To think a 84cm / 34 inch waist is not "slim"

[apenny4]

Here's a link to the article

I'm very open to being told IABU, in fact I'd be quite relieved to be told I have a warped view. Right now though I don't think a 34 inch waist is slim. To me slim is no larger than a size 10 so around a 27 inch waist max.

Unless you are a much taller than the average woman (average being 5' 4"?) I think a healthy (in the general sense of the word) waist is less than 30 inches.

However I have a small frame and have felt overweight whenever I've needed to wear size 12 bottoms (and that's still not over a 30 inch waist).

The irony is that I still think I'm at high risk of developing diabetes because my father has it and whilst not overweight I have a diet quite high in sugar.

Genuinely interested in people's views on this and whether my own view is out of kilter with the norm.

[Frostycake]

Yes, the idea of 'slim' has been warped because the average person is overweight these days. A 34" waist certainly isn't slim unless you're 6'2" and even then...

I am just over 5'6" with a 32" waist 38" hips and 38" bust. I am overweight and an apple shape. If I measure myself at the slimmest part of my body (under boob) I'm 30". This isn't what medical professionals do though, they either ask you to bend sideways and measure where you 'bend' as your waist or they simply measure your abdomen at belly button level.

It's all very confusing especially when you think of how clothing sizes have ballooned over the years as well.

I'd describe the woman in the picture as 'average' ie, overweight (slightly).

I agree that the Duchess of Cambridge is slim.

[Thefitfatty]

I think we've lost the idea of what healthy is. In everyday life, everyone seems to be a bit (or hugely) overweight, with rolls and jiggles, and then the media sells us women who are borderline underweight (or full on underweight) as the ideal, which isn't achievable for most people and this means that they give up on trying to be healthy.

We've lost our happy median.

[Frostycake]

Interesting Moln I have the infamous 'thigh gap' too - it's just the way I'm made - I carry all my weight above the hip instead of below the hip.

People call me slim flatterers but I'm not. When I was slim I was called 'skinny minny' even though my BMI was 20. I don't think big bones help as you look thinner than you actually would look if you had small or normal sized bones.

Agree 'YouGotta* I have a dress of my mothers from the 1940s in a size 16. It wont go anywhere near me and I wear a 12.

[TheFormidableMrsC]

Me too, my legs are my best feature and have a thigh gap shallow I know but definitely carry too much above hip, my hips are very slender. I sound like a triangle

[pandarific]

I think it's a bit unfair that people get hammered for having fat around the waist. yes, it's more dangerous, but it's also genetics which determines where you store your fat. If I could go into my own genome edit it to make me an arse-storer believe me I would!

[toffeeboffin]

I'm a size ten, do not have a thigh gap and you can see the bones in my chest, but only just.

I think I'd have to be a size six to have a thigh gap.

My mum thinks I'm too thin (I'm around ten stones!?) but I've seen pictures of her after I was born (second child) and she is way thinner than I am now. She's probably a size 8 on that pic.

People have definitely got bigger and that's become the norm.

[sleepwhenidie]

Not to deny there is an issue with obesity but as a species we are getting bigger, taller and with bigger feet and often imo, more muscular. So it stands to reason that if you take clothes sizes as representative of sections of people by size (rather than a specific set of measurements), then a size 12 a couple of decades ago would be much smaller than today. We can call it vanity sizing but the alternative would be almost doing away with 'real' size 6 or 8 for adults because the market wouldn't support it. And increasing the upper range of sizes, which many people wouldn't like . That doesn't mean a size 12 woman today is unhealthy or overweight compared to her granny, age 30 and a size 12 then...

[Siolence]

I do wonder if waist has been defined on a male body and where it is to be measured needs to be defined for women.

[toffeeboffin]

The 'norm' will also vary greatly not just through diet but also genetics : Northern Europeans tend to be bigger than Asians for example. Dieting can't make your bones smaller

[sleepwhenidie]

Yes boffin - good luck to a uk size 8 person shopping for same in Japan I'm sure!

[TheSecondViola]

What a very confused OP.
AIBU to think 34 in waist is not slim---> linking to article that says 34 in waist IS NOT SLIM.

Irony that you have a higher risk of diabetes because of a family history of diabetes and a high sugar diet? Thats not irony, thats 2 of the biggest risk factors for diabetes!

Honestly, did you even read the article you linked to?

[TheCatsMeow]

Siolence that's interesting. I did the bend thing because this thread has me confused and I bend where I think my waist is which is no where near my belly button.

Would make sense if it had been done on a male body

[ouryve]

40 years ago, I most definitely knew plenty of men with a greater than 34" waist.

And of course it's not slim. I'm an apple with a 33" lack of waist and I'm almost a stone overweight, at the moment. So most definitely not slim.

It is harder for some people to have a slim waist, though, whatever their BMI. At 18, I was little over 7 stone and had a 25" waist (and 36" hips). I got down to just over 9 stone, a few years back, when I was 40, before my current health issues really kicked in. I had a 31" waist, even then and couldn't get trousers to fit my 36" hips. Even men's trousers were too baggy around the bum.

[Ambroxide]

the alternative would be almost doing away with 'real' size 6 or 8 for adults

When I was a teenager in the 80s, there simply wasn't a size 6 (and only sometimes an 8) available in most shops. I took a size 8-10 and weighed about 7 stone. I was very slim and extremely fit. I had a 22inch waist. I was perfectly healthy, if a little underweight but as a very active teenager it wasn't unhealthy or unexpected underweightness, IYSWIM.

Now that I am 47, I sometimes take an 8 and sometimes a 10. I have taken a 6 in the past as an adult (pre-baby, I was quite slim then). I have a 28 inch waist at the slimmest part which is also my belly button. I am NOT slim and I am not fit. I have a very wobbly tummy which clearly carries some extra fat and my breasts and hips are far larger than when I was young. My body fat percentage is somewhere around the top end of the healthy range. Those sites that give you a healthy weight tell me mine is pretty much bang on, but genuinely I am a little overweight for my very small frame.

I think most of these ways of measuring fatness are a very blunt instrument, tbh.

[ouryve]

And my belly button is level with the top of my hips, too. The effect of pregnancy on my abdomen hasn't been at all helpful, there.

[Iamnotloobrushphobic]

The ideal weight calculator says I am below everything except the min bmi. I wouldn't class myself as slim. I am 5ft 3" and I usually have a 28" waist but my waist is currently 31" mainly due to giving birth to a larger than average baby 11 weeks ago and having separated stomach muscles. My weight is almost back to what it was pre pregnancy but it will take a while before my waist will be 28" again and I don't think I will ever be able to describe myself as slim like I did when I was aged 20.

[TheCatsMeow]

ourvye that's where mine is, it's always been there even before pregnancy

[sleepwhenidie]

But by definition it has to be a blunt tool so it can be applied to everyoneAmbroxide? Both BMI and waist size are general measures - if you fall into the 'at risk' area it doesn't necessarily mean you are unhealthy (just as being inside 'normal' means you are healthy), but you can then look at the reasons why that might be the case and make any lifestyle changes if necessary. Based on what you say, you need to lose fat - not weight , but you have taken the extra step to find out your bf % despite your 'healthy' BMI (which many people wouldn't do, though they may be alerted by the other blunt measure, waist size). Other people may be into the overweight category per BMI, but on checking their body fat find it is low and looking at other lifestyle factors such as exercise/alcohol/smoking/diet, they could be much healthier than someone like you.

[OneFlewOverTheDodosNest]

You can't really rely on dress sizes to give you an idea of whether you're slim or not - all they'll do is tell you how slim you are compared to the rest of the people who shop in that store.

That's because a 12 is always a medium, with 10 being small, 8 being extra small, 14 being large and 16 being extra large for that stores sizes (this changes if a store uses different sizes e.g. 6 - 14, 0 - 4 etc)

A company will cut most of it's medium sizes, fewer of it's small and large sizes and fewer still of the extra small, extra large sizes in order to make best use of resources. So in order for them to remain profitable they adapt their medium to suit their medium customer which is why clothes have become larger (and longer / taller) since the 60s - because we've all changed too.

It's also why if you shop somewhere aimed at teenagers such as TopShop you'll get significantly smaller sizes than somewhere like Hobbs.

[Iamnotloobrushphobic]

How can a belly button be in line with somebody's hips? Are you sure you have your hip line correct because the hip line is actually very low in most people?

[lastqueenofscotland]

One flew I hate people using size as a measure for if the are fat or not- I see it on mn and in the office all the time "how can I be overweight if I'm only a size 12/14/16"
Very easily....

[Ambroxide]

I know it has to be a fairly blunt tool, sleepwhenidie. My point was just that you can't look at waist size or dress size or whatever in isolation and assume everything's fine. We all need to apply common sense as well. I'm well under the limit for healthy waist size, I take a small dress size, my BMI is perfectly OK and puts me in something like the 25th centile if I was under 18 but I am definitely a bit fat (which is not exactly unusual at my age but clearly not ideal). I just need to stop sitting around on my fatter than usual arse and start moving around a bit more! And not eat so many crisps.