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Pre- 1980's the average size of most women in the UK was 14-16.
The ideal measurements then were 36-24-36, which in todays way of thinking that sizing would be consider overweight.
As for clothes sizing, there is a 2" difference between each size and more and more manufacturers now cut to the lower end of the 2" sizing, thus forcing more women to wear a larger size than they really need to.
I am obese, and a few weeks ago had to go the the doctor where upon it was noted that he had not seen me for about 8 years. I am healthy, but following a fall have now got problems with my knees.
And the obesity epidemic does not take into account the large migrant population in many major cities where the women are naturally larger, such as the African community.
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Hi C,
I have to pop out in a minute but you stuck a cord about clothes sizes. I have a skirt which is a size 14 and a fitted above knee style. I was 9.5 stone at the time and it was bought in the early 1980s. I'm nearly 2 stone heavier now and still a size 14 in most high street stores. However the 1980s skirt well I can't get it up over my thighs :-S Clothes sizes are now much bigger than they were. The same goes for cups, mugs plates etc. the bigger the plate, the more its filled. When I was at school there were very few overweight children. I was one of them but when I look back at photos I was smaller than today's overweight children. My Son is skinny compared to some of his school mates but looks the same size as my husband was in photos at the same age.
I really do think that perception of size has changed. What we do about it I don't know.
I have also done all of the diets under the sun. I think I will book a place on I'm a celebrity, they always loose weight :-D
Teresa
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"In the UK an estimated 60.8 per cent of adults and 31.1 per cent of children are overweight. According to figures from 2009, almost a quarter of adults (22 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women) in England were classified as obese (BMI 30kg/m² or over)."
The above is the first paragraph in the following link...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/obesity.shtml
Britain as a nation has an obesity problem.
"As many as 30,000 people die prematurely every year from obesity-related conditions." (taken from link above)
I have read and contributed to threads on obesity on other forums. Reading other people's opinions has made me wonder how much our perceptions of weight/size are skewed. Do we normalise being overweight because we see so much of it around us?
I've heard quite a few times of people, usually women, complain about the lack of availability of fashionable clothes over a size 16/18, saying that the average size of women nowadays is 16. Well this may be true but being a size 16 or over will put most, if not all, women into the overweight/obese category with regards to health, which isn't a good thing.
Another thing is that clothes sizes seem to be getting larger. On another forum one woman once posted how she had found a dress belonging to her mother that she (mother) had worn when young. The dress was a size 10, the poster was a size 10 when she tried it on. It didn't fit, wouldn't even go on her, she said it was more like today's size 6. This is a post that has stuck in my mind for some reason so I did some googling today and found the following which suggests that clothes size are indeed larger than their older equivalents.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/04/daily-chart-1
So are our perceptions of what is normal size wise skewed? How does this affect our health? Do we need to accept that in order to tackle the 'obesity epicemic' we need to start looking at our size in context of health and use bmi as a guidline.
I would like to say here that bmi is a guideline and is not infallible. For example it is possible for a healthy, muscular athlete with very low levels of body fat to be classified obese using this formula. Muscle weighs more than fat.
I'd also like to point out that I'm a size 18 and definitely in the obese category so I'm not criticising anyone. I'm just throwing out a few thoughts/questions for people to discuss. Feel free to bring up anything that I haven't that is related.
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