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

Gloomendoom

It's funny, the opposite has happened with men's shoe sizes. I used to take a 12 but now I find 12's too small. I know my feet haven't got any bigger because my old shoes still fit.

Air_Cooled_75

Sainsbury's and Gap clothes are massive too. I bought a size 4 (UK) denim skirt from Gap and easily fit in to size 8 at Sainsbury's. However, Primark's clothes are smaller than they used to be. I have tops and cropped pants from a few years ago in a size 10 (still fit) but bought some new ones for hols last year and had to even venture to a 14 for the tops! Can't work it out but I do reckon some shops size their clothes more generously to make us feel better.

Gloomendoom

Air_Cooled_75 wrote: »

Sainsbury's and Gap clothes are massive too. I bought a size 4 (UK) denim skirt from Gap and easily fit in to size 8 at Sainsbury's. .

Gap use American sizes. That is why they are so big.

JC9297

hawk30 wrote: »

I am not, and never have been, underweight by choice. In fact I have often cried because of the horrible comments from people like you who think it is ok to criticise me because of my weight, when I would love to be curvy. The problem is that I am naturally very skinny and to achieve a 'so-called' healthy weight (based on BMI, which we all know is an inaccurate measurement tool) I have to eat a lot of foods that are very unhealthy. I'm not talking about the odd chocolate bar or piece of cake - I'm talking about a daily diet of significant amounts of fat and sugar. I rarely eat fruit and vegetables and don't do any exercise, for the fear that I will lose weight and lose my entitlement to the treatment. I have had men tell me, even before I went on my reverse diet, that I eat more than them and "never stop eating".

Unfortunately lots of people refuse to believe that people can be slim, never mind skinny, without living on a diet of lettuce leaves. They presume those that are naturally thin are living a miserable existence denying themselves in order to keep their weight down, I think they just don't like the idea that some people can eat whatever they want without putting on weight.

Gloomendoom

JC9297 wrote: »

Unfortunately lots of people refuse to believe that people can be slim, never mind skinny, without living on a diet of lettuce leaves. They presume those that are naturally thin are living a miserable existence denying themselves in order to keep their weight down, I think they just don't like the idea that some people can eat whatever they want without putting on weight.

There is a middle ground. One can maintain one's slimness by eating sensibly, and that doesn't mean lettuce leaves.

marywooyeah

j.e.j. wrote: »

Maybe on average people are bigger/fatter now than they were a couple of decades ago. I notice that the clothes in some stores seem to come up really big. M&S, Per Una and White Stuff, for instance. Even the size 8 or 10 skirts are huge!

cool, I'll start shopping at m&s then maybe I can be in a size 8 skirt! :beer:
to answer the OP, no I don't think because you are average you should necessarily be happy with that. take somewhere like texas, if the average weight is something like 25 stone I don't think many people would be happy to be average. I'm a size 16 and I certainly need to lose weight, but I have a friend who is an 18-20 and she looks lovely, its really down to how each particular person feels about how they look rather than whether or not they are the average size/weight in my opinion.

skintchick

Gloomendoom wrote: »

So just one size less than this woman. Is it really that small?

Yes. It's tiny. Most women of that size have heads that look oversized because they are too thin to look proportional. It's not a size to aspire to.

coinxoperated

I have to say - I am currently a size 18/20 in trousers and 16-18 top and I FEEL too large. I remember being much slimmer but can never remember being in less than a size 16 bottoms. I have massive hips and whatever I do, I will always been around the 14/16 mark. Its something I've learnt to embrace.

Plus, if the 'average' woman was a size 16, you would think shops would stock more!

pinkshoes

I'm a size 8, but also nearly 5'11", and I eat more than my OH!

Clothes size doesn't mean anything. Someone my height would look OK at size 16, whereas someone 5' tall would look rather dumpy.

You need to look at someone's BMI, along with their % of body fat.

Most people can loose the weight if they WANT to. Most "fat" people I know are fat because they eat too much cr*p, drink too much alcohol and don't exercise enough.

Calories in > Calories out = FAT

It's just simple maths

Gloomendoom

pinkshoes wrote: »

I'm a size 8, but also nearly 5'11", and I eat more than my OH!

Clothes size doesn't mean anything. Someone my height would look OK at size 16, whereas someone 5' tall would look rather dumpy.

You need to look at someone's BMI, along with their % of body fat.

Most people can loose the weight if they WANT to. Most "fat" people I know are fat because they eat too much cr*p, drink too much alcohol and don't exercise enough.

Calories in > Calories out = FAT

It's just simple maths