Are most actresses very very slim in real life?

[Mitford1789]

I saw a well known actress a few days ago, standing behind her in the queue for a coffee. She was dressed down, however was clearly very pretty in person. However I was taken aback by how slim she was. I would say she was slightly taller than average, not a tiny person if you know what I mean. But so so slim. Do you think most famous actresses/singers etc are like this? Maybe I’m very naive.

got this when I put weight and height in which resulted in a BMI of 18.5

Is it? I got a right talking too when I attended for dental surgery with a BMI of 18.5 I'd no idea I don't own a scales. it is 20 now thankfully and rising.
I like to be 21 minium.

I got a right talking too when I attended for dental surgery with a BMI of 18.5

The dentist? I think I would be more inclined to take notice of bollocking from a qualified nutritionist, or even my GP.

He is a Dental professor from Trinity college with an Anaesthetist, it is likely they're qualified to comment on BMI in a professional capacity.

The screen adds a few pounds so I suspect they feel pressured to stay slim, I think I would.

Anyone who has been underweight and a normal weight or fat knows that you get approached more by men when underweight.

@antsy

Anyone who has been underweight and a normal weight or fat knows that you get approached more by men when underweight.

Not in my experience. I got approached by different types of men, depending on my BMI, but I don’t think it was more when I was at my (very) thinnest. Chiefly because I looked so unwell.

Anyone who has been underweight and a normal weight or fat knows that you get approached more by men when underweight.
No not really. You definitely get more attention for normal weight. I've been under and normal.

In answer to posters annoyed at others talking about their own weight - the reason I did this a few pages back was to bring to attention the awful language surrounding slimmer women such as emaciated, skeletal etc, how damaging and hurtful it is.

I saw Minnie driver in a coffee place in NY. She was absolutely gaunt

Yes - haven’t RTFT after this so it might have been mentioned but Minnie Driver was in Starstruck recently and she was very thin, she almost looked ill.

@Timetopoeet no one should be insulting individuals. But the people in concentration camps and some people suffering from anorexia do look skeletal.

I'm a professional actress who is slim but not thin and is friends with some of the women being mentioned here as teeny-tiny and looking like toddlers, needing to wear barbie doll clothes, emaciated, etc. When I know some of those women are a 10/12/14 and clearly not teeny tiny. (Others really are extremely thin, of course.)

If you read the thread it's clear I only mentioned my (not skinny!) measurements in response to other posters claiming it's impossible to be a certain size without extreme starvation. I merely said that all women have different body types (apple vs pear shape, size of rib cage, type of hips/pelvis) which means that some women are naturally slim or gain weight in places where they look more hourglassy, whereas other women would need to severely reduce food intake or are naturally more apple-shaped, and that both are perfectly healthy if that's what's natural for you but it's really damaging and destructive that the entertainment industry only permits one body type because while some women are that body type naturally many women are not, and acting should be about your talent at inhabiting a character not your body.

I still fail to see how that's such an offensive, controversial, or "me me me me!!" comment as to justify so much abuse and hostility.

Really, please explain how stating "some actresses are naturally slim and some aren't, it's terrible actresses are pressured to diet but not all slim actresses starve themselves" is considered derailing, but posting "anyone with a BMI of 20 starves themselves and is lying about it, here are some examples of delusional anorexic women I know who claim to be "naturally slim" and to eat loads but actually I somehow monitor exactly what they eat in secret and it's this" is not considered derailing?

Or how the substantial sidetrack including posting peer reviewed journal links in an attempt to prove that anyone smack bang in the middle of the "healthy" part of the BMI chart is actually dangerously underweight and would be spoken to by doctors, how is that not a derail in a thread about actresses?

This always happens on Mumsnet. Anyone who mentions they're smaller than a 14 gets roundly abused, told they must be anorexic, told they're just showing off - it's sheer slim-shaming.

@WisconsinRaw because that is not what is happening. You constantly misquote people and use that to claim thin shaming.

This always happens on Mumsnet. Anyone who mentions they're smaller than a 14 gets roundly abused, told they must be anorexic, told they're just showing off - it's sheer slim-shaming.

Equally anyone who mentions they're bigger than a 10 gets told "you're really quite big - it's all this vanity sizing".

I'm a professional actress who is slim but not thin and is friends with some of the women being mentioned here as teeny-tiny

Which women? Becayse I’m five eight and a size ten to twelve, and I can one hundred percent say that Helen mirren and Paula Abdul are tiny in real life, and trinny when I saw her, a long time ago to be fair, was very very thin indeed. I am not slim shaming in the slightest.

@osbertthesyrianhamster

My DD is so slim she doesn't have to wear a bra, she wears size 0 jeans from the US. She eats quite a bit. She's just short and very slender in build. Her feet are only a size 3. She's fully grown, too.

So what size Jean is she here in the uk?

@OhGodNotThisAgain

Kate looks as if she has an eating disorder

Maybe she doesn’t have an eating disorder. Stop slinging “anorexic” and “eating disorder” around as insults ffs

But she does look like she has some issue with eating. Look at her in her teens and early 20s. She was a slim but robust looking girl. Probably a size 12. Now she is so so thin it looks unreal. Her face looked aged for her actual age. That's not natural aging. It's food restriction.

I do definitely know quite a few women in real life who while probably wouldn't qualify for an eating disorder do definitely suffer from disordered eating and I would guess have BMIs of the order 18-20. (Obviously I know other women who are slim and as far as I know don't suffer from any issue). In general though I worry about anyone who is clearly not overweight but is overly aware of their weight and measurements (and often other people's).

There is definitely an assymetry where a celebrity with a BMI of 18-19, which for the vast majority of middle aged women is too low, is considered to be taking care of herself. Someone with a BMI of 25-26 would be considered to have let themselves go.

Equally anyone who mentions they're bigger than a 10 gets told "you're really quite big - it's all this vanity sizing"

Yes, so many threads where you can hear the head tilt and tinkly laugh when they say “you might look fine at 5’6 and 9 st o/p, but I’m 5’11 and 8st and I’d feel very wobbly if I put weight on”.

Personally I don’t think anyone has “slim shamed” here, just a discussion about the pressure on actresses to maintain a very slim frame. It’s been acknowledged that for some it will be natural, but for the rest a result of very restricted eating and punishing excercise. Many, like Liz Hurley, openly admit sustaining that size is incredibly hard work.

We saw Gemma Arterton a couple of months ago. I’ve never thought she was anything special on screen. In real life, she is breathtakingly, ethereally beautiful, and absolutely tiny.

Look at Kate here as opposed to recent photos. The difference is staggering.

I haven't seen much slim shaming here at all (although haven't RTFT) In fact worrying about the pressure certain celebrities are under to restrict food isn't 'shaming'. Kate middleton has come up because it's fairly obvious she must restrict her diet signifcantly to remain so thin, especially quickly after having children. I don't see this as shaming but recognising an issue with society which is a negative.

There also seems to be an issue where people think in order to remedy the obesity crises we should promote unhealthilty thin women as if it will somehow cancel out. In fact it has the oppposite affect. One of my friends who now suffers from over eating and is almost if not obese, always previously suffered from restricted eating and was very slim. It simply wasn't sustainable and the pendulum swung the other way.

antsy that is absolutely what happened.

The posts that MNHQ deleted were absolutely despicable.

The post claiming anyone that weighs 8 stone (regardless of height) must be starving themselves and lying about it - from a poster who posted multiple examples of delusional self-starving women she knew, then turned around and laughably claimed she wasn't trying to equate disordered eating with being thin and anyone who perceived it that way was clearly projecting. Horrendous thing to say yet went totally ignored.

Posts claiming anyone smack bang in the middle of the healthy BMI chart is actually dangerously underweight. Obvious derail.

Posts calling slim posters liars, mentally ill, and trolls.

All those posts pass with hardly anyone objecting, but saying "Some women are naturally slim and others aren't, it's awful that the entertainment industry only presents one body type" is fair game for attack?

@BoringOldBitch

My friend met the Spice Girls once many years ago. She is 5'6" and size 14 and said she towered over them and was huge in comparison.

She can't have 'towered' over all of them. They range in height from 5'2" to 5'6" - all pretty normal heights fir women so your friend hardly towered over them.

Kate looks glowingly healthy there, slim, sporty and fit with very toned legs ! I wish I had pins like that.