How big to be considered fat?

[Iamhappytobehappy]

On the tails of the many threads on fatness / obesity and how bad it’s perceived I have started to wonder how people see me.

I consider myself big-boned (yes I know but I swear I am!) 5.7 tall and a size 14/16.

I don’t think I look fat. I am not slim or skinny but not fat.

I have been a size 12 and people seemed more attracted to me but I was also 20 years younger so not sure being bigger is the only factor to take into account.

AIBU to feel those threads are not for me or Am I self deluded and everybody pities me and finds me ugly, hopeless and fat because I am over what is a healthy weight for my height?
I am very active and so quite muscly. Eat healthyly but would need to starve to be the same weight of 20 years ago!

Tell me when do you start considering someone fat?

Fat is self-explanatory no? When you have flabby, actual fat fat surrounding your body?

If it takes you around half an hour to walk one mile each day, and you get tired and a little sweaty, then that is sufficient exercise. If not, then you should think about increasing the amount you do.
One thing I've noticed is the way people eat these days. Every morning/afternoon/evening a treat is required, usually cake, biscuits, and the like.Crisps are considered a normal part of packed lunch, you can buy with a sandwhich as part of a "meal deal"in most supermarkets. Lots eat fruit instead of vegetables, even though high in sugar and usually minimal nutrients.
Why do adults need breakfast, then a snack, then lunch, another snack and so on.

These are the people that consider the,selves to have a "normal" diet. The normal diet of most people in the Western world is causing obesity. To such an extent that over weight people are considered ok, and people that are an actual healthy weight are considered skinny.

Crisps are considered a normal part of packed lunch, you can buy with a sandwhich as part of a "meal deal"in most supermarkets

Agree. I buy low-cal sandwiches but have to skip the deals because the add-ons are just pure rubbish.

Funnily enough when I was in my early 20s my working lunch was a cheese sandwich, a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar. I was skinny.

Funnily enough when I was in my early 20s my working lunch was a cheese sandwich, a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar. I was skinny

Gosh, me too! Those were the days, she sighed wistfully

By sizing alone it's so hard to tell. Sizings are just mad sometimes.

I am recovering from anorexia. I am somewhere about 5'6 - 5'7 (168cm) and hovering around 53kg (about 8st 7?) BMI 18.7ish give or take a bit. I wear mostly size 12s, sometimes 10. My boyfriend says I am a 10 and that I wear my clothes baggy, so I'm not sure how accurate my view is.

At my highest weight I was about 11st 4. That was too much for me - I think about a BMI of 25 or 26, also wearing size 12 with a few 14s. I looked flabby, I didn't have a healthy relationship with food then either, and I was ashamed of my body. That said, I do a sport and was physically fit and at full fighting form.

At my lowest, I was 41kg (about 6st 7?). At 5'6/7, that gave me a BMI of 14 and I spent 5 months in hospital because my heart wasn't coping. I was still wearing size 10-12, and although the 12s were baggy, I don't think it was stupidly so.

I am 5"7 size 12/14 massive cleavage 34hh. I have lost 8stone exactly and still feeling of being fat. I have a mummy tummy ( baby 11 months old) weigh less than when j fell pregnant and still look chubby. 1lb exactly off being in a healthy bmi which I have not seem since 18. Obv being 8 stone heavier at one point I see it from all sides and the fat chick never leaves. Never happy with myself ( cos be current condition not sure) bug this is just me x

@Tinty
You’ve answered your own question tbh. Muscle is denser than fat. Your DD has more muscle than you. Simple.
You should both have your body fat % worked out and that will explain things.

A little over a mile a day is way better than no exercise at all
I wouldn't count this as exercise at all, to be honest. The recommended minimum for walking is 10000 steps, which is approximately 5 miles.
There's a fair amount of evidence that regular exercise is essential for good health, aside from it's part in weight control.

I think there is a vast difference from counting 10000 steps of movement and exercise which has your heart rate moving for 60 minutes into various zones and at times you can’t talk as you’re out of breath

I interpret 5 miles to mean actual walking outside (or on a treadmill I guess), and steps that you take just getting around doing things, climbing stairs etc, are extra. I've always had to walk everywhere (and had active jobs) and I've never seen walking a mile as a big deal.

You know when you’re fat. I do. 5ft 4 and 13 stone. In fact I’m obese.
#notproudbytheway

The whole “10k” steps thing is just to encourage people to walk more, the actual 10k figure is more or less picked out of the sky. What people need to do more of us walk BRISKLY - ie much, much faster than they think they need to. This is more beneficial to overall health than just trying to cram in the 10k steps everyday.

30 mins a day of brisk walking is far better for overall health and fitness than 10k slower steps a day. The Active 10 app is fantastic for logging this and I use it everyday. My health has really improved since doing it, and I’ve lost some weight.

Agree with pp. we have lost sight of what is normal. I went to a museum last year that had an exhibition of 1940s everyday clothing- not high end fashion. The dresses were tiny. We are too kind to people but I acknowledge it’s very difficult to get the balance right between telling someone they need to lose weight but also encouraging them to lose weight. I think our diet is very different to the past. In the old days people would have meat rarely, would have a boiled egg for tea or some soup. They didn’t have crisps, cake was very much a treat and they didn’t drink so much fizzy stuff. I myself am overweight. I am fat. I am a size 14-16 and 5’4”. I eat too much and don’t move enough. I’m trying to change that. Some people though are lucky that they eat a tonne of crap and never seem to get fat.

Agree with pp. we have lost sight of what is normal. I went to a museum last year that had an exhibition of 1940s everyday clothing- not high end fashion. The dresses were tiny.

Designed for people whose food was being rationed.

Designed for people whose food was being rationed.

But it's noticeable from the 90s. A size 12 in the 90s was much than it is now. I have some clothes from then and the size difference is astonishing.

We have lost sight at what's normal and people always use the whole 'size 14-16 is the national average so not big), even though that just means more people are overweight. (I know some tall people are not overweight and a 14-16 but that's not the majority).

I think people use the whole “size 16 is the uk average” to feel better about themselves - I know I do. I think oh it’s okay, I’m the same as everyone else. So I’m not that big. But actually we’re all a bit too big. And we’ve become too scared to say it because you only have to say the words associated with being overweight to spark off a furious reaction.

Yes food was rationed in war time and no one should be deprived nutritionally but there is a huge difference between feeling a bit hungry sometimes and under eating. We’ve all taught ourselves that we should never be hungry when actually for most people who are overweight the body needs to feel hungry to start to lose the weight!

Here's the NHS exercise guidelines
www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/

Yes it was a time of rationing and plenty of people have done studies to show as a nation we were healthier then. It coincided with a period when very few had cars, house work was literally hard work- no vacuums or washing machines etc.

We’ve all taught ourselves that we should never be hungry when actually for most people who are overweight the body needs to feel hungry to start to lose the weight!

Yes, I realised that when I got to grips with the poundage I'd let roll on over the years. There is nothing wrong with feeling a bit hungry. It's natural, it's normal, and it makes your food when you do have it taste amazing. Feeling a bit hungry, means your body is going to draw on its fat stores and you will lose weight.

Apparently, apart from being heavier, today's children are less fit than children were over twenty years ago.
They run around less and eat more.
Always surprises me when there are lunchbox threads on MN and posters list a lot of crap they give their kids but defend it as normal diet or say their kids can't be expected to go three hours without a snack because they shouldn't 'go hungry'
I doubt any kids of Mumsnet parents have a clue what hunger feels like.
It's a mindset that starts by new parents worrying obsessively about their baby's feeding and then offering lots of alternatives if a child is a bit fussy about food.
Overeating becomes a habit that people think is normal.
Fitness levels are massively affected by children nth having the freedom to play out with friends.

I agree, @Limensoda my DDs beg for a snack when I've just about got tea ready, saying, 'I'm starving, Mummy.' I say, 'Good, then you'll eat your tea.' Except then they might still say, 'I don't like it.'

For me, being fat is always relative. And not relative to other people but relative to where I was before. I felt fat, for example, going from size 8 before I had my son to a size 12 after I had him. So I felt I had to lose weight. Now I am a size 10 and accept that I will probably never go back to my old 8 but I am equally not that bothered to be honest.

A lot of people will laugh at this but what is the point of comparing yourself with someone else? There will always be people bigger than you and smaller than you. That's why, for me, it only make sense to decide whether I am fat compared to where I was or where I want to be. Nothing else matters. Including what other people consider fat.

I'd say rolls. Rolls are obvious fat. I have quite a collection sadly. I look at people who are all different shapes but only think fat if their shape is lost by fat.

Yes to people getting fatter over time - it normalises it. Kids are so much bigger now. My daughter swims a lot - even in her club, there are really fat kids. They swim up to 150 lengths per session so god knows what their parents are feeding them to keep them so fat at the age of 12.

Likewise saying ‘I’m 14 stone but I go to the gym so I’m healthy’ isn’t necessarily true. I worked as a PT for a long time and an awful lot of people go to the gym, but actually do hardly anything - just potter about, 10 minutes on an exercise bike, few bicep curls, maybe a Zumba class, then go home and eat too much as they think they have earned it. Just because you have been to the gym, it doesn’t mean you actually DID anything - or certainly not enough to eat too much afterwards in the mistaken belief that just turning up makes you healthy.