So we all know that sizes vary according to brand and need to be taken with a grain of salt. However, we all also generally have an answer if someone asks what size we are. So. How do you determine your answer?

For me, it takes me a little while to be acknowledge that I am in a particular size. Basically, I need to be able to fit in the smaller range of whatever size it is before I will acknowledge that I am that size. So, right now I am a ten. I still have 12s that fit me, but they are smaller 12s. I also have a pair of 8s that fit me, but they are big 8s. I can squeeze myself into most other 8s, but not comfortably at all.

I've been able to wear SOME 10s for a while now, but I didn't say I was a 10 until I felt confident that I could fit in basically any 10.

Lately, I've just been saying that I am "in between a 16 and a 14". I really dont feel like ANY of my jeans fit me right for some reason. My size 16s from the Gap (which i feel like I JUST bought, btw) are all baggy in the butt and falling off. I can hold them up with a belt but they still look silly because of the bagginess and the way they just hang off my butt. However, the size 14 from the Gap is extreeemly muffin toppy. I've never had this in between sizes problem to this extent before. I wonder if there is a bigger difference between these 2 sizes because I have heard of other people having this problem at this size as well.

Pretty much since I could remember paying attention to my size (5th grade, maybe?), I was a size 12. I was always a thick girl, maybe even chubby, but never "fat." I *wanted* to be slimmer, but the fact that I never had to get a bigger size delayed the desire to get serious about it. I didn't want to be a 12, but at least I wasn't growing, lol. One summer I unintentionally lost weight just by working outside so much and fit into a size 9. I couldn't believe it, those jeans looked so tiny to me. Buuuut, I bounced right back up at the end of the summer. Before I started losing weight, I was barely holding onto my 12's. I'd stuff myself into those jeans that used to fit perfectly. I played all kinds of mental games like "well, I'm just bloated" (and I stayed bloated all month, lol). Or "they just came out of the dryer, they'll loosen up." Finally I had to accept that I simply wasn't a size 12 anymore. Shopping for a pair of 14 jeans was a traumatic experience. The fact that even some of the 14's were pretty tight was a wake up call.

Wellllllll, now I confidently call myself a 0-2. All of my jeans are size 0, my wedding dress is a size 2 (and they're even taking it in a bit...I've heard wedding dress sizes are usually bigger than street clothes sizes). I don't want to just say I'm a 0 because there are 0's that are too small for me. But all the 4's I've tried on recently are too big.

And for the record, I wasn't aiming to get into a 0 or a 2. I had always been the person who said things like "size 0 girls must be anorexic!" I didn't think it would be possible for me to even get into a 6, and if you would have told me I would have fit into anything smaller than that I would have laughed. Having been overweight all my life, I never realized that I actually have a tall but dainty frame. My goal was to find a weight I was content with and could comfortably maintain...I did, and at that weight, I just happen to fit into a 0-2.

I personally have no idea right now. I have pants from 18-24 that fit. LOL. But I feel like I am the size that I can grab off the rack anywhere and fit. So using that, I have not gone down a size at all.

I tend to "own" a size once the size above it is big. When I'm in a store and find that the size up no longer fits, well then I must be that smaller size. I've skipped sizes using this method though. I hate claiming a size because it's so subjective depending on the store!!

Megan, it used to be that wedding dresses ran SMALLER than street clothes, which make sense with you wearing 0's, but the dress is a 2. Is that what you meant? Just curious. I wore a size 10 when I got married but my dress was a 14. I remember being devastated. LOL! I don't think wedding dresses have ever played into vanity sizing!

Oh, and speaking of vanity sizing...I'm now an 8. I am now also the same size I was when I got married, and as I said I was a 10 then. And now that I'm an 8, and really I am, that size 14 wedding dress fits like the day I got married! Well, almost...the bust on that dress moved up while it sat in that box all these years.

Yeah, the vanity sizing bugs the snot out of me. I was still a healthy 14 in the summer, yet had to buy size 10 capris. I don't THINK so, Tim (well, I bought them 'cause they were cute and looked good, but NO WAY was I a real 10)

Right now I'm wearing sizes 11-14 (though 14s have to be worn with a belt or I lose them). Nobody actually ASKS me what size I'm wearing, so it's never been an issue?? I guess if they did ask, I'd say I'm wearing sizes 11-14!

P.s. Yeah, wedding dress/formal gown sizes are usually SMALLER than street clothes sizes.

For me it is when wearing the bigger size goes from being a bit loose to I must wear a belt to keep them up. My size 16 jeans will literally fall off of me by just going up stairs, if I am wear them while laying down they will often migrate down my buttocks, and I can't walk with my cellphone in my pocket because they will fall down. So when that stuff started happening I started really feeling like a 14.

WOW! When people ask about my size... I say "Big Girls sizes" and leave it at that. I am pretty standard in terms of sizing, but I am not ready to start thinking about that yet. On a positive note... many of the pants and such I own now I can pull on and off without unbuttoning! Thats a good sign... right?

Yes, that's a good sign! I love those changes! And in the "big girl sizes" it takes even longer to go between sizes, so it's a VERY good sign!

I know in the real world we aren't asked often...or ever. But around here I guess we talk about it a lot.

If somebody asked me, I would say 8-10, but in reality, I've got everything from a 6 to a 12 in my closet and they all fit equally well. To my mind, sizes as a gauge of how we're doing has become almost meaningless. I'll frequently take three sizes of something I like into a dressing room because there's just no way to tell until you put it on.

Hm, people in the real world ask me regularly. But these are people that know me well and know about my weight struggles, etc.

Haha, yes, my bad. I think I meant wedding dress sizes are higher numbers (aka bigger) than street clothes sizes...or something. I dunno, it was early, give me a break! Hehehe But yes, a size 2 wedding dress is generally a smaller garment than a size 2 of street clothes.

I've worn a size 8 in my mind for 6 years even though for half of those 6 years I was a true 10-12. I am definitely not an 8 anymore but I have a hard time accepting that I am smaller than that.

No one asks me my size. I think I am a 6, maybe a 4. I don't know.

If anyone asks me "what size are you," I say "I wear clothes that come in sizes, but I am and never will be a size."

My bust, waist, and hips all fall across three to five different size ranges. My waist is the smallest, and my hips are the largest. So which "size" am I? The biggest? The smallest? The average? (if I average them, it may not fit any of my measurements).

That's why I tell people I am not a size. And what size I wear depends on the cut and style of the garment.

Sizing is a peeve of mine. I went shopping with MIL for a dress for her wedding. She tried on a beautiful lavender dress in a size 10, but it was little snug in the tummy (it was a very slim sheath style and the clerk had warned that the brand tended to run small). A 12 would have fit her perfectly, and even though she loved the dress she refused to try on the 12, because she said, "I am a 10." Even though the shop did alterations, she refused to consider any dress unless it was a size 10.

Sizes were never meant to do anything but make the buying process easier. It just flabergasts me that people get hung up on sizes.

Sorry, rant over.

GOOD POINT kaplods. People put too much stock in clothing sizes. I've totally squeezed and constricted myself into clothes that don't fit because of size hubris before.