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
People used to smoke from a young age which decreases appetite and food was not the calorie laden fat and sugar bomb snacks of today. Fun fact, when I was 13 I tried on my grandmother’s wedding dress for fun. I couldn’t get it over my hips. And I wasn’t a fat kid, just a normal sized 95 lb American teenager. It ended up fitting my 9 year old cousin. My grandmother was super thin her entire life, even after birthing 5 kids. She also died in her mid-60s which also goes to show you that BMI is not intrinsically tied to health.
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