Thanks Seejay I hadn't thought about that.
Hi vpeach, that sounds like a good idea. I'm glad I'm not alone! I'll look into it xx

hello rcnew, Welcome aboard . Another nurse here, although my specialty is Intensive/Critical Care, not Emerg. I wish you all the best on your lowcarb journey

You might find some encouragement in the gallery photos posted by member "anyway...". Check 'em out . She specifically used the same room and other features to prove that there were no "photoshop" or other edits to her pics; they were all 100% as is. She looked leaner and better at 183 lbs with lowcarb and resistance/weight lifting exercise than she did at 145 lbs with a low fat, low calorie diet.

Truly, the number on the scale doesn't represent the whole picture.


Best,


Doreen

Okay so .. here are the vital pics from anyway...'s gallery ..

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Weight is so funny. Don't trust it. You look fine.

I don't want to be patronizing but I think you're asking the wrong questions.
You're a nurse, so you know that obesity is simply a medical term. You can be a lot of different weights and be classified as "obese"
It really has nothing to do with looks.

It sounds to me like you do want to lose some weight, which I definitely understand.
I'm personally not happy without how I look right now.
So I wish you the best of luck with that, but whether or not other people think you look obese really should not be something you worry about.
What does it matter what a bunch of strangers think?
Most of them really don't care about you that much, they're more concerned with their own lives and are worrying about their looks...their receding hairline, their wobbly thighs, the fact that their doctor also said they're obese.
Even the ones that have opinions about how you look, so what?

What ultimately matters is what you think about how you look.
I know it's hard to internalize, but it really doesn't matter what size other women are. You aren't them. You're you, and, the same weight, say 210 lbs, can look very different on two different people due to underlying skeletal structure and body composition (like you mentioned, you're fairly muscular because of your active lifestyle).

Ignore the labelling! "obese" is a medical description, but it is an ugly word with all kinds of negative connotations. On a related note, I wonder sometimes if the healthy weight charts are a little low for some people - My husband is very muscular, and can't possibly weight as little as they recommend without turning into a stick. My daughter is built much the same way and is torturing herself over being "so fat" at 145 pounds because some chart says she should ideally be 120.

That is AMAZING! I would totally have pegged her as "thinner" in the second pictures. wow.

I agree with, 2thinchix! Wowza!