To think size 10 is slim?

[joogle]

I realise it depends on how tall someone is, I'm 5'8" and a size 10 which in my head is a slim combination but when I look in the mirror I look quite chunky, it is driving me insane as I can't work out whether a 10 isn't actually that slim or whether it's some kind of weird dysmorphia where I look bigger than I am. Can I just add I am not fishing, just wanted some opinions and wondered if anyone else has a similar thing

Joogle-I am the same height and the same size. I have the same battle in my head. You are not alone but we ARE slim.

I've got to say I have a similar problem. I'm 5'10 and a size 10, but I feel that I'm very much still chunky since having my DD (18 months old)

It's not helped by the fact I was a 6/8 before I fell pg.

No real advice - just going through the same stuff

I think you are slim but I do understand what you are saying. I'm 5'3" and a size 8/10 and I think I am on the podgy side, especially around the tummy.

ANd the reason is years of comments from family members when a teenager.

I wonder if we are seeing the same image of ourselves as others see or it is somehow distorted in our own brains?

Sorry that should have been "years of negative comments"

I think you are slim. I'm 5ft 2 and size 8, at a size 10 I feel on the chubby side but you're 6" taller and I'll bet those 6" make all the difference.

your dress size is your torso, you may well be 'chunky' though. You could have quite chunky arms and legs and a slim middle.
Even so, I'm sure any woman would love to be a size 10.
It certainly means you're nowhere near obese and are probably very healthy :)
Enjoy it!

I remember at my thinnest (when I was 21) being a size 6-8, I thought I looked slim then, not skinny but just about right, thinking back I must have been incredibly skinny.

yukoncher - My jeans size is a 10, waist size about 27 inches and boobs 34dd, I do have thin arms, I can see that, but it is my bum and thighs!!!

Your are slim, much slimmer than the average woman. You said you are 9 stone 9 lbs, that puts you towards the low end of healthy weight for a woman of your height. (check this site: www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healthyweightcalculator.aspx?Tag=calculators)

My little sister has worked in the fashion industry for years as a makeup artist and photographer. It's all photo shop, photo shop, photo shop. Legs are stretched, middles are whittled. Skeletal models are airbrushed to make their skin and hair look healthy. The fashion/advertising industry has a lot to answer for.

This is just an aside, and only my own humble observation/opinion, but it seems to me that a normal heterosexual man does not dissect women the way we do ourselves. They sort of look at the whole picture. They seem to move through the world looking at normal women and liking what they see, feeling lucky to be with us.

I'd say, swear off fashion mags and the like. Use real people you see everyday (grocery store, school gates, etc.) as your yardsticks instead of pictures that are false anyway. You deserve to relax and feel good about yourself.

You are slim.
Society is sick.
It is as simple as that.

You sound as if you have an hourglass shape, if you have such a small waist combined with dd-cups, plus you feel your bum and thighs are big. This is the shape we supposedly aspire to - classical womanly proportions, but it's quite common for people built like this to feel fleshy and big, especially if they haven't learned how to dress to flatter their shape.

The key is to accept that you have curves rather than trying to hide them. So wear a short, fitted jacket rather than a long boxy one. Scooped necks rather than high necks, no gathered waists or baggy anything, and no empire lines.

You are shapely and don't have the straight up and down model shape, but this does not mean you are fat.

I'm a very similar size (though boobs are AA and I have no bum but lovely saddlebags ) and although I often feel a bit well-covered (as heavier than I was pre-children, plus everything has headed south), I know I look slim to other people.

Looking at yourself in underwear in changing-room mirrors is a VERY BAD idea - guaranteed to make you feel like a weeble.

And sizes have definitely got bigger, even in the last 15 years - I was a 10 back in the day, and am nearly a stone heavier now but am still a 10 (mostly)

Pardon me, this is pretty naff, but the advice is useful.

Size 10 is vry slim in my books. I am a (very tall) size 14 and feel slim bordering on curvy, though, so maybe I have reverse dysmorphia

I eat A LOT at the moment but I am breastfeeding, but even when I'm not I eat a lot, good stuff though!

I have thunderous thighs and a squidgy tummy, & still squeeze into a size 8 jeans (shrug). Am same height as you, OP. My breasts would disappear if I got any thinner.

You are slim, no question (I am a similar size to you, just a touch shorter and a touh lighter - 5'6.5 and 9st7) and also a size 10. I know I am pretty slim.

HOWEVER, at 35 I also know I look less taut than I used to. I've skipped the gym for the last couple of weeks and it really notices. It's possible to be what some people call "skinny fat", basically thin but untoned. Think the typical 70s build. So if you are unhappy with your body shape but not the overall size, resistence work at the gym might help.

That's my problem too - weight just drops off my torso (top half at least!) but stays firmly attached to my thighs and tummy

I have got to the point where I couldn't give a toss what number is on a label in a garment. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it nowadays. I try everything on - mind you, I always have done because having a short-waisted shape it's always been much harder to find flattering clothes. I have never been able to buy from catalogues or mail order.

I would agree that at your height you are slim.

I also think, though, that size 10 is not as slim as it used to be as the sizes in the shops have definitely got bigger, which quite frankly is a pain in the arse. To the poster who said why are there more 4s and 6s in the shops if we're getting bigger, it's because the occasional shop has realised that the people who were an old 6 or 8 do still need to wear clothes and what used to be their size is now too big. 4s and 6s are still difficult to find though - I haven't seen a 4 anywhere. I used to be an 8 and I haven't got any smaller but 8s in the shops are too big now.

To repeat, though, I do think that given your height you are slim. Sounds like you look great. I always thought size 10 was the perfect size (although that was admittedly before they started buggering around with it!)

I'm 5'2 and a size 10. I am broad and muscular though. Someone taller than me and a size 10 would be willowy. I read these body classifications - apple, pear etc and none of them fit me. I am a square!!!

The slim side of average from what I can gather but not slim/skinny. ALthough I'm a man so my knowledge of sizes aint great

joogle
if you're a size 10 and all the fat you do have is on your butt and thighs, then I think you must have the type of body that most people would love!

But, I can see what you mean.
You could be packing a lot of jiggle in those areas and still be a small-medium dress size.
Perhaps you are not 'slim' (if slim inplies athletic and 'skinny').
But petite yet curvacious IYSWIM.

Either way, jeez, I'm the same height and would love to have the shape you describe.