covered with muscle now.

I could probably (meaning definitely) use more cardio in my fitness routine.  Even if I lose only 1% of my body fat, muscle definition will most likely come through. I can make tweaks to my diet and use my metabolism to aid me in my progress too. Getting better sleep will ensure that these slight tweaks to my fitness routine pay off.

All of these changes will be healthy as long as I don’t obsess about getting skinny. And that, my friends, is key to having a healthy body image…

Remember:

• When you find yourself hating your body, change your mind first.
• Healthy bodies are beautiful but they’re not always skinny!

© Cherie Fournier 2021