The Truth is in Your Closet

Not for the first time, a friend and I marveled at the changing sizes of women's clothing. I have no doubt the phenomena exists in men's and children's departments as well. This topic has come up with my friends, coworkers and family - it is not an isolated event or any one's imagination. The aforementioned friend refers to it as vanity sizing. Seriously. (She told of a friend who will not buy an outfit no matter how perfectly it fits her, if the number on the tag is not to her liking)

It has long been true that sizes can be retailer and country specific - or patterns can be adjusted for specific stores and populations. But what has happened over the last 20 years is that the same stores in the same countries have begun making their smaller sizes bigger - MUCH bigger. This includes low and high end stores.

Think about it. How can so many more people be wearing a size six or eight when such a small percentage of adults are normal weight? This is especially irritating to me, as one of the less than 2% of the population that is considered underweight according to BMI - I am running out of places to shop! What was a size two when I was twenty (and wearing a size eight by the way) is now a large in children's! I am NOT kidding.

You might even have clothing in your closet that is a size "whatever" that fits perfectly - say a skirt -and at the VERY SAME STORE with the same size on the label it now falls off your hips.

I wanted to be sure about how crazy this seems - I mean how can so many more people wear what I always considered skinny clothes - i.e anything size five and under (I graduated high school in the 80s) if two thirds of the adults in America anyways, are overweight or obese.

Remember for adults a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is considered normal weight and a BMI 30 plus is considered obese. (Children's overweight status is based on their BMI according to age based percentiles, so it is a little different)

According to US surveys with data from 2003 - 1.8 % of the adult population is underweight, about 35% are overweight and another 33% or more are obese...That doesn't leave a lot of normal weight people does it?

I found a great CDC/NHANES document that lists the average BMI for women and men for age groups from 20 up to 80. NONE of the age groups had a BMI under 26 - NONE - the average weight for all age groups was over weight.

So I ask you, if the average weight in this country has only increased over the last few decades- how can people wear smaller sizes than they wore 20 years ago??