Sorry, I didn’t intend to be ‘skinny’: the complaints of a foodie

I am not really sure how many girls out there would share my opinion. As a petite girl, I die a little inside when someone compliments me for being ‘slim’ or ‘in shape’ and that I mustn’t eat a lot, or that I must have a very healthy diet. My response is often: “but I like fried chicken!”

So to prove that not all ‘skinny’ people go on diets or eat ‘right’ (whatever that means), I decided to undertake a project: to count my calories for five days. I have actually undertaken this experiment as accurately and honestly as possible and have not been purposely stuffing myself. The results are summed up in the chart below.

For further reference, my body mass index (BMI) ranges from 21 to 22, the middle ranges of ‘healthy weight’

 As seen above, I am far from being the ‘skinny chick’ who eats under the 2000 calories every day, the recommended daily intake for women. Instead, I eat an average (or mean) of 2240 calories every day, a 12 percent surplus for women. In fact, I don’t actually care how many calories I eat every day, which explains the weird fluctuation of numbers.

Sadly, in this research, I have also had to reveal the kinds of food I ate. Yes, I actually eat processed sausages, instant noodles, chips, chicken nuggets, spicy food, instant coffee and instant milk tea on a day to day basis. I am not really sure if I can still qualify as a ‘healthy eater’.

One of the biggest reasons why I get a bit glum when being complimented as ‘skinny’ is that, for me, far from the idea of looking like a model, being skinny implies powerlessness or an empty stomach. Having grown up as an ambitious athlete, this is of course not an ideal way to be viewed by anybody, especially when I do eat.

Secondly, I am not a preacher of healthy eating. So when my ‘slimness’ becomes an emblem of healthy eating, I feel like I, as a person, am being misjudged. I am not saying that healthy eating is bad, it’s just not me. I identify myself as an absolute food lover; I love any kind of food bursting with flavour, spices, salt and all the ‘horrible’ kinds of seasoning: street food, fast food, pub food, restaurant food, you name it. Of course, I would rather we talk about the importance of healthy eating another day – or not at all.

I am not trying to be vain and say that I can still be ‘in shape’ (whatever that means) and eat whatever I want. In fact, I envy larger girls, which is a feeling I don’t get with girls skinnier than me, even if I do appreciate that they look great too. On the other hand, I see myself as a heftier version of a petite despite what other people say.

From my exhaustive calorie counting attempt, I wanted to prove that not all ‘skinny’ people eat less or eat healthily. But perhaps more can be deduced from this – that sometimes we are not always what we eat. So large girls, stop thinking that you need to eat less to achieve a ‘slim’ physique and skinny people, stop trying to make yourself fat to look ‘normal’. Sometimes, our physiques are what they are and we might not be able to change them as radically as we like.