As I delved deeper into the fascinating world of the skinniest people both dead and alive, I became engrossed in my quest to determine who exactly holds the title of the skinniest person in the world.
My research led me to discover numerous individuals whose thinness is truly staggering. However, instead of overwhelming you with information, I’ve decided to highlight the top 10 skinniest people in the world.
These individuals are so incredibly skinny that their bones are apparently visible, making them true contenders for the title of the skinniest man alive. Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at these amazing people.
Every woman’s dream in the modern world is to be in excellent physical and aesthetic condition. Women are competing to be more attractive than one another by getting skinny.
Given that every woman aspires to be “Hot” and “Sexy,” as some people like to say, the trend of staying fit has become an obsession, especially among elite women and celebrities.
Body shape is a subject that will never go out of convo because people are concerned about their appearance and spend sleepless nights worrying about how to make it better.
We’ve heard of many people who make conscious efforts to cut calories and lose weight; they do things like limit their intake of juice and junk food, eat only when they are truly hungry, eat mindfully, drink tons of water daily, stay active, and some even go as far as eating just one meal per day in an effort to achieve an attractively slim figure.
Being skinny, on the other hand, is a completely different story because most people who are skinny today got that way due to an illness or another.
There are many factors that can contribute to someone being skinny or slim, but the extreme skinny appearance is most likely the result of a disorder or rare disease.
A number of physiological conditions can cause someone to be underweight. Too many food allergies can also lead to significant weight loss because there are so few foods to which they are not already allergic.
They could be taking medication to treat a condition that impairs their appetite, or they could have a digestive problem that slows down their body’s metabolic process.
Anorexia, for example, is a mental disorder caused by traumatic social interactions with peers or family members that leads people to believe they must constantly restrict their food intake and lose weight, even when they are already underweight and skinny.
Even if they are razor-thin, they constantly see a fat person in the mirror when they look in the mirror.
As a result, they constantly deprive themselves of food, which causes them to become extremely skinny. In fact, the top skinniest people in the world are like this.
Another condition connected to skinniness is cachexia, which results in rapid weight loss, muscle atrophy, and body fat loss.
People who have advanced illnesses like cancer, HIV/AIDS, COPD, kidney disease, and congestive heart failure are affected by this syndrome.
Cachexia is distinguished from other types of weight loss by the fact that it is unintentional. It develops in people even when they are not attempting to lose weight through diet or exercise.
Another eating disorder is bulimia nervosa or simply bulimia, and it is an eating disorder.
It is typically characterized by consuming large amounts of food in a short period of time, followed by purging via forced vomiting, excessive exercise, or the use of laxatives or diuretics.
It is distinguished by uncontrollable bouts of overeating known as bingeing which is immediately followed by purging using methods such as vomiting or laxative abuse.
Simply put, it’s consuming a large quantity of food in a short amount of time—typically under two hours. Episodes of binge eating are believed to be uncontrollable.
Before we get started with our list of the skinniest people in the world, it will be okay to clarify the differences between the terms thin, skinny, and slim to clear up any misconceptions.
These terms are actually three different ones, despite the fact that people frequently use them interchangeably.
Difference Between Skinny, Thin, and Slim
The fact that people frequently use these words interchangeably does not make them the same; they have always been distinct words, despite the fact that their meanings logically overlap.
Skinny
The word “skinny” is always used to refer to the unfavorable aspect of being extremely thin and is typically used to describe people with certain types of disorders that make them appear that way.
It means having little flesh on one’s body so that one can somehow see one’s skeletal structure.
Thin
When describing people with low body fat or almost visible skeletal structure, the word “thin” is less derogatory than “skinny,” but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still somewhat derogatory or close to the negative aspect.
Slim
People who have little to no body fat or are slender in an attractive way are referred to as slim. The word “slim” actually sounds more like a compliment and is used in a positive context.
Slim or slender is commonly used to describe beauty models, attractively lightweight individuals, or individuals with a svelte waist.
Now that you understand the distinction, let’s take a quick look at the specific causes of people becoming so skinny before finally moving on to the list of the world’s skinniest people.
How Do People Get Skinny?
When you encounter a skinny, slim, or thin person, there are essentially five factors responsible for their low body fat.
It’s either genetics, metabolism, diet, physical activity, illness, or a combination of two or three. So let’s quickly take a very brief look at those factors.
Genetic
For the simple reason that both of his/her parents are slim, a child born to slim parents is more likely to be and stay slim.
The ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase) gene is referred to as a skinny gene by News Medical Net, and according to them, it is the variant that promotes resistance to weight gain regardless of a person’s diet.
It keeps slim people that way. In thin, metabolically healthy individuals, the gene may contribute to their ability to resist weight gain.
It is located in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates appetite and a person’s ability to control fat.
Metabolism
A person’s metabolism also plays a role in determining their low body weight because a slim person is more likely to be active than an overweight person, which causes them to burn more calories and maintain or lose weight.
However, if your basal and resting metabolic rates are higher than average, your body will naturally burn more calories even when at rest than someone with a lower metabolic rate, resulting in greater weight loss and a skinnier body.
Diet
When it comes to the issue of losing weight or gaining more kilograms, what we eat is most obvious because food is the primary source of calories, which is the main player.
The biggest factor in weight loss is consistently maintaining a calorie deficit. This is characterized as consuming fewer calories each day than you expend.
In order to make up for the lack of energy from food intake while you’re in a calorie deficit, your body uses its fat cells and glycogen, the body’s stored form of carbohydrates.
Because your body will eventually be burning through its fat and carbohydrate reserves for energy, this will cause weight loss over time which is how most people get slim and skinny.
Physical Activity
If you maintain your caloric intake, you can also lose weight through workouts and exercises.
Regular physical activity increases calorie burn and aids in the reduction of body fat, but it’s also a healthier way to lose weight or maintain a slim body compared to others.
Illness
Another reason why someone might become skinny is an illness.
In fact, the majority of the ten world’s skinniest people featured in this article got to their level of skinniness through eating disorders brought on by body dissatisfaction and a need to lose weight as a result of bullying.
So let’s get started by learning about the research-proven world’s skinniest people as well as their tragic tales.
10 World’s Skinniest Persons Ever
Be aware that this list is not ordered by how skinny each person is or with the skinniest person at the top; instead, it is shuffled, but the combined individuals undoubtedly represent the top 10 skinniest people in the world.
Valeria Levitin
Valerie Levitin is 5 feet 8 inches tall and suffers from anorexia which made her one of the skinniest people on the planet.
Valerie Levitin is extremely thin, weighing less than half of what her lightest healthy weight should be. All of this started as a result of school bullying.
Back in school where Valeria Levitin studied as a young lady, she was considered overweight by many of her classmates.
Valeria Levitin was told by one of her friends that her butt could cover the entrance to the football field.
Valeria Levitin then informed her mother about it, and her mother agreed that Valeria Levitin needed to lose weight and slim down. At the time, Levitin weighed 64 kilograms.
Valeria, the world’s skinniest person, began to lose weight as a result of the bully and her mother’s confirmation
She started well because she was able to burn a good number of calories.
But as she started to get in shape and slim down, Levitin felt the need to lose a little weight because she wanted to be a model someday and put the people who made fun of her appearance and called her fat behind her.
But Valeria Levitin didn’t know when to stop and developed the life-threatening eating disorder known as anorexia because she became addicted to losing weight.
At the age of 24, Valeria Levitin weighed only 38 kilograms due to her extreme weight loss.
When Levitin and her family realized she might pass away, they sought advice from experts.
Levitin was treated by specialists who also tried to teach her how to eat more and make her love her body.
Jeremy Gillitzer
Jeremy Gillitzer used to be a handsome male model with a six-pack. However, anorexia has now so severely damaged his body that he can hardly stand up without collapsing.
It all began when he was called fatty at school and bullied. He began eating only a portion of his meals, but his family didn’t mind because they thought he should slim down.
However, he started eating less and less until he was only taking a few tiny bites. When his parents tried to encourage him to eat more, it was already too late, and he refused to budge.
After receiving a diagnosis of anorexia, Jeremy was admitted to the hospital and placed on a strict eating regimen.
However, after gaining some weight, he was released, only to return to his old eating habits and lose the weight he had gained through forced feeding there.
This caused him to require repeated hospitalizations, during which he was force-fed and prohibited from using the restroom after meals.
Jeremy Gillitzer moved into his own apartment and started a political science degree program when he was 25 years old.
He also began working out at the gym and stopped bingeing and vomiting, which helped him develop a great body and a healthy weight.
Then a friend advised Jeremy to start modeling. He didn’t think he was overweight anymore, so he had some professional photos taken and sent them to modeling agencies, though he claimed he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the way he looked.
Soon after signing up, Jeremy Gillitzer started modeling for commercials and catalogs. He enjoyed the photo shoots, but he was too insecure to look at the pictures.
He increased his exercise regimen and went to the gym for up to five hours each day in an effort to get more work.
Jeremy met his first and only serious boyfriend (He was gay) at the gym, but he doesn’t want to mention his name.
He claims that it was the happiest time of his life and that the relationship caused his eating disorder to completely go away, leaving him feeling self-assured and content.
But in 2005, after Jeremy’s six-year relationship ended, he developed depression and resumed bingeing and throwing up.
Jeremy Gillitzer reverted to his old behavior and resumed eating tiny bites, which caused him to develop anorexia and cause him to lose weight shockingly quickly until he got among the world’s skinniest persons and died in 2010
Lizzie Velásquez
Lizzie Velásquez is an American motivational speaker, activist, author, and YouTuber.
She was born with an extremely rare congenital disease called Marfanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome, which prevents her from accumulating body fat and gaining weight, among other symptoms.
Lizzie Velásquez was bullied as a child because of her ailments, and she was also cyberbullied as a teenager, which inspired her to begin motivational speaking.
She is regarded as being the skinniest person on the planet, and her disorder hastens the aging process, making Lizzie Velásquez appear older than she actually is.
Lizzie Velásquez’s rare disorder is distinguished by her inability to store fat or gain weight as a result of her illness.
She has reportedly never been heavier than 29 kg (64 lbs) and her body fat is almost 0%
Due to her condition, she must always consume numerous small meals and snacks throughout the day, totalling between 5,000 and 8,000 calories.
She also has vision impairment in her left eye and is blind in her right eye, which started to cloud over when she was four.
Additionally, it is said that Lizzie Velásquez’s body reacts strongly to infections that are relatively mild to others.
Kristina Karyagina
Another one of the world’s skinniest people, Kristina Karyagina is from Barnaul in south-central Russia and has battled anorexia since she was a high school student. She survive solely on apple and banana bites.
Miss Karyagina stopped eating healthily when she was a high school student, and as a result, she has since shrunk to the point where she weighs half as much as an adult labrador.
The 26-year-old, who is dangerously underweight because she won’t eat weighing only 17kg, has been warned that if she doesn’t get treatment, she might pass away within a year.
In an effort to shift her perspective, her doctor even questioned her about whether she had ever considered portraying a “living corpse” because of her skeletal appearance.
Karyagina now has goals for the future; she wants to pursue graduate studies. She is currently among the skinniest people in the world, not just in Russia where she was born.
Specialists think Kristina Karyagina will start to feel better if she can begin to exude positive habits toward her disorder.
And they appear to be correct because she has since been able to eat something other than a few bites of fruit.
Maria Kokhno, a reality television star in her native nation and former anorexic, has now started a campaign to get Kristina Karyagina treated before it’s too late.
Tom Staniford
Tom Staniford is a professional cyclist who is skinny due to a rare condition that prevents his body from storing fat.
Tom, a British citizen born on July 1, 1989, is one of only eight people worldwide who suffer from MDP syndrome.
Tom Staniford completed his Master 1 (mentione Droit Européen) degree and received his diploma from the University of Rennes 1 in June 2012.
A month later, Staniford received Class 2:1 Honors for his LLB European (Maitrise) degree from the University of Exeter, where he also received a Vice-Excellence Chancellor’s Scholarship and a sports scholarship.
In 2005, Tom Staniford acquired his first road bike and quickly developed a passion for cycling. He suffered life-threatening injuries from a head-on collision with a car in June 2006.
Injuries such as fractured eye sockets, brain bleeds, cranial trauma, broken teeth, a broken collarbone, four broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken toe.
He also suffered severe lacerations to his knees from slicing through the windscreen of the car.
In the air ambulance on the way to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where he received medical treatment for his wounds, his heart stopped twice.
Tom Staniford later joined Bikin Motion CC and began training for the Junior Tour of Wales, but while racing at Ilton, he crashed and broke his wrist (RAF Merryfield race course).
Staniford was unable to participate, but he still accompanied Bikin Motion and handled soigneur responsibilities for his team.
After recovering, Tom Staniford continued to ride with Bikin Motion and took his sport more seriously.
He was supposed to represent Great Britain at the 2009 Taipei Deaflympics, but due to injuries sustained in a training accident that left him with a broken wrist and head injuries, he was unable to attend.
Tom Staniford is over 25 years old, stands six feet three inches tall, and weighs only about 30 kilograms. But the condition hasn’t been able to stop him from achieving his goals.
His personal and professional lives are both entirely normal. And he is married to Alice, whom he claims has been his greatest inspiration and supporter throughout life.
Ioana Spangenberg
Ioana Spangenberg is a 40-year-old Romanian model who weighs 38 kilograms and has only a 20-inch waist.
Her hourglass figure has sparked speculation that she may have Photoshopped her photos.
However, Ioana Spangenberg claims that her physique is entirely natural. Maybe we shouldn’t call her skinny because it’s only about her waist.
The model, who was born in Romania and now lives in Germany, insists that her 20-inch waist is a result of nature, not a lack of appetite.
Ioana Spangenberg went further to state that she eats three large meals a day and snacks on chocolate and crisps all the time, despite having a small stomach.
It’s similar to having a natural gastric band, and according to her, she gets sick if she eats too much.
Ioana Spangenberg even stated that she is larger than she used to be, claiming that her waist was 15 inches when she was a teenager.
According to Ioana Spangenberg, it was her five-year husband, Jan, who was the first to notice her beauty and post photos of her online.
Her skinny appearance is thought to be natural rather than the result of nutritional deprivation, as claimed.
During the majority of her interviews, Ioana Spangenberg is quick to refute false stories that her anorexic condition was caused by starvation.
She even goes on to explain how she has been attempting to gain weight by eating three square meals per day.
Cathie Jung
American Cathie Jung, a fan of Victorian clothing and corsets, was born in 1937 and currently resides in Manteo, North Carolina.
She is the living person with the smallest waist according to Guinness World Records.
Jung, who stands 1.72 meters (5.6 ft) tall, has a 38.1-centimeter waist (15.0 in).
Cathie Jung frequently wore corsets, which contributed to her small waist. She claims that she started wearing a corset in 1959 at her wedding and has continued to do so ever since.
She actually wears it around the clock. Cathie Jung still holds the record for the woman with the smallest waist despite being 70 years old and weighing about 43 kg.
She has worn a corset for 23 hours every day since 1983, taking it off only to take her daily shower, according to Guinness World Records.
I had no intention of breaking any records, says Cathie Jung, who doesn’t follow any special diet or exercise routine to keep her waist in check.
Many people have commented on her shape throughout the internet, and one Facebook user, in particular, wrote, “If bow tie was a person,” in response to one of her posts.
Valeria Lukyanova
Have you heard of Valeria Lukyanova, also known as the “human Barbie”? She is a Russian-born Ukrainian model and performer who was born in Moldova in 1985 and is well-known for looking like a Barbie doll.
Valeria Lukyanova currently resides in Russia. To amplify the “Barbie” effect, Lukyanova conceals her naturally green, gray, and blue eyes with makeup and contact lenses.
She has acknowledged getting breast implants but insists that daily gym visits and adherence to a particular diet have left the rest of her body naturally skinny and svelte.
After receiving anonymous threats for the previous two years, Valeria Lukyanova reported to police in 2014 that two men had punched and strangled her outside of her home.
She spent a week in the hospital before being discharged. Nevertheless, in our opinion, she should be described as slim rather than skinny.
From Fieracad To You
People in today’s culture believe that having a perfect physique and being in a certain kind of physical condition is the best way to avoid body shaming.
Being skinny, on the other hand, has its own set of challenges. People who are slim also face assault and body shaming.
So regardless of your shape, appearance, height, or weight, don’t let other people’s opinions affect you because you’ll be left alone by the same individuals who pressured you to do something you don’t want to do.
Accept and love your body as it is, while working to make it better for YOU and not for anyone else.
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