To think this is bad. H and m sizing

[Footloose80]

Out shopping looking for a gift. Saw a top. Their sizing ranged for xs to xl. Person is size 10. Asked assistant what size is a 10 and told medium. So,a size 12 is clearly a large and 14 xl.
I know vanity sizing and all that but this person is at the bottom end of normal weight. How can that be medium?

H&M sizing is pretty small, but it's for teenagers. No surprise.

Does it really matter what number or letter is on the label? I look at the item and if I’m not sure I try it on. I’ve got clothes in my wardrobe ranging from a 6 to a 12. I couldn’t fit into a size 10 dress this morning (slight excesses of Christmas) but I’m sat at my desk now wearing a size 8. They make no sense so why bother trying?

Forget the number, it doesn’t change your body shape. If you have to buy a 6 in one shop and a 10 in the one over the road it doesn’t mean you’ve put on several lbs by crossing the street.

Not directly relevant but we have a H&M adult size 4 skirt that fits my slim 6 yr old (25%ile BMI, not just parental bias), and is above the knee on her. How short would that be on an actual adult? They'd have to be scarily thin too. Sizes are very very random.

Body shapes only change in the space of a generation because of what covers them - fat!

Not necessarily. Improvements in living conditions (and particularly adequate levels of nutrition) and the introduction of a welfare state during the 20th century did have big effects on body shapes. Stunting and wasting used to be an issue in this country. Similarly the shift away from contorting women’s bodies into corsets will have had an effect.

Neither of those really apply to what’s happened to body shapes during my lifetime though (born in the 80s). That’s much more about increasingly sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary choices. It is amazing the difference in the average child’s body shape even just between my DS1 (young adult) being in primary school and DS2 (KS2), never mind in comparison to my childhood or my parents’ and grandparents’. And this increasingly large average size dies very much affect how people perceive their child’s (and their own) weight.

@catkind well, adult women's waists go in, and can go in to a very slim size. 6yos waists go out from their body and could be the same measurement as where the skirt would sit on an adults smallest part but they wouldn't be as tiny because their hips and breasts go out.

Note: the poor dietary choices are often a result of poverty now. In the past, poverty often meant too little to eat. Now it can mean that you get enough to eat (too many calories) because that’s what’s easily available within walking distance and can be prepared with minimal fuel. Plus a whole host of other factors that might affect what people eat. Choices are not always as straightforward as we might like to imagine.

I am a size 14 and complained in a outdoor clothing store that the extra extra large didn't fit me.

I'm not a rake but I'm definitely not an extra extra extra large person!

@RosemarysBabyDress

Sorry to derail this, but it is widely accepted that conditions like Hashimotos/underactive thyroid cause a slow metabolism

My Endochrinologist (a professor as well as consultant) told me this many years ago, and as a result, I have to be on a low-carb and sub-1750 calorie/day diet in order to maintain a normal BMI and weight

I'm lucky to have the luxury of my doctor's time and expertise to help me unpick my metabolic issues and therefore maintain a healthy weight but not everyone has this and would be stumped as to why eating the calories suggested by their fitbit for the activity levels still leaves them putting on weight.
So it is total nonsense to suggest there is no such thing as a slow metabolism
(I'm still a size 12 though, so I must be 'massive' )

medium.com/boosted/losing-weight-with-hashimotos-and-underactive-thyroid-5c540023b7

People do so like to get on their high horses about clothes sizing.

For what it’s worth, I have a bmi of 20, am short and can’t fit in size 8s. Different shapes.

H&m sizes are notoriously inconsistent and random, but calling a size 10 medium is perfectly fine imo.

Lets be honest these kind of threads never end well.

Yes size 10 seems small-medium. The smaller side of average.
Because we are all so used to people being obese and accept it as the new normal.
It's quite upsetting imo.

Agree with tenbob. I was effortlessly thin for four decades until my thyroid packed up after having a baby.
Also agree with TwiceMagic. I have been looking at the army medical papers for my father’s cousins, done when they signed up to fight 100 years ago. The two brothers were A. Five foot seven and eight and half stone, and B. Five foot one and six and a half stone.
Teenagers, so still growing, but lightly framed and almost certainly carrying tb.
Highr levels of calories and good quality food etc in infancy and childhood don’t just make people fatter, they make people taller and heavier generally, bigger boned. Look at the Japanese ! Much taller than they were even 50 years ago.

I’m not sure. I never used to shop in H&M because everything was too small. I’ve lost a fair amount of weight and thought I would give it another go. I’m finding that I’m fitting in their small or x-small sizes now which seems insane. I actually thought that maybe H&M had altered their sizes to be bigger due to the pressure on social media? Or maybe my view of sizing is just skewed because I have changed shape. Also I guess it could be my figure? A lot of stores seem to design clothes for people who are fairly straight up and down with no curves. So perhaps people with curvy bodies are finding it more difficult to find things that fit them. Post weight loss I am decidedly uncurvy. I’m by no means thin/skinny. I just don’t have much of a shape IYSWIM.

I actually thought that maybe H&M had altered their sizes to be bigger due to the pressure on social media?

@Junkmail As I keep saying on this thread. That's exactly what they did. It happened last year and was widely flagged up on their website. It advised anyone online shopping to buy a size smaller than they had previously.

A size 10 is not the ‘bottom end of normal weight’. You’re insinuating that a size 6 or 8 must be underweight and withering away by that garbage logic - in reality both would be in the range of healthy bmi. You clearly have a skewed perspective.

A size 10 is an average size - it’s not ‘small’ but median within a range of sizes. Obviously your perspective would be different if you are of the opinion of ‘oh it must be tiny, I wouldn’t be able to fit, I would be so happy as a size 10 etc’. In reality, medium is the best description for a 10, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a common size (it is!) or that there’s any bad connotations with being a size 10.

Realistically a size 6 and 8 would be a x small and small. As a size 6, size 10 clothing is oversized. Coats and jackets look baggy in an unflattering way, and I would have to be careful with trousers/skirts falling down as my waist would be too small for them. I would be fucked if a size 10 replaced a 6 as being small. You can’t have a token ‘small’ that’s supposed to fit sizes 4-10 as there’s a significant difference within that range and it wouldn’t successfully cater to everyone.

thecat Aah okay—I missed that, I hadn’t RTFT sorry. I also don’t shop with H&M online so I hadn’t seen the information. I don’t have a big issue with “vanity” sizing. It is what it is and I find it’s better not to worry about the number and just buy what fits. Also naturally peoples shapes change over time. I mean we’re taller now too. So obviously clothing sizes will change to match the population.

The person concerned is quite short admittedly but is no longer able to give blood due to her weight. Perhaps she is in denial about being a 10 and is probably more like an 8.

She’d have to be under 50kg (7st 12lb) to be unable to give blood due to her weight alone. She’d need to be under 5’4 to be within the healthy bmi range. Unless she’s noticeably very short, I’d very much doubt she’d be anything like a 10 in 2018.

A size 10 is not the ‘bottom end of normal weight’.

Totally skewed perspective.

With H&M, their sizing is all over the place, and does come up small, I would err on the side of caution, and stick with the Medium. My very slight 11 nearly 12 year old, has some H&M teen leggings age 13-14 years, and they are tight on here. My dd is just 7 stone.

There is no way my 5ft 7 stone 11 year old is the size of a 13-14 year old teen.

We bought a great pair of trousers for 14yo DS in H&M.
He was a very average size 14yo but the trousers were labeled age 11-12 .

This is why I like shopping in men's departments, especially for jeans. They're sized by measurement, not arbitrary numbers (and they last longer too, not to mention having real pockets that actually hold things)