Justin is trim and fit but not altogether happy with his body. “I'm trying to put on some weight,” he admits. His current diet therefore consists of five meals a day, amounting to 4,000 calories. However, he wants the added weight to be solid muscle. So he adds: “A buddy of mine and I get up early and go to the gym together some days before work to lift weights.”
Vanessa is also on the thin side. But she is quite content with her weight. “When I was younger, kids used to tease me and call me bean pole,” Vanessa recalls. “But I don't worry about it anymore. I just accept myself the way I am.”
'Accept yourself the way you are.' That sounds like good advice. But it may be advice that you find hard to apply. As a teenager, you may be in what has been described as “the bloom of youth.” Particularly tumultuous is that period of rapid physical change known as puberty. During puberty, parts of your body may grow at different rates; your arms, legs, and facial features may seem hopelessly out of proportion. This can leave you feeling awkward and unattractive. Then there is the fact that not all youths develop at the same speed. So while some of your peers may have developed a muscular physique or a womanly figure, you may still seem thin in comparison.
Although much has been said about youths who feel that they are overweight, often overlooked are youths who feel that they are too thin. This may particularly be the case among certain ethnic groups and in some countries where thinness is not considered a sign of beauty. In such regions a thin girl may suffer cruel teasing for being “skinny.”
What about boys? According to researcher Susan Bordo, “studies on body image that had been done in the decades prior to the "80s had suggested that when women look[ed] in the mirror, they saw nothing but flaws,” and men? Continues Bordo: “Men looked in the mirror and saw either an OK image or actually an even better one than what was warranted.” But in recent years, that has begun to change. Noting that men make up over a quarter of cosmetic surgery patients, Bordo associates the current upswing of young men"s interest in fitness with the “perfect” male bodies shown on underwear ads in the United States and other Western countries. Naturally, this has impacted teenage boys. They may feel inadequate if they do not have the muscular physique of male models.
So if you are thin, you may find yourself wondering, "What"s wrong with me?' The good news is that likely nothing is wrong.
Why You Are Thin
For many youths, being thin is perfectly normal. Often it is simply a side effect of the growth spurt and the fast metabolism that come with adolescence. Usually your metabolism will settle down as you get older. However, if you are extremely thin despite a healthy diet, it would be good to see your doctor to rule out any health problems, such as diabetes, which can cause weight loss.
Steven Levenkron, a well-known expert on eating disorders, commented: “I recall a severely underweight young woman who was referred to me with a diagnosis of anorexia, and she did look like someone with an eating disorder. But I soon realized that her problem was physical, not psychological. Her family doctor had failed to diagnose Crohn's disease, a severe intestinal disorder. That oversight could have been fatal for this girl.” If you have diabetes or any other illness that causes weight loss, you are wise to follow your doctor's advice carefully.
Of course, sometimes thinness can be a symptom of emotional distress. In his book Anatomy of Anorexia, Dr. Levenkron notes the claims of some researchers that a significant number “of insulin-dependent diabetics have eating disorders, ranging from compulsive overeating to bulimia to anorexia.” A qualified physician can determine if such an eating disorder exists.
Practical Suggestions
Let's assume that you have seen your doctor and that you are thin but healthy. Now what? Just as a plant thrives when it has the right environment and nourishment, so you need a balanced diet if you are to develop into a healthy adult. This is important whether you are trying to gain weight or lose it.
Don't be tempted, though, to start eating a lot of fatty foods so that you'll gain weight more quickly. When conducting a study of the training diets of bodybuilders, nutritionist Susan Kleiner observed that they consumed about 6,000 calories per day! But according to Kleiner, “the worrisome finding about this study was that they ate, on average, more than 200 grams of fat a day. That's almost as much fat as you'd find in two sticks of butter! Short-term, that's enough to make most people sick. Eaten habitually over time, such an enormous amount of fat will lead to heart disease.”
