To think size 12 is not "heavy"

[CruCru]

I keep seeing comments on here from people who are size 10/12 who think they are heavy. I would never think this is even remotely heavy, just a healthy slim size.

My one top tip to feeling great about the way you look is NEVER go to Milan. You will just end up feeling like a badly dressed giant.

I'm 5ft10in and a 12-14. Pretty alright really...or so i thought :( People actually stared at me in disbelief. DH (who is 6ft2in and 17 stone of solid muscle) pointed out that we were not given flyers for any of the cool clubs and bars and people were when we walked down the street. In restaurants people at other tables openly stared at us eating. Honestly, you feel like shit. None of the men appear to be over 5ft6in and 9stone. Similar experiences in Milan too, where men would come up to DH and shake his hand in bars and say things like 'how do you satisfy such a big woman' or 'what a WOMAN' and gesticulate with their hands to my enormity. They thought they were being complimentary but i just wanted to cry. My new rule is only holiday in America - but not California.

I'm a size 10 at just under 11 stone with a bmi of 25, I think because of how I put on weight (fairly evenly all over) I'd need to put on at least a stone before I was a size 12 and I'd be firmly into the overweight bmi category.

So I find it perfectly believable that for some people a size 12 would be fat. It doesn't mean a size 12 is fat

Tryharder
Of course there are people with eating disorders and body image issues on Mumsnet. There are hundreds of thousands of them in the general population, so naturally they are also on here. They'll all deny it, because that is what addicts do. Deny deny deny deny deny. Feel sorry for them, not angry.

MrsKoala, a tall friend of mine had that experience in Milan (she's 5'10" and a size 12)! She was there for a year to work - she's pretty strong-minded but she did say she wanted to cry when she'd been there six months, wanted to buy new clothes and in every shop she went into the assistants looked her up and down and said "oh no, we don't have anything big enough for you".

MrsKoala
Have you ever been to Portugal? I swear that the average height there for a man is about 5'4 and for a woman about 5'.

Officially the waist size for a size 12 is between 28 and 30 inches, depending on the shop, but I reckon some shops' waist size for a size 12 has to be at least 31 inches, which is the beginning of the female "at risk" band.

Maybe this shows how the BMI scale doesn't really work.
If a doctor told my size 12 DD she was fat because some calculation said so ,I would be thinking he had gone mad.

On the flip side, you wouldn't say size 12 was too skinny either OP, but my almost 6ft friend is very skinny and is desperately trying to get to a 16- so it does depend on heightbody shape/structure.

If i was size 14 I'd look very overweight, if I was 8 I'd look way too skinny- that's my body shape. My friend is tiny, just under 5ft, she's a size 4 and is completely in proportion-anything more and she looks overweight, anything under she looks too thin.

I'm a size 10, weighing just under 9 stone with a BMI of of 20.7...

However, a guy told me that I was borderline in terms of what he would call a 'biggish' girl !!!

Weight is not a health issue UNLESS you

• are carrying excess fat around your vital organs (height weight ratio)
• are family wise predisposed to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, angina, alzheimers, COPD

in which case, the sooner you can get your weight back into the healthy range, the less of a burden you will be on your kids in old age

• have other health issues
• have increased cancer risk of any internal organ

Totally relative though isn't it? People on this thread shorter than me, heavier than me say they look gaunt...I'm an 8-10, 9.6/7stone, 5'9" and feel tubby.

Probably because all my weight is round my middle so I can wear size 8trousers because they're hipster style? Not topshop though - still have to squeeze into their size 10 skinnies and the muffin top is hideous

But, my mum is a size 12, she's 5'6" and she looks great

poppyhat
ungraded BMI is only for over 18's, but if she is a size 12 she is heavier than I am and I'm not far off 50

Ha! yes Shoot and Mintyy - Portugal, Italy, Spain and China - all no go zones for giant freaks like me.

I've said this on here before, but i'll say it again, my friend is 5ft5, her sister is 5ft. The 3 of us went out and pics were taken and put on facebook (cheers!) and it doesn't look like medium sized friend is normal and me and sister are bigger/smaller. Instead it looks totally like the 'smaller' person is 'normal', friend is chunky, and I am some kind of soviet union experiment to win at shot putt. Fucking depressing because i am perfectly in proportion. So pics of me and DH look completely normal. When you start adding other people to it we just look mutated. (Poor DS is going to have the same, at 11mo he is taller/heavier than a 2 yo)

Self confidence is fine when you're in your 20s, Pinupgirl. When you're in your 40s, you're acutely aware that no one in the preceding generation of your family made it to 40 without being on a hefty load of drugs for heart related problems and painfully aware that your feet have collapsed and your knee joints are bent out of shape due to previously undiagnosed hypermobility, you pay a bit of attention to what you eat and what you weigh.

I'm 5'4, weigh 8st4 and am an 8-10. I was around 9st4 and a size 12 this time last year and I looked awful. I felt fat and looked fat. I feel much happier at the size I am now. I was this size when I was 16, this is the size I am meant to be. I have been lighter, around 7 and a half stone, but I looked awful then too.

I am currently 9 stone 3.5 pounds height 5'2 and a size 10 -12. I have weighed 13 stone 4 as a 20 something and a size 16 -18. I am aware I am not overweight. But technically I am at larger end of healthy BMI. Although I should be happy with my weight now I still feel I could do with losing another 7 pounds. But I love food too much and struggle not putting weight on. I think if I did more exercise and was more toned this would help. I agree with others shape and build plays a part. As does fat and muscle ratio.

On me size 12 trousers would be heavy. Not even fat, but heavy for sure. I need size 14-16 tops, though, even at my thinnest.

Talkinpeace
My DD is 28
I don't understand your post

I'm 5'2 when I'm size 12 I'm fat

I was much slimmer when I got a rare form of cancer.Skinny smokers are not healthier.than size 16 me.Life is far too short to worry about what disease will get you first.I like to enjoy myself too much to suffer deprivation of any of the good things.I understand other people dont have my confidence and spend.their.lives thinking they would be happier a stone lighter.I pity them.

I'm 5'6 and do look heavy once I get to the larger side of a size 10.

So yabu - different people carry weight differently.

Pinupgirl
You talk sense

I'm 5ft 4 and a size 12. The nurse at the doctors the other day told me I'm overweight

I had to ask her to repeat herself as she was definately a little overweight herself

PinUpGirl - wise words. :)

How do you define size 12 ?
Clothes sizes have no meaning at all.

Weight and waist / height ratio are what can be independently checked

12 today was 16 in 1970 : When Dudley Moore was lusting after a 10 ...