Are some people really heavy or am I kidding myself?

[Ellessdee]

I know I'm a bit overweight. I'm a solid size 12. I weighed myself and did my BMI out of curiosity and it's telling me I'm obese. Is BMI wildly inaccurate or am I in denial re my weight? I used to weight train and do have quite a bit of muscle but also a layer of fat on top! Anyway, trying to pose weight, just wondering if I should be worried!

It's daft to take any notice of sizing, I still just fit in my size 12 Next jeans when my hips were 42 inches. I'm now down to 35 inches and still wear the same jeans. Although if I bought a new pair I'd probably try on a 10 as round the arse is slightly baggy, you wouldn't say they were either too big or too small whichever my hip measurement really.

What was your BMI? Obese can range from 30 to 40 - there’s a big variety of sizes between the two but I think a 12 is possible on the lower end of obese. Either way, you are overweight and plan to lose weight. I don’t see what difference it really makes?

At 5ft 9 and a size 12, I don’t get that at all. I’m 5 8 and pretty slim at a size 12.

I’ve never heard of this - what’s the ratio?

Dress sizes arent a great way to judge size/health because
A) we wear lots of loose fitting stretchy clothing, often with no fitted waist, so can "fit" into smaller sizes
B) vanity sizing! I've gained about 1.5 stone through adulthood & yet can still fit a lot of the same sizes!!

Bmi "works" for most people. Waist measurement is also good.

Im not big big, but my tummy is too big because i eat too much sugar, and i know i need to get that measurement down.

I'm wearing a size 12 oversized Jumper dress (basically a baggy size 12 as oversized is the style of the dress, It hangs off me as it's supposed to but I can clearly see my lumpy belly underneath, it's not clinging like a body con dress but you can see I am a larger size 12, In July this year I was 4 stone heavier and wore size 24 as hated people seeing my rolls of fat, so I probably could have worn a 20 or even an 18 but it wouldn't really make me any of these sizes as just because you can squeeze into it, doesn't mean it's your size, it's a bit different with trousers as they won't do up if your waist measurement doesn't match the size, Again I can managed to do up size 12 trousers but they do feel tight and my fat rides up and hangs over the top. My BMI is 22 and I am not considered overweight, but I am still fat in certain areas. A friend is a size 14/16 and has a tiny waist and curves in the right places, I would kill for her figure, she has a completely flat stomach, she was wearing a clinging dress and she had nothing that wobbled all firm and toned. I just think, eat healthily take a bit of exercise each day as thats all anyone can do, I think my wobbly tum will be with me even if I got to 7 stone, it's just how I am.

I looked up the definition of obese compared to overweight, this is what it said

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health

So overweight = abnormal fat accumulation
obese = excessive fat accumulation

Your height should be double your waist.

I mean your waist should be less than half your height.

www.nice.org.uk/news/article/keep-the-size-of-your-waist-to-less-than-half-of-your-height-updated-nice-draft-guideline-recommends

So you are 5ft 9 and a 12, there is no way you are overweight, unless you are an american size 12

Or you cannot do the maths - how heave

how heavy are you?

Depends on the style of clothing.

I'm a size 14-16 in things that have no give - jeans, for example, but if clothing is stretchy/baggy, I can fit into a 12.

In my case I am not overweight

I am just under tall

Yes I feel this too, maybe we should go on the rack and stretch ourselves a bit. Knowing my luck the stomach flab would remain and I would have giraffe legs and neck.

Are you over 14 and a half stone?

I'm 5ft 8 and nudging 14stone and i'm also nudging size 18

I should be the same height at Brienne of Tarth - then I would be just right.

Now the question is how to add a foot of height?

It's so dependent on build as well
I'm 5ft 10 and at 14 stone I'm a size 14 bottom and 16 top (boobs never shrink)
It takes me a good 2/3 stone to drop a dress size

Stilts.

one of the countries leading athletes in my specialism

Athletes can be obese. Just look at shotputters & sumo wrestlers. Great athletes but... yes overweight. Only sometimes is the extra weight a help in the sport.

I wonder how tall PP was. To be fair women 83kg & 5'8" look ok on BodyGallery. "Big boned", but not bad.

My BMI is just into the obese range and a lot of my clothes are size 12. Im a little shorter than you. Im definitely unhealthily overweight - I carry it most on my face, neck & stomach. After kids and before I got some health issues my BMI was 22. That’s what I’m aiming for.

I’m pretty sure for me it’s vanity sizing. A lot of walking clothes aren’t vanity sized and I couldn’t do up a pair of size 16 trousers a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not in denial about my weight and am actively attempting to lose some (2st of 2st 7 so far) but I also have diastasis recti thanks to my lovely DC so my waist will likely never be half my height unless I suddenly grow taller.

It's not vanity sizing. It's sizing inflation. As people get fatter, everything is scaled up to accommodate them: beds, chairs, doors, clothes. Otherwise we would still be using sizing and scaling from the 1600s.

Outdoor gear tends to come up smaller because outdoorsy people tend to be slimmer and companies profile their customers.

It's stood the test of time

The industry has acknowledged vanity sizing in the late 80s and for much of the 90s, and that it was a marketing ploy.

We cannot escape that legacy.

And shouldn't see a 12 as the 'normal'/healthy/middle size any more. Today's 12 was a 16-18 in the pre-vanity sizes.

And the size that was a 12 is about an 8 now.

What is perhaps needed is a shift in thinking to make 8 the normal/middling size. Or 10 if that shift is too much in one go.
And realising that today's 12 is a large size

fashion-incubator.com/the_myth_of_vanity_sizing/

That link is describing the situation in the 00s

Not the reality of what happened in the late 80s and 90s and how it changed sizing forever.

(It had been regulated until the 1980s, vanity sizing was rife in the 90s (admitted by the industry), but has largely died out now. But it left a legacy. That article does not contradict that - and agrees with the view that the legacy of that period is that the upshot that sizing is variable and does not 'mean' what it did before the era of vanity sizing)