Applauds Mandy's comments!
To true sweetie!
I think to many people have unrealistic ideas when thrust onto the dating scene after circumstances force it upon them!
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This guy is liscensed to chill, and thrill, but the opportunities to thrill are rather less than anticipated!!!!

My name is Karina . Here are my photos *edited...again*

Some great points made in this thread. I totally agree with the theory that if you don't like me no matter what I look like than that is your problem not mine...but it still hurts when thoughtless or just plain mean people make nasty comments. Yes I am big...a size 24, but I am fairly healthy and usually happy with the way i look. I've been told I carry my weight well. Sure I'd like to lose some weight but that is mostly for health reasons, not looks.

Size 24 here. When I was at the weight training prime, I was a size 18. My trainers couldn't believe it, but I had less body fat than they did. I'm going back to the gym now, and I have better core-balance than my trainer.

I'm from the US, so being in the UK is hopeless for me. I don't have an English straight up and down figure, I'm shaped like an hourglass even without a corset, but to the UK mind this translates as "fat" and always will, no matter how much weight I lose. There's so many misconceptions about why someone is overweight - I haven't touched a fast food meal in years, personally, I put on these pounds because I never remember to eat.

About the only amusing thought I have about all this rubbish is I'll remember exactly who turned me down or snubbed me in six months once I've toned aplenty (going to the gym nearly daily again, whee!)

So, do what you gotta, and good luck.

And I'm far from straight up and down! lol

At 5'9" and a size 18/20, the nicest description would be 'curvy'. Going by the scales, I'm actually border-line obese, but I know from the one and only time I was a size 10 that my bone structure is part of it because at that size, my weight was still over the guidelines for my height, yet I was so boney that my mattress bruised my hips!!!

I think the only people that have a right to make a comment is our doctor (perhaps) and ourselves, 'cos only we can know what we're comfortable with.

Seriously, body structure is very different here. Case in point is trying to go shopping for clothing. You'd think "Fine, Evans for fat birds, should fit everybody." Not true at all - I have to pick clothing ten sizes too large just to get over my hips, which results in about five to six inches of extra fabric hanging off me everywhere else. Don't talk to me about shirts...same trouble trying to get my shoulders in. It's not just fat, it's that my bone structure doesn't fit - shoulders, ribcage and hips of the average English woman seems to be a straight line right down the body if the clothes in all the shops are any indication. As a result, all my clothes look baggy and ridiculous on me - no matter how expensive the stuff is, I look a slob due to having to buy everything so large I may as well just have cut some holes into a hemp sack and pulled it over my head. I've resorted to having clothes made for me or have friends from the States send me stuff in trading care packages (I've got a veritable black market going on at the moment for English Tea and Orange kit-kats now...)

At least when I get corsets done those are usually tailor made anyway, and those are my usual outfits - hard to go wrong with a mermaid skirt in any event so always covered there. Part of the reason I wear Goth coture is most of it is made to order and at least I'm getting something which is actually to size, though I have had to spend a considerate time convincing the people that yes, those really ARE my measurements.

Sorry, what are your measurements? Hope that doesn't appear to be nosey but you've mentioned the 'unusual' nature of your shape a few times now..I think I've seen every shape there is.

Hmm, hourglass is good to me, LOL imo "fat" is fat, theres no hiding it, saying that we think hour glass is fat is WAY off the mark seeing as the "curvy" woman is more desirable these days.
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some very good conversations going on in here and hey you all managed to stay on topic! wtg.

now... aradon you say "fat is fat and there's no hiding it"..... what is your definition of fat? some men think anything above a size ten is fat.
others think that that anything above a size 16 is.

if you look to the fashion industry.... anything above a size 8 is obese. which is just plain wrong.

even thin women have some part of them they don't like. us larger ladies get the brunt of immature and hurtful comments because what we don't like about ourselves is plain for the world to see....... sometimes. if a stunning woman walked into a bar.... long, confident strides, big white smile, sexy shimmy of her hips drawing every man's attention and every woman's wrath. she is a size....... 16 say...... but nobody cares. she carries herself so well. so confidently. and she is a creature to behold.

and fat depends on what clothes you wear to be honest. if i went out wearing a pair of lycra shorts and a tank top.... you would say i was fat. when i walk into a bar wearing a skirt, a string top, a confident stance and a smile... you would say i was deliciously curvy.