At 5′7″ and 120 pounds, you are already slender. If you don't like the way you look, so be it — but you are slender enough that attempting to become noticeably thinner will likely compromise your health.
If you weigh 107 pounds or less at this height, you are considered underweight with a BMI of 18.4. A healthy weight range for that woman would be 108 to 145 pounds. BMI is just one way to measure healthy weight. Some women have a low, but still healthy weight.
Height to Weight Charts
On this chart, a woman who is 5'7" should ideally weigh 143 pounds. The extreme ends of the chart indicate she should not weigh less than 123 pounds or more than 164 pounds.
Clinically underweight or dangerously skinny for the average woman: A BMI of 15, 16, 17, 18. A weight under 100–110 pounds (50kg)
You can check if you're underweight by using our BMI healthy weight calculator, which shows your body mass index (BMI). If your BMI is below 18.5, this suggests that your weight may be too low. If you're underweight, or you're concerned that someone you know is, tell a GP or practice nurse.
From a clinical perspective, an individual is considered “too skinny” if they are deemed underweight. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an individual is underweight if their Body Mass Index (BMI) is below 18.5 [1].
At 5′7″ and 120 pounds, you are already slender. If you don't like the way you look, so be it — but you are slender enough that attempting to become noticeably thinner will likely compromise your health.
How Much Should My 13-Year-Old Weigh? The average weight for a 13-year-old boy is between 75 and 145 pounds, while the average weight for a 13-year-old girl is between 76 and 148 pounds. For boys, the 50th percentile of weight is 100 pounds.
“Thinness is a heritable trait”
So thin people not only stay slim “by not having the obesity genes, but they also have different genes that protect them” from gaining weight, she said. The research concludes that “thinness, like obesity, is a heritable trait.”
Bulking up is the process of adding muscle mass through weight training and eating a calorie-rich diet. For skinny guys, this can be a difficult task because they may not have the genetics to build muscle or they may not be eating enough calories. But with dedication and hard work, anyone can bulk up!
Many underweight people are physically healthy. Low body weight is due to a variety of causes, including: Genetics. If you've been thin since high school and it runs in your family, it's likely that you were born with a higher-than-usual metabolism.
But if you lose that weight, it can cause the face to become depleted. Even worse, as we get older, our skin loses elasticity. Without the volume to support it, skin can sag and fold, leading to facial folds, wrinkles, turkey neck, and jowls.
The truth is, your weight doesn't determine your health risk, and just because your skinny, doesn't mean you're in the free and clear of disease. In fact, you could be up against many health risks and not even know it.
First, what is skinny fat? “Skinny fat” simply describes a state in which someone has too little muscle mass and too much body fat. People who are skinny fat often look normal or even skinny when wearing clothes, but look soft, weak, and flabby underneath. Hence the name, “skinny fat.”
We similarly found that being thin makes you look taller, although this effect was less pronounced.
Trying to eat enough to gain weight is a lot harder for ectomorphs than most people realize. Not only is eating more incredibly difficult, but our metabolisms can readily adapt to higher calorie intakes. A hardgainer's stomach can be up to six times smaller than an obese person's.
The higher your body fat percentage, the harder it is to gain muscle while minimizing fat gain. If you have a lower body fat percentage and don't need to lose as much fat, your body is more supportive of building muscle first.
Genes count, too
One recent study found that healthy thin people are generally thin because, fortuitously, they have fewer genetic variants that are known to increase our chances of becoming overweight.
The secrets of skinny people are often pretty predictable. According to the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, they eat breakfast - mainly fruit, vegies or eggs - they work out up to five times a week and about half keep an eye on the scales.