To think I shouldn't be THIS heavy??

[Lotsofsausage]

So to start, I know I am no supermodel. Fairly tall at 5'8, size 14, smaller waist, medium bust. Fairly curvy arse/ thighs but toned. I am fit and strong and exercise 4-5x per week, including strength training.

Now I know measurements and photos are a better gauge than the scales, and muscle is meant to weigh more than fat (but I thought that was bullshit).....I am 14.5 stone! I have a friend with the same body measurements as me and same height and she is TWO STONE lighter.
Can some people just be 'heavy'???

barbara

It was patently bloody obvious that i meant higher bmi as in higher fat percentage because it is rare to get an outlier that needs putting in a lower category.

The evidence also doesn't agree with you

Prequelle, may I refer you to Dr Roy Taylor, Dr Robert Lustig, Dr Michael Mosley, Dr Jason Fung, Dr Michael Friedman just a few off the top of my head who have published extensively to de-bunk the popular view that the obese are gluttons and if only they grew some will power. I don’t need you to take me seriously, I am satisfied with their research and I know first hand from my lived experience that overeating is a consequence, not a cause of obesity.

Studies have been done where people were made to eat 5000-6000 calories per day which they promptly burned, so the massive surplus in calories failed to make them put on weight.

Conversely, put someone on insulin and watch the pounds pile up without any extra effort on their part.

People like you are responsible for the rotten way obese people feel about their condition and themselves. If it wasn’t made their moral failing, but instead they were helped balance their hormones (by good diet and proper sleep,exercise among everything), a lot more people would lose weight and keep it off and not feel miserable doing so. There is no need for any of this. You don’t have to starve yourself and live your life hungry if you want to be in decent shape. It is just being aware of how your body works, the impact of nutrition of physiology and valuing yourself. The latter is the MOST important.

5' 7 and 11.5 stone is just in the healthy weight range.

paradise

Sorry but you're being overly emotive. All the way through this I have not been offensive to obese people, I have not said anything that can be construed in that way unless you had some anti science agenda which you clearly do. I have said facts that can all be backed up with science. I'm sorry it doesn't fit your narrative. I was obese. I get it it's hard. But that doesn't mean you can poo poo extensive evidence and cherry pick to suit your own thoughts. Thanks for the info.

I don't know the answer to your question about some people being 'just heavier' (people definitely have different frame sizes though).

However, speaking as someone who is 6 stone/BMI 16.5ish/SIze 2-4 and who has had 20+ years of anorexia, I think you sound just perfect.
Fit, toned, strong and healthy is what we should be aiming for. Not a number or a measurement or a dress size. The numbers destroy your life. The healthy lifestyle keeps your body operating and looking at its natural optimum.

Prequelle, you might as well call the medical specialists/researchers above anti-science. It has been proved time after time after time that ‘calory counting type diets’ fail, all of them, long-term. Yet we still insist on them. There may well be short-term weight loss which is touted as a success, but it goes back on inevitably. And more. Because the cause of the issue is still there, I.e hormonal imbalances.

It’s like telling a depressed person to cheer up and stop being so gloomy. If only they made an effort to smile more, they won’t be depressed, will they? It is a little more complicated than that.

calory counting type diets’ fail, all of them, long-term

Well yes, because people don't make long-term lifestyle changes. They crash diet, lose the weight and then go back to their old eating habits. Of course that's going to leave to weight gain again. They're not a vaccine against obesity. Staying slim is hard work and for someone who has been overweight or obese it's likely it will be a lifelong challenge.

@Fiveredbricks I don't think 14.5 stone at 5'8" is normal! I'm 5'11" and four stone lighter and I'm not a waif.

Not saying it's enormous but it is definitely heavy.

The point is staying slim shouldn’t be hard work! I am not working hard since I switched to low carb. It is easy. But I know as soon as I eat a doughnut or a glazed cinnamon bun, I will set off the cravings, the hunger, tiredness. Even if I still stay ‘within my daily allowance’. My body can’t handle easily-digestible carbs. I don’t want to be a slave to my appetite, I don’t want food to rule my life and dominate my thoughts like it used to.

I have got such great will power now, I had a light breakfast at 10am and it’s 3pm and I haven’t felt hungry yet. Give me a chocolate bar, it will soon change, I’l go hunting for food half a hour later.

Or give me only 5 hours’ sleep, then watch me reach for the sugar.

Nothing to do with one’s willpower and everything to do with physiology/hormonal interaction.

You're conflating different points here. The body responds differently to different things, like carbs for example. Noone is denying that.

I'd be interested in seeing a photos of you op as I'm really struggling to see how you are a Size 14 unless you shop exclusively in next and M&S. I'm 5ft7 and when I was 14.5 stone I told myself I was a size 14 when in reality I was more like a 16/18 but would never step foot in a shop with normal or small sizing. Tbh, clothes sizes are so ridiculous it doesn't really matter what size you are, 14.5 stone is unhealthy at your height however you disguise it.

I really wish there was a way to create a universal clothing size. With half sizes. I don't know how anyone manages to order online

No, I don’t think I am conflating different points. Calorie counting is essentially ‘shut your gob’ and starve yourself or you are a moral failure if you can’t do that. While low carb/Paleo/proper food is in a nutshell fuelling your body in a way that doesn’t make you hungry or leaves you feeling deprived and actually improves your well-being. Rather than making your life a misery. Rather different approaches IMO.

It doesn't matter what diet you eat, if you're not in a calorie deficit you will not lose weight. If you don't believe that that's fine - be happy with whatever you're doing.

Mymadworld

Again - I said upthread on a measurement level, at 14st and 5'9", I had a 28" waist (size 10 in many brands). My hips and boobs both measured 42" at the same time (size 14-18).

What we should probably do is take a look at the sizing charts that come with dressmaking patterns (they're called International Sizes). They haven't changed for about 40 years, and may once have aligned with shop sizes but they don't any more. A size 12 in these is 34-26-36 in old money, probably equivalent to a size 6 in Primark or H&M. If you're a shop size 12 you'll likely need a size 16 or 18 in paper patterns. Put me off dressmaking for a while.

Have dressmaking patterns accounted for people also being taller, as well as larger, especially around the waist?

I'm 5'7 and 45 now, but when I was a teenager and early 20s, it was rare that I saw a woman taller than me and even longer length trousers were never long enough for me.

Now I feel much more average in height, many women are taller than me, and sometimes even regular length trousers are fine for me - longer are often too long, because they are made for the 5'10 woman. More shoes in larger sizes now too. I'm only a 7, but my sisters were in an 8 and they could only choose from a very restricted range - now almost all women's shoes go up to an 8 at least, sometimes even a 9.

Calorie counting is essentially ‘shut your gob’ and starve yourself or you are a moral failure if you can’t do that. While low carb/Paleo/proper food is in a nutshell fuelling your body in a way that doesn’t make you hungry or leaves you feeling deprived and actually improves your well-being

I found calorie-counting most effective for me - and that's menopausal/steroid-taking/poor health/sedentary lifestyle me.

I have tried and tried with low-carb, vegan, all sorts over the years, but I find I am never satisfied if I cut out certain groups of food. I start to crave potatoes or fish or whatever I've banned that week. Then I fall off the wagon and go nuts (if they are included in the diet, haha!).

I now calorie-count and knowing there is nothing I cannot have (in the correct amount) keeps me going.

It's horses for courses, as they say - whatever works.

I find eating three healthy meals a day and only snacking on fruit and veg makes me lose weight quite nicely.

I'm the same weight as you and at 5ft 6 I'm a size 18 so I guess the height makes all the difference!

It doesn't matter what diet you eat, if you're not in a calorie deficit you will not lose weight. If you don't believe that that's fine - be happy with whatever you're doing.

I fundamentally disagree with that. It does matter very much what you eat. Besides I am not obsessing over weight, I am working to reduce the fat mass of my body, not ‘weight’. People with high baseline insulin WILL be breaking down muscle before they break down any fat, and they will be ‘losing weight’ doing so. Will that make them feel great? No. Look good? No. Sorry not going down that path. Been there, done that, proven it doesn’t work.

Lookingselsewhere, you must not be insulin resistant if carbs don’t affect you. If you can eat one biscuit and happily put the packet away. I only have to eat one and find it impossible to stop. Like alcoholics and drink. You wouldn’t tell them ‘to drink in moderation’ because they can’t handle it, while a non-alcoholic can take a drink or leave it. Doesn’t affect them. Alcoholics’ bodies handle alcohol differently. So they need to be mindful of that. It’s no good telling them to cut their alcohol down and just have a small glass occasionally.

BarbaraofSeville the classic Simplicity/McCall/Butterick 'Misses' patterns are apparently made for a fairly youthful figure of about 5ft 5, back waist length (nape to waist) between 15-18 inches and a B cup (!) bust. After a certain size you move into 'Women's' which starts at their version of 16 or 18 and is bigger round the waist and bust; even then (as this size scheme is essentially a work of historical fiction) I guess it was accepted that you weren't the same shape after a certain age/stage of life.

There are size schemes other than the classic International Sizes but it takes a while to find them.

I'm 5'8", a size 10 on top and 12 on the bottom and I'm 12 stone which usually surprises people. Sometimes I think it's just the way certain people carry it. I know that 10 stone is supposed to be a healthy weight for me but the last time I was that small I looked really ill.

I'm only 5'6" and I look emaciated at 10 stone. A friend took a side-on photo of me in a bikini when I was 10 stone and my ribcage looks like I nicked it from a whippet. I was so bony that my belly was concave and had a big gap at the front of my jeans, they were held up by my hip bones.

My mother was 2" taller than me, but a size or two bigger when we were the same weight.