ROSIE - Your stable weight!

This follows vaguely on from a blog I did last week about "a woman's body" and is really on the subject of finding your perfect shape.

Different people have different perceptions about how one "should" look and how they do actually look.

I don't know if you want to look like a size zero super model... if you do, fine, but personally I don't. I can't say I'm totally satisfied with my body; naturally there are a few things I'd like to change, wobbly bottom, flabby thighs, love handles etc etc but these are things I have come to accept and most of them, needless to say, are since Jack has been born, and really, at the end of the day, he's worth it.

However, I have come across people in my life, and mostly these are women, who want to look like something they are NEVER, EVER, in their lifetime going to look like.

So, someone who is "naturally" a size 14, is NEVER going to be a size 8. I say never in the long term sense... as scientists have proved that everyone has a "stable weight".

I'm going to take the jargon out of it and try and keep it simple. Everyone has fat cells in their body, necessary for various physiological functions and generally to keep us alive. We all have a particular number of fat cells, this is predominately determined in childhood, which is why childhood obesity is worrying. By the time you reach your teens, the number of fat cells is pretty much set for life. So, apart from a few exceptions, it's difficult to change the AMOUNT of fat cells, only the size - ie they can decrease and increase in size. Which explains the "natural" fluctuations in weight over your life time. I have been as heavy as 12 stone and as light as 9 and a half stone. My "natural" weight is about 9 st 10lbs and in the last 7 years (ever since I stopped drinking beer and eating chips at uni!, and obviously being pregnant), this has only varied by about 3lbs either way.

This is because I am leading a healthy, natural, stable way of life. I will never, ever be able to (nor would I want to) be lighter than 9 stone, leading the life I do now. I could starve myself every day for the next 3 months and get there; the minute I eat normally again, I would be back at 9 stone 10ish.

My fat cells would have shrunk in size but not decreased in number. Same as when I put on weight; they increase in size but not number. This only applies, as I said, when I am eating the correct (ish) amount for my weight & body size. I do not have the frame to be a size 8, neither to be a size 14; that's just the way I am.

I think so many people try and be something their not, not only physiologically but emotionally as well. Something that is really really hard to achieve (like trying to be a size 8 when you are clearly not meant to be) is just not sustainable for YOUR body. If you have to diet excessively to get to the size you want to be, you're never going to remain that way!

However, this is not an excuse to eat crap, lie on the sofa and be overweight. If this IS you, you CAN do something about it, but remember to be realistic and you can only be the size your body is predetermined to be. If you want to be a size 8 but are naturally a size 14, it's the hard truth and something you're going to have to accept; love those curves if you have them!