She's Lighter But I'm Smaller
 

Here's another reason I've been seriously considering making the transfer into maintenance.

I've always had a tendency to notice and envy woman who are the size I want to be. There's a woman at work who looks very small, toned and trim. She runs and has the legs to prove it. She's also exactly my height. Well one day she and I got to talking and, inevitably the conversation got on the subject of size and weight and how difficult it is to buy clothes when you're smaller than average. In the course of the conversation she mentioned she weighed 105 pounds. I didn't tell her I weighed ten pounds more than that.

She told me that another woman around our size has the habit of buying clothes without trying them on and when they don't fit passes them on to her. Some of them fit her and some don't. She asked me if I wanted a any of the clothes that don't fit her (clothes that have never really been worn, just tried on by two people) to see if they fit me. I agreed, though I was thinking how in the world can something that doesn't fit you fit me when you're ten pounds lighter.

The next day she brought in very nice pair of black dress pants from Talbots, size 2. She said they were too tight on her. I took them home and tried them on. They were too big.

I don't know how this is possible but there it is. The pants that are too small for a woman who weighs less than me and, to me, looks a lot thinner are too big for me. I know her frame size, body shape and body composition are probably different than mine, but still.

Anyway that started me thinking.

the "shes lighter but im smaller" concept has become my lot in life. And im ok with that :) im the only one that knows my scale weight. people are FLOORED when i tell them how much i weigh (especially men, for some reason) Most would guess me at least 15 to 20 pounds lighter. AT 5'4' and 135 pounds, i fit into 2's and 4's. ANd i agree that it IS hard to find clothes that small!

Remember, too, that people are built differently. Different frames or carrying more weight in different areas. Congrats on fitting into those pants! How awesome!

I'm also smaller than a lot of people who weigh ten pounds less than me. I'm learning to live with it. :) I'm at 127-130 and wear 2's & 4's too, which are hard to find. I can't do petites because the legs are little short and those are all I find.

Originally Posted by mkroyer:
the "shes lighter but im smaller" concept has become my lot in life. And im ok with that :) im the only one that knows my scale weight. people are FLOORED when i tell them how much i weigh (especially men, for some reason) Most would guess me at least 15 to 20 pounds lighter. AT 5'4' and 135 pounds, i fit into 2's and 4's. ANd i agree that it IS hard to find clothes that small!

I'm wearing zeros and double zeros. They are just about impossible to find unless I want to shell out big bucks for designer clothes. Usually I just shop in the kids department.

I've always been small for my weight (or heavy for my size) but I really thought the other woman was smaller. I know I don't see myself honestly. When I look in the mirror I look exactly the same as I did when I weighed thirty pounds more. It absolutely floors me that I can fit into a double zero. (isn't that size for eighty pound anorexics?) I look at my jeans and think there is no way these are going to fit me, but somehow they do.

I've been there, in a very similar situation.......but I just couldn't see it when I looked in the mirror, even now I do the same thing. I know I shouldn't, but I do envy other women, especially at the gym- the toned girls or I look and ask myself "Am I bigger or smaller than her?". I'm 5'3 (barely) and I'm 139 and almost back in a size 6.

so, do all you smaller than the lighter chicks lift?

I do p90x, well the arms, back, shoulders, legs and abs portion- not a fan of the Kenpo. I also do yoga, run and other cardio, mainly running though.

I use a fifty pound barbell, ten pound dumbbells (lots of reps) and a fifteen pound kettlebell (I need a heavier one but that was the heaviest one the store had at the time) I also powerwalk and do static strength exercises such as planks and wall sits (I do wall sits whenever I have a rare non busy moment at work).

Here's a real killer exercise. Hold on to something sturdy and raise one leg straight in front of you until it's parallel to the floor. Then squat as low as you can with the other leg. Be sure to keep the raised leg absolutely straight. Repeat 100 times then switch legs.

Part of my job is moving furniture and heavy wooden crates so I do a lot of lifting at work. Last week a coworker (male) and I had to move one crate from on top of another crate onto the floor so it could be moved with a pallet jack. The crate weighed nearly two hundred pounds and we lifted it together.

Brown-- its the heavy lifting/strength training. 114 out of 135 of those pounds is lean body mass

Strange, I'm having the opposite experience. I'm down to about 136 lbs, 5'-8" tall and fit into a size 8/medium size about 90% of the time. Most ladies my size seem to be at least a 6.

Then again, I am not overly into strength training.

Originally Posted by Cally Callahan:
Strange, I'm having the opposite experience. I'm down to about 136 lbs, 5'-8" tall and fit into a size 8/medium size about 90% of the time. Most ladies my size seem to be at least a 6.

Then again, I am not overly into strength training.

I think there are a couple of issues here. First, strength training definitely helps—a lot. I was a size 0/2 at 129 largely due to strength training. But from what I have seen of people's stats and corresponding sizes, it seems that people who have lost a great deal of weight tend to end up larger at any particular weight than people who have not.

Originally Posted by Magrat:
I'm wearing zeros and double zeros. They are just about impossible to find unless I want to shell out big bucks for designer clothes. Usually I just shop in the kids department.

I buy 00s on sale because there are so few people who wear them. I get designer/high-end clothes all the time for $10–25 that started out at five times that or more. I often have to have them tailored because they're big on me, but it's still a good deal.

I don't really have a hard time finding them. Nordstrom Rack, Dillard's, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, etc.: I can always find them there, and at a big discount.

Banana Republic doesn't carry Petites in their brick-and-mortar stores, but they do online. Petites pants are too short for me, though, so I buy Regular and have them tailored, or I wear very high heels.

The 105 pound woman with the tight size 2 pants MAY have been subtracting ten or so pounds when she told you her weight, too.

This happens to me sometimes, too. I feel like I am chubby, but I wear size zero clothes. yes, I am aware of vanity sizing, but my friends are 6s and 8s and I feel that they look smaller than me.