Weight loss for petite women

Weight loss for petite women can be harder than for other groups. Are you a petite woman who’s struggling to stay trim in today’s world??? Girl, I hear you! I’m 5’10” and I’m not in the petite category, but over the course of years, I am more aware of the plight of the more petite person to stay trim and it’s finally made sense to me. There is a specific set of challenges that come with being petite. Read on to learn why.

Necessary Calories

Weight loss for petite women is a struggle. In general, your body needs calories or nutrition in proportion to your body size. The larger you are, the more you need to eat. Typically that’s why men eat a lot more than women; They are usually larger and have more lean body mass.

As a tall woman, I eat around 2400 calories/day. I recall being out to dinner after my first child with someone more petite, probably around 5’4″- 5’5″. She was looking at how much I was eating. In my head, I was thinking why does she think I’m so gross. After, I realized she probably thought I was eating SO much food. In reality, as a petite person, she would have never eaten that much in her life! A petite person’s calorie needs are much lower.

Portion Size

Now, here comes the struggle for many petite women to stay trim. **The world is not set up for the petite portion size.** When you go to a restaurant or buy a coffee from Starbucks, the portions are designed for the AVERAGE American… male AND female. You could even argue that portions are designed for the American who is larger in size. Restaurants know that many of us like to feel full, and to feel like we are getting a lot of food for our money. We want to get a lot of coffee or a lot of hamburger for our buck!

Hand Portion Guidelines

For the average person, national portion sizes are already too much food. However, if you are a petite person and you go to a restaurant your order is always going to be a little bigger than you would normally be consuming for your body size. In addition, many petite ladies are cooking for non-petite people or were raised alongside non-petite people: husbands, brothers, sisters, and kids. It messes with your head because you tend to default to eating the same amount of food as everyone else… even though they’re bigger with you!

In my nutrition coaching method, we use hand portion guidelines. The great thing about these guidelines is that they’re universal, no matter how tall you are. If you are a smaller person you have smaller hands, so you eat less. For example, if you eat a fist-size portion of veggies then your fist is the appropriate size for your body.

All of this stuff sets petite ladies up for failure. If you don’t become in-tune with the appropriate portions sizes for your body, weight gain is inevitable.

The Problem

Petite women gain weight over time because they never have the “aha” moment that their bodies are smaller and the world is not set up for petite women. Instead, petite women think “oh, there’s something wrong with me. I am gaining weight or I am not in shape.”

Again, the real issue is that nobody has made explicitly clear that the world is not set up for petite portions. You go to a store and you can shop in the petite section of the department store, but there is not a petite section of a restaurant. A glass of wine at your local bar is too big for you. A latte from your local cafe is too big for you. A hamburger from your local diner is too big for you!

Course of Action for Weight Loss for PEtite Women

Here are some actionable ways to change the way you eat and help with weight loss for petite women.

First, treat your appetizers as main courses.

Second, buy the smallest sizes and kid sizes. Did you know that Starbucks has a short size latte?

Third, figure out what truly works for your unique body and life ( read more about that in the next section).

what else should you do, if you’re petite?

Finally, when it comes to weight loss for petite women, it’s really important that you are taking data on yourself on a daily and weekly basis to figure out if what you are eating is actually working for you.

We do not want to be going on diets that we pick out on Pinterest for a one size fits all cookie-cutter diet. This is not going to put you in touch with what you actually need. It’s just going to take you on a roller coaster of yo-yo dieting, which ultimately leads to guilt and shame. So commit to studying what truly works for you.

Please go to LaurenChante.com and check out Your Daily Journal. This is the tool I use to help women figure out what amount and type of food actually works for their unique body and life.