Average size of women-a statistic that does more harm than good.

sb88_2

Well! Here is my input!

I really really really hate sizing, especially in jeans!! I try not to worry about them. But do you have any idea how annoying it is to find jeans that don't gap around the waist because I have to find them to fit on the bum?

I have a 26 inch waist and 38inch hips! ( (measured around the widest part of my bum!) I do really not fit in to any size bracket, I am currently dieting (healthy eating/exercise) and have 14lbs left to lose. I will say though, at 23, I have found myself becoming more comfortable with my body, my weight has gone up and down over the years, this is due to taking up running, and eating healthier.

I've also noticed that the media are always promoting size 0, or hour glass, or being "Curvy" . The best thing to do, is not read anything relating to size.


I would say a size 16 on anyone is too much, but you have to ask who they are taking these samples from?
Don't trust anything you read, they make everything up. I wouldn't be surprised if this study was sponsored by a food corporation in some way who want to make people feel better about over indulging etc and boost sales. Everything published by the media has some sort of hidden agenda.

EVERYONE should strive to be healthy, to exercise, to eat the foods their bodies need, and to cut back on the crap that they don't, wether your a size 8 or 28.

Gloomendoom

sb88 wrote: »

I would say a size 16 on anyone is too much,

Even if you are over 6' tall?

sb88_2

Okay, well there are exceptions to every rule,I have a very tall freind, and I know that if she were a size 10-12 she would look unwell. So I will rephrase to say that MOST people, not all .

however studies are saying the average size is 16? and the average height is 5ft 4 (no I haven't just picked this at random)

So if the average height is 5ft 4, and the average size is a size 16, then yes this is too big.

I am 5ft 4, and was up untill recently 11st, this gave me a bmi of 26.5, considered overweight. I was at the bigger end of a size 12.
So for me being average height, to be a size 16, I'd need to be 12-13 stone. Which would make me obese.

MandM90

Of course someone over 6 ft will need larger clothes; I have a friend who is very tall and I was initially surprised that such a slim girl would be in size 12, but thinking about it of course a size 8 wouldn't fit! That said, for most women I'd say size 14 is quite large.

If you are very tall, or especially broad, or a muscular rower with big shoulders you can still be a healthy larger size, but for most women of an average height the extra weight and 'wobbly bits' will, according to studies, increase the risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes and other diseases significantly.

It's hard to know if previous posters talking about large 'healthy' women they know are talking about particularly broad/tall women or - to put it bluntly - fat women. If it's the latter, I have a hard time believing they truly are healthy. Health isn't just the absence of disease, and all the science shows that the extra fat does you no good. The number one cause of death in the UK is CHD so we are literally dying of being overweight.

Mojisola

This is from research in the USA but still interesting -

https://www.sciencewatch.com/ana/st/obesity2/10sepObes2Fleg1/
"We estimated that there were fewer deaths in the overweight category (BMI 25-29) than there would have been if those same individuals had been normal weight. And overall our estimates for the number of excess deaths for obese and overweight people, relative to normal weight, were quite a bit lower than previous estimates."

"We found that the excess mortality associated with obesity is primarily from cardiovascular disease, which is no surprise. Not from cancer and not from the "everything else" category—non-cancer, non-cardiovascular. And, in fact, the reason why the overweight category has lower mortality is that it has lower mortality from all the non-cancer, non-cardiovascular causes—infections, injuries, and the whole group of miscellaneous conditions, of which there are hundreds. "

sb88_2

Completely agree MandM90! There is a huge difference between being broad with a muscular/large frame, and just having excess fat.

JC9297

FatVonD wrote: »

When I was in my early teens in 1970s the sizings in Martin Ford (now there's a blast from the past!) for a size 10 were a 22" waist, size 12 was 24" etc etc.

When I was in my early twenties in the late 1980s my waist was around 22/23 inches and I was size 8-10. I'm a few inches bigger now (probably about 26/27 inches) and nearly always find the waist on size 8 jeans/trousers too big and need a belt.

adelight

Every size is promoted and every size gets bashed. One minute the focus is on health and the next it's on confidence in your own skin.Someone might be happy at a size 16 but if they have tonnes of visceral fat then they're not healthy and might want to consider doing something about it. The same goes for someone a size 8 who can't run a mile.
I don't care if someone wants to be big as long as it doesn't get in my way, I hate it when a giant !!!! takes up half my train seat and squashes me into the wall or I have to squeeze past them in a corridor. When you start affecting other peoples day to day business and its something you can change then you should do something about it! It's just being considerate imo, like not coughing in someone's face or parking your car across their drive.

MandM90

adelight wrote: »

I don't care if someone wants to be big as long as it doesn't get in my way, I hate it when a giant !!!! takes up half my train seat and squashes me into the wall or I have to squeeze past them in a corridor. When you start affecting other peoples day to day business and its something you can change then you should do something about it! It's just being considerate imo, like not coughing in someone's face or parking your car across their drive.

I once sat on the window seat on my train home, and a rather large lady sat on the aisle seat (and wheezed and panted for the whole journey). She was spilling over onto my seat and made me feel so very claustrophobic - then, when it was my stop she wouldn't get up until the very last minute, even though I explained I needed to get my bag down, and I nearly missed my stop! Now I always, always take the aisle seat because I'm so paranoid about being squashed and trapped again. At least now if a big person sits down and pushes me off half my seat I'm in the aisle so not up against a wall, or can just move

I once had it happen to me on a long haul economy flight and will always upgrade now to avoid having 'spillage' from the next passenger :rotfl:

As a vegan, this made me laugh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzngoAUoNM

FBaby

twigglet35 wrote: »

I was a size 10 last year but to keep that size i can only eat 500cal a day.
im now a 14/16 more the 16 and i dont eat junk we cook everything from scrach and drink lots of water.
some pepole are just not ment to be small.

That's the equivalent of one healthy breakfast and that's about it. No drinks but water. I very much doubt that you would remain a healthy weight having so little. People inevitably underestimate their calories intake like forgetting to add all their cups of tea of coffee which can add a few hundreds calories.