Pant sizes and waist measurements now being equal?

WisCowboy

Greetings to all of my fellow community members. I tried posting this question in a similar subject post but it sort of got scrolled off into oblivion. It could have been because I posted it in a non prime time hours of the forum or it could be because the subject title was that that people had seen it before and ignored it. So, in an attempt to find an answer to my inquiry, I thought I would post my question into it's own subject.

My weight loss has been quite the fun journey thus far. I have been keeping little goals, meeting them, and then setting a new goal to reach. Some of these are physical goals and others are weights that I was at at one time in my life. About 2 or 3 months ago, I was finally able to get into some jeans that I had not been able to wear for over 3 years. As the weeks have past on, I have needed to use an old belt and even punch in some new holes with my leather punch. The jeans state that they are size 38 x 30.

Because the pants said 38 waist, that is what I put in for my measurement because I did not have a tape measure at the time. However, I found a sewing cloth tape measure today and put it at where my pants ride at and at my hip bone. I was a little surprised that my waist measured at 39 since my pants are so baggy. So, I measured the pants and it was 42 1/2 inches at the waist buttoned. I used another tape measure to compare to the other one and both were rather accurate to each other.

So, I want to know if perhaps by my wearing the jeans previously, I stretched the cloth out by a whole 4+ inches. Or, are pants manufacturers taking a queue from the fast food restaurants. Such as, when I was a kid, a medium 21oz drink is now a small, and a 32oz large drink is now a medium; same as their french fries and other affair at the stores. I did notice that my 38-40 inch waist boxers were changed from size Large to Medium now. Is this a ploy to make Americans feel better about their obesity???

Please and thank you to all who can help me out.

juggernaut1974

So, I want to know if perhaps by my wearing the jeans previously, I stretched the cloth out by a whole 4+ inches. Or, are pants manufacturers taking a queue from the fast food restaurants. Such as, when I was a kid, a medium 21oz drink is now a small, and a 32oz large drink is now a medium; same as their french fries and other affair at the stores. I did notice that my 38-40 inch waist boxers were changed from size Large to Medium now. Is this a ploy to make Americans feel better about their obesity???

They may have stretched some - but yes for quite some time now clothing labels (especially men's waist sizes, it seems) are "vanity sized". I wear a 28 or 29 in most brands of jeans/slacks, but my actual waist measurement is closer to 31.