this occurred to me last night. i had a friend over who is about 2 inches shorter than me and 20 lb less. we both were wearing sz 14 jeans from old navy and they were stretched to the max on her, but comfortably fit on me. she just all around LOOKS a lot bigger than me. how is this possible? is it a matter of how the weight is spread out over your body? she has NO butt, and mine probably is 20 lb, lol.

same with my sister, even when we weigh the same, she wears a bigger size. her legs and arms always seem to look perfect (seriously, even if she gains 50lb), but her middle section is the only part that gains and loses weight.

i store a good deal of my weight in my stomach, but not to the extent some people do where my legs and arms are still thin. its a bit more spread out. ive also noticed that whenever i tell people how much i weigh they seem shocked. they always say, "NO WAY! you dont weigh that much!" (geez, talk about a backhanded compliment). or tell me i "must carry it well".

so how do you guys store weight? and why is it that two girls who are the exact same height and weight (and neither of them is an olympic athlete or muscle woman) can look so different? is this genetic, or is it all about WHERE your weight is stored?

I think the differences come from a combination of factors (genetics, how you carry it, muscle mass, bone structure). I have a very large bone structure and will likely always be bigger than many girls my height. And the way I carry my weight has changed. My fat used to be very evenly distributed everywhere except my butt. But the last time I gained weight I started carrying more in my belly and I finally got a butt.

Genetics and hormones have a lot to do with it. So does exercise.

Genetics gives you your basic body shape.

Hormones affect how/where you store fat.

If you exercise, you WILL alter this somewhat. While you can't spot reduce, exercising one part of your body can affect how your body stores fat in that area. Runners for example tend to have fairly fit legs, even if they have a lot of body fat in other places.

Me, I'm an hourglass (gain and lose uniformly) and became more of an apple when I went through menopause. Losing weight, and exercising regularly helped me turn back the clock and regain that hourglass shape

I carry mine like the Michelin tire man -

I think it is absolutely about how your weight is stored, as well as the natural size of your frame.

I've always had the butt. Not the thighs, just the butt and hips. As I gain weight it is pretty evenly dispersed throughout my body. I pretty much gain everywhere (which keeps my butt always slightly bigger, but never more disproportionate) DH always jokes that he'd DIE if I ever lost my butt. Even if I manage to lose 100 lbs, I KNOW my butt will always be bigger than the rest of me.

I've had friends who "appeared" larger than me wear a smaller size, so I know what you mean.

It's both genetics and hormones. My sister is 5'6", 200 lbs, and an hourglass shape. I think she wears a 14/16. I'm 5'4", 145 lbs, and carry my weight evenly all over. I wear an 8. Even though we're only a year apart, we have completely different body shapes. My aunt and her daughter, who's my age, also have the same figure as I do. So does my mum, although she's 5 inches taller than me. So having a ruler shape is very common in my family, while an hourglass is not.

Hehehe

Onederchic NICE ONE!

When I gained weight, I gained it all over, but I gained THE MOST in my love handles and hips region. I gained some on the front of my stomach and had a little bit of a gut, but the love handles were the worst spot.

One thing I DID like is that when I gained weight, I went from having a flat pancake white girl booty to something a bit more voluptious. And I've preserved that booty with squats, lunges, uphill running, and the stair stepper.

Like you, people used to drop their jaws when I told them I weighed in the 175-180 range. Most guessed 140-160. I wore a size 12-14... and my body image was so distorted that I thought I was bigger than everybody. I DID have fat everywhere, though: stomach, hips, butt, thighs, arms, HANDS even... yeah, onederchic, I was sort of like the Michelin man, too, but I preferred to say I was a Pillsbury Doughgirl.

Now?
The last place to lose fat was my hips and VERY lower stomach. That slight ledge of fat that most (even thin) women have right above the you-know-where took its sweet lil' time coming off, as did two little pockets of fat on the side of each hip (not stomach, lower, slightly before butt).

As for sizes... I think SO many factors contribute to that one, like height and bone structure. For instance (using a smaller size as an example here because people CAN wear smaller sizes and still look chunky/have a muffin top), one person may wear a size 6 but still look pudgy because she's rockin' the beer gut and has more body fat, while another may wear a 6 and look athletic/svelte because she's musclebound and that size fits her structure.

when i was in high school i was somewhat eating disordered. i am 5'8 and i weighed about 105-107. even THEN i had an ***. it wont go away. i did ballet and gymnastics for about 10 years, but i quit doing them like 10 years ago so i dont really understand why the *** wont go. (it is actually muscle too, unlike the rest of my body). my husband would also cry if it went away, lol.

everyone is built differently. I have a friend who weighs a lot less than i do, the problem is she's an apple shape and she's only 4'11, so she looks a lot heavier. I'm 5'3 and a pear shaped and my weight spreads pretty evenly. This is not always true, everyone is different. It's a lot genetic and basically how you are built.

yes, i distribute fat somewhat evenly, but my ARMS and STOMACH seem to suck up the most. i cannot for the life of me get rid of my arm flap and my gut is obscenely huge. when i first started losing my husband would say, "i can really tell from the back".... which annoyed me, lol. but i saw what he was saying my waist was getting thinner and my love handles were going away. you couldnt really tell from the front tho b/c my stomach was still sooo huge. its FINALLY started to shrink a bit, but my stomach and arms are still larger than they should be. ugh, why cant it just come off evenly?

lolololol. i always say "stay puft marshmallow man" remember ghostbusters?

I am a true hourglass. Though I have very slim and fit calves, forearms, hands and feet.

This reminds me of something a guy once said to me. We were playing racquetball, so were in gym clothes. Two things to know: I've exercised since I was 15, and my friend is a "chubby-chaser". He looked at me and said, "I'd really like a chance to sleep with you, because you're not shaped like any other large woman I know." Ummmmmmm...what? Apparently there's something unique to the way I'm shaped, then!

(Oh, and since it's a topic of conversation...I have NOOOOO butt. Seriously. ALL the rear ends of ALL my pants are baggy. All my butt ended up in front!!)