I’ve heard older family members say “I weighed 93 pounds on my wedding day”, and then you see a picture of them and they were slim but healthy looking (meanwhile, if you plug in their BMI, it shows that the number is so dangerously underweight).
Are those family members exaggerating, or has there been a significant change to body composition/muscle mass in people over the past 50+ years (based on diet, lifestyle)?
Semi related: could this be the origin of some men thinking that all “thin” women weigh 120 pounds (regardless of height)?
Edit: NOT talking about obesity, more like how can a person have been 93 pounds in 1960 but have an identical looking body to someone who is 130 pounds today?
In: Biology
A lot of people don’t understand the sheer amount of non-visual visceral fat our bodies can store without being very obvious versus the impact of muscle on physique and size.
I’d imagine this plays a large role due to the over abundance of simple sugar and carbs in our Western diets.
Additionally, our ion intake (salts) and water stores can play a huge role as well. I easily jump 5-6 lbs in a single day through water loss alone.
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Most importantly though, in my opinion, as a whole we’ve gotten fatter – especially the US. Obvious or not, it’s an epidemic that we pretend isn’t a problem. Appearance or numbers don’t matter, but health does.
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