I've always been a "chunky" gal. My mom calls me "curvy," and I've inherited my Norwegian grandmother's top-heavy genes, if you follow. I'm 5', and since I actually started keeping track of my weight around age 16 have bounced between 112 and 130.

I always figured I was chunky because I just didn't enjoy sports. I played tennis and softball recreationally, but not enough to claim it was any kind of extended exercise. I hated running, found weight lifting monotonous, and only enjoyed time in the pool in short spurts.

When I was a sophomore in college, I joined a martial art. I loved it. I stuck with it, and last year I trained for my black belt. The regiment was not easy... it's a 4 month test (test once a month for four months), the first two being pure aerobic endurance. To prepare, we met 5 nights a week for 3 hours, January to July. Bizarrely, I gained weight... I went up to 130, the heaviest I've ever been. I looked it, too... but I could do the extremely physical things required of me for my black belt. (9 long forms, and then those 9 long forms again in under 8 minutes... 10 knee-or-higher kicks in under 30 seconds... ki-ups, that flashy move you see martial artists do when they flip up from their back onto their feet... etc.)

Immediately after getting my black belt, I moved to Japan. Obviously, I ate differently; fish and rice, fish and rice, fish and rice. I bike 20 minutes a day out of necessity.
I only lost 5 pounds.

Even more incredibly, when I got the chance to train again a few weeks ago, I could barely keep up. I used to be able to do circles around other students. Now, 10 pushups are a strain.

Moral of the story? Skinny, or lighter on the pounds, does not necessarily mean healthier. Yes, obesity causes several health concerns, but can we please stop assuming that chunky, or even overweight, automatically equals obese, and therefore unhealthy? I was stronger, faster, and slept better when I was "heavy."

And frankly, sometimes being too skinny is just as unhealthy as being too fat. In the newest crop of people going for black belt, there is a girl so skinny you really COULD snap her like a twig... In fact, she's had more injuries this semester than I've ever had in my life, because she has no padding to protect against some of the force of things she's putting her body through.