To say this is average size?

[PinkRiceKrispies]

5'3 and 8 and a half stone.
Would you say that is average and not 'tiny?'

Definitely not tiny :)

The BBC link people keep quoting is over 12 years old.

More recent data shows that the average is now between 5' 4.5 and 5' 5. Women are definitely taller than they were a decade or two ago and this is reflected in the increase in trouser length.

statista results showing average height in England 2021
162.4 cm or 5 feet and 3.937 inches

At 5'2... When (in what feels like the long distant pre-kid, pre-lockdown past) I was 8.5 stone I was a 6-8. I was pretty tiny, but slim rather than skinny. 10 stone I was a size 10 and healthy, but on the top end of healthy BMI.

Now I am a size 16... But also pregnant, so I shall endeavour not to gain weight but getting back down to a size 10 is going to have to wait to post baby.

Yup. We old uns who remember when a size 10 was a 24" waist, and a size 12 was chubby are less far less likely to think 5'3" and 8.5 is 'skinny'. In fact at that weight and an inch taller in the 90s I was considerably larger than the ideal of the time. It's only in the last few years I've started to view myself as slim. Largely as a result of my body positive young colleagues telling me I am. I wouldn't dream of encouraging dieting though.

Where do we get that the UK average is a 16? I wouldn't have thought that. Saying that, I've never googled it.
Can't we all be content that we come in different shapes and sizes?

I am still fat even though ive lost 5 stone in 7 months but even at size 24 I was happy to dance and be myself. See below if you are brave :) we are the same. fat or slim

www.tiktok.com/@jennybreeden3/video/7203818066210295045?q=jennybreeden&t=1677274090886

I’m 5 ft 3 and 8 stones size 8. I don’t think I’m average height. I’m shortest out of all my female colleagues. I also don’t consider myself skinny. I consider myself slim. Therefore no, I don’t think you’re tiny or skinny.

Ooh is there a theme! Not sure which totally real colleague I like the most but I’m going to settle on the hun one

Good idea.

I think that may have been a bad photo as she has the most amazing figure, she looked beautiful on their wedding day x

Funny you should say this ... back in the late 1980s, when I was in my early 20s, I was a size 12 (probably size 8 to 10 these days,) and roughly 9 stone 5. (And I'm 5 foot 4.)

I worked with three girls/young women in my office, all a similar age. They were an inch to two inches shorter than me, and they were 7 and a half to 8 stone, and a size 8 to 10. (Now they would be a 4 to 6!) They had 21 and 22 inch waists. Mine was 25.

I was classed by them - and a couple of lads in the office as the fat one. I shit you not. Now being 9 stone 5, at 5 foot 4 is classed as slim. It's not that we've lost sight of what slim or healthy is, it's just that some 30+ years ago, people were a lot slimmer/a lot thinner.

Just go look at an episode of Friends from the mid 1990s now and have a look at how thin Courteney Cox was then. She was actually stick-thin, and yet at the time, she didn't look particularly stick-thin, she just looked slim.

People are a bit bigger now, and girls are curvier, but it's not a bad thing. The human race is evolving and people are just a little bit bigger. Not fat, obese, or gross. And we need to get off this mindset that everybody is fucking fat now!

yes I agree with this entirely. I was born in 1965 and remember going away with the school at 15, I felt fat (I was under 8 stone) and due to travel sickness barely ate and got down to under 7 stone in 10 days, and remember thinking, I have done it, I am slim and can fit those jeans without lying on the bed and going red in the face, the reality is I was actually already slim in todays terms but back then I wanted to be in a size 8 without an overhang! it lasted all of 2 weeks, all went back on again! I think my natural weight is 9.7 stone and any less I need to deprive myself which isnt sustainable

Nobody cares

Why do posters keep insisting that OP is in "the middle' of the healthy BMI for her height? I've put her stats into the BMI calculator and she is clearly closer to being underweight (2.5 points away) than being overweight (4 points away). She therefore is on the slimmer side of a healthy weight.

Underweight is below 18.5 BMI, overweight is above 25.
OP is 21 (which I'm pretty sure she knows).

It's 3.5 vs 5.
I think saying she's in the middle of the healthy range is reasonable. Any health professional would say as much.

You sound a great weight for your height. I was that when young and also 5 foot 3. Now I am a tubby little size 16. I might be average but I am very overweight. You probably look skinny compared to all the overweight average folk.

Size 16 isnt tubby though, not really. I had to lose significant weight when I was diagnosed with diabetes, went from 24 to 12 but I am losing my boobs and shape, I think 16 is actually a nice size to be.

It's 3.5 vs 5

Eugh...that's not right. Sorry Bumpitybumper!
It is 2.5 vs 4. None the less, because the healthy range is so wide, she is a way off either under or overweight, I think that's what people mean - that's she got loads of leeway either way.

I'm amazed the average height is 5ft 3-4 inches - I'm 5 3 and have spent my entire life thinking I was really short! In fact, thinking about it, even in my own specific age group (50-ish) I can't think of a single friend who isn't taller than me.

especially when the petite ranges are for 5ft 3 and under

Don't really get the question I'm 5 10 and 10.5 stone. We are what we are.

You’re a bit on the short side and your weight reflects that. 🤷🏻‍♀️

She isn't tiny she's a healthy weight. I have a friend who told me I look disgusting and thin at 5' 9" and weighing 66 kg. You think it's acceptable to comment on someone's appearance?

Yes, looks pretty close to the middle of the green bit to me.