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Original poster

Dress size limit?

130 replies

SuckingDownDarjeeling · 02/10/2020 22:31

I've always wondered if I could physically have ever been a 'size zero'. Because I have fairly wide hips, even at my slimmest I'm not a wisp. I've dieted down to a size 8 in the past, and I wondered if size 6 or below was even technically achievable for me. I never tried to get there because I really didn't want to diet any more after that. (I have to do it all again now anyway though, I let myself go after pregnancy Blush).

Can a person's bone structure and build potentially limit how small their dress size could ever be? Or with enough starvation dieting, can anybody and everybody be a size zero. Whatever one of those is. I've never met one in real life 🦄

I understand some of the responses here might tell me to google it, but I tried and I'm not great at wording effective search terms. I'm interested to hear people's opinions and experiences, too.

OP posts:
TigerDroveAgain · 05/10/2020 00:31

DustyMaiden

Are your figures right? I would love the choice of a size14 but at a few inches taller than you and a couple of pounds heavier,I’m looking at 20-22!

Susannahmoody · 05/10/2020 00:31

I think it's very difficult for British /Northern European women to be that small. They've usually got broader shoulders and boobs/and or hips.

PickAChew · 05/10/2020 00:33

I was marginally underweight, as a teen (7 stone at 5'5), yet a 1980s size 10 (current size 6) was often snug on me. I might have made my waist smaller but I had very little bust and bony hips.

PickAChew · 05/10/2020 00:40

When I was a 1980s size 10, the smallest clothes generally available were a size 8.

Bwlch · 05/10/2020 01:04

When I was a 1980s size 10, the smallest clothes generally available were a size 8.

Which is probably a 4 in todays sizes.

UK size 4 is a US size 0

Pachonga · 05/10/2020 01:10

Does anyone remember when Dawn O’Porter tried to slim down to a US sizr 0 for a tv documentary? It was horrific, she looked like she was dying.

Bwlch · 05/10/2020 01:38

It was horrific, she looked like she was dying.

I think that was the intention. She started at 10st 7 and went down to 9st 4. BMI a healthy (according to the NHS) 19.2.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6335077.stm

Pachonga · 05/10/2020 01:50

[quote Bwlch]It was horrific, she looked like she was dying.

I think that was the intention. She started at 10st 7 and went down to 9st 4. BMI a healthy (according to the NHS) 19.2.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6335077.stm[/quote]
Oh yeah. I’m not saying she was glamorising in any way, quite the opposite. The programme has always stuck with me.

PurpleDaisies · 05/10/2020 08:14

From the photo on the bbc article linked above, “she looked like she was dying” is a bit dramatic.

PurpleDaisies · 05/10/2020 08:18

I’ve just found that Dawn O’Porter programme, “Super Slim Me”,is available on YouTube.

Bwlch · 05/10/2020 08:44

From the photo on the bbc article linked above, “she looked like she was dying” is a bit dramatic

At the time I think the issue of grossly underweight catwalk models was in big in the news. I think she was playing up the negatives for the camera. Like the claim that she had an unhealthy BMI. It wasn't. She could have lost more weight and still stayed in the healthy range.

She did lose a lot of weight in quite a short time on a restrictive diet though, so probably why she felt dreadful.

whirlwindwallaby · 05/10/2020 08:51

@BoudiccasBoudoir

I have been emaciated. Not due to an eating disorder due to health issues but I didn't look dissimilar. I was a size 6 on the bottom but my rib cage is a small size 8. That's the size of my bones. 6 on bottom, 8 on top.
Same, at a BMI of 16. 6 in jeans was big on me but 6 in tops too small. I still wear the same 6/8 at a BMI of 18.
CheeryAlmond · 05/10/2020 09:29

I have a 22 inch waist and am a size 0. I have one DD.
I've always been tiny (4ft 10) my feet are a size 1, I have to have rings specially made because I can never find the size that fits me, I wear my Apple Watch on the first dot...
Every part of me is tiny.

I certainly don't diet, nor do I deprive myself of anything.
I'm a perfectly fit adult woman.

BrieAndChilli · 05/10/2020 09:38

@CheeryAlmond no-one is saying that you aren’t fit and healthy but you are tiny - very short etc this thread is saying that it’s not possible for every single woman to diet down to a size 0, that some women even if they were stripped down to their Skeleton still wouldn’t fit into a size 0!! And that it’s nothing to do with diet but actually your frame that helps determine natural size

LionessRoar · 05/10/2020 09:40

I had anorexia at age 17/18. Looking back at photos I looked really ill and too thin. I am 5’4 and was 11/2 stone underweight but only a size 6. There wasn’t a lot of fat left on me so I don’t believe I could’ve got into a size 4 if I had lost more. Thankfully, I began to put on weight in recovery so I never got to test that out. I’m absolutely not saying all slim women look ill but for me it wasn’t a great look.

NataliaOsipova · 05/10/2020 09:43

There’s a huge difference in people’s size and shape that’s nothing to do with how fat they are. I am short with a small bone structure. I’m a size 8, but am a perfectly healthy weight and quite buxom...so would not be described as “thin” by any means. My friend, who is 5’11” and quite broadly built, is definitely “thinner” than I am, even though she wouldn’t fit into my clothes.

gubbbbbddaaaa · 05/10/2020 09:56

I'm 5 foot and size 10 , I have very small bones and I'm currently overweight.. I'm quite happy being curvy but my rib cage is very small and I can wear size 6 in some clothes despite having e cup boobs so I could easily be a size 4/6 if I wanted to be . I agree some people couldn't , my mum for example is slim but still a 12/14 because she has big bones .

CheeryAlmond · 05/10/2020 10:08

@BrieAndChilli No, I understand that no one has said that.
What has been said is 'sizes 4/6 are for young teenagers who want to dress in adult clothes.' I just don't want it to turn into full on skinny shaming (which is genuinely as bad as fat shaming, although no one will have that.)

Completely agree that not everyone can be a size 0 though. It has everything to do with the skeleton and how your body is built.

Bwlch · 05/10/2020 10:12

What has been said is 'sizes 4/6 are for young teenagers who want to dress in adult clothes.' I just don't want it to turn into full on skinny shaming (which is genuinely as bad as fat shaming, although no one will have that.)

Yes, I nearly took issue with that. I am an easy size 6 and an adult.

BikeTyson · 05/10/2020 10:15

I suspect I could be on the verge of death and not fit a size zero but I’m 5’10” and have large shoulders, ribcage and hips which were there before I was ever fat.

whirlwindwallaby · 05/10/2020 10:47

What has been said is 'sizes 4/6 are for young teenagers who want to dress in adult clothes.' There are teenagers who are adult height but with a small build, but there are also adults like this. Some women don't have hips much wider than when they were a young teen, it's just their build.

MynephewR · 05/10/2020 10:50

I think if I lost like 3 stone I could probably get my hips into a size 4. My ribcage would just never fit in anything below an 8 though I reckon. I'm currently a size 12 (sometimes 10 in jeans/trousers) and I carry a most of my weight in my boobs and tummy. When I've been smaller I had very slim legs and no bum but still broad shoulders, big boobs and a pouch on my stomach.

I've pretty much given up on dieting as I'd have to be really quite extreme to get smaller boobs and a flat stomach.

EBearhug · 05/10/2020 10:57

I've known women who are less than 4' tall, and those over 6'. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. It would be very odd if a tall person had the same size pelvis and ribs as a short person, because they would be out of proportion - but even if two people were the same height, they could still have different width pelvis and so on, just as their overall height could be down to legs being a longer proportion of their height than another person.

ForeverAlone1987 · 05/10/2020 11:05

Ive been a size 4 for the last year, and i think that equates to an american size zero. I didnt diet or anything like that. I have an illness that made me lose 5stone in one year, just to put that out there lol. However i dont think i could get to a smaller size due to my bone structure, but even then i dont have big hips

unmarkedbythat · 05/10/2020 11:06

I just looked at the size chart on ASOS. UK4/ US 0 is given as bust 30", waist 22.75" and hips 32.75". I can't remember having a bust measurement that small at any time after I started measuring my body, but I definitely remember having a 22 inch waist and 32 inch hips and wearing an 8.

But yeah. Body type matters. Even when really, below the safe weight for height zone, thin, I didn't fit in the smallest tops available. I cannot starve my ribcage any narrower!

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