to be miffed at India Knight for writing a weight loss book....

[jasper]

When she is clearly still overweight ? AND it's just a rehash of low carb?
AND it's called Pig to Twig. TWIG?????

Phew, there, I've said it.

I am prepared to be told I am a nasty piece of work.

(By the way I am overweight too)

Actually a size 16 is still a healthy weight for most women (depending on height and build obviously).

Step much beyond that and you're into the realms of obesity or morbid obesity. So if the Knight has managed to slim from frankly obese to a healthy weight, then her theoretical goal is achieved. It little matters if she looks skinny or not.

Seriously though size 16 can't be healthy. I am a size 14 in all but the most stingy fitting places and my BMI is 26 which I am trying to reduce to 25 so at least I am at the top end of normal. I am 38% lard. How on earth can that be healthy ?

rookiemater - you are right, a healthy BMI is in the range 18.5 to 23 and I don't think many BMIs of 23 are as much as a size 16. I've got a BMI of just under 20 and I'm a 10/12. If I gained 10 kgs I'd get to 23 and I certainly wouldn't be a size 16.

Are you short? I could be (and have been) a size 16 with a BMI of 23.

Not that I'm a huge fan of the BMI as an indicator of 'health'.

i'm tall and think i could easily be a healthy (though not skinny) weight @ size 16.

I'm tall-ish (1m74). I'd be pretty overweight (self-loathing weight) at a size 16.

Self loathing? Gosh.

pmsl! thank goodness i am more psychologically robust than you then! more unintentional humour from anna!

omg - size 16 = self loathing?? I have a LONG way to go before I'm acceptable then... oh joy!

I can't wait for the day I can wear size 16... it is nearly here and I'm really excited

and i am also taller

No TheFallenMadonna I'm not short but I have nice thin legs and arms so all my weight tends to congregate in a barrelly bit in the middle, v attractive.

Actually I do think duchesse has a bit of a point, its tremendous that India has lost some weight and that clearly gives her health benefits, but just not as much as if she had lost a bit more.

I think it is possible for people to be healthy at the top end of the scale, but both the BMI scale and the standard weight ranges are fairly generous, so to suggest that weighing more than those is still a reasonable weight, doesn't quite ring true for me.

I'm not talking about women's perception of themselves, nor how clothes fit, but the basic wear and tear on heart, joints etc of carrying more weight than your frame was designed to bear. Most women are not dangerously overweight at a size 16, whatever people may feel about how they look. And the BMI is a very blunt tool.

And having said all that, I personally feel overweight at size 12 creeping up to 14 on the bottom, and 10 creeping to 12 at the top, but no amount of exercise/ eating low GI makes any difference to it. I would much rather be size 10 and around 60kg, but it is elusive.

that is why she has had to take refuge in france - seeing as size 16 is the average here!

5ft7 is pretty tall for a woman in France. Many many women are around 1m63-65; older ladies are shorter. My French granny was 4ft10, her mother was even shorter!

Average in UK is 5 foot 3, believe it or not. So 5 foot 8 is tall-ish .

Personally I just feel horrible if I'm not all flexible and able to run and jump freely and do all the things that I can do when slim. I loathed the end of pregnancy - I felt severely handicapped by the overweight and immobility.

oh fhs! i am bigger than a size 16 now and still way short of my pg size!

I'd just be miserable if I was heavy. Really, truly miserable. I need to run around a lot.

off you go then!

I'm a size 14, and I really cannot believe that a woman 1 clothes size bigger than me is unhealthily overweight - and if it caused her to be self-loathing she'd be better off buying a self-help book before she starts stuffing her face on the non-stop diet of steak and bearnaise sauce that IK recommends!

Wasn't Marilyn Monroe a size 16? Or was that an American 16?

I am not on this thread because I am dieting, btw. Just because I happened to read the book.

Anna...are you for real?

Gaining weight would make you miserable? & loathe yourself????

Catch yourself on.. there's more to life than watching every calorie lest your husband walks away 'cos you've gained a lb.. if he's that shallow then i'd put weight on just to get rid of him!!

Someone said that BMI is a blunt tool, I agree but I would say that cloth sizes are an even blunter one.

Marilyn Monroe at a size 16 does not even remotely begin to ressemble me at the same size, because the sizes have got bigger over the past 50 years.

There is a difference between maintaining a healthy weight, for me that equates to a size 12 - 14 and permanently being on a diet and doing a ridiculous amount of exercise to strive for a 10 - 12. Right now I'd be happy with the 12-14 and staying that way for the rest of my life, both so that I feel moderately attractive and secondly so I'm less likely to get diabetes, put stress on my joints, have a heart attack etc etc

Well yes. Dress size is an exceptionally blunt tool.

I am always when I see a size 18 in a 'petite' range for example.

But that's mostly because I'm cross that there isn't a 'grande' range, and that yet again the dress waistband is somewhere under my armpits...