Is a 28” waist really small?

[Ithinkofyouallofthetime]

So I bought jeans in this size as an insensitive to fit into them.

A friend who I would consider as slim (she’s also tall 5 foot 10) said that’s a really small size like teenage girl size.

I am 5’3” with a 28” waist and I am towards the upper end of the healthy BMI category on the NHS website. Of course it will be a bit different if you’re 5’10 but I can’t imagine it would plunge you into the underweight category.

It's small for me. My body shape is straight up and down, my waist is 30inches. My bmi is 20.2 so I'm not over weight, my, stomach is flat, I run, I cycle and I do yoga so I'm not unfit. My body just isn't curvy. I remember as a teen my friend measuring my waist and hers and laughing at me because my waist was bigger than hers even though she weighed 2 stone more and she was an inch shorter, she was an hour glass body shape. I had food issues for years after that one.

Anyway my point is every body is different. No one can tell you if 28inches is big or small for you.

My jeans at 18 were size 10 with a 22 inch waist. Wouldn't fit over my leg now but it shows how sizing has changed.

Depends on your shape. As a teenager I was slim but had a 29" waist. I had a friend who was also slim but not skinny, more hourglass than me, and had a 25" waist .

I don't think 28" is particularly small, no. But it's not large by today's measurements.

What is clear is that over the past several decades women's body shape has changed significantly and waists are now much larger, on average, than they used to be. So a 28" waist now seems small because it's being compared with much larger sizes.

I used to be a size 10-12 when I was in my teens and early 20s. In those days, size 10 was waist 22" and size 12 was 24". Size 10 was the smallest size available in the majority of shops. If you were smaller than that, you had to get children's clothes (which I sometimes did).

I still have a few of my clothes from the 1970s and there's no way they will ever fit me again! Nowadays, I wear a modern size 10-12 and the waist sizes are at least 6" larger than they once were. I think my waist is about 29" now, which would have been a size 16-18 in the 1970s.

I had a 23 inch waist when I was a teenager back in the sixties. A size 8 was the smallest then and I had to take most of my clothes in because they were too big.

I wouldn't say so, I'm 25 inch at the moment and would say generally that is fairly small but not the smallest.

I do think waists have got bigger though.

I'm a 10.

Im 5foot 2 with a 24inch waist. I wear a uk 4/6.

Yes it's very slim especially if you are tall

My friend is 5 foot 10. I’m 5 foot 6.

28" in jeans or trousers is a size 10 which is what I wear but I have narrow hips. My actual natural waist is more like 32"

My 13 year old daughter is 25inches and she is VERY skinny. 25inch waist is size 4/6

I’m a size 10 and wear Levi 501’s in waist 28.

28 is not small

I'm 5'9" with a 32 inch waist and wear a 10-12

I don't eat or drink excessively and go to the gym 3 times a week. I don't look fat, perhaps a bit rounded.

I am confused as to how to get to a 28" waist which is considered normal according to this thread. Am I meant to not eat?

I’m 5’10” and had a 28 inch waist in my late teens. I was verging on underweight (lots of worried chats from the GP about putting on just a little weight when I went for pill check ups!). So it’s small but not tiny at that height.

I think a lot depends on back size. If you have a broad back your waist will be bigger even if slim.

I’m 5ft2 and a 28 inch waist and I’m not what you’d describe as slim. I think it’s comparative to height 😂

That depends on your shape.

I have a 28” waist, but thunder thighs, so jeans that fit my thighs usually gape on the waist.

Yeah this is why it depends on your height .

I’m 5ft 3 and the maximum healthy waist size for me is 29 or 30, so 28 isn’t particularly small.

But if you’re 5ft 10, it will be quite small. Not necessarily teeny tiny but small.

28" is a size ten. I'm tall and I wore it throughout my 20s/30s. Slim but no one would have called me skinny or small.

Actually I think your waist is supposed to be a maximum of half your height in inches.

When my waist was last 28 inch I was overweight by BMI.

Yes I was 28inches abd 5ft 10 as well. I was so gorgeous😍. I had a coke bottle shape😢

I'm the same in that I have narrow hips. I can find it hard sometimes to find trousers that fit properly if they aren't stretchy because they have 'hip flaps' that I just don't fill out. I bought a running jacket yesterday and had to buy xsmall becasue the small had lots of spare material around the hips for hips that I don't possess. My waist is 30 inches though.