Frame size...

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jmgj27
jmgj27 Posts: 531 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5ft 8", broad-shouldered, long legs, big boobs and GIANT man hands (bigger than most of the men I know...although whether that says something about me or about them I'm not sure!).

I've always assumed I was large-framed. I'm now 162lbs and a small size 12 (UK). I'm aiming for 139 but seriously wondering whether that's too skinny at my height.

According to the frame size wrist thing, I have a small frame. (Wrist is 5.75"). Do I really have a small frame and therefore should be aiming for the bottom of the BMI and am just used to being larger or are there considerations other than just wrist measurements that I should take into account?
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Replies

  • janiedoe111
    janiedoe111 Posts: 161 Member
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    What is the frame size wrist thing?
  • Fabnover40Kat
    Fabnover40Kat Posts: 300 Member
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    Im 5'9" and considerd large frame with the wrist test. I too have HUGE hands...always hated that but Im going for 155 maybe 148
  • jmgj27
    jmgj27 Posts: 531 Member
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    If you're a woman over 5ft 5", you're small framed if your wrist is under 6", medium framed if it's between 6 and 6.5" and large if it's over 6.5" (I think). There are different measurements for shorter women and men.

    I know there's also the test whereby you see whether your fingers touch or overlap. If they don't meet you're large framed, if they do, you're medium framed and if they overlap you have a small frame.

    Stupid giant hands betraying me!
  • Samerah12
    Samerah12 Posts: 610 Member
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    Why not just keep losing until you reach a point where you're comfortable? I'm not a fan of playing the numbers game, it ought to be more about how you look and feel. Like you said, we're all built differently and any universal standard you try to apply has the risk of being wildly inaccurate for your particular you-ness (your frame, your proportion of muscle, your aesthetic ideals...).
  • Swimgoddess
    Swimgoddess Posts: 711 Member
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    I'd like to hear the responses because I posted a thread earlier about how I already reached my BF% goal but not my weight/clothing size. I'm 5"8.5" and 156 and everybody said I'm probably just big boned and it's as good as it'll get; my wrist is 6"!
  • MrsT99
    MrsT99 Posts: 148 Member
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    I have small wrists but large ribcage, ankles, hips and knees......can we measure any other joints :)

    I also have very thin thumbs compared to my fingers, am I just strange???
  • SparkleLisa
    SparkleLisa Posts: 42 Member
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    Why not just keep losing until you reach a point where you're comfortable? I'm not a fan of playing the numbers game, it ought to be more about how you look and feel. Like you said, we're all built differently and any universal standard you try to apply has the risk of being wildly inaccurate for your particular you-ness (your frame, your proportion of muscle, your aesthetic ideals...).



    AMEN!!! for my height, 5'4 I should weigh around 125-135 but I don't look good at all. I'm Lebanese and naturally have a butt and boobs and round belly... I like they way I looked at 150-155 and that's my goal.
  • googagene
    googagene Posts: 32
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    I have the same exact problem! I'm just over 5'10 with wide shoulders a big rib cage and the SMALLEST wrists. I'm telling you I'm built like a linebacker. I'm down to a size 14 (us) at 183 lbs. My BMI says I should get down to at least 174 to reach the top end of the healthy range. To get myself right smack in the middle of a healthy BMI it wants me to weigh about 152 pounds. I've gotten down to 155 (juniors size 11) WAY back in the day which had my pants sitting on my hip bones and gave me the ability to actually count my ribs. I think that was too thin for me. Even as a size 11 I looked unhealthy... Frame wise I couldn's pull it off. I just don't think I'm one of those people that's meant to be stick thin waif looking model.
  • jmgj27
    jmgj27 Posts: 531 Member
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    Exactly! I do totally agree with the whole 'wait until you're comfortable with your weight'. The problem is, I've been overweight my WHOLE life (well, since puberty anyway) so I don't know what 'thin' feels or looks like. Now I'm a normal BMI and I still feel fat. I don't want to lose too much weight and look bad for it and I don't trust other people's perceptions. Not least because people have been telling me I don't need to lose any weight because I'm a 'big girl' ('cause that's not massively insulting and irritating) since I weighed about 175lbs.

    The thing is - am I really a big girl? Should I accept that 162 (or 155 or something) is the best I'm going to get or should I go with wrist size as a target (because I genuinely don't know what my goal weight should really be given the massively wide BMI range) and say that with a small frame I should be aiming as low as 120 - 130?

    I've noticed that taller people seem to have this problem more - does anyone wonder whether it gets less accurate as you get taller and hands/feet etc. are naturally bigger? (I also have size 8 (UK)/size 10 (US) feet)
  • googagene
    googagene Posts: 32
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    Ingore this one, meant to quote and hit the wrong button. my bad.
  • googagene
    googagene Posts: 32
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    I have small wrists but large ribcage, ankles, hips and knees......can we measure any other joints :)

    I also have very thin thumbs compared to my fingers, am I just strange???

    Nope, We're all coming out of the woodwork now.
  • gabeswife
    gabeswife Posts: 5
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    I am finding flaw in the wrist measurement because you have under 5'2'', between 5'2''-5'5'', and over 5'5''. I'm 6'1''. I am thinking there should be another measurement for that tall. I KNOW I am not large framed. My fingers totally overlap around my wrist. If I go by the men's wirst measurement I am small framed. My wrist is 6.25''. My max healthy bmi weight is 189. I am still pretty hefty at that weight. Honestly, I would LOVE to be 189, but it isn't my ultimate goal. I have huge boobs, but my ribcage is only 35'' It's almost impossible to find a 36DDDD. That size bra says fat with a small frame to me.
  • brandiuntz
    brandiuntz Posts: 2,717 Member
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    I'm 5ft 8in and the last time I weighed 139lbs was when I was 18, straight after high school working a job that required me to stand all day and walk 1 mile to/from my house. That was never reasonable to me (US size 9/10). As soon as I was a real adult, I floated around 150lbs.

    I don't know how frame size is measured, but it does seem like the wrist isn't always accurate.

    I suspect I'm a medium build. Not small by any means, but not really large for my size.

    My impression is it partly depends on your body's natural state (always had curves? do you have good tone/muscle?). Between talks with my doctor and remembering how I was when I was fit (had decent muscle strength, people would compliment my body), I think my range is 150-155. That's my goal to reach.

    And, BMI isn't always an accurate measure of where someone should be. So, if your BMI is near healthy and your other numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc) are good, you're probably where you need to be, no matter what the scale is at.
  • jmgj27
    jmgj27 Posts: 531 Member
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    I'm 5ft 8in and the last time I weighed 139lbs was when I was 18, straight after high school working a job that required me to stand all day and walk 1 mile to/from my house. That was never reasonable to me (US size 9/10). As soon as I was a real adult, I floated around 150lbs.

    I don't know how frame size is measured, but it does seem like the wrist isn't always accurate.

    I suspect I'm a medium build. Not small by any means, but not really large for my size.

    My impression is it partly depends on your body's natural state (always had curves? do you have good tone/muscle?). Between talks with my doctor and remembering how I was when I was fit (had decent muscle strength, people would compliment my body), I think my range is 150-155. That's my goal to reach.

    And, BMI isn't always an accurate measure of where someone should be. So, if your BMI is near healthy and your other numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc) are good, you're probably where you need to be, no matter what the scale is at.

    Thanks - it is really helpful having weight suggestions when you've always been overweight because you don't know what thin looks or feels like. It's totally bonkers asking people who've always been overweight to choose a random weight between 8st 10lbs and 11st 10lbs and hope they'll pick something that's right for them! My BMI is now 24.6 (woohoo!), my cholesterol is good, BP and heart rate are low (but not worryingly so) and muscle tone is good. That said - I still have weight on my belly and bum that needs to go and I still have giant boobs for my frame (still a 34DD/E).

    Sooo...if BMI isn't an accurate goal and frame size doesn't really work for tall people (which is the result I'm coming up with from chats on this forum and with friends), what do I base my goal weight on?
  • janiedoe111
    janiedoe111 Posts: 161 Member
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    I have small wrists but large ribcage, ankles, hips and knees......can we measure any other joints :)

    I also have very thin thumbs compared to my fingers, am I just strange???

    You and me both! My ribs are HUGE! But my wrists are pretty slim and so are my thumbs.
  • NatalieWinning
    NatalieWinning Posts: 999 Member
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    Maybe the better question would be easier to answer. What does too skinny look like? Are your ribs sticking out so you can count them? Can you feel and count your backbones? Do your pelvic and butt hurt when you sit on a hard surface? Have you no muscle tone or period anymore?

    I say the extreme, because like you pointed out we are all very very different. That's like taking a bunch of mixed breed dogs and saying this one ought to weigh X and this one ought to weigh XX. You just have to take into acount what breeds it's mixed with. Say for example one has a barrel chest, maybe it's supposed to!

    I have been too skinny, untoned, from stress undereating once. My hair was falling out and my ribs showed. I had no muscle tone. According to my BMI I should have still been in the mid healthy range at 115 and 5'2". Had I lost more I bet I would have started to suffer for it! I have more muscle tone now, 15 years later and older, but I'm back into those smaller size clothes and 134# right now. I have done all the math and my body fat %, my BMI, etc.. all says I ought to be somewhere in the 100-129 category. This will be pretty thin for me! I'm going to lose maybe 5 more pounds and reassess. Even thin and highly physically fit in high school I had bigger pants than I do now.

    It's not the pants size, or the weight. It's not what some formula says. We are all muts. Each of us will have to decide what is our own normal. Can you pinch up a big gob of fat from your leg or belly? Maybe that's a better measure. And the fitness, nutrition thing is how we feel and how much we can do.
  • jmgj27
    jmgj27 Posts: 531 Member
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    Thanks - that does help. Like I say - I'm now normal but can definitely pinch a decent inch of belly still and there's no ribbage or spine problems etc. I guess I'll stop when I start to notice unusual things happening with my body (by which I mean bones where there weren't bones before not no periods etc. - although...there are worse things to my mind!)! Would love to know how other people work out what their ideal goal weights are!
  • brandiuntz
    brandiuntz Posts: 2,717 Member
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    You might need to focus more on toning, to lose that extra inch in the belly, etc. And, you might just be big-chested. Some women are well-endowed, no matter their overall size. :bigsmile:

    Your percentage of body fat is a good measure to get. There's an ideal range for women to have. That might help you focus.
  • jmgj27
    jmgj27 Posts: 531 Member
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    You might need to focus more on toning, to lose that extra inch in the belly, etc. And, you might just be big-chested. Some women are well-endowed, no matter their overall size. :bigsmile:

    Your percentage of body fat is a good measure to get. There's an ideal range for women to have. That might help you focus.

    Thanks! My family's all big-chested regardless of size so I guess (and hope!) that they're there to stay.

    BF is currently 24.5% apparently (some gizmo at the gym says so anyhoo), which I'm pretty fine with. I think I'd like to get down to around 20% (but again feel like I'm just picking a relatively arbitrary goal without much other info!)
  • GoodMorningGirl
    GoodMorningGirl Posts: 103 Member
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    I'm sure it's hard to accept, but you probably have to trust that you will know when you're the right weight. One of the ways we got overweight in the first place was by not listening to what our bodies tell us; now as part of the process of losing weight and maintaining, we have to pay attention.

    I am also 5'8" and currently 189 pounds, looking to get to somewhere around 160-165, which for me is a size 12 and a healthy BMI. In my adult past, that was the weight at which I felt most attractive and comfortable in my body (I weighed about 145 in high school, but that doesn't count when you haven't even finished developing -- for example, I went from a B to a C cup in bras).

    I got down as low as 150 as an adult (size 10), but looking at pictures now, I think I was a bit too skinny. All the bones in my chest were sticking out, and yes, I could have stood to lose some flab around my hips and thighs, but I'm a pear shape.

    Good luck, and congratulations on the most important part... being healthy and feeling good!

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