who was the idiot who said that size12/14 was 'chubby'?

[mrsfuzzy]

spitting feathers over an article i read yesterday in the newspaper about this subject. it's common knowledge that the average size is 16 and over in this country so how would that make a lot of women feel? does it really matter what your size? also why the emphasis on women why not men? many of them carry weight, noone seems to say anything about it. we all come in various shapes, sizes and colours and everyone is unique and beautiful in their own way be it inside or out. media should stop giving us these so called ideals and let us decide for ourselves how we wish to look.

I'm 5'4'',I wear a size 12 bottom and a size 12-14 top .I could probably squeeze myself into the smaller size if I really wanted to.
I have actually stopped defining ny weight by my size,instead I note my BMI,fat % and waist measurement. The important thing is to be medically healthy,not what labels we wear in our clothes. I have weighed between 71/2stones and 14 stones 10,so a lot of variation there. Right now, my BMI is just over 25,but I'm fitter and stronger than I have been for a very long time. It is so important to look at our overall health rather than just our clothes size.For that reason [among others]I ignore things like celeb magazines, the Daily Mail and so on.

14 is definitely chubby. I have gained loads of weight this year for various reasons. I am 5'5" and currently obese in the BMI charts. I am wearing a 14 on top, 16 on bottom.

I suppose it depends on your own view of what is acceptable too. Some people are very happy carrying an extra bit of weight.

No doubt medical science is on your side, but a thread full of women aghast at the thought of being over a size ten is no place for me. It just doesn't feel like mumsnet.

5'5, size 12 - 14, definitely feel chubby. I think that has more to do with my total lack of fitness than anything else though; I wobble. BMI is 26 which isn't good.

I live overseas.

We were back in the UK this summer. We took the train from the airport to my parents' house. As soon as we arrived, my 2 year-old said to his grandparents 'England is SO FULL of fat people.'

He's right.
The average isn't a healthy average.

I'm a 12/14 and 5ft 8.....am prob considered 'chubby' and my BMI is in the overweight category. At a size 16 it'd prob be moving into 'obese'.

i don't care what size clothes i wear but I do want to have a lower bmi. Somewhere around 22/23 and am working on reducing it.

I think its really worrying that the average size is a 16 - even at a 14 I'd imagine most women are overweight....possibly even at size 12. normalising that a size 16 is ok is really wrong imho. It wasn't until I started exercising/ watching my weight and looking at BMI that i realised how overweight most of us are. People i considered to be 'slim' or 'ok' aren't actually...they're probably carrying 20lbs too much weight.

Just because the average is 16 doesn't make it ok. Most people are overweight in this country.

I am 5'3" and petite framed. If I needed a size 12 I'd be fat - big roll around the stomach, start of a double chin, thighs meeting a couple of inches above the knee fat.

We are not 'aghast at being over a size 10'. We are, quite rightly, pointing out that a size 14/16 is verging on or actually is an unhealthy size/weight for most women. I couldn't give a shite what size/shape people are, but when it impacts in such a huge way on healthcare and then how much tax we all have to pay to treat the diseases associated with obesity (which are avoidable diseases) then I think we should all take a good look at how we perceive ourselves and each other.

I've see-sawed with my weight for many years, and sizing in the shops is changing too. At the same weight as I am now 10 years ago I was a size 14 across the board, now I'm able to pick up a 12 - it's just another way for retailers to try and make us feel that fat/chubby/overweight/stocky/whatever is normal and okay. It's not, it's unhealthy and can have very serious long term impacts. I'm 5' 3" and have spent the past 12 months losing 2.5 stone and I have another 10lbs still to go. At a size 18 I was obese, at a 16 I was very fat, at a 14 I was fat, at my current 12 I'm stocky/chubby. I'm aiming for 9st 6 and a current size 10, which measuremnt wise seems to equate to a 12 from a decade ago - I have clothes from when I was that previous weight and have compared the two.

People are often too quick to discounts what being overweight really means, and as a society we've forgotten just how slim being 'fat' can actually be, iyswim. Ever increasing averages are distorting what we assume to be healthy.

It is so important to look at our overall health rather than just our clothes size

Yes to this,fatlazymummy.

Malnutrition costs the NHS more than obesity but I guess that doesn't make good headlines.

As someone up thread said overall health is more important than one measurement. My dh is a healthy weight whereas I am overweight, but I am healthier than him, I don't smoke he does, I drink far less than him and I take regular exercise he doesn't.

Sorry but im a size 14. 5ft4 and id say im fat. never mind chubby.

I am 5ft 2" and a 12 - I have had 3 kids and I am not Kate Moss

(I hate this competitive size game btw)

I go to the gym 3 times a week and I do boot camp every Sunday - I run, I ride and I am fit and healthy

I couldn't give a rats left one if I am chubby - I am happy, healthy and loved which is all that matters!

My brother's fiancée is a 12-14 and looks like a model (she's nearly 6 foot). I was a size 10 before I got pregnant and had a BMI of 25. I'm 5'4" and have a pretty small frame. I could fit into all of her clothes but she looked a damn sight better in them than I did!

You have to go with waist measurements, BMI and body fat %. Being little (ie. My dress size) didn't mean I wasn't a bit chunky.

Callisto has already said what I want to say (and better than I could put it).

I'm 5'4, I am chubby at size 12.
According to the NHS you're at a higher risk of health problems at a waist size over 31.5 inches.
Next size 14 is 31 inches.

The "average" simply means that the range of sizes from very slim to very, very overweight balances out with a 16 in the middle. It's not a good thing. I'm 5'5" and a size 16 on a good day if I suck my belly in and most definitely very overweight, if not obese.

Whether or not someone looks chubby should be irrelevant imo. We ought to focus more on internal health - after all, even someone in a size 10 can be very unhealthy - than just what we look like.

Im 5'2" and normally a size 12/14 (am 35 weeks pregnant so expanding), i dont feel chubby at all.

I feel sexy with my size

I'm a 12 atm and 5ft7 I look and feel my best at 10 top 12 bottem ( quite like my Jlo arse) I at a 14 I am over weight and look it to, have never been a 16. I am broad to like the poster above said about cartman and look sketelal at 10 all over.

KENleeeeee hello honeybunch

I am quite slim at a 12, and am only 5'5. I'm hourglass rather than apple though. At 12 I have a tiny waist and you can see my ribs. If the weight was around my middle, not bum and boobs, it would be more unhealthy.

I'm 5' - size 10 looks a bit chunky, size 12 would be fat, size 14 would make me look like a huge chubster. I'm a size 8 currently, I look like I've got a bit of a belly, size 6 looks 'normal'.

Only very tall woman can look flat tummied and healthy at size 14, that said, as a nation we are getting taller as well as wider, so it may well balance out.

I'm barely 5'1" and if I was a size 14, I would look like Winnie the Pooh.

It very much depends on your height and frame.