Maintaining a healthy weight when you’re petite can feel like a tall order when compared to friends and family members with more height.  Unfortunately for those of us who are on the shorter end of the spectrum, that’s absolutely true. It is harder to control body weight without the additional height.

The Challenges of Maintaining a Healthy Weight When You’re Petite

Maintaining a healthy weight when you’re petite – that is, when you’re 5’4” or shorter – can be quite challenging. After all, weight control isn’t easy to begin with, but it only gets tougher when you don’t have the added height on your side.  There are many reasons to explain this.  Fortunately, there are also many things that you can do to give yourself a better advantage for boosting your success.  Read on to keep learning about the impact of your height on your weight, and how you can overcome it.

What Does Height Have to Do with It?

The challenges faced in maintaining a healthy weight when you’re petite, is due to a combination of social factors and your metabolism.  The last half century has brought with it a massive change in the typical American portion size.  Both meals and snacks are now expected to be substantially larger than what they would have been fifty or sixty years ago.

At first it was a matter of feeling like we were getting a deal. That said, over time, these massive quantities of food and drinks simply became the expectation for a normal meal and, as a result, our calorie intake has climbed along with it. This has been hard on everybody’s weight control. It’s one of the major factors explaining why obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States.

That said, it makes it even harder on maintaining a healthy weight when you’re petite because a smaller stature requires fewer calories to be maintained.  A shorter person requires fewer calories and will gain more weight as calories climb beyond that level. This is particularly true among shorter women who require even fewer calories than men of the same height.

How to Start Successfully Maintaining a Healthy Weight When You’re Petite

To start effectively maintaining a healthy weight when you’re petite, you need to start by understanding your calorie intake.  As is the case when you’re losing weight, maintenance also requires you to understand your calories.  This doesn’t mean that you’ll be counting calories for the rest of your life. However, if you start by counting them for a while, just to gain a better understanding the foods you’re eating and how much of them you’re consuming, you’ll develop the skill to make better food choices for your goal.

It’s also important to avoid overestimating the effects of exercise on your fat burning.  Physical activity is vital to overall health and important to preventing weight gain.  However, smaller bodies don’t burn as many calories in the same workout as larger ones. Therefore, justifying that burger by saying that you went for a good walk earlier will only add to your struggles. Instead, eat as you know is right for you and exercise because it is what makes you healthy.

If you’ve already gained and want to lose, check out the Short Gal’s Weight Loss Program.