Skinny vs. fat: Who's healthiest?

When we polled readers about their biggest body bummers, we mostly heard about weight. Heavier girls wish they had slim thighs like their thin friends. Skinny girls envy the curves of their voluptuous buds. While bodies come in al sorts of fabulous shapes and sizes, there is really only one ideal type for a body—healthy!

Many girls think looking slim equals being healthy—but don’t let looks fool you! Sometimes skinny girls have non-active (as in lazy) lifestyles, while some bigger girls are more active (love all you strong athletes out there!). How do you find out if your body is at its best, no matter what the scale says? You know you’re physically healthy when your heart rate hits 200 beats per minute during rigorous exercise (ask you gym teacher to test you).

And there are risks to being too thin or too fat. Girls who are underweight don’t develop strong bones. From ages 10 to 11, you develop the bone mass that stays with you the rest of your life! Undernourished girls can miss out on nutrients that help them grow and develop.

Meanwhile, bigger girls get the nutrients they need to get through puberty and tend to have strong bones. But they could be setting themselves up for diabetes and heart disease later in life. The bottom line? Aim to be somewhere in between—not so skinny, not so heavy.

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by GL | 2/1/2016
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