What is a stone?

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toddabrown
toddabrown Posts: 14
in Getting Started
Hi, relatively new here but logging daily and have pushed my exercise routine harder than I imagined. This is a great tool and motivator. I have been reading some message boards, and see many references to stones. At first I though someone passed a kidney stone (I know thats not what it means). From what I gather it is a set goal or weight amount based on some searches that I just did, but still not entirely sure. Can someone share what it means, and the background to where this term came from in mfp or weight loss? - Thanks.
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  • teanamac
    teanamac Posts: 6
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    Stones is the popular metric weight term used in the UK, there are 14lbs in 1 Stone
  • liloldDee
    liloldDee Posts: 92 Member
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    Here in Ireland and the UK, we refer to stones, 14 pounds is a stone. We weigh ourselves in stones so right now I'm 15 stone 9.5 pounds which is 219.5 pounds and ounces. The metric system was introduced long ago but many of us still going on to our stones and pounds. My weighing scales measures in stones/kilos and pounds. Stones make a lot more sense to us than kilos or pounds on their own. Each stone and half stone (7 pound) lost is a big deal!!
  • toddabrown
    toddabrown Posts: 14
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    Thanks, I guess I need to get out of the States more often.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    Thanks, I guess I need to get out of the States more often.

    In the other direction, you'll often see posts from non-US Americans asking what a "cup" is, since the cup isn't a normal unit of volume in the rest of the world.
  • GenoPrice
    GenoPrice Posts: 477 Member
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    Thanks, I guess I need to get out of the States more often.

    In the other direction, you'll often see posts from non-US Americans asking what a "cup" is, since the cup isn't a normal unit of volume in the rest of the world.

    I still haven't got a clue what a cup is.

    The good thing about weighing in stones and lbs is that you can work towards getting into the next stone, kind of like splitting up your weight lose into 14lb goals.
  • gmallan
    gmallan Posts: 2,099 Member
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    Thanks, I guess I need to get out of the States more often.

    In the other direction, you'll often see posts from non-US Americans asking what a "cup" is, since the cup isn't a normal unit of volume in the rest of the world.

    It's very common to use "cup" as a unit of volume here in Australia especially when cooking. We rarely use ounces though as we're metric
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Stones is the popular metric weight term used in the UK, there are 14lbs in 1 Stone

    it isn't metric in any way shape or form, it's an imperial measure the Americans forgot.

    14 pounds in a stone, 8 stones in a hundredweight (cwt), 20 cwt in a ton.
  • ifyouknew
    ifyouknew Posts: 68 Member
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    I prefer to measure everything in grams or milliliters (I'm in Canada), but because I live near the US, I am familiar with their units and can enlighten you about the 'cup' thing: it's 250 mLs. (And for some reason they use it for solids, such as flour, as well as for liquids.) It's used fairly extensively in Canada as well, but on our packaging, anything where the serving size is in cups will usually also have the milliliters or grams in parentheses.
  • Llamedos1960
    Llamedos1960 Posts: 78
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    Stones is the popular metric weight term used in the UK, there are 14lbs in 1 Stone

    it isn't metric in any way shape or form, it's an imperial measure the Americans forgot.

    14 pounds in a stone, 8 stones in a hundredweight (cwt), 20 cwt in a ton.

    To confuse matters even further, the metric system tends to be used in Europe - including the UK, although many in the UK use the old imperial system of stones and pounds.

    A metric system is 10 based. Weight (or to be pedantic, mass) is measured in kilogram (kg). There are 1000 grams in a kilogram.

    There are approx. 2.2lbs in a kg.

    If I put my mass (commonly called weight) in a post, I usually put it in both kg and lbs.
  • joolsweb
    joolsweb Posts: 81 Member
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    we love our imperials in the uk - be in pounds, stones, inches, feet, pints - the metric system has just passed us by (much like euros, but lets not get into that one!)
  • girldownsouth
    girldownsouth Posts: 920 Member
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    I think we're generally a bit muddled in the UK. I personally would weigh myself in stones and pounds, but would use 200 grams of flour in a recipe. And I might drive 3 miles, but run 5k. Our roadsigns are all in miles. And I'd tell you my height in feet and inches, but measure a parcel in centimetres. And if you tell me it's 20 degrees over there I'd have to convert it to centigrade to understand how warm or cold it was....
  • Kargicq
    Kargicq Posts: 72 Member
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    Another point is that a US 'pint' is 16 fluid ounces, and a UK 'pint' is 20 fluid ounces -- but a US fluid ounce is 4% bigger than a UK one, argh!

    When I lived in the US for a while, I heard the rhyme "a pint's a pound the world around" which I always wanted to correct to "a pint of water weighs a pound in just one of the countries which still resist metric measurements." I guess that's harder for kids to learn.

    And to be even more pedantic, a kilogram is a unit of mass, but a pound is a unit of force. The Imperial/conventional unit of mass is the 'slug.' Yes, really: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug_(mass) :smile:
  • OllyReeves
    OllyReeves Posts: 579 Member
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    Do you not have google?
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
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    I think we're generally a bit muddled in the UK. I personally would weigh myself in stones and pounds, but would use 200 grams of flour in a recipe. And I might drive 3 miles, but run 5k. Our roadsigns are all in miles. And I'd tell you my height in feet and inches, but measure a parcel in centimetres. And if you tell me it's 20 degrees over there I'd have to convert it to centigrade to understand how warm or cold it was....

    Ha yes exactly! Also a pint of beer or a 250ml glass of wine :P
  • sunshinesukie
    sunshinesukie Posts: 22 Member
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    I'm in the UK and what has puzzled me now, is why the US use pounds but not stones.....what do the pounds add up to?
  • nancyluckhurst3
    nancyluckhurst3 Posts: 122 Member
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    The man asked a simple question. Nothing to get nasty about.
    Do you not have google?
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
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    I'm in the UK and what has puzzled me now, is why the US use pounds but not stones.....what do the pounds add up to?

    Because it's easier to just count pounds instead of doing the "pounds, stone, pound, stone" thing, and we're a bunch of bullheaded Yanks who refuse to just switch to metric and be done with it.

    The next unit up is generally considered tons, or 2000 pounds.
  • jetlag
    jetlag Posts: 800 Member
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    The metric system became the legal unit of measure in the UK a few years back. Now everything must be sold in litres or kg EXCEPT milk and beer. We still have miles and yards on all of our road signs, as well, I assume because the government has no problem forcing people to foot the bill for their ideas but get the screamies at the idea of having to cough up themselves.

    This makes my line of work quite tricky (needlework retail) because all of my products are imported from the states, so, technically, I have to convert everything into metric to sell it. So, rather than a 5 yard skein of hand overdyed floss, I have to sell a 4.572 metre skein or a 18" x 27" fat quarter of fabric is actually 45.72cm x 68.58cm piece. Awesome.

    It is very rare for a UK type person to refer to their weight in kg and rarer still in plain pounds. Stones is still the usual measurement. (I'm 13st7.8 or 189.8lbs).

    We also use the 24 hour clock which took some quick mental agility for this maths-phobe when I first moved here from LA 30 years ago lol


    Edit: I am SO glad I moved here after decimilisation of the money. I'm not sure my pea brain could have coped with shillings, guineas and bobs lol
  • jetlag
    jetlag Posts: 800 Member
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    I think we're generally a bit muddled in the UK. I personally would weigh myself in stones and pounds, but would use 200 grams of flour in a recipe. And I might drive 3 miles, but run 5k. Our roadsigns are all in miles. And I'd tell you my height in feet and inches, but measure a parcel in centimetres. And if you tell me it's 20 degrees over there I'd have to convert it to centigrade to understand how warm or cold it was....

    This is why I utterly fail to understand why the metric system needs to be legally enforced. We're smart people, we can cope. I suspect it's to do with making it easier to do business in Europe, but you know what? They're smart people, too.
  • girldownsouth
    girldownsouth Posts: 920 Member
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    I rarely use the 24 hour clock, if I'm talking I'd say 2 o clock. I was working out in the states a couple of years ago and the one thing that really used to confuse them was we'd arrange to meet at half 7 a lot, took them a while to realise this was half past 7, or 7.30. One girl thought we were expressing 3.30 in a strange way!!

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