female only Weight Loss Surprise: Same size clothes at higher weight because of older body?!?!?

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

I have lost almost 100lbs since surgery which sounds like a lot but I am still fat. At the bottom end of plus sizes instead of pushing the limit at the top. I know this is some peoples starting points and they feel huge at this weight, but for me this is the smallest I have been in 20 years.

The weight I am at right now, I haven't been this range since the 90s. I have had a hard time accepting that I wear a size 18, I keep taking my measurements and comparing them to the size charts on various websites to confirm that my measurements are really a size 18, they are and on some sites they are a 16. My issue has been, in the past at this weight I wore a 22/24. So I have been assuming the issue was vanity sizing.

I have one pair of old jeans from college that had some sentimental value (they were really expensive and I had to save up for them) and I have kept them all these years, even though I purged all my old clothes. So tonight, I tried them on. They fit, they fit comfortably, and I don't even have on proper undergarments or shape wear, I am just in lounge wear. When I wore a size 18 before I weighed about 200/210, I am 266 as of today. I'm also not wearing an 18W I am wearing an 18 misses, I can wear a 16W depending on the store.

Clothing sizes are driving me absolutely nuts.

If I keep going to my goal weight I have no idea what size I will end up.

Older body? Heavy bones from lugging fat? More muscle? I don't even understand this clothing math.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

Vanity sjzing.

At one well known store, I fit I to their size 2 pants...yeah right...I am more a 6/8

[tappingmom 85]

This is going to sound really weird, but my bariatric nurse told me that those of us who have been carrying around all this extra weight for so long actually have heavier bones. Our bodies have adapted to be able to handle the stress. I'm not sure if I believe her yet, but I guess time will tell.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

@@tappingmom

I heard that before, and I didn't believe it. I thought it was all vanity sizing but if I can wear something with no stretch from 22 years ago that is a size 18. I am willing to believe that bones might be heavier than when I was in college.These used to always sit tight on my hips and they don't now and I am a easily 40-60lbs heavier than when I purchased them.

[ssflbelle 829]

What your fitting into smaller clothing now then when you were this weight years ago? What is going on? Has the clothing industry changed their sizes?

When I was 21 I weighed 170 and was in a size 16. What will I be in now a days at that weight. I can't imagine. I have lost 200 pounds as of today, 17 with the new sleeve. When I was 497 I was a size 10X and now my 5X are falling off of me. I am not ready yet to buy new clothing as I just had my sleeve surgery Jan 26th. However by the end of Feb I will be going back to work and know I can't wear these 5X clothing then. I would have no idea in 3 more weeks what I will weigh and what size I would even be wearing.

[careya123 260]

Maybe you are carrying your weight differently than you were back then? Maybe when you lost your weight, it didn't come off in the same way? For instance, maybe your hips are smaller than they were, but your arms are bigger. It certainly is odd.

I've noticed that profiles of people who say they are my size 20/22 might weigh 60 lbs more than I do. Bodies are certainly variable.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

I definitely have more weight in my arms and more back fat than I did then. I still carry most of my weight in my thighs hips, lower stomach area.

These old jeans were my control test about my size, to prove to myself I am really an 18.

When I shop now since I won't wear used clothes and I am still losing, I buy cheap clothes that are mostly cut small on the china scale. I'm not wearing 18W, I am wearing 18 juniors to 16s. I can go even smaller with nice brands at Nordstrom or Saks. I spent hours last week trying on clothes all over town trying to make sure I was really an 18 at this weight.

Even with my arms being huge I am smaller on top and can wear 14/16, with the exception of my boobs in some things because I went from a DD to a G because my band went down and my boobs did not.

I am looking at my DEXA scan for my bones I had last week and I am at the top of the chart of bones density. I still don't know if that is enough to account for the weight difference.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

What your fitting into smaller clothing now then when you were this weight years ago? What is going on? Has the clothing industry changed their sizes?

When I was 21 I weighed 170 and was in a size 16. What will I be in now a days at that weight. I can't imagine.

I wore a size 16 at 170 also. I could squeeze into size 14 guess jeans if I didn't eat and laid on the bed to fasten them.

At this rate I am guessing I will be a 10 or a 12 at 170lbs.

[MichiganChic 3,262]

I think it's a combination of things. Vanity sizing plays a part in this. I also think massive weight loss patients lose a lot of subcutaneous fat, (fat just under the skin) which changes our shape. As we age, things shift, and fat is distributed differently. I also think that years of obesity have caused all of our organs to grow, (meaning skin, bones, internal organs) to support bigger bodies, and that also causes us to weigh more without necessarily looking like we weigh as much as we do.

[VDLT 244]

I was banded for 14 years before converting so I lost a lot of weight with the band before regaining. I went up around 35 pounds in the 3 years prior to my conversion which at 5 feet tall (if standing really really straight!) is a significant amount. I put all the clothing I could no longer fit into in an upstairs closet and am now wearing a lot of it again on my way back down.

Clothes I would wear when I was at this weight a few years ago fit totally different now. And I am not talking about same size, I mean the same garments. My body is now trimmer and I am losing better it seems if that makes any sense. I am not sure if it is because I am really concentrating on eating clean and getting my Protein in this time around. I feel my shape is better this time around even though I am older.

What I am trying to say is that I have found every time I cycle through and gain and lose, my body looks different at the same weight. I have a long history of weight fluctuations and my mother does too and we have both found this to be the case. Before I would go back to an old weight but my body was worse for wear for having been up so to speak. This time around it seems to look better and my clothes feel better!

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

There are some interesting posts in this thread about how our bodies seem trimmer after WLS.

I wonder if one contributor might not be the fact that (at least with sleeves) we are instructed to eat a considerable amount of Protein as we lose weight, which could contribute to more muscle retention and more fat loss.

I know that when I lost weight before on, for example, Weight Watchers, I never focused on Protein or any specific ratios of macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs).

[GibbsGirl 483]

I was just talking about this with a friend at a thrift store. I'm a size 14 right now and before my son was born I was a size 14 but was 50 pounds lighter. But I tried on a pair of jeans from my sister in laws after college days around 15 years ago and they say 20 they are a little loose. I think some of it has to do with the stretch that is in most clothes today.

5 pair of jeans for $20, not bad. My friend had the band a few years ago and looks amazing, was teaching me the ropes on sizing etc.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

Yeah, everything now has stretch and there is a lot of vanity sizing, which makes shopping annoying because sizes vary by brand.

That is why I pulled these old jeans out that have no stretch and I know were tight when I was a size 18 before as my control.

It isn't about the clothing sizing. My body is definitely just different. My waist was never this defined when I was an 18 before, I was always very proportionate, but never hourglass. Now I am definitely leaning towards hourglass.

I had assumed before I started losing weight that at this weight I was be a 22/24. Since I started losing weight I haven't been a 22 or a 24. I went from a 28, to a 24 for about 3 weeks to a 20, now 18. This weight in the past I would have definitely been in 22/24.

I am heavier on the scale, but physically I am a lot smaller and more compact than in the past, and I carry my weight a little different also.

I'm going to end up with a better more shapely body in my late 30s than my late teens.