To think that a size 16 is not fat

[roseability]

I mean I would say this, as I am surprisingly enough a size 16.

When I was younger I dieted, starved and fought myself into a size 10-12. I just can't be bothered anymore. My DH seems to like my curves and I feel it is only society that deems I should be thinner.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a size 10-12 BTW but I think some women are naturally smaller sizes than others

I want to stand up to all this size 0 shit! Why can't we just be the size we are without feeling inadequate.

What do you all think?
How do you feel about your size?
What is your opinion of other's size?

Am I harking on about nothing or should Mnetters stand up and embrace their curves/lumps/bumps

I saw v feltz in the hairdresser recently
She looked about a 16 tbh
Maybe a bit bigger but not much

agree re fat face etc
I can fit into a 12 in there, bought a 14 top recently and have had to abandon it as it hangs off me after one wash
And I am defo a 14

It is all relative. I am almost 7 months pregnant and have only gone up from 32 to a 34 round the bust. And at 7 months, with baby boy, ALL out at the front, I still only have a 34 inch waist. So it IS relative.

It depends on your height and build.....I will admit that I have a problem with self-image related directly to my weight and as a consequence I try to keep myself as thin as possible. I know this isn't good, especially as I have two dds, but I think it is to do with me and my head, and not at all to do with perceived pressure from society....

Everyone is different though.

Yes ReallyTired, I am short 5ft 2 1/2" So anything above a 10 and I look chunky, which I am not used to looking!

yanbu to think it's not.
others anbu to think it is.

Build does count definitely

I have great big hip bones. At optimum bmi I am a 14. I have been a 10 once; when I had eating disorders and passed out a lot (long, long time ago now). I currently am a 14 on top, 16-18 on the bottom, but as have started to wean the baby now will return to ww when the holidays end, as worked for me before.

The thing is, I felt no more comfy with myself at 12 or 14 than I do now, I don't like the way I look full stop! What prompts me on is heal;th, I am only one in family (2 sisters, parents) not needing bp meds and I plan for that to continue.

DH thinks I am a sex goddesss. Strange (esp. after 4 kid LOL) but true.

This is from the results of a study published in the BMJ recently and it strikes me as fairly true -

Despite media and health campaigns aiming to raise awareness of healthy weight, increasing numbers of overweight people fail to recognise that their weight is a cause for concern. This makes it less likely that they will see calls for weight control as personally relevant.

I suppose I am interested in the more political and feminist issues surrounding this.

We seem to define ourselves my numbers (BMI, dress size, weight, hip to wasit ratio etc) and why?

Imagine if numbers didn't exist for a minute. How would we define ourselves then?

By how fit we are? By how attractive the people that matter in our lives find us?

Go further and imagine no diet industry or celebrity pin ups. Who do we compare ourselves to then?

Our mothers/sisters/aunts? Our friends? Women on the street? A huge variation in figures and body types.

I am not saying below size 16 is unacceptable in any way. And yes I have my own issues about weight and like most women would love to be a bit slimmer. But I do question why I want to be slimmer. I am fit and I am attractive to my loved ones. Which brings me back to who or what is making me unhappy with my size.

When I first moved to the UK I didn't have a tv and I wasn't really in the habit of buying magazines - and my self image was never better!
I compared myself (if only I could stop doing that!) to normal women that I saw everyday/at work/on the street etc and certainly didn't find myself lacking..
However something like 45% of women are overweight so perhaps it wasn't the best barometer..

I have got very slim friends who hate themselves because they still have stretch marks after childbirth

Our bodies are meant to look different after childbirth!

The diet industry surprisingly has a large proportion of men working for it. Women are meant to feel inadequate as it suits the status quo - that men should be dominant

Like the male dominated medical industry has given us a lack of believe in our bodies being able to birth naturally. It suits them that childbirth is controlled by men.

I am not saying we should all have natural births. God I had a spinal block and high forceps! And a lot of women in third world countries risk their lives in childbirth with lack of medical back up. But we have to question why childbirth has become a male dominated area.

Women need to stand up to this shit! Look how much coverage Gaby Logan has had on the olympic channel. More than the top atheletes put together! 100s of experts in their fields were flown out, but haven't had any TV coverage because they aren't pretty or slim enough.

Yes it might be great that a woman has landed such a great job and it is great that she is pretty and slim BUT she dosen't know her stuff and she interviews badly. It is sly sexism.

I actually think less women would be overweight if we ditched the numbers and the magazines.

Why do we eat too much? Why don't we exercise enough?

A lot of it is to do with emotional issues that surround our lack of self esteem. It is rarely just because we are lazy, greedy and fat. The diet industry is a money making business. Just like the wedding industry and the pregnancy/parenting industry. All designed to make women feel inadequate enough to spend money and keep men at the top.

Unless you're five foot 11, then...... I don't think you're slim. I think you could probably lose ten pounds!!

Sorry!

Most of us carry too much poundage,whether we talk about 'curves' or 'hourglass' figures or whatever other current euphemisms abound.

Her in Bangladesh every white woman looks huge and blubbery. I'd say 90% of local women are 6/8.

Agree completely with the intrinsic evil of diets and dieting though.

The media, etc is very damaging and hypocritical. What is quite refreshing on this thread is that most people want to be a healthy size 12, nobody's yearning to be an 8 or size zero and most are saying that they just don't feel happy in themselves being larger. This has no doubt got a lot to do with this being MN, I'm more worried about what the general reaction to the op would be on a teenage/younger women's forum. They would probably consider size 12 obese!

"All designed to make women feel inadequate enough to spend money and keep men at the top. "

sorry but having read your last two posts, i was just wonder as a man, do you really believe that so much of soceity is designed to keep women downand men at the top?
i'm not trying to attack your ideas, just wondering if yours is a commonly held opinion amongst women?

I am 5'9 and size 12. I was a 16 for a while after childbirth, then a 14 til I stopped bfing. Tbh I felt really fat when I was a 16 - my hips and tummy were not attractive and the bigger boobs did not make up for it. When I was a 14 I didn't feel so bad because I was curvy, but not wobbly. I am most happy back at 12 though - I feel that my clothing looks more elegant and I have much greater choice.

However, I think that weight is not just about diet and exercise - my diet is reasonably good but I don't ever go "on diets" and I only do regular exercise of an aerobic kind once a week. I am by nature a very highly strung person (not really a wonderful character trait!) and I think that I just burn calories by worrying and fidgeting and needing to do everthing quickly, all the time.

On the other side I think it's important that size 0 is not actually necessarily unnaturally anorexically skinny. If you are short and small and healthy it's probably the right bloomin' size for you.

I have a bee in my bonnet about this as I find it so hard to find clothes even in a UK size six, (Gap have just stopped stocking them along with lots of other places) which is exactly the right healthy size for me to be.

You may also have a point rose about magazines etc. I never buy them - because I would prefer to read decent fiction if I have any spare time. Therefore I spend almost NO time comparing myself to airbrushed supermodels, or unflattering shots of "shock, horror" cellullite ridden clebs.

I decided a number of years ago not to buy gossip magazines any more and I am alot more happy about my body now - despite having had a baby in the meantime!

Rose, that's a concern of mine - as most people in the uK are now fat (and indeed on this planet more people are obsese than starving for the first time ever) people now think fat is fine.

Go back to 1950s and the average woman of 5 foot 5 (my height and still average UK height today) was 8 and a half stone which is size 8 - 10.

In other words fat or plump is becoming the norm although not yet at a point where most fat people feel okay and normal which is not a point we really want to reach for health reasons.

I know what weight I look best at and it would not be at a size 16. Even things like getting through doors or passed people gets harder when you put weight on. It gets impracticable and you get hot and sweaty. It's not really fun. It's just much more physically easier to be around size 10.

Well it seems that women aren't in denial

Most of you consider it undesirable and unacceptable to be overweight

I suppose I was expecting a more 'embrace yourself and your curves' approach

I lose. I am fat and have to accept it. Will be swimming a mile this afternoon (MIL babysitting) and starting diet now.

If I have to define myself by a number I pick 12!

I would look ill below a 12 TBH

Xenia - the post-war generation was amongst the healthiest because they existed on rations for such a long time - a situation that almost eradicated the high levels malnutrition prevalent in the UK prior to the 2 world wars.

However, it is fair to note that with that eradication of hunger in our society alot of people in my own generation are on average taller than our parents generation were, so will naturally weigh slightly more and fit in slightly different sized clothes. For instance whilst I am a size 12 I need a 34" inside leg. My mother was 5'6" and can buy "regular" length trousers. I am at least 3" taller than her.

I do think that to be considered healthy a woman would have to be 6ft or over to get away with a size 16...

Yes size 16 is fat, cant hide just have a look its there! Although a lot of thin people are incredibly unhealthy and fat doesnt have to be on the outside it can be inside also.