Mel C Speaks About Weight
July 13th, 2007 by Rian | Filed under Miscellaneous Celebrities.
Mel C - formerly known as “Sporty Spice” from the Spice girls, spoke out about her weight recently. She claims that weight issues affected all of the girls in the group at one point or another.
Mel admits that she had gotten too thin during her Spice Girls days and warns others about the dangers of being underweight:
She told The Sun: “I was underweight and my image was unhealthy. There were kids who were looking up to me. I want to rectify any of the damage I caused.
“I got so thin my periods stopped and my bones became very fragile. I may have done permanent damage.
“I went to the gym and trained constantly. I wasn’t eating properly. I wanted to get as perfect as I could, knowing perfection is impossible, and that got me very sick.”
Here is a photo of the Spice Girls back in 1997. Honestly, I don’t think any of them are too thin here, especially compared to today’s celebrity weight standards:
But if her period stopped, she was definitely too thin.
I wonder what she thinks of Victoria Beckham’s current weight?
Asside from it always being a bad idea…what’s the point of starving yourself if you going just wear ill fitting track pants and tank tops everywhere?
I am shocked that she considers herself underweight back then. She looked healthy! It is definitely time to reevaluate yourself if your periods stop though. Strange…
All in all though, she and Emma (Baby) always seemed to be far more reasonable people than the other three.
She’s making up excuses so people won’t critisize her for being fat now.
Rian, thank you so much for doing this post.
I loved Sporty Spice back in the day and even saw them all in concert once (one of my best friends who was in love with her took me, I swear).
Mel C. was tiny. I know it doesn’t show in the picture above but the girl was about as lean as lean gets. I thought it was awesome when she came out and said that she got that physique in an unhealthy manner and I’m glad that she’s still talking about it. She looks much healthier now and I’m glad she overcame her obsession.
utahauguest…LOL! I think you may be on to something!
That comment isnt too new Im pretty sure. Hilary Duff on the other hand just commented about how she was being to strict on herself and went too far. Apperently she went from 130 in 2004 to 100 in 2005. Melanie C did look pretty thin though when she perfomed at the iconic Brit show.
Wait for the conflicts they will have because Posh wants them to make a strict diet and she is feeling like an icon and I don’t think that the rest will like her style. If they already contracted a psychologist to deal with their diva’s problems.
I think she looks in really good shape at the moment! Look at their new reunion pics. Mel C looks fabulous.
Most of the Spices (except Baby) lost a fair bit of weight from when they started off.
I mean, revealing outfits, being constantly on stage and on show, demanding managers and an all-girl group - the pressure to be thin must have been immense.
Look at Girls Aloud nowadays - over the years, they’ve lost a lot of weight then when negative publicity began, their manager “ordered them to put it back on.” (even though he probably ordered them to lose weight in the first place).
Even look at what happened after the group split up - Geri got down to 6 stone at one point, looked scarily emaciated and was yoga-obsessed; Posh is uber-skeletal now; one of the Spices (Posh, I think) has commented on how Mel C and Geri used to encourage her to take diet drinks instead of food.
Good for Mel C to try and speak up about weight in a sensible way.
I do remember Mel C being fairly thin when she was in the Spice Girls. She may not have been as thin as the stars of today, but it does not mean she was healthy.
Being at a super low weight is not the only reason she may have lost her period. If she worked out a lot to get her body the way it was, she may have lost it because of that.
@ utahaugust
loll, i couldn’t agree more..
I don’t believe her really. Because she didn’t look that sick as she described.
None of them really look that thin in the photo.
attention whore, she wasn’t emaciated or anything like that
I didn’t look sick when I was underweight and had lost my period either.
But that didn’t stop me from being totally weight-food-exercise obsessed, unhealthy and doing permanent damage to myself.
Yeah right maybe her periods stopped because of stress or something else….. This girl was never too thin!!! She needs to do something about her diet now because I do not think ticket sales will do so good if she looks that way…….
Mel C wore baggy clothes. Remember she is sporty spice. So maybe she was too thin under her clothes.
Ok one last comment she obviously is desperate for attention and that is why she is saying this she thinks the tabloids will publish this nonsense…… She was never anyones favorite spice girl so she needs to make up stories for attention weirdo…. I still love Posh and she needs to go for her for some dieting advice!
most of the time she wasn’t that thin BUT there was a few months where she really was very skinny. I remember because I used to be a big fan (shut up…I was 11….)
It seems like all the stars are touching on this subject…remember Courtney Cox came out saying she was too thin on Friends-and she knew it….I have come to believe whenever you enter into Hollywood and your being watched 24/7 you develop body issues…..ALL of them have it…..it’s a given
Wow! Victoria Beckham used to look like a real person!
Mel C was her thinnest after the Spice Girls, around the time when she came out w/her first solo album, Northern Star–which was also around the same time that Posh first got really skinny, and Geri, too.
I was thinking the same thing, Suzie!
Mel C was very, very thin back then. As has been said, the baggy clothes concealed it somewhat, as did her ’sporty’ image. She was tiny.
When the movie Spice World came out, she was really thin… definitely the thinnest of the bandmates. It’s good to see her looking healthier.
She wasn’t anorexically thin but she exercised to the point where her body fat was so low that her periods stopped. You have to have a certain amount of body fat in order to metabolize the hormones that bring your period on.
@ utahaugust: I wouldn’t call her fat now. She looks healthy and slimmer than the average woman in real life- not being slim by celeb standards doesn’t make her fat.
It’s also pretty hard to tell whether or not someone is slightly underweight or low-normal weight just by looking at them, and you can lose your period without being at a low weight; it can happen through too much exercise, which may have been the case with Mel C.
Why do so many people think that tattoos are cool? THEY AREN’T!!!! They make you look trashy….not hip or cool!!
She dieted and dieted, to the point where her periods stopped, but she was still f*ckin ugly. Funny how starving can’t make you beautiful.
maybe she didn’t LOOK too thin, but she was too thin for her natural weight/frame
ginger & posh got SUPPPPPPER skinny AFTER spice girls
MY GOD PEOPLE!!!
Mel C looks healthy now, she was definately too thin back then, and i think a person knows when they have an eating disorder or when they dont.
whoever suggested stress as the cause of her periods to stop - why would she lie??
Dear Rian, I believe this post tremendously. Mel C has been really thin years ago has she gained weight some time ago and lost it after. She looks really FINE right now. Could you please put another photo comparing them? Because it’s true that in that one we can’t see that.
Cheers!
Mel C got A LOT thinner than in the pic shown with the Spice Girls.
Anyway, I am obsessed with her solo music. And I think she’s now drop-dead gorgeous.
Rian:
Your period doesn’t have to stop just because you are too thin. Yes, amenorrhea is definitely associated with being underweight, but it’s not always consistent with that one particular issue.
Do a Google Images search for Melanie C Northern Star. She is FREAKISHLY gym-orexic in these photos.
i saw a clip of her on youtube on ‘the truth about size zero’ i think its called, and she talks about the same thing, about how the pressure led her to become maniacal about her diet and stuff and she got too thin.
this picture is definately not her at her thinnest
and i think she’s beautiful - and looks healthy now - and is the MOST TALENTED of all of them
she may not be the ‘prettiest’ but i’ve always found her beautiful
come on guys she would definitely be the one to know if she had an eating disorder or not. and i think it is important for celebs like courtney cox and melc to come out and say they were too thin especially now when girls are so weight obssessed like they r. it shows that theyre human and being at that low of a wieght and losing ur period cuz of it is not good or healhty
I don’t see it here…but maybe in a different photo it’s different.
Do you know what? I watched Spice World (it was against my will) and the first thing I noticed about Mel C was how thin she was. She was definitely muscle-y, but she was really, really thin. So I believe this story.
Besides, the interviewers are the ones who ask the questions. They are the ones who bring it up because it’s such a hot topic nowadays. So it’s not like Mel C stood on a street corner and screamed this out to the public.
I heard about “the Truth About Size Zero” on a fashion blog and watched it on YouTube since I’m not British. She was the celebrity featured on eating disorders. Some pictures of Mel C were shown and damn was she thin. These pictures don’t actually portray her eventual look; these are probably from early on in her career as a Spice.
She definately had a problem, and I think its good that she’s talking about it.
Its not normal to be that obsessed with your body and thinness, for anyone.
And she looks great now, Im glad she got healthy.
Sigh. She was “thinner” back then, I agree. But you must understand that most (not all) English women are very large in comparison to healthy women - the clothes here cater for huge muffin top bellies, sausage arms, and the biggest breasts in the EU. In general, exercise is just “not done” by the English, and so when Mel C was thin and active, she would be considered too skinny by the general population here.
I am English myself, and sadly most thin girls on the street here in London are foreign.
mel c’s weight fluctuation post spice girls was probably due to the near starvation diet - getting back to eating healthily and exercise probably means she looks and feels better. the spice girls reunion will probably be a good reason to get back the gym and get ready for the tour.
I am glad Mel C saw that she had a problem and fixed it. Maybe she can help Posh eat.
i think everyone’s body is different
i stop getting my period if my BMI falls below 20!
Which is still in the “normal, healthy” range according to the BMI charts!
What ignorance!
Mel C was very lean/athletic during her spice girl days, so the extra muscle mass would have stopped her looking too ‘emaciated’, however that doesn’t mean her body fat couldn’t have dropped below healthy levels. She could have had a normal weight but still be carrying too little body fat for her athletic build. She probably had lower body fat than some of the emaciated hollywood stars you see who have lost so much muscle, they amazingly still have normal body fat levels.
But some of you people are completely unsympathetic. This isn’t about whether she looked too skinny, it’s about the fact that she had an eating disorder and now she is recovered.
Jo jo, i dont know what england you live in but most women i know arent fat. Not model thin, yes, but not fat. Most of my friends range from size 6 to size 16. Nothing more than that.
I’d also like to know what your definition of a healthy woman is. I’ll bet you have some screwy ideas, like no one above a size 10 is healthy. In which case i just laugh at you.
She was too thin! Its a simple matter that she excercised away all her body fat. she had muscle content yes, so still appears reasonably healthy, but for her it was wrong.
I know people can be as thin as mel c was and be normal - my aunt is a triathlon runner and shes a beanpole, and very sinuous. but its mostly genetics - she’s obviously got enough fat on her for her to be healthy as she’s also had a baby and didnt change size much before or after.
umm, THIS IS ONLY ONE PICTURE remember. i have seen one where she looks horribly skinny and frail, she was definitely ill looking, anyone could see that. she looks normal in the one posted here.
She was waaaaaaaaay too thin back then. That picture doesn’t show her at her lowest weight at all!
Take a google-search and you’ll see!
I just did the google search to see and yeah she looked really thin there. She looks better now.
sporty spice melc is the skinniest one in the picture posted
although vic b is probably the skinniest one now
Jo Jo your opinion on Fat Britain is too biased. I personally do not believe that Brits are fatter than lets say French or German or Greek. In my humble opinion the average American beats your “fat Brit” hands down. I do not know where you got this opinion seriously. Especially if you live around hip London everyone is thin. About Mel C wow as if we cared…
Lol, wow. I’m surprised by Mel C’s comment and all of yours. Unbelievable! She’s human for christ sake! She made a mistake and whether she’s skinny or not, she’ll always be beautiful.
She was really thin. Look at the pic above and you can see her pants around the crouch area are sort of hanging. I remember her getting hell skinny but ripped.
mel used to be too thin.. and victoria looked so much better in the 90’s!
I heard that losing your period for ladies is the sign that you have lost to much weight as oppose to your BMI.
So whats the sign that a guy has lost to much ?