My aunt is “big-boned”. Wide shoulders, large torso, wide hips. She’s six feet tall, she’s got big feet, long legs. She’s not fat-but she’s BIG. As in intimidating big.
Of course there are big-boned people and small-boned people. Either of them can be obese and either of them can be slender.
I am overweight for 5’2", but I’m within a healthy range and weigh almost 150 pounds less than I used to. I’m small-boned and because of osteoporosis, my bones are getting smaller, dammit.
One test that I was shown involved wrapping my fingers around my wrist. Using my bird finger and my thumb, they overlap enough that my thumb covers the fingernail on my bird finger easily.
I aslo had the smallest fingers in my high school graduating class when we ordered class rings. And they’ve gotten smaller. I inherited a diamond ring three years ago which I had sized at a 4 and a half. It’s now too big for me.
The amount of weight that a person puts on can make a difference in things like ring size even though the bone size remains the same. When I married, I wore a size 8 ring.
I am a woman who is both fat and large-boned. It would be ludicrous to say I wasn’t large-boned if it weren’t true. My mom is fat as well, but she is a small-boned, small-framed person. She has tiny wrists and ankles no matter what her weight, and weighs much less than I do even at the same clothing size. As for me, I wore a size ten ring even at a “normal” weight, and I have big feet, broad shoulders, and thick wrists.
I do know one thing most obese women agree on–people are way too concerned about us and our lives. Butt the fuck out.
There is no such thing as big boned. Load of rubbish.
you say that like it represents a contradiction
You know, I gotta say that I think that ‘big boned’, for all intents and purposes, is indeed a load of rubbish.
Do some people have larger bones than others? I guess so, since I don’t believe folks in this thread (with Doctor’s notes, no less) would make that up.
But it doesn’t mean anything. There is no way in the world someone’s bones are big enough to make a thin person appear fat, so what is the point of ever even mentioning ‘big bones’? I don’t get it.
Bullshit.
Being in IMHO isn’t an excuse to be a jerk.
Actually, quite a lot.
There is an enormous difference between thin and fat, though. I think having a large frame would be quite enough to make someone who is mildly overweight look distinctly fat.
My last two physicals were by two different doctors, and they both told me that my ideal weight is 225 lbs. They did the wrist measurement thing, too. At 6’3", that would put my BMI at 28.1, “overweight” and not far from “obese”.
I would look like a skeleton at 200 lbs.
My sister has tiny, delicate bones. This means that not only is she short, but she’s slightly built. A pound on her looks like 5 pounds on someone who has normal sized bones.
Big bones can mean different things. It can mean that a person has a larger frame, or it can mean that the bones themselves are thicker. For instance, my daughter has very wide shoulders. This gives her more of an hourglass shape than most women, and she needs to weigh more than someone with narrower shoulders, because she needs muscle and flesh to fill out her frame.
To understand how thick bones can make someone appear fatter, get yourself some toothpicks and clay. Roll the clay out into sheets about a quarter inch thick. Bundle three toothpicks together and wrap them with a sheet of clay. Now bundle seven toothpicks together and wrap it in a sheet of clay. The seven piece wrap is going to look fatter than the three piece wrap, because of the toothpick “skeleton”.
It does make you look different, though. And I don’t know anyone who actually says “I’m just big-boned!” unless as a joke. The fact that I have large bones does not excuse the fact that I’m overweight. It does, however, mean that I am never, ever going to weigh 120 lbs. or look ‘skinny,’ unless I’m on the verge of death from starvation.
When I was starving, not eating at all most days because I was saving my money for rent so I would not be homeless, I weighed 125 lbs. I was 5 ft tall. I had no body fat to pinch at my waist or on my sides, my face began to look like skin on a skull. I felt like my bones were trying to poke through when i sat or laid down on a hard surface, like in a bath tub or on a wooden chair. I still wore a size 12 jeans because my pelvis was so freaking big I could not get a size 10 to zip, but the waist of the 12 was about 6 inches too big. I really do have big bones.
I’m fat now, but that is a whole nother story.
Some people do have larger frames.
I’ve had both the health club and a doctor do a good body fat measurement and tell me that a good lean weight for me would be about 190. I’m only 6’ tall, so by a BMI calculator that would still be overweight.
I also found this out when I tried to borrow a jacket from a friend. He’s about my height plus has an ENORMOUS beer gut, so I figure no matter what it won’t be too small on me. Completely wrong. Plenty of room to button it but it simply doesn’t fit across my shoulders - as in, I hold the cuffs and put my arms down, the arms are ripping off.
My wrist circumference is 19.5 cm. The online frame size calculators tell me that puts me in a large frame, which is consistent with what I know.
…now, how close to that lean 190 I am, well, we don’t need to discuss that 
Its funny, because we are hearing from a lot of fat big-boned people, and not a lot of thin big-boned people.
Now, thin big-boned people exist. I worked fitting guys for suit jackets for high school students- when most people are with normal weight ranges- and it’s pretty easy to tell who has a big frame and who has a small one. I know a guy who is nearly seven feet tall. He wears shoes so large he can’t buy them in regular stores. His waist is almost unbelievably broad. But he still manages to fit in the BMI charts. And no, he doesn’t look “like a skeleton.” He looks like a large slim guy.
And I think this is the disconnect. Just because you can carry more weight without it being apparent doesn’t make it healthy. And yeah, a healthy weight is indeed quite slim. Sure, a big boned person might be healthy at 20 lbs more than a petit person. But don’t tell me you are 50+ pounds overweight but that it’s only because you are big boned.
I am a slim big-boned person. I am not tall (5’4), and quite skinny (110 pounds), but I have a very broad torso and thick bones. I cannot touch my thumb to my middle finger if I wrap them around my wrist. My bra band size is 38. I don’t look like a stocky troll or anything- just athletic. People often ask if I am a gymnast.
I’m relatively thin and have big bones. I can sit by a friend of about the same size and weight and you can see it in our knees – mine are much wider and more square, whatever my weight. I’ve also got a giant head, hands and feet.
The funny thing is that whenever I bring this up people assume I’m calling myself fat, which I’m not.
And for contrast, I’m 5’4", have a 32 bra band, and have a hard time finding watches to fit me because they’re too big. The one I’m currently wearing is on the smallest hole. And I’m about 30 lbs heavier than Pyper. I have small feet & hands, as well.
Frame size varies a lot.
And like other people in this thread, I’ve never actually heard an overweight person used “big boned” as an excuse as to why they are overweight. Except in sitcoms and the like, but definitely not in real life.
Is there some reason you think that the healthy or ideal weight for all people is identical regardless of body composition? That seems unlikely.
I don’t know of any obese (as in, BMI over 30) people who would say the issue is only one of skeletal structure. I mean, :dubious:. But keeping frame size in mind is useful when your 5’3, 125 pound teenage daughter thinks she really needs to weigh 110 like her friend with a very different build, or no one will ever love her. From what I can tell playing around with BMI charts and frame size advice, frame size essentially tells you where in the normal-weight range is normal for you.
I think this is what I’m coming away with from this thread. That is, obviously no one’s bones are so big they need to weigh 400 pounds. But two people of the same height can have different weights and still be healthy because of different frames and body types and so on. Just plain height/weight doesn’t tell you enough.
Wouldn’t a larger person have a larger wrist than a smaller person just because of the extra padding involved? I mean, you’re not cutting yourself open and measuring the bone only, are you? You’re measuring around skin and fat?