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Being naturally skinny is a burden for some

Tribune photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

Rafaei Justo, trainer with BodyShapers Fitness, works with client Larry Hodge.

By ANWAR RICHARDSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2009

TAMPA - Larry Hodge knows he has a huge heart, a great big sense of humor and a strong work ethic.

Hodge, 35, just is not convinced most women are willing to overlook his thin exterior and appreciate those substantial interior qualities.

"Men are known for judging a woman by their looks, but women look at the body just as much as we do," says Hodge, who is 6-foot and 160 pounds. "You hear women say all the time that I want a man to be able to protect me if something goes down. What am I going to do? I can dial 911.

"They look for a guy who can protect them. What I hear from girls all the time is, 'He's cute, but he's just so little.'"

Hodge, owner of Tampa's Tranquility Massage, is part of a small percentage of people in America who struggle with their weight, but on the skinny end.

The American Dietetic Association defines the ideal body mass index as between 20 and 25. Anyone with a BMI lower than 18.5 is classified as underweight.

According to a 2006 Gallup survey, 6 percent of Americans were underweight, while 31 percent were normal, 38 percent were overweight and 20 percent were obese.

"I've been able to gain weight in the past, but it's just really hard and you give up, the same way people give up on trying to lose weight," Hodge says.

While many thin people blame their struggles on genetics, Fran Rinchuse, a registered dietician at St. Joseph's Hospital, says it usually boils down to food intake.

Rinchuse says the average person needs to consume at least 10 calories per pound they weigh each day. So, for example, a 130-pound woman should consume about 1,300 calories.

"If we're talking about a very high energy person, or someone that just doesn't eat everything their body may need, they might only be taking in eight or seven or six calories per pound," she says. "Of course, they are not going to be gaining weight. They are going to stay underweight."

Thin people who struggle to consume food not only stay underweight, they often end up being ridiculed.

In April, Australia's Miss Universe contest became controversial when Sydney model Stephanie Naumoska, 19, the leading finalist, was criticized for being too skinny. Naumoska was 5-foot-11 and weighed 108 pounds; her BMI was 15.1, and although she denied having an eating disorder, such as anorexia, the model gained negative worldwide attention for being too underweight.

Stacey Dunn, an associate professor and clinical psychologist at the University of Central Florida, has studied the effects of criticism on underweight people and says it can lead to low self-esteem and depression.

"The issue of people feeling like it is OK to comment about people being underweight is unfair," Dunn says. "It's obvious to people now that you don't comment negatively about someone's weight problems when they are overweight. The same sensitivity is clearly not shown to people who struggle to maintain a minimum weight.

"People know that if somebody is overweight, they are likely unhappy and are trying to do something about it, and if they're not, they have tried in the past. Whereas people who are underweight are not looked at in the same view, so it's not assumed they would be as insecure about it or have a troubled past with it."

Sarasota model Willow Nilles, who is 5-foot-10 and 120 pounds, was insecure about being underweight before figuring out how to earn a living from her slender appearance.

Nilles, 22, was always tall and skinny while growing up and constantly made fun of. While living in Chicago seven years ago, Nilles decided to attend a Ford Modeling Agency open casting call and was signed instantly.

She currently works for Alexa Models in Tampa and has done print, runway and television work throughout the United States.

"There were a lot of jokes back then. I was a little reclusive," Nilles says. "I made some friends with older kids who were more of my height, and once I started modeling it was the same thing. People were my height, and a lot of people looked older, so it was a way for me to belong somewhere. That really helped me."

Hodge decided to help himself add pounds through lifting weights.

Hodge was 6-foot-tall and weighed 147 pounds when he started working out about a year ago with trainer Rafael Justo. He gained 13 pounds and, after taking off a few months to focus on his business, he is back in the gym.

Corey Simpson, a personal trainer at the Fight Factory in Tampa, says eating several small meals a day, plus lifting weights, is the best way to gain weight.

"In logic you might say, 'Why do I have to eat six meals when I can stuff myself with three meals?'" Simpson says. "If you eat three times a day, your body is going to burn it three times. If you're constantly feeding your body all day long, it's not going to have a chance to burn all those calories."

Adding pounds is one way to deal with being skinny, but Dunn has a simple solution for those uninterested in gaining weight.

"As long as you feel you're healthy, you're maintaining a healthy diet and exercise routine, you have to recognize that people have their own issues," Dunn says. "Your body is your body, so embrace it, whether it's larger than the ideal or thinner than the ideal.

"As long as you take care of your body the best way you know how, you don't have to internalize other people's messages about how they think you should look."

Reporter Anwar S. Richardson can be reached at (813) 259-8425

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