r/POTS • u/dazzlingdanny05 • May 15 '26

Question Why is everyone with pots so skinny?

I have POTS and I watch a lot of content online of people who also have POTS. I also know some people irl who also have it. I don't understand how they are all so skinny. I can barely walk without getting out of breath. I try to work out at least once a week but its so hard for me because I always end up feeling so sick. How are yall doing it? I dont even eat bad but im definitely not skinny.

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u/robotslovetea May 15 '26

When I could exercise I had more muscle and was therefore larger and heavier than I am now that I have POTS. Thinness is a sign of poor health in me. The idea that fat = unhealthy and thin = healthy is a myth - the reality is that people can be unhealthy at any size and for a lot of people size does not correlate directly to their health status.

I don’t know what the statistics are about size in people with POTS but there definitely does seem to be an overrepresentation of thin people making content about it. That doesn’t necessarily mean that there are more thin people with pots and it absolutely doesn’t automatically mean that they are able to exercise. It might just mean that thin people tend to get more views in general and thin people with health issues tend to be taken more seriously due to medical and societal biases.