Clothes Size and Weight Loss

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Speedbird558
Speedbird558 Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
As someone who likes clothes, setting off and losing 140lbs did lead me to think how much longer will my clothes fit and what size will I end up at. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to work out where my clothes size will end up.

But now as I'm just at my halfway point, I'm already under where I thought I would finish up as a clothes size. All of my old clothes are just waaaaaayy too big now and my old trousers/jeans just unusable.

I've gone from 320lbs (down from 365lb over 4 years) to 250lbs in 105 days and from 40/42" trousers, to an inexplicable 32/34" already!

I am just over 6'5", but I just can't understand how I am down to those sizes already when my BMI has only just dropped under 30. I am still overweight. I know vanity sizing is a thing and no one wears trousers on their waist, to get the right size I've been measuring my hips (38.5")and buying the corresponding size.

Across 5 different brands, 32-34" is my size, with some of the 34s getting a little loose. My best fit is a 32 regular or 34 skinny, so it's not just one brand.

It's been hard to try and find anything which even gives averages for waist size and weight/height. My goal is around 180lbs, so I don't really know how much more I have to lose. I've also lost 11" from my waist and 9" chest, but both are currently 45" and 46.5".

I get it's impossible to know and there's so much to factor in, but have I really been hiding an extraordinarily slim figure all this time? There's surely not that much of me left to lose, but I'm only halfway!

Replies

  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Congrats on your amazing loss! I relied heavily on Goodwill as I down sized through several wardrobes while losing 150. Granted that’s a little harder to do right now. There really is no way to predict your final size. Wear what fits you “now” and try to pick styles that will last through a couple of size changes. Keep it going!
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,860 Member
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    I went shopping for undies this afternoon. It’s gotten...ummm...critical.

    When I was big nothing fit, and I could never find undergarments in my size.

    I scoured the racks today looking for “small” underwear.

    Wouldn’t you know? That’s where all the XXLs I used to need are roosting. No smalls except for a couple of open packs. Um...no. Covid is bad enough. Ain’t gonna buy returned or felt up undies.
  • AlexandraFindsHerself1971
    AlexandraFindsHerself1971 Posts: 3,106 Member
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    You may well have been.

    I've been overweight since my early teenage years, so I have no idea what I have under the hundred remaining pounds either, but based on both looking at other women in my family and the knowledge of the mess that is women's sizes, I will probably wind up with a lot of curves and the need to size to fit the chest and have the shirt tailored, or to fit the hips and have the pants tailored, because that's the way we all tend to be built. But it's almost irrelevant whether the pants I buy for that are a 14 or an 8.

    (Probably closer to an 8, since I'm in a 16 straight now with 100 pounds to go...)
  • Speedbird558
    Speedbird558 Posts: 9 Member
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    springlering62 wrote: »
    I went shopping for undies this afternoon. It’s gotten...ummm...critical.

    When I was big nothing fit, and I could never find undergarments in my size.

    I scoured the racks today looking for “small” underwear.

    Wouldn’t you know? That’s where all the XXLs I used to need are roosting. No smalls except for a couple of open packs. Um...no. Covid is bad enough. Ain’t gonna buy returned or felt up undies.

    In 3 months I seem to have swung from one extreme to the other, all clothes on the rack being too small, now I've been stuck because they are all too big!

    For some reason, clothes size isn't something many men post about online. I have to really search to find posts of men saying what they fit and it doesn't help. I would have thought with all the interest in fitness, there would at least be percentile charts, but I really can't find much!
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,860 Member
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    @jarviea10

    It’s a good problem to have.

    Just a tip. Don’t spend a lot of money if your’re planning to continue weight loss. I’m on my fourth wardrobe. The second one I spent too much on because I honestly thought I couldn’t possibly get any smaller. I was out of those in a flash and kicking myself for wasting the money. The third time I only spent a hundred bucks or so, to tide me over til I knew what was happening.

    This last time I hit the outlet mall in June. The post-covid bargains were mind boggling. Our local consumer expert is telling people to stock up on clothes right now because he says we’ll never see them this cheap again.
  • tnh2o
    tnh2o Posts: 159 Member
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    @springlering62 Are you referring to Clark Howard?
    I have 4 different sizes of hiking clothes. What doesn't fit me by the end of December will find a new home.
    Since I'm retired my clothing necessities are few.
  • Speedbird558
    Speedbird558 Posts: 9 Member
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    springlering62 wrote: »
    @jarviea10
    The post-covid bargains were mind boggling. Our local consumer expert is telling people to stock up on clothes right now because he says we’ll never see them this cheap again.

    Absolutely! I have sure picked the right time. I've been getting Ralph Lauren polos for £20-25 and 3 pack Calvins for £10!

    I just hope these bargains are still knocking about when I reach my final weight!
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Swap.com has been good to me on the outerwear, dress shirts, and pants. The casual clothes are hit and miss on whether or not it is a bargain.

    Weight loss is kind of unpredictable when it comes to clothes for those of us who are losing or have lost a considerable amount. I have gone months with clothing getting gradually baggier then when I bought better fitting clothes in less than 6 weeks they were already too big on me again. What is exciting at first turns into a constant annoyance because your clothes never actually fit well for more than half a minute. So you may have sized down quickly but it may be quite some time before you size down on pants again.

    It is tricky in a covid world but clothes are now cheaper if you go to a brick and mortar store than they are online. The online places don't bother with clearance items as much. The stores that specialize in buying slow moving inventories from bigger retailers are also not online.

    What is fun is that so many stores now have the B&T sections and I often see a rack of shirts or something that catch my eye and they are only available in sizes too large for me. :angry:
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,860 Member
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    tnh2o wrote: »
    @springlering62 Are you referring to Clark Howard?

    Yep! I’ve been listening to Clark for more years (decades) than I care to admit.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
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    @springlering62 Great tips. I'm going to run into town and load UP the truck with yoga pants and toasty socks. You lead by example with photos. <3
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 984 Member
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    I hate shopping and didn't want to keep buying new clothes as I lost weight, so I mostly made do with what I already owned until I absolutely had to buy some new jeans and trousers.

    I reached my goal just as lockdown started. Shops shut and I didn't want to order online as I had no idea what size I was. Belts held up almost every pair of trousers, including all the pairs I bought last summer, and tops & t-shirts were baggy. I had one pair of jeans, bought in January, that fitted around the waist. Six months later, I finally decided that enough was enough and went shopping last week to buy a pair of trousers that actually fit. The shop assistant in GAP took one look at me and told me what size I needed for jeans. I didn't believe her so also bought the next size up. When I tried them on at home, she was quite right. Now I know what size I am, I can order more.

    However, I don't think there is such a thing as averages any more. What I just bought in GAP (measured by waist size) equates to their size 6. I'm pretty confident I'm a size 10 in M&S though. Height / weight won't tell you what size you'll be, even if you only use the same shop every time. Two people could be the same height & weight but have very different chest, waist, hip measurements because their weight is distributed differently or they have different muscle vs fat ratios. Most big stores have size guides online which might help gauge what size clothes to buy from that store, but you'd need to know what chest size or waist size you're buying for.

    It's impossible to say which bit of your body you'll lose weight from, so just because your waist has shrunk a lot so far doesn't mean that that will continue to be the case. If I was still losing weight, I'd hit the charity shops as so many people had clear-outs during lockdown. I'd possibly even buy trousers in different sizes to shrink in to, if they were cheap enough.

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