Now I'm 12 stone and about a 14, however my Mum will be a 16 when she gets to 12 stone. I am younger and have more muscle and my fat is distributed in different places - hers has shifted to her tummy now she's post menopausal!
I'm 5ft 6 and when I started off I weighed about 18st and was a size 26 squeezing myself in to a size 24 (EVERYTHING had to have elasticated waistbands). At 16st stone I was comfortably in Evans size 22-24. Then, at about 15 and a half stone I started exercising and my shape changed very quickly. I seemed to skip being a proper size 22 and 20 and the next time I went to buy clothes was at 14st when I was a size 18. I now weigh a little over 13st and I'm a size 16 although I prefer to wear an 18 on the top half.
I'm post menopausal and Frus is right - it does all settle around the tummy. I do loads of abs exercises but you can't spot lose fat so, hidden under the fat, are some beautifully hard abs - you just can't see 'em!
When I get to 12 stones I'm hoping to be a size 14.
Isnt it funny how you gain weight on your feet...!
Makes me laugh when people say their feet shrunk after losing weight...
I used to wear a size 5, now Im a six... Id happily stay a six to lose an extra half pound from the double chin / fat elbows !!
Im gonna start saying to people... "Do you think my toes look fat in this?"
I was the same height as you but size 18-20 (and rising) at 'only' 13st 13lbs! So you're not doing badly!
I read somewhere that you can go up a whole 2 shoe sizes if you're very overweight. Must be true because at my heaviest I was mysteriously a size 6 shoe - been a 5 all my life, sometime 5 and half in certain shops. Now I'm back to a very small 5.
At 11 stone 3, I'm a size 12. Until I was 30, I was a size 8 and 9 and a half stones exactly.
I think it all depends on how you carry the weight - I always carry it around my waist and tummy (so I look like a Weeble). There have been times, even when I haven't been pregnant, when my 'waist' (for want of a better word) has been larger than my bust or hips.
Yes, Sarah - I've always been a pear shape so even at my biggest (nearly 14st and size 20), my waist was 33" so when I had a BMI of over 30 (obese), according to the guidelines about danger to health according to waist size, I was still technically not so unfit. ("a healthy waist measurement (reflecting low coronary risk) is below 32 inches/ 80 cm for women". At a very large size 20, my waist was still only 1" over the 'healthy' one, but my backside/hips were huge!)
I do wonder if people have very different perceptions of dress size, too as on another site, last week, someone commented they were a size 12 (UK sizes), and then gave a waist measurement which was the same as mine at size 18-20. And I've seen similar things before.
Alot of it is down to the fit a mate of mine used to be a 14-16 when I was in a 12 and on the scales she was half a stone at least lighter than me. She held hers on her stomach and boobs though and mine is on my arms and legs.
On shoes, they're annoying me more than ever. I used to be a 9 wide, which meant that pretty much the only place I could get shoes was Evans, but I knew they'd fit. Now my feet have shrunk a bit, but only really in width, and normal size 9s are actually harder to find than wide ones. At least in Evans you know they do everything in 9 wide, in normal shoe shops they only do a couple of selected styles and don't make it clear which ones.
Weight - Height - Size ratio..
and my fat is distributed in different places - hers has shifted to her tummy now she's post menopausal!
