How can you wear a size 10 and be obese!!!

Let's just say my scale and I are headed for divorce court. That stupid thing hasn't told me what I need to hear for a month now. Thank goodness my clothing is still my friend. I am currently in a pair of size 10 curvy cut jeans. I can easily slip on a straight cut size 12 and could probably do the 10. This is a great victory for me and a size I never really thought I would see, but I have a larger frustration that eats at the core of the OCD/perfectionist/statistician in me: Why is it that I'm still obese?!?! I know I've lost a good amount of weight and I know that size, shape, and health are so much more important than a number on a scale, but why in this world for all that is good and right WON'T THAT DAMN NUMBER MOVE!!! More importantly, how on earth can I be in a size 10 at 182 pounds and still be considered OBESE, not overweight but OBESE!! Good Lord, this is driving me insane. I would tell anyone in my position to stay off the scale and I am only weighing every 3-4 days now, but it is always on my mind. I love the way I look and being unrecognizable is fantastic, but I am a numbers and logic girl. I need the numbers to cooperate and I need to understand why my body loves this number so much that it will hold tight when everything else is shrinking.

 

I really am ok, and I know that I'm successful and I know all the rational talk, so just take this for what its worth as a rant, a vent, an expression of the frustration that goes with this process. I hope(heck, I know) someone has been in my shoes, and I hope that my rant and honesty will let others who experience this know that they are not alone. It is JUST A NUMBER!! Now if I can just convince myself...

Can't run humans off an assembly line and fit them in boxes.

Skynet tried that... Didn't work out.

I want you to know I'm stealing that line!! Love it!

i totally understand the frustration.... i don't get it at all myself

thx for the rant because i feel the same way and it is nice to know i'm not alone

Here's a little something to help you keep perspective and know you are not alone:

I'm 5'7", male, and wear between 30 and 31 inch waist straight cut, classic fit jeans. I wear either a men's small or medium top. I can wear slim fit anything. My body fat percentage is 18%. I'm trim, but fairly well muscled. BUT I am still considered overweight medically because weight doesn't fit in the chart range for my height. For some of us that's just the way it is. Sometimes it sucks - yes it does - because I would so like to be in the "normal" range. But that is my lot. So I deal, just as you are dealing. So for those like us it's Chin up, Cheerio, Carry On!

Thank you!! I am glad for someone else it's about being normal...perhaps because normal isn't something I've been much of my life. That is a moniker I want: "Hello, I'm Jennifer and I'm normal." I tell my kids every day how boring it must be to be normal. Thanks for sharing your stats. For me, that gives a great amount of perspective.

One of the other things those charts don't take into consideration is bone density.  Genetically I have very dense bones.

A couple of things come to mind-especially woth ladies clothing.

Clothes are cut way more generous than they were some 20yrs ago. I wore a ladies 9/10 in 1992 and I was 5'5 and 137.

As i was losing I hit 10's somewhere around 165 or so --I think. in 2011.

Your body shape makes a diference. Are you large framed? you can google how to determine your body frame with your wrist and index finger.

Are you short or tall?

Clothing sizes will really f* you up if you let them. Try going to the mall and you will find the sizes are all over the place.

I remember when I had my first child in 1982 and I weighed 165 after his birth and had to wear a size 16.  Now I weigh 15lbs more than that and am in a size 12.  Its hard to figure out sizes these days. 

Karen, I remember the same. I was in 14's after my son and 16's after my daughter. It seems like the shift occurred after the 2000's rolled in.
I was told since American women are averaging higher weights, they are using larger fit models for sizes.