Am I fat?

Those of you with a Wii Fit (I myself have a Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board, because I am fancy like that) may be familiar with the board's chant of "That's overweight!" or even "That's obese!" Although I came within 1.2lbs, I have never actually been the "normal" zone on the Wii Fit. But what is normal? A few months ago, a friend and I were doing a weigh-in, and the animated balance board once again took the opportunity to remind me that a healthy weight for me would be 148.6lbs. I laughed and said, "can you imagine me losing that much weight? That's more than I would want to lose." My friend just looked at me and said, "but you used to be skinny..."


I haven't been "skinny" since before puberty hit. Sure, if you think back to fall of 2002, when I was on the water polo team and doing 300 crunches every night, I was pretty thin. I still didn't have flat abs, though, and I was okay with that. Between 2003-2004, I suddenly got hips & breasts, and I've never been able to fit into the same clothes since. Like many women, I struggle with body image, but I've accepted that I can't change my basic genetics - my stomach will never look like Fergie's, but I'm cool with that. I don't think a six pack on a lady is particularly appealing, just like I don't think being way skinnier than your creator intended is particularly appealing.

Take Jennifer Hudson. In this recent article in People, Jennifer begins by saying she didn't even realize she was considered plus-sized until she came to Hollywood. In just seven years, she went from thinking she was normal to this:

By sticking to a strict regimen of portion control and exercise, Hudson eventually lost 80 pounds and went from a size 16 to a 6 and says: "I'm prouder of my weight loss than my Oscar!" (emphasis mine)

Jennifer went from acknowledging the crazy body-image standards in Hollywood to buying into them in the same interview. Amazing, although no longer surprising. According to Pamela Peeke on WebMD, the average American woman is 5'4", has a waist that is 34-35" around, and weighs between 140-150lbs. The average American woman wears a dress size 12-14. 


As of this writing, I wear a size 12-14, I'm 5'9", and I weigh 185.2 lbs. My waist is coming in closer to 36", so apparently some size 12 garments are quite forgiving. So, yes, it would appear that I am fat. Or at least a little pudgy. According to my friend the Wii balance board, I need to lose 16.5 lbs to bring my BMI to 24.98, on the border between "normal" and "overweight".  My weight on 08/22/11 was exactly the same as it was on 02/02/09, the first time I ever weighed myself using the Wii Fit.


Somewhere in there, I had lost 15 pounds and some change, and somewhere in there, I got it all back. It's baffling, given the diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes I've made in that time frame. We're going to get to the bottom of this.