I ask this because I've watched or read a lot about weight loss and often see photos or wieghts and sizes of people and think "how is is that they weigh more or less than I do, but we wear the same size in pants?". I know that height effects weight, but even in cases where it lists height; weight and pants size, I've seen this be very different (I'm talking like a 30-40lb difference). I just think that's interesting. I consistently wear an 18 in most any pants with the odd exception with some jeans where I'll need a 20 if they're cut differently.

I'm also one of those that watches shows like TBL and thinks-she's the same weight as me-is that what I look like?

I do that, more so lately i've noticed my reaction is "wow, do I look like that too?" I still have the 'fat glasses' on and can't always see the differences in my physical appearance

Only all the time. I'm particularly bad about it here, I admit.

It has everything to do with muscle mass. Two women the same height/weight can have two dress size differences between them. The woman in the larger dress size probably does not lift weights, or does so minimally. The woman in the smaller dress size probably lifts strenuously.

I started out in the higher dress size category, always amazed that women my height/weight wore sizes two down from mine! Now I'm the one wearing two sizes smaller than my height/weight would suggest.

I think it's a personal preference which category you'd rather be in. I can tell you being the one in the smaller size is hard mentally because that number on the scale messes with my head!! I am wearing a size 6 and yet I'm STILL overweight!! That drives me nuts. But...I'm in a size 6. We do not wear our weights on foreheads. Everyone else just sees the 6...I'm the only one who sees the 154.

OMG, ALL.THE.TIME. It's really bad because in the end, there will always be someone thinner than me. Even at my gym, all the girls there are absolutely tiny, so I'll be feeling good about myself, than go to take a class at the gym, and feel huge. Yes, at 135 and 5'6, they make me feel huge. To me they are the equivalent of the popular girls in high school - I just do not see myself as one of them!

I do this all the time too... I'm always looking at other people and wondering what they weigh or what size they're wearing. I've seriously thought about approaching a girl before and asking what size she wore because what she looked like is what I imagine I'd like to... (I didn't stop her, by the way )
Since I've been in weight loss mode I've compared myself often, not necessarily in a bad way but sometimes.

Even guys do this

Yes, I do it and I wish SO much that I didn't. It doesn't matter what I look like compared to someone else if I see myself as huge. It doesn't matter if I try on someone else's clothes that I consider to be very thin and they fit me. I still see me NOT looking the way I want.... It's a slippery slope comparing because there's no end to it.

I compare myself to people all the time. I see larger girl models online or in magazines when i'm shopping and i'm not saying that they aren't pretty, but when choosing sizes it makes me rather sad that they are the same size and I wonder if I'm really that big. I used to be a size 0 and even then thought I was fat. (yay for the eyes of an anorexic right?) I've always had to wear larger shirts because even at my smallest my bust was rather large, so now when I look at 1x or 2x shirts I ask my boyfriend "Do I look like that?" Even though the size of my shirts themselves haven't gone up because i've always worn very large tops to accommodate my 36G's I hate it now because I feel like since the rest of me has ballooned it's not ok to be the size i used to.

Totally. Only my muscle mass thing often comes up the other way around, I suck at cardio, always have. I used to beat myself up about it and try really hard and suffer and kill myself thinking I'd get "fitter" one day but I never did. Then I found out I have a medical condition. Oops. So now I reckon if I am only any good at lifting small reps of heavy weights then I'll be a weight-lifter, no point trying to be something I'm not, right?

Although I weigh more than most people my dress size in some senses, I also envy some of the other girls their slim arms. Because I have muscles which still have a fat layer over the top it looks like I am gigantically fat. Similarly my tree-trunk legs. OK so (in good health) I'll be the one who can comfortably move a wardrobe, but I still look at those chicken legs on some skinny people and think I'd love to look like that every now and then.

Others, however, I often feel they have just shopped at stores which do a lot of vanity sizing. I remember clearly a TV show that was on here in the UK for a few weeks (which was sadly totally overshadowed by the arguments over a transsexual participant) and the girl was a size 20 and lost about 12lbs and then they went shopping to see if she could fit into her goal pants in a size 14. Well, they must have crowbarred her into the biggest 14 they could find somehow, and the muffin-top was laugh out loud, she looked like a sausage in a girdle, but she jumped up and down and they crowed that she'd had her success cos she was in the size 14. I was also wearing a 14 at the time and I was 29lbs lighter and I was somewhat crowbarred into my own size 14s.

(((roserodent)))
I love your posts!! Crowbarred...my new favorite word!
Thanks for the giggle, as usual.

Any time that I do this, it's been self-defeating, so I try not to.

In my experience, it's only another way that I use to criticize myself & feel unhappy over some aspects of my appearance that are genetically determined.

In this process, I have gotten much better at separating out the things that I can change from the things that I can't -- those which would require surgery -- or even reincarnation into another body.

That is SO me. It's strange, because my sister and my mom for instance, both are overweight like me. In fact, my sister and I are probably within 10 lbs of one another and only have one dress size between us, however, they both have tiny arms and legs! I however, like you, am strong as all get out and have giant arms with the lovely fat layer and tree trunks for legs! My husband loves my legs-but seriously, my calf muscles rival most thinner ladies THIGHS. It's crazy. I'm the only female on either side of my family who has this body type.

I do weights just about everytime I hit the gym, but just as part of the circuit I do. They aren't too heavy (well, to me they aren't...) and I don't do too many reps, but even as a kid, I have always been very strong (my husband says God must've given me some unnatural strength because I'm the wife who moves things like washers, dryers and refridgerators on my own when he's not around, ha!). i reckon that explains my querie then! I feel like I distribute my weight pretty evenly all over (joy, of joys, eh?!) so it's always been strange to see women who wear the same size that weigh some 30 lbs less than me.

PS: If I can crowbar myself into some size 14's, I will totally be all in em! Hahaha!

LOL @ that, for sure I have done some crazy things. My husband was terrified leaving me in the house alone pregnant in case he came home and found I'd lifted a refrigerator or something. He must never know that I lifted up a 14 foot trampoline cos I wanted to mow the lawn. I once fitted carpet under a piano, still no idea how I just did it, I'm guessing I lifted the piano. One day when pregnant I got hubby to get something out for me from under the bed and he huffed and puffed and couldn't figure what to do to get it out so exasperated I told him lift up the bed with one hand, then pull out the box with the other. He still jokes with me about it.

It's kinda crazy cos I can lift several reps/sets of 15lb hand weights overhead press in properly controlled conditions, but I absolutely totally cannot lift a kettle with 2 cups of water in it because I can't turn my hand, I can only lift straight up and down.

All the time. I'm trying to kick the habit because I know how bad it is for me but it's pretty ingrained in me. I always feel like throwing a tantrum because, darnit, the world just isn't fair. Though I have small wrists, neck, ankles, etc. for my height, it seems like the rest of my bone structure is doomed to always make me feel "large".

I'm the opposite of most of you guys- I can be taller than you, weigh less than you, and wear three sizes larger than you, all at the same time. In highschool, I had 19% body fat at 130-135 pounds and lifted weights religiously. I also wore a size 11. It killed me, here I was, fitter than any of my friends, and I was one size away from wearing the largest size they made for juniors. My first month of college, I dropped over 20 pounds and hit my low weight of 108. (disclaimer- definitely not an intentional weight loss. though in some ways, I blame it for my current bad eating habits, as I turned to the dessert bar to keep my weight up) Even at 108 pounds, just under 5'9", I could barely button a 6.

But, I can't help but compare myself to these women who are size 4s, 2s, 0s, 6s. And then I get all tantrumy like a 3 year old. It's just another habit I need to break. (like my continuing feeling that I NEED dessert after dinner...)