Do tall people weigh more than they look?

[casablanca123]

I'm a 6'2 tall girl, weighing around 15 stone 4 and I won't say I'm overweight and certainly people don't think so as well. People often get very surprised at how much I weigh and sometimes say something like, "Really, you don't look like you weigh more than 12".

Do tall people carry weight really well?

I think it depends on muscle really. You can be lean and muscular and very heavy. I'm tallish (5ft 8) and have no muscle. If I go up to 11 stone it's all flab and I look overweight even though it's still a healthy BMI for me. Other women my height can weigh 11 stone and look very slim because the weight is muscle not flab.

I'm quite overweight according to BMI but wear size 14 generally. I have a really big build for a woman - broad shoulders and pelvis, 7 inch wrists, big feet, etc. I think if you are tall and strapping, you can weigh 'a lot' whilst not looking fat, as such. A lot depends on your frame.

Short arse here. I'm 5 foot. I've just reached my target weight of 8 stone, down from a far too heavy (for me) 11 st 7 lb in July 2022. (Please excuse PJs in second pic!) I'm the direct opposite of tall women; there's just nowhere for me to hide excess weight.

Obviously if you carry weight all over instead of in one area, you may not look as overweight as someone who carries it mostly on their stomach or bum. But at over 15 stone, even at over 6’, you’ll look overweight.

@UnctuousUnicorns thank you for sharing. So now I know!

Id have to have some pretty disordered eating to get to 8st and I wouldn’t look nearly as healthy as you do.

well done on the weight loss.

I’m 5’10 and 9 stone but people always say I’m too think despite the fact it’s within the healthy range for my height

*thin

I’m over 6ft and heavy, not sure what I weigh but it must be 17 stone. I dance twice a week, walks ten miles a day to work, and go to the gym three times a week. I’m physically fit, I’m just large!

I'm 5' 11" and size 10-12. I don't think I could ever be an 8 though, that seems a step too far!

I’m 5,11 and weigh 13stone . Size 10
top and 12 bottoms . I’m the same weight as my husband and folk are always shocked by my weight!

I imagine a fair few of us tall women are deceptively heavy!

I'm 4ft 10 I don't really have an idea of what I expect taller people to weigh. I put on 1.5 stone when I was pregnant with DS, and had a sizeable bump. A taller friend was pregnant at the same time, she put on 1.5 stone by about 26 weeks but you couldn't even tell she was pregnant. My bmi is 21 but I think I look pretty stocky because I'm so short.

So weird as I am stone and half lighter but a size 14.

Maybe just I don't like more smugly fitted clothes? I should try a 12 on! (Though I judge it by can I fit into all my size 14 jeans fine and I have a few that don't zip up well or can zip up but I can't breathe or sit down.

Everyone is different.
Dd is very thin and tall. She is just over 9 stone but is very muscular (toned is probably a better word. ) She carry’s very little body fat and has clearly defined muscle tone and abs. So refined you can see all the muscles in her back and the veins in her arms and hands. Someone else at just over 9 stone who doesn’t train to the level she does may look flabby, especially if they are short with a smaller frame.
At around 9.5 stone when I was training a lot I was a size 8-10. Others may have to weigh less to wear the same clothes. It varies a lot.

my clothes are either size 8 or 10 and I’m 4 stole lighter i think it really is down to body shape more than weight sometimes? My bra size is 32 dd and I have wide hips so I think that’s why I am a 10 in some items and dresses never fit well in an 8 too tight over chest and bum and In a 10 way too big on the waist

*stone

Taller people have a heavier healthy range than shorter people.

Common sense says they're more of them because they're taller.

On the whole the healthy range is reasonable for most people given it's quite broad.

I also think people think of weight with their own frames of reference. Someone who is overweight but around other slightly overweight people is more likely to view someone in the healthy range as being slim, whereas someone who is within the healthy range and is around people at different points in the healthy range is more likely to see the slightly overweight person as overweight.

I completely agree about looking better but weighing more when you have defined muscles. I have a friend who is tall and slim. She works out a lot, great figure she weighs just over 11st stone and nobody can believe it. Everyone assumes she weighs about 9 stone.

Yes different people carry weight differently. I met up with some friends recently and three of us all weighed the same, me a 5'4 size 16/18 woman, one a 6' tall man who looks very slim, and one a similar height to me but who has been lifting wights and has very low body fat percentage so its all muscle. All of us around 190lb.

5ft 9 and currently 11st 9 but I have a 5month old. My weight loss has plateaued and I'm a size 14. None of my pre baby jeans fit me. I'm best really at 10 7. Under that I'm too skinny . I've no womanly curves. If i put on weight it goes straight to my gut and boobs and I'm very out of proportion then.

No, that's underweight, and people on the low end of the healthy BMI range are slim/thin whatever you want to call it.

My gp has told me that I’m at the very lowest end of what is healthy that I could be any weight between 9-13 stone to have a healthy bmi.
Im definitely not underweight , I have regular periods , I feel well, no deficiency of any sort and I’m not bony it’s just how I naturally am

I always think about a sort of "inch thick" slice of my middle and how much it would weigh (bit gross: but think of a massive steak). Each inch taller adds one of them.

I'm not as tall as you (5'8", muscular, top end of normal BMI) but if I imagine how much a 6 inch thick steak the circumference of a torso would weigh. A LOT more.

Then add in different body compositions etc.

I don't think people always appreciate how much difference a "couple of inches" can make. Let alone half a foot!

Good that your GP has confirmed that's your natural weight. It does lie outside the NHS healthy BMI range, that's what I was going on. Surely you can acknowledge that you are naturally very slim and that other people (whose business it is none of anyway) will see that.

Oh yes I do accept that I’m very slim but I’ve always been that way. Sometimes it can be almost offensive when people make comments I’ve had some really rude and intrusive things said it had questions do I have an eating disorder etc when I’ve always been like this and it’s how my whole family are. Maybe that’s why the gp is saying it’s fine as they’ve known me years and years and this is how I am ? I do feel like I get so many comments and I’d never dream of mentioning anyone’s weight to them big or small but I get it so much