Vanity Sizing

[Beccubug]

I read something recently about the whole vanity sizing in shops and how this is dangerous for peoples health.

Apparently according to measurements on average a size 10 in the shops are the waist size of actual 12's and 14's. The guys premise was that people will think they are a healthy weight because they fit into certain sizes but they actually won't be.

What do people think of this?

I personally think that most of us are totally aware of the fact that being overweight is unhealthy and we focus more on how we feel and look than what a label says.

[hugeherbo]

I wouldn't of thought that they were allowed to do that, im actually shocked!! do you know what stores are worse for that? OMG does that mean im really a size 20, i think i want to cry

[Beccubug]

What Dress Size or Waist Size Am I Really ? » Rod Collins

Here is the article.

It made me feel like that too. I was so happy to be wearing a 14 but apparently I am actually still an 18. If we look at this logically though it must be relative to sizes many years ago. At 9.13 I am a size 8 and I lose a dress size for every stone. That would mean in order to be a size 8 by these standards I would have to weigh 7.13. I cant really understand his point.

I don't know about anyone else but I have also found that size variations betweem shops and styles decreases the smaller you get. When I am about 13 stone I fit clothes between a 12 and an 18 depending on the shop. When I was a 10, I was a 10 everywhere.

[lshafik]

Um, I think if your BMI says you're fine then a size shouldn't matter....surely....

For example if I got down to my healthy BMI and I fit in a 10 but it was really a 12 / 14 it wouldn't matter really would it?

x

[Beccubug]

I agree BMI is mostly a good guide line. I tend to just go by what I look like to be honest. I can see when I am not over weight anymore and that suits me fine. Again when I am a size 10 my BMI is still in the middle of the overweight category as I am very muscular. I guess we all just have to go by how we feel and try to start ignoring these numbers (says the girl who weighs herself every day)

[hugeherbo]

i want to cry lol, i actually worked out that i should be i size 22, i didnt think i was that size

[Lily]

For what it's worth, I think sizes come up much bigger than they used to.

20 years ago, when I weighed 10 and a half stone, I was a size 16. And yet when I got down to 12 stones back in 2008, I fitted into a size 14...

BMI is an okay sort of guide, I suppose, but it's a pretty rough and ready one because it's based on surface area of the body. If you're lean and muscular, it's often the case that your BMI ends up way above 25 (because muscle weighs more) - but you'll fit into smaller clothes than someone else of the same weight who isn't muscular.

And no, I don't think that's the reason I fitted into a size 14 three years ago... Me with muscles? That'll be the day.

[Beccubug]

i want to cry lol, i actually worked out that i should be i size 22, i didnt think i was that size

Don't see it like that, you have not suddenly gotten bigger because of this mans opinion or the way a shop cuts it's clothes. Remember it applys to all of us. Think about your size 12 friend who you think is a great size, she did not suddenly just go up to a 16. It is all relative.

[Beccubug]

Lily- do you think this is a quite recent thing or has it been gradually increasing?

I always used to get told I couldn't possibly weigh 11 stone and be a size 10. People do not seem to grasp the concept of certain body fibres weighing more than others.

I laugh like that at the idea of me with a flat tummy.