To think when you get to a certain age, you have to choose between your figure or your face as you can't have both

[Shutupanddrive]

Someone told me this the other day, it had never occurred to me before. So basically if you keep your figure, your face looks a bit haggard. Or if you have a bit more weight on your body, your face looks better. Is this true? So which one will you be/are? Or Aibu?

I just lost four and a half stone and look a lot prettier than when I had a great big fat face.

Good point deathbychoc. My mum has a neck like that though she has always been quite slim. I am doomed!

I think this can be true if you have to diet severely. If you're naturally thin your face isn't going to look guant, but sometimes you do see it in women who've thinned down. They lose more collagen (or maybe don't make as much?) by avoiding essential fats etc

fluffy well done! And tell me how you did it please

I cut out all crap and most carbs...but that's a whole new thread.

I think there's some truth in it.

All the people in my age bracket (late 30s-ish) that are wrinkly are the ones who are on the skinnier side.

I think there is a great deal of truth in this old saying.

I think being fat is terribly ageing, but the extreme thinness that young people can carry off is even more so (thinking of Madonna's sinewy arms and Melanie Griffiths knees as examples).

It depends on your look. I look better slimmer (trying to lose weight at the moment). My face is one of the chubbiest parts of my body and even at a size 8
I wish it was less round. So no I don't have to choose between face and figure because I'm not built like that. I don't do haggard and I actually look older when I
gain a few pounds. Extra weight makes me look matronly and frumpy.

I would say there is some truth in it, but only when you get to your 60's/70's.

My mum spent most of her life on a diet, even as a pensioner. She was a dancer, so very fit and mobile, but she lost too much weight and her face suffered as she did get a lot of wrinkles. A bit of weight on her and she would have looked much better.

Horrible saying, I think promoted by the chubby.

I am slim and I have wrinkles - I am in my 40s, what do you expect?

Fatness is not an option for me (I am too tightly wound to gain weight) but I suppose I can be punished for my irritating slenderness by having my wrinkles pointed out to me.

I think if you are in the normal weight range your face will look the best that it can. If you are underweight your face will probably look worse, the same if you are overweight. I think good health shows in your face. I think the best looking older people are the ones who have kindness in their eyes.

I'm 4 stone overweight and get mistaken for ten years younger than I am.

Being a porker smooths out the wrinkles.

This is not an excuse for being a porker like me mind

looks at self what if both have gone down hill then what

This is only true if you think that only skinny bodies are attractive.

"After 40 a woman has to choose between losing her figure or her face. My advice is to keep your face and stay sitting down."

• the late, great Dame Barbara Cartland

I believe this is where the idea originated. [geek emoticon]

I think there is some truth in this, although these days I would say the marker is not over 40 but maybe over 50, 55, 60?

I lost a lost of weight a couple of years ago (mid-30s) and know that my face looked awful for it, far too gaunt. I'll try to keep a happy medium in the mean time but I do plan on being a cuddly happy granny like mine was (hence my body shape/type, short with a tendency to stout, I get it from her!).

Not for me. I'm size 8 (8st 7lbs, 5ft 5") and 38 yrs old.

My face looks better at this weight than at 9st because it shows my bone structure. I actually look better in my late 30s than I did in my early twenties because I carried puppy fat which concealed my cheek bones/bone structure. My figure is better too because I'm curvier. It's not a doom and gloom this getting older lark

not all doom and gloom

Barbra Cartland's view: "Keep your face and stay sitting down."

The only people I've heard say this are the scrawny - remember reading an interview with Courtney Cox a few years ago where she said, I know my face looks awful but it's the only way I can keep my arse small enough.

Like most things looks-related it's bollocks though - luck of the draw.

(she may have said, "butt")

Face exercises definitely help. They just add a bit of tone to cheeks /chin.

I think there is an element of truth in it. I have 9 aunts ranging in ages from 50 to 70 and the ones who have always been slim have not aged well. Which is a nice treat for the various SiL which they merciless teased for being fat in the past (not a nice family emotiocon)

I disagree with this. Having lost weight [at 52] my face looks much better than it did. Having said that, I am not aiming to be as thin as I was when younger, rather I just want to be a healthy BMI and physically fit.
To me losing weight in a healthy way is important ie eating nutritious foods and exercising. I often get told that I look well, healthy and fit, and being as objective and truthful as possible, I do think I look reasonably good for my age.

Thanks for replies. It seems some people are just unlucky compared to others. I'm not sure which I am yet. I need to lose at least two stone, am 36, but do have 'those' cheekbones so I might be ok! Diet starts Monday (again)