waistlines

Question
QUESTION: Please I need to know exactly how much our waistlines have grown please email me, I heard the comparison between marilyn monroe to now please help

ANSWER: Kristine, I have no idea "exactly" how much waistlines have grown on average, other than to tell you we have 75% of the population overweight--most of us, and 33% of them are morbidly obese. Marilyn wasn't considered skinny in her day but certainly shapely. She was most likely what we would call a size 8 0r 10 today and the average today is more like a 12.

Hope that helps.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, do you know what size the average was and is, I heard on the radio that the average size for a woman is so many sizes bigger and men was so many sizes bigger but I can not find the sizes any where, thanks again

Answer
1 The hourglass figure was most prevalent in the 1950s, when the average woman was 5ft 2in and weighed in at 9st 10lbs. Shehad a bust size of 37 inches, a waist of27.5 inches and hips of 39 inches.

2 Time is running out on the hourglass. Today's average woman is two inches taller and half a stone heavier than in the 1950s. The average bust size has gone up to38 inches and the hips have swollen to41 inches. The biggest change is in waist size, which has risen by more than sixinches to 34.

3 The smaller waist of the 1950s woman was due in part to the fashion of wearing waist-nipping corsets, uncomfortable and sometimes painful but very flattering to the figure. In the 1960s and 1970s, the fashion changed to favour loose dresses and flowing kaftans, which hid signs of an expanding middle.

4 The average woman in 2004 is a size 16, compared with a size 12 back in 1951.

5 Researchers have blamed the shape changes on women having more food to eat and less time to exercise. There is no rationing now, as there was in the post-war period of the 1950s, and in our time- obsessed culture we can forget to make the time for fitness and sports.

6 Hormonal factors have also played their part. The contraceptive pill is said to be partly responsible for the increase in bust size.

7 Classic icons from the heyday of the hourglass include Marilyn Monroe, above, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day and Sophia Loren.

Copyright 2004 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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