No really... I AM big boned..?

I'm a physical anthropologist, and there IS such thing as big boned. No bones are the same size. Your ancestry plays a large part it it. It doesn't make a huge difference, but it's not irrelevant either. Now to say its an excuse for 50+ pounds is just crazy. But it can make things like wrists and ankles appear larger. It doesn't effect weight except by the smallest fraction. But a lot of things can change how you appear. Like a girl I went to school with was 5'7, 115 pounds and wore a size 6-8 depending on the brand because her hips were wide. She wasn't big boned, but her hip bones were spread apart farther.

I'm so glad this lady spoke up! :-) Maybe a better way to measure your progress and where you want to go is body fat percentage. I find that with weight training and things, the scale may not move but I'm still shedding fat and it provides a great way to know how far I've come with my body fat %. In the end, that's all that matters. The goal is to gain muscle, shed fat, and increase bone density. Find a good tool to measure your body fat % and focus on that.

If there is no such thing as big bones- then why can some ladies wear a size 6 shoe while I dig to find a size 10? A person's foot size doesn't shrink with weight loss. And neither does my broad german shoulder set. Why at my lightest (sickly thin) could I still not fit a bracelet or typical watch on my wrist? YES THERE IS BIGGER BONES.

Skeletons are all about the same size. No such thing as "big boned". Lol.

^this

I'm 5'5", 140lbs and my wrist measurement is 6.5" - that makes me "BIG BONED"?????
I wear a size 6 pants (34 inch waist)

Yes, it makes you big-boned (aka large-framed) Sorry.

Hi there, I am 5'9" tall and have 7" wrists. I have always considered myself to have a larger frame. God knows my family has always called me "big boned". Especially since the women in my family are barley 5" tall and itty bitty petite. Offset horribly by 6'6" tall men, and then me. When I am fit and trim at my ideal weight (140) I am a size 8-10 depending on the brand. At that weight my wrists only shrink by 1/2" or less, but the rest of me was tone muscle. However, to get to this size I worked out every day with out fail. I ran, walked, and did work out tapes. I was involved in sports, and I ate healthy. I grew to love my work outs because I saw the results. I had a six pack, and it wasn't one I bought from the store for a change!
Now after a couple kids and more than a couple injuries I am back on track to find that fit girl again. Don't let someone sell you short and tell you that you simply can't be a size 10. That isn't an unreasonable goal. It can take time and a lot of effort like any goal. But if you don't think the goal you set for yourself ( no matter what it is) is possible you won't attain it.

No i thought i could only get to a size 12 and if I was lucky a size 10, but now I am a size eight. I am 5'7" and I weigh 154.
Everyone thinks I am smaller. They think I weigh 130 at the most. You can do it. I am smaller than I was in HS. OH by
the way I am 45 years old. You never too late to get into shape. I started my journey at 215.8lbs and a size 16.

We are about the same size.. well I am where you started minus about 5 lbs.. I am curious.. how did you stay motivated and what did you do to loose the 38lbs? How long has it taken?
THnks so much for sharing!
Kasi

I saw this topic and had to break out the tape just to know. 8.5". On the scale for men when I entered 8.5" it asked, "Is this a human wrist?"

:laugh:

If people have EXACTLY THE SAME skeletons then how is it possible to identify male from female when fossils are discovered from ancient cultures?

Why are some women to 'narrow' for childbirth if the skeletons are EXACTLY the same? is the fat making their hips closer together?

If all skeletons are the same please explain Osteoporosis and the other skeletal disorders. By this thinking then it would be impossible to have any differences in structure at all.

Here's one from the American Journal of clinical nutrition : http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/75/6/1012.long which discusses frame sizes.

It is utterly ridiculous to say that everyone has the same size of skeleton.

^^^ This Exactly!!!!.. What was that guy thinking I wonder??? Hmmmm

I believe the person meant that skeletons are all the same proportion. Of course he didn't mean the exact same sized skeletons. That would make us all the same height. Everybody's frame is different, and they carry a different amount of weight, but that usually means they carry about more or less muscle.

It's all about body fat %, not about absolute weight. That is the measure of where you should be, regardless of lean muscle mass or "big bones". I have never seen a "big boned" person that didn't need to lose some body fat. IMHO it is just a way people rationalize being over weight.

When I was a kid, the term for big people was "husky". I guess "big boned" is the euphemism now.

If people have EXACTLY THE SAME skeletons then how is it possible to identify male from female when fossils are discovered from ancient cultures?

Why are some women to 'narrow' for childbirth if the skeletons are EXACTLY the same? is the fat making their hips closer together?

If all skeletons are the same please explain Osteoporosis and the other skeletal disorders. By this thinking then it would be impossible to have any differences in structure at all.

Here's one from the American Journal of clinical nutrition : http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/75/6/1012.long which discusses frame sizes.

It is utterly ridiculous to say that everyone has the same size of skeleton.

^^^ This Exactly!!!!.. What was that guy thinking I wonder??? Hmmmm

I believe the person meant that skeletons are all the same proportion. Of course he didn't mean the exact same sized skeletons. That would make us all the same height. Everybody's frame is different, and they carry a different amount of weight, but that usually means they carry about more or less muscle.

It's all about body fat %, not about absolute weight. That is the measure of where you should be, regardless of lean muscle mass or "big bones". I have never seen a "big boned" person that didn't need to lose some body fat. IMHO it is just a way people rationalize being over weight.

When I was a kid, the term for big people was "husky". I guess "big boned" is the euphemism now.

Skeletons aren't all the same proportion either. For a given height you can have a long back or a short back, wide hips or narrow hips, wide shoulders or narrow shoulders, large feet or small feet, etc. etc. Any of that can influence an individual's ideal weight and/or clothing size. None of them are any excuse for being fat, though.

I don't understand why people don't understand that large frames aka big bones exist and that having big bones is not the same as being fat. There are plenty of small framed people that are fat, obese and morbidly obese, just as there are large framed people that are fat, obese, and morbidly obese. i used to work with a morbidly obese lady and I could tell that she had a small frame underneath all her fat because she had small wrist, small feet, very narrow shoulders and a small head.

My 11 year old daughter is already 5'10 and weighs between 125-130 lbs BUT she has a large frame. Her shoulders are broad and she wears a size 12 women's shoe.I measured her wrist and it measured 6.5 inches. I don't know if she has stopped growing yet, but it's obvious that she is not fat but yet she has a large frame which she took after me.

I have a large from and although I am only 5'8 I wear a size 13 women's shoe. My wrist measures 7 inches(no fat on my wrist), I can't wear once size fits all hats because my head is larger than average and I have extremely broad shoulders. I took after my father, who also has a large frame with broad shoulder

My mother on the other hand has a wrist so small that she has to have additional holes added to her watches because her frame is small.