Today when I was walking back from dropping my son off from school, I passed by a couple of walkers as I walk fast naturally now. I lived in a planned community that has a lot of pathways for walking and we live just off of one of the 3 lakes for the city, so there are always a lot of walkers.
One of the people I passed by was an Indian woman, about 50 years old or so. While I was passing her, she asked me a question. She asked, "Excuse me, can you tell me (something). I can tell you are a fast walker. Can you lose weight walking?"
I stop and I tell her that I've lost about 100 pounds and most of it was done by walking. She looked so shocked she said, "Really? Oh my God. You look so thin. I cannot believe you used to be so fat. I'm sorry I don't mean to sound rude, but I am fat, but you look so thin!" I laughed and said thanks, and told her that yes, I used to weigh 275 pounds.
She looked shocked again. And said, "You did it all by walking?" I told that much of it was walking, but that I also go to the gym for classes and lift weights. I told her that walking is great exercise even for me now. I just walk faster, but yes walking was a big part of the losing weight.
Then she looked puzzled and asked, " Excuse me for being so rude, but you weigh 175 pounds?" I replied that yes, I do (only fudging by a pound). She then said, "I weigh 170 pounds and I look fat and you look so good and thin."
And now I was shocked, I hope I didn't show it, because I would have guessed she weighed 190 or so because she was quite heavy. Not morbidly so, but she was overweight and I would never guess in a million years that she weighs less than me because I can only know how much I weighed when I looked that way. It would have been over 200 pounds with my height compared to hers.
She was about 5'3" so 170 will look different on her than on me, but she probably has a small frame and has little muscle mass. I have a big frame and probably significant muscle mass. I'm still 16 pounds from where I want to be, but it made me feel good. I get it frequently, "You look thin." I am not thin.. it's that I have muscle and fitness. People confuse thinness with looking fit.
The woman then said, "Thank you so much for talking with me. I'm just starting with walking, but you have inspired me. You look so great and it helps me be more motivated to keep walking."
And it motivate me too. People see my results and it makes me feel good. Now I want to do even more strength training. I can see the results from just the month of work I've been doing at the gym after taking some time away from strength training.
But this does go to show that people just can't get past the numbers on the scale. If people were to really look, they could probably see I need to lose a little (by today's middle age standards). I know I need to lose weight and build muscle, but when I hear things like what this woman says (and someone at school said the other day too), it validates, a bit, that yes...the scale doesn't tell the whole story.
Stats for 9/20/12:
Highest weight: 275 Now: 176.2
It is amazing what different weights look like on different people! And a whole lot of women, especially hitting middle age, are getting quite fat while still being an acceptable 'weight', because their muscle tone is almost non-existent. Good for you for inspiring someone, and your own health has benefitted greatly from you activity level, too. It's a win all the way around!
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