To not know whether people are getting fatter or thinner?

[giantwaterbottle]

I am trying to lose weight (again!) and I can't figure out whether people (in the developed world) are getting thinner or fatter. I keep reading that the population is obese/getting fat but then it seems like their are so many gym bunnies and slim people around (although I will say this is mainly on social media/TikTok) but there seems to be such a weight loss/health kick about where everyone looks tiny and fit, and is wearing corsets and amazing cosmetics and just generally looks amazing, but is the opposite the reality? And if so how do people feel about this!? Does it make you want to just give up before you even begin? I don't know..I can't figure it all out. I do think when I go out I see quite a lot of larger people but also loads of young very slim and fit people.

@DrunkAndAlone2 I don't think it would make a fat person feel better, I think it might make them more envious, annoyed at the stealth boost or feel sorry for the slim person's denial. I don't think most fat people would find comfort in that particularly as it's usually said in a slightly smug tone lol!🙆

And when I was 9 stone I was a 6-8. (I'm tall)

Height makes an enormous difference, which you don't seem to be taking into account.

That's very true, I'm not particularly tall. But I do have broad shoulders regardless of the amount of fat on me.

Truthfully I was having a moment thinking could I ever be slim enough to fit into a 2022 size 10. 🤔 I am on a slow mission to get back to 9st.

People don't let being officially overweight or obese sink in because it's what we see all around us, amongst family/friends/colleagues, in the streets, on TV and on social media. So instead it's deny, normalise, blame the BMI scale.

The healthy BMI category already covers a huge weight range.

Toward the bottom end of the healthy range, I'm already underweight and wearing size 8 clothes; towards the top end, I'm already overweight and wearing size 14. I'm 5ft 6", small-medium body frame. My sweet spot is a stone/6 kilos right in the middle, wearing what used to be size 10-12 clothes; which are now labelled 8-10.

The entire healthy BMI range spans something like 3 stone / 20 kilos.

It's worrying how much our perceptions have changed.

No way is someone a 10 in one shop and a 16 in another. I’ve been a 10 all my life. Occasionally I may need a 12 or an 8 but I’ve never needed a 14 anywhere and a 16 would drown me. I just don’t think sizing really varies to that extent,

It really can vary that much. It does completely depend which shops you go to. That's why I think it should be to a set standard or based simply on measurements everywhere.

Why is it shocking?

Depends on your body shape and the style of the clothing . I'm roughly a size 16 - sometimes a 14 on top and occasionally an 18 in trousers. I had to send a size 12 dress back to Hush as it was too large!

I have two dresses
One from ASOS own brand. Size 14
One from ASOS curve. Size 22

both fairly simple cut jersey stretch type dresses and both fit perfectly

In fact here you go
Spotty hung up is a 22
Plain is a 14
One I'm wearing is a 20

All 3 from ASOS but 2 from the curve range I needed a 20 and 22, standard range size 14

@MsOllie completely off the point of the thread but you look fantastic in that dress!

Both.

There are a lot more overweight people.

The standard of thin is now much thinner or 'Instagram' fit than before.

So I think we're being hit on both ends.

Fashion brands are bizarre. I've always been an 8-10. When I was under 16 I was a 6. When I was 15 I tried on shorts in H&M and only the size 16 fit me. I had a 24inch waist!

I'm genetically slim. My 65 year old mother is genetically slim! Why not say it? I don't see being slim as something I can be proud, since I've done literally nothing to 'achieve' it. For someone with a slow metabolism, maybe it's more of an effort and that can be acknowledged (in the right kind of friendship, of course).

It's amazing how many people feel it's okay to come up to you and say things like, "you're skin and bone" or "you must have an eating disorder." Because sure, anyone thin must have an eating disorder that they're covering up 😒

When I was 15 I tried on shorts in H&M and only the size 16 fit me. I had a 24inch waist!

That must be incorrectly labelled. 24 inches is around a size 6-8. A size 16 would be over 30 inches.

I'm around an 8, and can't fit in a 10 anywhere, well sometimes but it's usually slightly loose. Some 8s are large and I can size down to a 6, but don't have much space. That's my waist measurement anyway. I'm a 10 in trousers.

I have dresses that fit from size 10 to size 16. Most of the 16s are dubious on the shoulder fit but needed to fit bust. Style meant the shoulder being too wide didn't stop the dress actually looking ok.

The 10s are all stretch fabrics with skater skirts - I'm an hourglass 28K bust and carrying a lot of weight on my thighs. My waist is easily within the healthy range although my weight is definitely not, borderline obese for my height.

So cut and style definitely affects sizing. Even as a teen I had a larger bust and thighs with a small waist - I couldn't get trousers that fit everywhere - If cut straight I'd barely get my thighs in but have a massive gap at the waist.

Ollie
Gorgeous dress.
I think the labelling is incorrect as you look no bigger than a size 14. You have a tiny waist.

I once bought what I thought was a size 10 top and it was actually a 16. The neck label stated 10 and the side label stated 16.

I'm actually a 16-18 (16 bottom, 18 top) so none of the dress sizes listed

I take it you've never been to H&M
forget different sizes in different shops, I can be drastically (and I mean from XS to XL) different sizes in there at the same time depending on what I'm trying on
I also recently bought a size 4 oversized dress from Asos's own brand which drowned me but a size 14 more fitted dress was too tight.
I wish women's clothes were like mens and just went by exact measurements in inches or cms.

This thread is quite funny compared to another thread where poster is worried about increasingly very overweight adult DD. She's being shouted at to never ever say a single word of concern about her DD's weight. How dare she, etc.

Anyway, my meagre tuppence here is:

I organise 2nd hand uniform sales. I can't compare to past, I can only observe now that a lot of yr6 & 7s are wearing my clothes size or larger. One expects variation, just that their mean girth is about same as mine while their height is still quite a lot shorter.

I was thinking the same thing. I’m a size 10 and I will rarely go down to an 8 or up to a 12 but it’s unusual. I can’t imagine wearing another size. Maybe it depends where you shop!

A quick Google will tell you Miranda Hart is 6'1 and 67kg. She has a 26" waist and is size US7 (so a UK11 I think). It's interesting you've chosen her as an example of a 'bigger' woman.

I'm 5'11 and big boned and can assure you that at size 16, which I am now, I'm carrying a lot of excess fat.

Miranda Hart has lost and gained and lost a bunch of weight over the years so different posters might equally correctly think of her as larger or slimmer depending on which images of her they've seen.

I was also a teenager in the 70s and was probably about a stone overweight, although that's a guess as I never remember getting weighed but couldn't fit into a borrowed school skirt. I was in the minority as from memory 90% of the girls were normal/slim.

We simply didn't have access to a lot of food and snacking/treats were rare - it was the norm to have a packet of crisps and a Kitkat once a week bought with pocket money, and chips from the chippy once a week after swimming! This was working-class inner city - just how it was for many of us then.

A quick Google will tell you Miranda Hart is 6'1 and 67kg. She has a 26" waist and is size US7 (so a UK11 I think). It's interesting you've chosen her as an example of a 'bigger' woman

Like hell she does. What, when she was 8 years old?