To think size 18 is plus size and not 'hardly plus size'

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The poster, with a very large following, is saying a size 18 isn't really plus size by much, and that 'most people (in the UK), are above a Size 16?

Really? I don't know that many people above a size 16. I really don't. I know lots and lots of size 12/14 and thought that was about average? It's usually the first sizes to sell out

www.instagram.com/p/ChiDp-1Mos3/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

I'm 6 feet tall and a size 14/16, mainly because of huge boobs. I consider myself a stone overweight at 13 stone 4.

I can see why on a personal level people get hurt when there is a discussion about weight and clothes sizes.

The average size as in measured inches or centimetres is much bigger than when I was growing up in the 1970’s.

Many people are in denial including my pre diabetic needs to lose weight friend who won’t have anyone telling her what to do. She attended a course run by the NHS about how to try and stop becoming diabetic.

People mix up the aesthetics of beauty so feel judged with the genuine concern for health. My sister is in her late sixties, she has lost 5 stone and was just like my friend but it scared her. Our brother died from complications linked to diabetes. Her back issues practically disappeared and all the aches and pains, she was not expecting this, she deeply regrets not doing something about it sooner but she was in an unhappy place and ate for comfort.

I am a scientist. Have a PG degree in the subject and I publish in the peer review literature. Whilst you aren’t wrong, this applies to a minuscule percentage of people with a weight problem.

Love how you’re trying to shut someone else down. Are you a scientist? Do you publish?

You're really playing the victim. To write as though you represent the average woman is just stupid if you're 6".

Being a 6" lady is amazing, nothing wrong with it at all! But, it's not average and far from it.

Yes, that exactly what I said. It's a very complex and difficult thing to solve when we have plenty, but it doesn't change the fact that it happens through eating too much and doesn't happen when food is scarce.

It was a response to people who insist they don't eat much but stay overweight. The reasons they feel that way are many and complex, but they are overeating.

The 'average' woman in the UK is overweight. Just because something is average doesn't mean it's not bigger than it should be.

Then people need to stop using anecdote as evidence. The plural of anecdote is not data, despite what so many on here think.

Why do people care so much about other peoples weight and size anyway

Probably at least partly because of what it costs the sainted NHS; the figure widely touted is £6.1 billion with about a million admissions lin ked to obesity, but that's from 2014/15 so I dread to think what it is now

Interestingly we see endless threads about what "they" can do to sort out the failed system, but I've never yet seen anyone say I'm going to lose weight to help this

Yes it's difficult, but that doesn't mean that for most it can't be done

So the thread only applies to those who are 5.41/2 or whatever tiny height is average these days?

Women have got and are getting taller. I'm 5'10 and there are so many younger women these days who are taller than me

Yes, quite. DD2 is already 5'9," probably still growing and a very healthy 9.5 stone, size 10/12 on top and 8 on the bottom and could be considerably heavier and still a healthy weight.

In the 1960s she'd be probably a size 14 and only just able to buy clothes in most shops - and shoes would be very difficult indeed as she's a size 9.

Some people here seem to want clothes sizes to be changed back to what they were and make people in the healthy weight range, or people who are in a very common dress size today outliers.

Society has changed, of course sizes and what shops stock have too!

Women are much more muscular now too. Even when I was very slim I couldn't get my arms/shoulders into vintage clothing that elsewhere was the right size because I have muscly limbs.

I agree with this, a healthy weight and size for children seems to be viewed as too skinny by many people. As you say, you should expect to plainly see the ribs on a healthy child at ten years old.

My DH let himself go a bit after our first baby, and is working very hard now to get back into the healthy BMI range, both for health reasons and to show a good example to the children. He doesn’t want them growing up feeling that being overweight or obese is normal.

Who said freakishly tall?
Who called you a freak?

You are extremely tall for a woman.
Extremely.
Way above average. Why would you take that as an insult?

I have a pair of vintage 1970s M&S jeans. They are size 16 on the label. I'm a modern 12-14 (increasingly a 12 I am finding) and they are snug on me. As more people have got bigger, manufacturers and retailers have changed sizing and so-called vanity sizing is one of the reasons we've lost perspective over what is healthy and what isn't. My BMI of 26 puts me in the overweight bracket.

The hyperbole thrown around on here to paraphrase why someone has said in their comment, used as a way of apparently being persecuted, is shocking.

Around 2,000 calories per day for a person who’s relatively active, with most of that being plants, preferably not ultra-processed, and the diet being varied.

You are extremely tall for a woman.
Extremely.
Way above average. Why would you take that as an insult?

What you said before was not insulting, but this is bordering. 6' is not 'extremely' tall. It is a similar height to many men. I know many women who are tall and they really don't stand out that much.

Yes, I don't care about an individual's weight (or appearance, though one of the most beautiful and glamorous women I know is very overweight) but on a societal level, having people believe size 16 is normal is a problem.

It's a problem for the NHS, for productivity as people develop long term health problems, for the cost of benefits for the same reason and for the general wellbeing and happiness of the population. People can claim to be happy with their weight while they get away with it, but they won't be happy when they can't do things because of the problems it causes later.

I don't think this thread is shaming anyone. Most posters have recognised that there's no easy answer, but it has to be OK to acknowledge that it's a problem that needs to be solved, rather than either pretending there is no issue or thinking that it's impossible to solve so therefore no one should try.

@Sparklfairy there is a genetic component to why some people feel full quickly and others do not

www.xcode.life/uncategorized/how-genes-influence-your-satiety-response/

This is only one component of why some people put on weight more easily than others - there are many more.

Literally nobody has used the words "starve" or "disgusting" - it is an emotive issue, but I think you are wrongly characterising the discussion as being about aesthetics.

@Snog that's so interesting and makes sense. I wasn't judging either way btw, but it is something I've noticed.

I would cost the nhs far more and be far less healthy if I was not taking the medications the nhs provides me with to manage my medical conditions.

Tall for a woman.

It is tall for a woman.

Women aren’t men!

They’re on average much much shorter.

There is no insult, borderline otherwise here.

Grow up.

@Quincythequince why did you use the word extremely? It's not extremely and you know exactly what you're doing. Grow up

Woman are not men. No shit Sherlock. But woman of 6' are not extremely tall if they're a similar height to the other 50% of the population.

The only people using "fat shaming" language are those exaggerating in their insistence that other posters are fat shaming. No one has said freak or starve or disgusting except people who want the topic to be off limits altogether.

I'm an 18, definitely fat. But I'm also on a shitton of psych meds and go to the gym 5x per week. I deserve clothes.

And is of an average size.

Woman who are below average size and eat 2000 calories have a problem.

I really do think that the lack of understanding about what the word average means is a problem itself.

I am below average height. 50% of women are.