Do you have “big bones”?

[SippeeCup]

I’m very depressed about my body. I’m not fat, I actually have a very low body fat percentage but I have a huge skeleton. I’m 5ft 6 so not overly tall but I struggle with fitting into women’s things and it’s making me so depressed. Watches are so tight o have to buy men’s straps. Rings and bracelets I have made on Etsy because shop ones don’t fit me. The wide fit shoe section never have shoes that are actually wide enough for my feet. Hats are always too small. I have to size up in clothes to fit my shoulders and rib cage and pelvis but they hang off my everywhere else. It makes me feel very ugly. I was wondering if anyone else has this issue and can maybe share where they buys things like shoes and jewellery etc?

Eh?

Surely 50% have larger and 50% smaller ( measured very accurately)

By the 15% larger do you mean 15% have materially larger ? What is material on that case ?

In that case at least 15% of MN users would be in that category and could be upset about it

( although yes it's often a euphemism for overweight )
Which would be another reason for larger bones people to be annoyed because it makes it harder to discuss their problems

Yours truly
A not large bones person

Yes, I do, and so do my 2 daughters. I’m 6 foot, and they are 5’11. Been described as “Amazonian” many times. Massive wide shoulders and hips, size 9 feet. Both daughters were 10lb6 born. I hated it when I was younger, as I stood out like a sore thumb when I was out with my more normal sized friends. Constant “cor, you’re a big un aren’t you” and the like, comments. But as I got a bit older, into my 30’s I made peace with it. There’s a lot more clothing availability for us big uns now as well.

@SavoirFlair so it might be 12%, 15%, 20%... whatever it is, a sizeable minority have bigger than average bones. There will be another sizeable minority who have smaller than average bones. And then most people will have somewhere around average bones. That's how averages work

I pretty much live in jeans, and get them from next tall range, they have a really good selection.

I have dense bones. Nay, I have VERY dense bones. According to more than one Dr when measuring my bone density (required for some medication I am on that can cause brittle bones). I also have a lot of muscle mass. I am not tall but I am bizarrely heavy.

15% is more than one in ten so it's hardly surprising that a fair few women have are 'big boned'. There are plenty of 'teeny tiny' women on mumsnet too, there was a thread just the other day full of women whose teeny tiny frames couldn't withhold a bmi of more than 18. It's a large website you will get people on both sides of the spectrum.

You'll be thankful for it as you get older.

What is “big bones?”

Having a larger frame I assume...wider hips, wider ribcage, broad shoulders.

Like you I end up buying some men's things. And I do have big, very dense bones, shown by a DEXA scan. Broad shoulders, not particularly broad hips, just bloody solid and I don't fit the chart in the surgery (does anyone?).

I have very broad, muscular shoulders that people comment on if I wear my hair up even though I’ve never trained shoulders in my life. And very wide hips. I thought maybe the wide hips would make childbirth easier but nope, ha! I tend to get blouses pulling across the back/shoulders as I’m broad even though I’m very small chested. Even when slim jeans and trousers are a nightmare, have to go up 2 sizes then they’re miles too big at the waist. Sometimes I feel like a big lumbering giant.

That’s very interesting, I wonder if I have dense bones. I’ve always weighed very heavy. Even at the height of my ED, when you could see all my bones, and size 6 was baggy on me, my BMI was only just in the ‘healthy’ range. I was obsessed with weighing less for years.

Yes.

My shoulders measure 19" at the bone - 2" wider than the normal range for a woman. Ditto hip bones. Hand span is 9" - an inch above the top of the norm for a woman. All verified by my personal trainer.

On top of that, I'm a bit muscular and a bit overweight, but those are bone measurements.

I'm in proportion, but I'm categorically larger-skeletoned than a typical female. Worst but is buying tops - never wide enough in the shoulders.

I'm definitely big boned, I just checked the wrist calculator thing on Google. I'm 5ft8 and have 7inch wrists.
Fake press on nails never fit me, they only fit my little fingernail. I can't easily buy rings.

The last time my BMI was down to 21, when I was 40, I was still a size 12 and looked gaunt and lanky.

I try to focus on being toned, and luckily I can build muscle easily. When I try.
Bones don't weigh much so I can only blame fat for my actual weight!

OP- is this a recent change of something since childhood/puberty? If recent, maybe look into acromegaly www.nhs.uk/conditions/acromegaly/#:~:text=Acromegaly%20is%20a%20rare%20condition,affect%20people%20of%20any%20age.

I have big hips. I was very ill for 6 months and went to 8.5 stone and BMI of 20. I was a size 6/8 on top and a 12 on bottom with no chance of getting in to a 10.

Get fat then no one notices... joking, don't, it is shit.

I have a really odd shape, under the fat - triangle on its tip, I have TINY feet (size 4 though wide) moderately wide hips and then it all gets wider from there, wide barrelly ribcage, wide shoulders, wide wrists. My wrists are 7.5 inches (pulled tight to s hift the flab out of the way, I am 5ft 3.

My dad is the same build, huge shoulders, he's 5ft 5, very big barrel ribcage and then narrower hips and skinny knobbly knees and relatively small feet for a man.

My half brother (dads son) is also the same, and we are unmistakeably siblings despite being only half-siblings.

My sister has the same build as my mother though, very average and somewhat boyish all the way up and down, much lighter frame and taller.

Being broad built and big boned AND fat is frustrating, if I could lose the weight I still would not be the elfin-like build of other women my height can be! The lightest I have ever been was as a teenager, 17 years old, 12 stone and I looked like a starved cow.. all bones and awkward angles and big thighs and arse from horse riding but missing muscle elsewhere (starvation and illness got me that light, and yeah I know that isn't that light at all).

Several things, which can overlap:

• a euphemism for being fat
• dense boned - normal sized bones that have heavier composition and less "air" holes
• larger bones that have thicker and longer measurements than average

As above, I have a large skeleton. It's not weight you can lose, and it does affect your BMI to an extent - since BMI is only adjusted for height, but not for having a broader skeleton the whole way down.

I also have some fat to lose, and a lot of muscle. But under that, it's just a fundamentally bigger skeleton. No idea if my bones are dense or not.

Yeah, another large-boned women here. Most of my life I was lean, but still struggled to find women's clothes to fit well. Wide shoulders, wide chest (as in large back measurement for bra), big wrists and ankles, wide feet, big knees, big head (women's hats never fit). But no bum or waist to speak of. Flat stomach, which was nice, but meant that 80s A-line skirts made me look massive.

When I put on some weight I found that clothes actually fitted me better because I gained some curves. A bigger bottom and hips gave me a more womanly figure. I wasn't massive - size 16 when size 14 would be considered my hearty size.

I still have clothes from the 80s and 90s, and my lean, size 12 dd wears my old size 14s. Sizing has changed since then.

There's no mileage in bemoaning that I don't have my dm's hourglass figure and dainty hands. I am what I am. At least it's easy to get decent clothes in my size nowadays. Tough gloves are still a challenge. In the 80s I used to buy technical clothing from the men's ranges, and put up with too-long sleeves, too-long trousers and too-short crotches in order to get wide enough shoulders and waists - because you could not get fleeces and waterproofs in women's cuts above size 12, 14 if you were very lucky.

It runs in my family, grandmother who was german, father, son and twin grand children. Clothes are difficult. I did a lot of altering clothes for my son. Dr martens were brilliant for school. He towered over every other pupil at school from reception to year 9. Everyone thought he was the oldest son when he was the youngest.

Find a dressmaker to alter clothes for you if you're not interested in learning yourself.

This is me OP. I have very broad shoulders and slim hips. My bones are huge.

I"ve noticed that most women no matter how overweight they may be have slim fingers even if they are a little pudgy from being overweight but mine are still big even when I'm at my lightest weight. I've never been delicate even weighing 120lbs at 5'6".

Shirts never fit me across the back, and if they do they are too baggy and make me look boxy. I have large boobs which make me look very matronly with the broad shoulders and no hips. I walk like a wrestler/body builder - arms bowed out at the side cause my shoulders are so broad lol

My DD is about an inch taller than me and is very delicate, has tiny fingers, tiny bones, but they are dense as she is HEAVY and she doesn't weigh much. She lucked out. I got my dad's build, he was shaped like a body builder.

I must add, I love being a viking woman! I feel like any minute I'd be happy to grab a sword and shield and defend my homestead etc.

I have no problem with women being small, but the "I'm a teeny, tiny dainty fairy woman" posts get serious side eye from me, when they act like bigger women have made some sort of terrible, embarrassing error by growing tall and amazonian.

Yep. 10,9 at birth, size 8 feet.

At my slimmest 10st I was built for comfort not speed.

I was a normal sized baby haha, 7pounds exactly. But I’ve always had a large frame even as a child.

Im not a Giant though which I could accept having big bones if that were the case. I’m 5ft 6 with size 6 feet. But I do have large hands which sucks as a nurse as large gloves are harder to come by. I just want to be able to go high street shopping and buy pretty girly things but it just looks ridiculous on me. I have a small waist but huge hips and shoulders.

I’m all kinds of wrong. I have a big head, literally and figuratively. I had to wear a hat as a bridesmaid (yes, hideous) and it left a red welt on my forehead for hours. My new riding hat had to be ordered in.

I’m almost 5’9 but size 3 feet and pathetic, scrawny wrists and long skinny fingers, so ring sizing is tricky.

No idea about my bones.

Sadly my bones are petite but my body fat is on the high end!