to think that size 12 isn't large?

[wussbird]

Well am I?

Just looked on seraphine.co.uk for a maternity top I saw in a magazine and they have it in small, medium and large.

The large is a size 12-14!

When I was a size 12 I was not be very happy with how I looked! BUT I am a fairly petite 5ft2 (despite e-cup frontage) and extra weight shows immediately. My 5ft 10 sister probably wears a 12, but looks slimmer than me!

I am a 12. Possibly a 10 in high street stuff.

I am not fat.

I do however, have va va voom. My shape is curvaceous, not straight up and down, whatever my weight iyswim.

Its not the size its the height, Im a size 14 at present (currently on diet as I am huge) but im 5ft 2, so a 14 makes me look fat.

If you follow a healthy diet and get enough exercise, who gives a toss what it says on your dress label?

Food is good for you. Dieting is bad. You'll often find the fattest people have been dieting most of their lives.

People may be taller than they used to be but the bone structure of a 5'6 woman now would be the same as a 5'6 woman 40 years ago.

I agree with LC200, the normalisation of being overweight is dangerous. If you walk around Kensington, or most of London. you don't see many overweight people. When it's socially frowned on to be heavy, people make more effort. I think this is why French women are thinner - they're very judgemental. We should find somewhere more balanced, of being less judgemental but realising that being overweight is not healthy.

That company is set up by a French woman, who will see size 12 as large. I live in France and size 14 is labelled here as XL.

I think most of us in the UK, men and women, carry an extra stone or two, including me. After living in Turkey, one of the things I noticed from walking down the street in the UK, was how comparatively fat we were. Especially young people.

Sizes have definitely got bigger in recent years. I have a couple of items from 20 years ago in a size 12 that I can bearly get over my thighs yet in todays sizes I easily get into a 10. It also depends on which shop you got to eg. I'm a size 8 in Next!

I agree with LC200 too. I get really cross with people saying '40% of women are size 16 plus' (or whatever) as if this is OK beuase there are so many of them! That means 40% of people are OVERWEIGHT and costing the country millions in weight/health relatred problems. Esp as you have all said, a size 16 now is LOTS bigger than it was 20 years ago. Most people are greedy, eat too much crap and do no exercise. I am a fitness instructor and i hear all sorts of rubbish from people about what they think is healthy/unhleathy and I am amazed at the lack of education!!

Sorry, gone off topic a bit! But you're def right about sizes going up - I buy the same size clothes I did as a student in the mid 90s - but I am a stone heavier.

"I've yet to meet a woman who would be sad to go from a size 12+ to a size 8-10. Based on this I think most ladies despite what they say, secretly realise that 12+ is fat."

Proffers handshake to Niceguy,

Pleased to meet you. I am a 12 and would hate to be an 8-10, I would look ridiculous.

i am a size 10-12, but at 5 foot 8 it suits me. before i had kids i was a size 8 and weighed 8 stone, now at 10-12 i way nearly 10 stone. any skinnier (like i was when split with ex 3 years ago) and i would look wrong. i have a BMI of 21.8 and am perfectly happy with that. a year ago i was a full size 12, at nearly 11 stone and looked a bit chubby, but i went to the gym and lost a stone. when i split with my ex i went down to 7 stone and a size 6 hung off me, at my height it looked awful.

On another subject when I was on holiday in Florida a couple of years ago it felt like there were two species living there. On the one hand, there were some seriously large people there - but then again the top I bought in Abercrombie (before they went all naff with dodgy policies about disabled employees and I stopped shopping there) was an XL I think. I was thinking, if I'm an XL what the hell is the lady out in the food court stirring seven sugars into her Fanta?!*

In one store they had different sections. Children, men, "ladies", and there was a label like "real ladies" or something for plus sizes.

• This did happen. I was

"stirring seven sugars into her Fanta?!*"

Wow!

I'm 5'8, considered quite slim and am a size 12.

I thought a 12 was smaller than average nowadays?

www.seraphine.com/Help/Help.asp?cpage=Maternity-Clothes-Size-Guide

That seems fair - if you look at the sort of clothes they are selling it, most women would be size 8-14 before being pregnant.

Their sizing is:

s 8/10
m 10/12
l 12/14
xl 14/6

I'm one of those oddities in that my trousers are too loose for me as a size 14 but I can't fit into a 12. In fact we joke that I need to put on weight to make it so that jeans will fit me comfortably as my problem isnt fat but the width of my hips. Side on I'm thin. In profile I don't look much bigger than I did when I was married at 5ft 11 and 9 stone. Front on though is another matter, my hips are really really wide and it's bone so theres not much I can do about it. Being told 12+ is large and so fat is pretty depressing for me

I'm 5'8" and a 12-14. If you need a boost & are taller, buy form Long Tall Sally: I often fit their 10 and once comfortably wore size 8 jeans!!! What a rush!

I am currently loosing baby weight. I am overweight both based on BMI and bodyfat %.

I am a 12/14 (at 5 foot 4). Unless you are tall, 12/14 is overweight.

I look best as a size 10, although happy to be 10/12.

Surely it's relative to your height? As in if you're 5ft and a 12 then you're bigger than 5ft10 and a 12??

Also on that ridiculous notion of wanting to be smaller than a size 12....when I was around 17 I went on a diet and became a size 8-10, my periods stopped because I didn't have enough body fat!!! My anxious mother took me to the doctors.

I am 5ft 8 and a large athletic frame - albeit currently not so athletic as regrettably I am not size 12 atm!(size 8 feet, large wrists - need to have extra links put in watch straps, broad shoulders etc). Size 12 is slim on my frame. Really petite women might comfortably be smaller than a size 12 and not be painfully thin, but for taller well built women that isn't so

I bought a pair of maternity trousers in my normal size. Even at 9 months pregnant they wouldn't stay up without braces.

This pregnancy I've given up trying to find maternity wear (I'm size 16/18 on top and size 20 on the bottom) I've come to the conclusion that clothes manufacturers' logic is larger women = unattractive = no sex = don't need maternity clothes.

This doesn't apply to the some very expensive designers whose clothes seem to be dry clean only and priced so you'd want to wear them forever.

Artix I recently did that as my new look 16 jeans were too loose. Went to long tall sally and got 14s which are also too loose.

But until someone starts making clothes my body shape I will always have them too loose

I am size 5'5 and size 10. According to my scales that measure body fat and bmi, I am overweight, and I really feel it, I can see rolls of fat around the middle. I think you should be really really to tall to be a helthy weight at size 12...

Grr, sorry for typos, I mean iam 5'5 tall..

I'm 5'4, size 12 and weigh 10st 11lb. That's overweight, medically. (I am doing something about it btw!) When I was a teenager I was size 12 and weighed 9 stone. So the size has grown by almost 2 stone over 20 years. If I look in the mirror, I see what used to be size 16 when we were young, but the psychology of 'still' being able to buy size 12 on the high street worked for some time. I truly thought I wasn't overweight.

I've been a size 6 to 8, and looked ridiculous and emaciated. The doctor told me I was unhealthy that skinny. (Heartbreak diet, not intentional!)