AIBU to think that most women over 35..

[thinkingaboutmyage]

Are a size 10 or above?

My friend has suggested that my new year resolution should be to slim down and tone my body - st first I was offended, but I actually think she was genuinely trying to be helpful or perhaps, motivational?

She’s a size 6 having focused on exercise/diet last year and lost 2 stone! I’m a size 10 and eat whatever I like she thinks that once I’m 40 it’ll be hard to maintain my weight unless I join her as a fitness fanatic

AIBU to think that most of us over-35s are a size 10 or above though. She’s the exception not the norm - her lifestyle seems tedious as she lives at the gym.

40+ and size 10 here. I have never dieted in my life. I eat what I want and my daily exercise is walking my dogs. I'm happy. My youngest dd is size 6. She looks like she could do with a good meal tbh. (She eats well BTW)

I’m almost 42, 5’7.5 and have a pretty good six-pack. I absolutely fitness, though.

^^Love fitness, that should read. I’m a size 8.

Yes, as you well know, a size 10 is huge, diet immediately.

I was a size 6 until I had kids at 40. But I watched what I ate and ran 30 miles a week. After I had kids I was too exhausted to watch what I ate/desperately craved sugar to see me through the sleep deprivation and when I started running again I got injury after injury.

I think it's difficult for most people to be thin in our culture but not impossible. I spent a lot of time and focus on it and if I didn't have other priorities I could do the same now at 50. But I do have other priorities so I'm not thin.

I’m 45 and a size 8 after losing 6 stone in a year. To be honest,if I ate as much as I wanted to I’d never do anything else and I’d be one of those people who is so fat they can’t even wipe their own backside! I’m starving but skinny

I’m a size 10 but short and a stone and a half overweight. When I was 18 and 2 stone lighter I was also a size 10. Clothes sizes are crazy these days.

It is harder to lose weight when you are older and it’s important to keep reasonably fit and do some resistance training to keep bone strength. I work in healthcare and my primary motivation for improving my fitness is not dress size, but to be able to live independently and healthily for as long as possible. It’s really only hit me over the last few months that I need to start building up strength and flexibility now, not at some distant future point

Well it will be harder to stay slim once you get older but do you actually need to loose weight? I’m a 10. I could drop a size and still be healthy but I’m not sure I could be bothered. I don’t really want to spend ten plus years looking less than my best at great effort on the off chance i balloon later on.

I think she should stop projecting her own fears on you if you are perfectly happy the way you are, she should be told to piss off.

after 40 it might get more tricky to maintain weight.

Rubbish. I'm 63 and have been a 10 or 12 for ever!

There's always a shit load of clothes in sizes 8-10 left hanging on the rails wherever you go. Either women are buying clothes in larger sizes or there's a lot of very slim, slightly built ladies going around naked.

I’m a size 6-8, almost 40, one child.

I don’t exercise obsessively, diet religiously and no, I’m not all skin and bones as some people love to comment on these threads. I probably eat less than a lot of people because I just find portions in restaurants etc mind-bogglingly huge sometimes.

I am built small and not very tall so that’s a big part of it.

But size 10 is tiny anyway

Not when you’re my height! (Five foot)

I can fit into a size 8 if I choose shop/outfit carefully, but my BMI is 25 and somebody asked me if I was pregnant today (I’m not) so obviously could do with shifting my mum tum .

She’s a size 6 having focused on exercise/diet last year and lost 2 stone

Missed that first time round but there you have it - friend sounds the token "I'm fully signed up and hard-core fitness and diet so must ensure everyone else is too"

To that end it sounds like she genuinely means well even if she's come across as someone with all the grace and social skills of a turd.

I've been much the same weight since the 90s. It isn't true all clothes have got bigger some have even in the same stores and they are sometimes cut for taller people which means they have more space. I recently bought 2 size 12 dresses from Boden one fitted fine the other I could have got 2 of me into . I think post 40 I look fatter at the same weights if I don't exercise but tbh exercise is good for me and makes me feel better so is all good. I'm a 10/12 and 5'10 but a slight build so slim but deffo not skinny. I eat what I want within reason

I recently bought my 9yo who weighs under 5 stone a 4-6 hoody from primark and while it's deffo on the big side for her it is definitely child size imo.....!

It's good to see people challenging the 'I'm a size 6 and a 10 is fat'/ I put on weight if I eat more than 1200 calories a day and only whales eat 2000 MN nonsense.

I’m 51, size 10-12, have noticed slight difference in my metabolism but have just been a bit more careful with what I eat and increased the time I spend walking the dog slightly. As long as you keep an eye on your eating/activity I don’t think there’s a need to join a gym unless you want to. However as enter peri/menopause you may find excercise helps with the symptoms! Sorry to scare you young mumsnetters! Fgs don’t look in the menopause board!

I am 44 and a size 12-14 and I think I look good. I have only been a 10 when I used to take recreational drugs in my 20s and I looked a bit too thin in those days. It is very dependent on personal body type and height. I would have an eating disorder and look horrendous if I was a size 6.

I am 50 5'7' and size 8 and 53 kilos
I weigh the same as I did at 18 (4 kids later)

"It's good to see people challenging the 'I'm a size 6 and a 10 is fat'/ I put on weight if I eat more than 1200 calories a day and only whales eat 2000 MN nonsense."

Yeah, but it sometimes goes too far the other way too. "If you're a size 6, you obviously eat nothing all day and spend 20 hours in the gym and look like a skeleton."

Can't we all just stop bitching about each other's body shapes and sizes?

Couldn't agree more. Generally size 6s are just petite women who are slim. For someone of 5'10 it seems tiny but we are all different. I don't really get fixation on other people's weight especially when it is dressed up around faux concern about 'health'

I am 65kg, I could do with loosing a stone, and I am trying, but I just will be starving myself, which is non maintainable. I have cut down my food drastically as it is. It does seem those on here who are very slim say a size 6-8 are constantly hungry which is not good either. I eat smaller portions, I stop when I am 80% full, and have a small snack chocolate and small piece of cake as a treat in the day (home made). I have to have a couple of treats or it will be truly miserable.

The nurse who did my 40 year check was happy with my health, she said BMI was not reliable as there are many factors which influence it. She told me that diet has to be maintainable for the long term, not just short term.

" It does seem those on here who are very slim say a size 6-8 are constantly hungry which is not good either."

No, it doesn't seem like that. It seems like that to you because you are fixated on losing weight right now and you want excuses not to do it so you are kidding yourself that everyone who is slim must be starving.

I'm a 6-8 and I am sitting here on my 5th jaffa cake. Not everyone who is slim is stuck in some unhealthy weight-obsessed nightmare.

For some people, they're just not built to be a 6-8, and that's fine. Eat healthily (or don't), exercise (or don't) but let's not pretend that being slim is some kind of eating disorder.

Your friend is projecting her body hang ups onto you.

You could have two people the same height and weight but completely different shapes.

I’m 40 (5”1 and 44.6kg) and looking forward to putting on weight as I age come at me curves!

If you want to go to the gym, go to the gym. If you don’t, don’t!

Forgot to say, I do weigh more than I ever have before (apart from when pregnant) and I love it. I would like to be healthier though, not because of size but because of umm .. health.