...to think that "medium" isn't size 8-10 and "large" isn't size 10-12.

[Naetha]

And that if I want a top that fits me properly, I shouldn't have to go for extra large?

I have a BMI of 25, 34C boobs. Am I really that big, or am I just shopping in the wrong places? Has the time come for me to start shopping at Cotton traders?

Oh Christ.

I am a fattie since having ds. A whole size 16. Shock. Horror. I couldn't give a flying fuck about women being thin whether because of genes, hard work and good lifestyle choices or mental health issues.

They're all just bodies. I understand teenagers obsessing about their midriffs but there's something unseemly about women in their 30's assuming x clothing size means y about your personality.

More.To.Life.Than.This.

size 12 is not fatties

vintage, you're correct. Size 12 could be thin for someone tall and "big boned". It's all unimportant really, to be honest.

My point is, call a thin woman unhealthy/unnatural and I'll call you a wobbling bloater. Fair's fair.

I've given up looking at size labels. I have everything from an 8 to an 18 in my wardrobe and it all fits.
In current sizes I average 10 on the bottom (if the waist is generous] and 14 on top as I'm quite big busted. In my last job we had uniforms and they were cut on 'old style' sizes- I just about squeezed into a 14 skirt although it swung around my non existent hips
To name and shame- Jane Norman has the most ridiculously small stuff, their 14 tops look like 10s and they don't seem to ever have anything larger.
Am clearly too fat to shop there. Wallis always makes me feel better- proper vanity sizing
At the other end of the scale though, a friend is a petite 6 and finds she now needs a 4 in many places

What a horrible post snobear! You could have made your point about assumptions perfectly well without the personal nature of your attack.

Jesus Snobear,are you for real?

Your logic is flawed Snobear4000.

A 'wobbling bloater' - as you put it - is just as unhealthy as an underweight person.

I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I was labouring under the misaprehension that anyone under or over their ideal BMI range is medically advised to either gain or lose weight for optimum health. Fact.

And since you are taking such a keen interest in my midriff - I am in the healthy weight range.

Snobear - my sister is an ex-anorexic. She has less than 15% body fat and is a size 12. Sizes are bollocks. I am also a size 12 and definitely curvy but only 2 inches shorter. I just happen to have a smaller frame than she does. You are talking absolute shite.

Plus I always think (having seen my sister's past aggression about fat people) that you may have some kind of issue with food and fat. Most people who are naturally small don't give a shit.

Snobear, Mrs bean stated a statistical fact that most middle aged women are not naturally a size 6-8. And you responded by calling a size 12 woman a fatty and making 'who ate all the pies' joke? Oh yeah, sounds completely fair to me ???

Going back to strange shop sizes!

My daughter who is 11, small and skinny, fits a childs size 9, but in Zara she is an adult size 8!!

Snobear,

MrsBean made a perfectly valid point, you do not see many women of middle age size 6-8 and it can look odd and concern people, but im sure she is aware that some women are naturally that size, being very petite, or in my friends case, can be 5"10 and a size 8 and eating like a horse because of a metabolism issue.

also, noone in this country pretends being a obese is healthy and normal and we should support them in that size.
the aim in this country is to encourage healthy, sexy women and girls that not being a size 8 does not make you fat and worthless and that you should diet immediately.

nor do us 'fatties' go around bitching about naturally skinny people. we may be jealous that some clothes look better on them than us 'lerger' ladies, but we do not bitch about naturally healthy skinny people.

i cant believe that i had to use size 12's as the 'larger' in that context, when we are most certainly not.

im a size 12. healthy, happy, definately not 'obese' and pretty darn hot.

oh and in case you were wondering, it wasnt MrsBean who ate all the pies, it was me. now, [and i've always wanted to say this] off you fuck...

oh and "Size 12 could be thin for someone tall and "big boned".
wrong, again. seriously, do you actually believe the crap you're spouting? size 12 looks so different on so many people. as does EVERY size.

bmi is bullshit as it doesnt take into account muscle mass. plus here here britfish i have the same prob

Yeah, snobear, I'm 5ft, clinically obese, currently pg with baby no. 4, and (I have people who'll back this one) my diet's really not that bad. Cereal, sandwich, dinner, no dessert - most days in a week. I don't eat bars of chocolate, packets of crisps, doughnuts, chips or cakes.
I was quite hurt by your saying that a size 12 constitutes being fat.
Wtf is the world coming to when SIZE 12 ladies are complaining of being too large to find clothes when, as said, the national average is 16.
It seems we ALL have problems finding clothes to fit, and I suspect it has for more to do with cost-efficiency of cutting material than actually supplying the customer with suitable sizes - which is barmy, because surely these garments don't sell?
My DS, 7, has to get clothes for 8-9yrolds because they don't fit him around the waist, and he's nowhere near being 'fat' - you can see his hip bones and ribs, and he has no tummy at all.
And you criticise other people for not having a humble opinion? Here's a tip - think before you type, eh?

I think YABU - what is someone who is a size 6 supposed to wear if not a S?

Hard enough to find anything that size usually...

i agree with those who say sizes have gone up in some shops
when i was a student i was very slim and a size 10, i remember trying to get into an 8 and it not fitting
about 3 years ago i was the same weight as that, and some size 8s were too big on me
i am now a stone heavier than that and some shops i am a size 10 again

I was a size 12 when 9st 10 at 5ft 9. Ooh. Fatso.

That's a BMI of 20.1 e.g. obese

Dear HobbitMama

I am exactly the same, almost 50, 3 children and a size 18-20 and 5' 2". I eat breakfast, sometimes lunch (not usually sandwiches, salad or pasta), and dinner - usually chicken or jacket potatoe, salad etc. (not even big portions and I usually leave something. I watch the lables, am not one who goes through a packet of biscuits or a box of choclates - I couldn't, I'd feel sick.

It is horrid buying clothes and everyone thinking you are fat because you stuff your
face - after years, now the girls at work cannot see why I am big as they all say I hardly eat at work, and we go out I never finish, rarely have a desert (as usually too full).

So all you skinnies that badmouth a size 12, your really not on this planet and it makes me angry - some people are naturally slim, like my daughter (who is 11 wearing childrens size age 9-10 - but has to have adjustable waist band or they still would fall off! - and can still fit tops and knickers age 8, but an adult size 8)

Sizes are different for all people and different in all shops.

the trouble is that the S-M-L-XL-XXL labels need to cover too many dress sizes.

When I am a 16 and thats AVERAGE for the UK, then why should I be called an XXL

I think it should be

6-8 XS
10-12 S
14-16 M
18-20 L
20-22 XL
24-26 XXL

why can't there be more XS sizes?

oh and yes, there should be more standard sizings anyway. same for kids clothes its bloody ridiculous - DS is currently in anything from age 4 to age 8 - he is a tall 5 yo

Sizes certainly have changed. I was looking through my grans wardbrobe when she died, loads of clothes there from the 60s. She was a size 14 - by today's reckoning i would have said the clothes would have been classed as a 8.

I wish they wouldn't size teenage stuff so small. Went shopping with dd in Cult Clothing to get some Superdry stuff - dd is 6 foot and athletic - not fat at all. However she was mortified that the large didn't fit her and she was extra large. Not nice for her esteem at all.

Oooh. Grrr. Clothing sizes drive me nuts!

I'm 36-29-40 and I just think of myself as that rather than as a certain size. I'd have multiple personalities, otherwise. And it means I know I can't be fooled by vanity sizing.

So I've dug out my Grannie's old sewing machine and I'm learning to make my own! A bit extreme, maybe, but it's actually turning out to be lots of fun.

J

Sizes have definitely become bigger over the years. My granny gave me a gorgeous dress a few years back that she'd worn as a young woman (from M&S actually). It had size 12 clearly marked in it and I was a size 10. I tried it on and managed to get completely stuck in it and had to call my mum to come round and unwedge me from it. It must have been a size 6 at the very most!

Also, whoever said that having a BMI of 25 means that you must be large is wrong. I had a BMI of 25 for years because I was a dancer and had a lot of muscle mass and a large-ish frame but I had barely any fat. I used to have big hang-ups about my weight and BMI until my GP sat me down and said I had absolutely nothing to worry about. She told me my body fat was actually on the lower side of ideal! It is an unreliable measurement if you do a lot of sport.

BMI is rubbish. I got weighed by a nurse about a year ago and she told me that according to my BMI she should be telling me not to lose anymore weight [i'd just gone down half a stone from illness] but even she thought it was rubbish, as even having lost that half a stone i didnt look exactly starving!

i dont want to annoy anyone, because i know there's a weight loss thread on here with the same title, but how awful was Kate Moss saying 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'
she's naturally skinny and should know better!