Seems like size 10 these days is considered 'large'?

[Echobelly]

Caveat: Yes, I know actual clothes sizes are all over the place and not necessarily a guide to weight/shape.

I'm in my mid 40s and I'd swear when I was a kid, 10 was considered 'slim', yet it often seems to be talked about now as though it's the porky side.

I don't think that all that many women naturally fall into being a size 8 - I'd consider 10 a normal 'slim' size, I don't think anyone who is a size 10 would ever be medically overweight, even really short women like me.

Older people like me - do you think attitudes have changed? Younger women - have you grown up with 10 talked about as though it was an undesirable size to be?

10 is me just skimming low health bmi (this was pre kids), 8 is ridiculous. and no one I have ever met is a healthy 6, it’s normally an indicator of a health or mental health condition. - in U.K. sizes!
I have a bmi of 20, so well into the healthy range and I wear an 8-10 top (10 by chest measurements), and 6 bottom. No health condition 🙄

no one I have ever met is a healthy 6, it’s normally an indicator of a health or mental health condition. - in U.K. sizes!

This, quite frankly, is bollocks.

in 1986 I weighed 7 stone at 5 foot 8 tall and was a size 10- an 8 was too small.

I really don't get vanity sizing. I mean I guess it must work or they wouldn't do it but I just can't imagine not buying something because it was a size up from another shop.

I'm just in the healthy BMI or at least last time I checked I was (months ago) and I'm a size 10 on top 14 on bottom. So even with the changes in sizes over time I don't know anyone who'd think of size 10 as fat.

Nobody sane thinks 10 is a big size.

This. Anyone who thinks 10 is a big size has issues.

I can say that in the 80s (@ an 80s size 12) if I felt 'fat' it wasn't tied into dress size or weight entirely. I knew I wasn't overweight or an overly large dress size. However, if I put a few pounds on my face would look fatter, jaw less and cheekbones would be less defined and also my stomach would look bigger and stick out. I could easily pinch an inch or two. This type of thing is probably what size 10 and fat is relating to. People with small frames can still carry excess body fat.

Are the people who think a size 10 is large American? The US size 10 is equivalent to our size 14.

Funnily enough I don't feel fat now (roughly the same size and the same weight as in the 80s). I think that is because I maintain my weight/size with much more exercise so have more muscle definition. Plus in my age demographic I'm clearly not at the upper end of the body size scale.

My 23 year says he can’t understand my generations obsession with being slim/skinny. He says whenever he hears of my friends talking about being skinny/losing weight he knows it’s the middle aged ones. He generally doesn’t think they need too and is sweet and politely complimentary towards them when appropriate. I was interested, considering this, when Victoria Beckham said being skinny is old fashioned. She’s right it really is. 10 might be on the larger side for very young girls and not for others. It’s common for women to fill out as they age especially around the menopause. A size 10 would probably be in the smaller side for a large proportion of 50 somethings. And as above your height defines everything. Very interested in above comments re vanity sizing!

I’ve been the same weight from age 16-50, 8 stone 4, and 5’4”
I was a 10 in 1980
I’m a 4-6 now, sometimes petite too

I’ve always been an 8-10. Literally since I was about 17. I’m now almost 50, definitely not the same size or shape and 9.5 stone rather than 7.5 stone but I’m still wearing size 8-10.

Jesus, another size 16 woman claiming that slim women have mental health problems. Some of the shitty things fatter women say on here about slimmer women is horrendous.

The irony! Your posts have been almost as inappropriate as the deleted post, but about larger sized people.

I didn't say you said anything about mental health... Do keep up.

Look over your posts about 'fat' women (your words). The posts about people being unable to walk past cake shops, etc etc. You stirred a lot of anger, which was no doubt the aim, so I find it very ironic indeed.

Yep, ironic indeed.

Also the dismissive way that any disagreement was brushed away because it simply must come from a fat person. It's extremely presumptuous as well as being offensive.

I'm a size 10, I wouldn't say it was 'porky,' unless I'm on my period I would say a happy, healthy medium tbh.

Agreed. I was a 10 then and occasionally an 8 or 12. Now I'm three stone heavier but still end up buying far too many 8s or 10. I reckon I'd have been a 16 if sizing had stayed the same as then.

Cant work out if I’m a freak or just v unlucky - horrified by this thread!! I USED to be (70s/80s) a size 8 - occasionally a size 10 - I have put on two stone since then and am now 14 in most, 16 in some - but never a 12 😱😱😱if sizing has really changed that much that would mean I have jumped about 6 sizes up?! 😱😭😩misery Monday!!!

I’m tall and a 8-10 with a small waist, wider hips/bum.
My shape used to be called pear shaped and would be constantly referred to in magazines as something I needed to ‘fix’/balance out. As a result I spent my teens feeling like I was fat.

Now my shape is considered desirable. It’s all bullshit, OP. Using the word ‘porky’ to describe a size 10 is kind of perpetuating that bullshit, don’t you think? Instead we need to start ignoring these attitudes.

@busymomtoone - I feel exactly the same. I am now wearing two sizes up from when in my early 20s, but I don't look that much bigger. According to some of the posts on this thread I should still be in size 12, but I'm not. I would say I have gone up two sizes, but according to some of these posts I have gone up around six - and I just don't believe that.

The problem with vanity sizing is that it skews our perception of what ‘healthy’ is. About three years ago, I stood on the scales and was shocked to discover, I was quite overweight. I was wearing the same size 10 I had worn since my teens. I’d been a very active teen, around 8-9 stone, and always considered lean and healthy.

I got lazier in my mid-late twenties and crept up to 13 stone (I’m 5’6). I didn’t notice because I was still a 10 in dresses and tops and occasionally a 12 in trousers. I walked a lot and was on my feet all day, so seemed more active than many others around me and ate lots of vegetables (as well as too much of everything else).

We are used to seeing much bigger bodies in the media, we are also used to consuming more food. I was in denial, I felt I looked physically healthy. I wasn’t though, I was very overweight and gradually getting bigger. There has been a positive change in society, we’ve moved away from the 90’s super skinny ideals and people of all sizes are being promoted in fashion and media. There is a big problem though with the fact that, as a nation, we are getting fatter and unhealthier, often without realising.

I changed my lifestyle because I think it’s important to look after the only body I’ll ever have. Vanity aside, I feel so different concentrating on nutrition and exercise. I rarely get ill, I have tons of energy, I feel great mentally. Size and shape isn’t important, but health is.

Not just your post but others too. There's no way you could of weighed 8/9 stone and then crept up to 13 stone and still wore a size 10! That's 3 to 4 stone difference.

That's a huge difference in weight.

It depends on where the weight goes , how you carry it and what you wear. My weight goes on thighs, stomach and bum. I still had quite slim wrists, calves and collar bone. I was mostly wearing dresses which are pretty forgiving. Jeans must have stretched with me. I was finding myself going up to a 12 when buying new trousers. Friends were shocked (or acted shocked) when I told them I was 13 stone.

Its only now that I’ve lost the weight I can see that I looked overweight. I genuinely thought I was ‘fine’ before. Our perceptions have been skewed.