Naturally Thin - Emaciated

Richard is a young man who is naturally thin. As a visitor to my site we had an ongoing debate during which time he opened my eyes to the plight of naturally skinny people (especially men) in our Western culture. Of course what he has had to endure all has to do with a male body image that dictates that bigger is apparently better so that that incidences of bigorexia are increasing in leaps and bounds.

I was impressed with his unusual depth and level of knowledge regarding weight related matters. He agreed to be interviewed so as to help other naturally thin people through the sharing of his story where other people view him as emaciated (and thus at a health) rather than naturally skinny (and hence healthy). You can also send any questions or comments you have to him below.

Richard - how has it happened that you have such an extensive knowledge about all matters weight related - especially knowledge about being naturally thin?

Several things combined really. One is that I already had an interest in physical health and human body issues since I was a child. Also, being an academic, I did a lot of research and looked at many studies regarding health and weight to "build up" what I know about it today. Also, personal experience of my own "underweight" body, and observations of other people in the family, for instance.

Would you feel comfortable describing your naturally skinny in terms of proportions, height, weight, bmi, hip/waiste ration, fat percentage or whatever else comes to mind?

I can just about remember most of these details! My height is 6' 3.5" approx. Weight average for December was 137.1lbs, so my BMI comes out at 16.9. Hips = 35 inches, waist = 27 inches. Fat percentage is unknown, unless I was hydrostatically weighed there would be no way to accurately know this.

You're a naturally thin guy. Given the Western cultural body ideal for men - increasingly more muscular - what is it like to live in a too skinny body?

Really, it's not as much of a problem the older I get at least when it comes to what other people think. When I was at high school and college it would often attract ridicule from other people even if it just came down to insults of being a "wuss, wimp, weakling" etc... but rarely from anyone around my age or older (I am 23). But because as a child you are so impressionable when you grow up, having this misconception of "being less" than most people, even if only physically, being nastily brougt to your attention by bullies, it's hard to shake off the intense dislike of living in a "skinny" body. I feel like girls my age ignore me more for being so thin, especially as it also shows in my face too (it looks quite gaunt and bony).

There are two aspects to being naturally skinny - a) health and b) aesthetics. Can you tell me more about your experience and ideas on both the health and aesthetics of being what we label as 'underweight.'

As for health, some skinny people starve and are malnourished, or are skinny due to a disease, and they are the only skinny people who are going to die any sooner. Naturally skinny people enjoy much lower chances of the major killer chronic diseases and live longer than average, and I've had my own health tested by doctors and confirmed as being in excellent condition so from the health perspective I'm good at my current weight.

With the aesthetics, I just think skinnyness looks downright ugly, seeing no muscle definition in my arms/legs and very obvious bones (ribs, kneecaps, hips) sticking out. I don't like being associated with the ugliness of a skinny body. Interestingly I am attracted to "curvy" women, who would probably be "overweight" on the BMI scale.

Well I get frustrated when people say that just because of a number like a Body Mass Index they can tell you if you have more chance of dying/disease etc... I mean some people have a lot of muscle and heavy build, may have an "overweight BMI", but are healthy because it's not fat but muscle. In my case, it is opposite, with a small build and light muscles, I have a BMI on the low end, but certainly no health risks associated with being "underweight". I'm just very "Light boned" and lightly muscled. Muscle and bone are very heavy. With my build, a normal BMI is more like 18-19 than 22-23, and still perfectly healthy.

Tell me how you started to realize that your naturally skinny body apparently wasn't acceptable? What stories from your history stand out for you?

As you may expect, kids at school every physical education lesson would take the piss when I wore my kit showing off my stick like limbs and bones. Some could even get their forefinger and thumb entirely around my upper arm (and probably still could today!) and would show this off to everyone else. Also, people in my own family, so called "friends" or carers would make comments like "are you anorexic?", or "my god, look how thin you are, I could get my whole hand around your thigh", and god knows what other stuff. But it's not acceptable to say things like that to "fat people" any more.

Richard, I'm wondering, how you think your life would have been different if you'd had what we call a 'normal' body?

Well it would have been one less thing for small minded people to use to direct their attention at me I suppose. And one less thing for me to feel like there was "something wrong/inadeqaute" with me, which is what being skinny became associated with, as well as the feeling of being physically ugly.

I'm also wondering how you've survived some pretty cruel teasing growing up? What tactics have you used that might help others?

Well I was a bit of a wimp much of the time at school. I don't even know if I can say I developed any great tactics. I just became a) more rebellious and b) socially withdrawn to a large extent. And that wasn't helped by having Asperger's syndrome. I started to really fail in school and went on a specially modified timetable, then I had to move anyway due to a family breakup, but since then never encountered the same level of nastiness from young people thankfully, and found the university lifestyle far better over all than what it was like in high school.

How has living in the body you have affected your self-esteem and your relationships?

Firstly my self esteem was generally low because of the impressions created that I must be weak/inadequate because of my build, and because I sucked at sports (all the kids expected you to be great at it). I have never had a girlfriend, not once in my life (and I ain't gay). I seem to chronically lack the courage or ability to even know how to get involved with people on that level, partly due to self esteem issues and maybe body image too. Once I had a strong friendship with a man who became sexually attracted to me. He then admitted he was "turned on" by slim, young men. That certainly didn't do wonders for my self esteem though, as this was a guy talking for a start for goodness sake. He used to ask me to take my clothes off on the webcam sometimes, and this made me feel annoyed as you can imagine.

I know this might be a strange question, but do you think there is anything good that has come out of your frustration at having a too skinny body?

The only thing it's really done was to make me try to gain weight on different diets or supplements but not one of these times did it work, and my body always reverted to its original weight.

Send Richard a question or comment

Do you want to send Richard a question or a comment or do you wish to share your own story about being naturally skinny?

What Other Visitors Have Said

Could you please tell your chest-size and wrist-size, please.........!!!!!!!!!1
I have a 32-inch chest with a 34-inch hip.
This seems to make me look like a half-ladies ( because such
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