Is it possible for one's body shape to change?

Cedar

I suppose this would be more appropriate for a diet/exercise blog, but I don't visit many of those, and I do visit here. I've always had a very-much-so rectangle body--there wasn't a big difference between my hips and waist, and I definitely look "boyish.' I started working out (weights and swimming mostly, some running about once a week) about a year ago, and my shoulder line got stronger, giving me more definition to my body.

Yet started in the past month for so, I swear that I've become more bottom heavy (no complaints by the way! I've always wanted shapely, womanly hips!). First, I just look different. And secondly, pants that fit fine everywhere else are suddenly obscenely tight in the hips and butt. A pencil skirt I own that used to be cute and flattering is now suddenly not only overtight and a little tacky looking.

I feel like this goes against everything I've learned about body shape/type, but it's clearly happening. I haven't changed my diet/exercise routine lately, either.

16 years ago

Body Type

13 replies

Latest reply was from Dawn

Maya

Veteran

I think it's not only possible but very common for body shape to change. Why shouldn't it be? Nothing about your body remains the same forever. My basic shape is the same but it's definitely changing, and not for the better! I used to gain weight in my bum and thighs (and chest), while my waist would remain more or less trim. Now it seems the butt/hips (but unfortunately not chest) have reached their limit, and now I'm definitely gaining weight in the midsection This is not to say I am apple-shaped or rectangular, but I am definitely not as hourglassy as I used to be. If I continue like this I can imagine that I will be more of an apple. This happened to my mom, so I am certainly vulnerable to it. She was a teeny dainty thing when she was my age, more of a rectangle or slim hourglass...but now she is as apple-shaped as can be.

I also read once that "good" fat (olive oil and avocado, for example) gets stored in the hip area in women, while "bad" fat (trans fats, butter) goes to the stomach. Don't know how much truth there is to that.

16 years ago

shana

Veteran

Well, I've always read that your essential body type doesn't change. So either you are a skinny apple or a rounder apple and the same for pears, rectangles etc. Personally, I have always been an inverted triangle/apple. I used to be a really thin one (size 0/2 until my mid to late twenties) that looked more rectanglish than anything but the inverted triangle/apple tendencies were already there - they just were not that obvious. Once I got older and my life style changed and I had children, I started accumulating excess weight - it hit my shoulders & mid-section first and then moved slowly down my body. Now that I am working out and losing the baby weight, my legs have toned up first. Next will be the belly and my shoulders and arms are usually last to give up fat.

16 years ago

Anonymous

I'm not sure about body shape changing, except that the apple mid section weight can be dealt with by going low carb in your diet. I'm proof that even an old apple can lose the stomach and return to a rectangle. The guy who wrote the South Beach Diet Book is right and it does work but takes time. It's pretty much the same as eating like a diabetic, but it's healthy for everyone. I still eat carbs (30-45 a meal, 15 in a snack).

16 years ago

Nicole

Veteran

I think it's an age thing. It seems like most 20 something women I know, all of sudden go from looking like teens to women, especially in the hip and thigh area.

I think when you hit you're 40's or later (during menopause), your stomach thickens.

16 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

My perceptions are the same as Nicole's.

I think it really depends on how much you lean towards a certain body type. If you are very pear shaped, you will always be that way. If you tend towards it, you could become more hourglass-y when you lose weight. The same way a rectangle can become more apple-shaped as they get older and gain weight.

16 years ago

ImogenL

(website)

Active Member

Yes - hormones, weight and age can change a body shape from an hourglass to a pear, or an hourglass to a rectangle, a rectangle to an apple is a common change with women after menopause.

Yes you can do lots of weight training and build up your shoulders and change from a rectangle to an inverted triangle.

No you can't change your skeleton - so a rectangle, who has no waist because her rib cage and pelvis are close together can never lose weight and become an hourglass.

We tend to put on weight when we are proportionally short, so if your thigh bone is short you will put on weight through your bottom, hips and thighs and will more likely be a pear or hourglass shape (though sometimes rectangles can have this too).

16 years ago

shiny

Veteran

Actually, if you are doing weight training with heavy weights, yes, you can change your body shape. As Imogen says you can't change your skeleton. But you'd be amazed at what weight training can do for your figure.

It's my observation that no matter what body type you begin with, if you do intensive weight training, eventually you will end up with a classic hourglass build. Call it mesomorphic, athletic, greek statuesque, fitness instructor - women will arrive at a basic shape that is probably what the female human body - designed for active lifestyle fighting off bears etc - was intended to look like.

Don't believe me? Go over to the Body for Life web site, and look at the Before and After photos. (The site is down right now but I was able to do an image search and bring up the before and afters). You will see women of every shape and size in the befores, all looking like classic greek statues in the afters.

There are still minor differences in body shape, of course. It is genetic, the pattern in which you gain weight. But, a pear will get more definition in upper body to balance out her lower body; an inverted triangle will get more definition in lower body to balance out the upper body; an apple will no longer be an apple; and a rectangle will gain muscle definition all over. The body, as it gets fitter and fitter, will gravitate towards one similar athletic/mesomorphic/hourglass shape.

16 years ago

shana

Veteran

Hmmm, no amount of weight training can make me go from an inverted triangle to an hourglass (and boy have I tried). My hips get slimmer and slimmer and my legs & thighs will be super toned but my arms , shoulder and back actually tend to get more muscular & broad. I don't know if this idea holds true for inverted triangles as much as for pears (who might be able to add some bulk in the arms & shoulders while toning their legs which might make them look more hourglassy). Many of the super body builder women actually look like extreme inverted triangles and leg work will give them large, muscular thighs but their basic hip structure (which is what I thought gives you the hourglass) doesn't change with exercise. Of course, pregnancy does widen out many women's hips a little as their pelvis adjusts.

16 years ago

Maya

Veteran

Hmm, I do not like to make generalizations when it comes to weight loss and body type. Every body is VERY different. It's not just weight training, diet, etc. that determines body shape. It's also hormones, genetics, and age. And probably other factors we don't even know about yet. As with clothes, what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for another.

Now that I think of it, I started becoming more hourglassy after going on the pill (sorry if this is TMI). Before that I had a pancake butt and was a 32B.

I never bought into the low-carb diet craze. Entire societies rely on rice and pasta as staple foods and eat them 2 or 3 times a day, and yet the average weight per person is significantly less than it is here, even among the rich. I believe this is the result of portion and exercise--people in these countries walk more, do more physical work, have more active lifestyles, and eat less. I also think the quality of the food is higher. It doesn't get too far removed from the source. Here we like to pump things with hormones and genetically alter them (which actually dilutes the nutritional content), and virtually everything is processed beyond recognition. I am not trying to sound preachy. I certainly do not eat spectacularly, but I also think I don't have as much of a choice as I did in France or Sweden.

16 years ago

Nicole

Veteran

I agree with Maya about food sources. I think any "diet" that restricts any one food group is unhealthy. If for no other reason, a person who craves a certain food will binge if they are deprived of it for too long. I know carbs are addictive to me. NO question in my miind. I could eliminate meat from my diet with out a single hesitation. Bu ask me to give up bread or pasta and I'm gong to gouge your eyes out.

I also agree w/Shana that as an Inv. Tri. I cannot make my hips or my bum bigger. Even when I was 30 pounds heavier, I had slim hips compared to my upper body. I think my bum actually flattens out even more, the heavier I am. I am at the weight I was in my early 20's--I actually weigh exactly the same as I did on my wedding day. So the concept of me weighing 120 pounds is ludacris to me. I don't ever remember weighing less than 130 pounds and that was in highschool. I know I could never ever ever in a bazillion years weigh 120, 130 pounds. My body just is not designed like that. I eat healthfully, I exercise reasonably--and here I am. I've mentioned my sister who almost died from a severe double eating disorder. Before her eating disorder took over, she would play weird food games with herself. Obsessing over her busts--she thought certain foods were more likely to land in her breast tissue. She avoided those foods, but when her boobs didn't get smaller, she went insane. Since she is about 8 years older than me, I "came of age" dealing with a mentally unstable person whose food issues were so outlandish, I couldn't even being to describe them. I KNOW that experience has affected me as an adult, and how I think about other people's weight. It's really sad when I stop to think about my formative years, and how my sister's disease ran my family.

16 years ago

marianne

Active Member

I also agree with Shana about weight training. My pear friend started doing very intense weight training and her shoulders did bulk up quite a bit. She looks more hourglassy now, but I actually think she looked better before this (not that I would ever tell her :)) But I don't think that would do anything for inverted triangles. Even for me, there is just no space for the waist to appear, like Imogen says.

16 years ago

Maya

Veteran

I have not eaten meat for about 7 years now, so cutting out carbs for me would leave me with nothing but a plate of plain vegetables and soy meat. I would be miserable. I love my veggies but can't survive on them alone, and I only eat tofu and soy meat sparingly. I am also Persian and Indian, and in both countries, rice cooking is an art form and a way of life. I would go insane without rice. I don't think I even know how to put a meal together without it. And giving up amazing Indian breads? Fat chance!

I think the best thing to do is just cut down portions in general, not cut out any one category completely. I prefer to eat more frequently throughout the day than to have just 3 gigantic meals. By the time each meal comes around, I'm so hungry that I end up overeating.

16 years ago

Dawn

(website)

Active Member

My body shape has changed greatly in the last few years. Before coming to university, I was probably a rectangle but this changed due to a number of factors. Cycling has helped give me muscular thighs and a curvy bottom. A fairly healthy diet has helped to keep weight off my waist/ stomach area, and ever since I went on the pill, I have gone up 2 cup sizes.

As a person who eats a mainly vegetarian diet (was a vegetarian for a very long time, moved to Poland where vegetarian options are slightly limited, moved back to Ireland and now eat meat when it's convenient), I would not cut out any sources of nutrition that are available to me.

16 years ago

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