Yet another thread has grown to long to read through before I found it - which means my point may already have been mentioned:


When I picked myself up of the floor I thought "Maybe she's talking American, where their 12 is our 16". That's the only kind explanation, otherwise she's deluded or lying

parthena (wishing she was either of those sizes and could dance like Nat )

Err,

Help me out here;

Where from this did you think I was talking about D/S?

Ok, there may have been some comment, but things would have moved quickly on. The judges wouldn't have made a big deal of it.

I was refering to comment by the judges, I wasn't talking about D/S, it isn't always about this board...

Or is it, if you don't like someone's opinion?

[quote=cheekychacha;36314853]
As I have said in a previous post, that's not my comment, my original thread was merged with a later one with that title.

I'm amused by the number of posts where people attribute all sorts of reasons for others who simply say she doesn't look like a size twelve.

Any more?

When / where did Natalie speak out very publicly before it was announced that she would be on SCD? The last time I recall you mentioning this, you pointed to a Mirror article that refers to her as a "Strictly Come Dancing star".

And in that article she doesn't say it was impossible to eat healthily and maintain such a small body size. She says being slim hadn't made her happier. She says she became obsessed about her weight. But she also says what she'd done for the DVD "proved that real women could lose weight healthily and successfully" but she "began to panic" when her "DVD contract came to an end" because she was "worried" she "wouldn’t have the discipline to stick to the regime", and that's when the obsession started.

It looks to me like she's playing the game as it's often played. If you lose weight, do magazine interviews and maybe put out a DVD. If you put weight back on, do interviews about that and send the message that not everyone is meant to be size 6/8 slim and that being slim didn't make you happier.

And of course be "flying the flag for ordinary women on SCD", 'a "normal" size woman', a "real woman" - as if a slim woman can't be real, normal or ordinary.

As far as I am concerned this thread is discussing the opinions of the people on DS. If you decided you widen that group to include others, then I completely missed your post saying that. And if I don't like someone's opinion I say so and you would be in no doubt about it e.g. when I said to you "Actually I don't agree with the last bit of your post.".


She gave an interview to Heat magazine or something like that - I read it when I was at the hairdressers - and then as usual it was picked up by the rest of the media. You've already made it clear you think Natalie is 'playing' matters and I'm not going over the same ground again. I don't understand where you last paragraph fits in, because Natalie has never to my knowledge said any such thing, in fact what she has said, is she is not doing SCD to lose weight.

My last paragraph wasn't quoting Natalie; it was quoting not very far away posts in this thread. But even so, it doesn't say Natalie was doing SCD to lose weight. How the heck did that get in there?

Anyway, are you saying the Mirror article was based on something in Heat? It certainly doesn't look like that to me.

Still, I would be interested if anyone can find any checkable source in which Natalie is quoted as saying how impossible it was to eat healthily and still maintain such a small body size, or in which she repudiates her DVD even before it was known she'd be in SCD.

(By "checkable" I mean only that we can see exactly what it says, for instance because it's online. Just 'cause I'm interested in how celebs play this game.)

Edit: I've found a trace of the Heat article (and a pic of Natalie on Heat's cover) in the Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...s-dieting.html

And also a - different - Mirror article from that time (mid April 2009) that is based on the Heat one and that says:


She does say such things as "What I was doing wasn’t sustainable", but that's about the way she was behaving aftert she stopped the training etc that went with the DVD.

No. Marks and Spencer size 12 is:
36 - 28.1/4 - 39.

When I was younger, the standard sizes were:
12 = 34 - 24 - 36.
14 = 36 - 26 - 38.
16 = 38 - 28 - 40

As women have got stouter, the manufacturers ratcheted their size labels upwards - and changed the actual measurements.

So those women who think they are a "12", are nearer what used to be called a size 16.

ETA: I worked with a woman who was the same size as me (old style 12-14) and she was much shorter and looked much stouter - just like Natalie.

It`s odd, wonder how many women have different sized clothes in their wardrobe ? Mine range from 10 to 14 depending on style and which shop they come from !

There was a picture in the celebs today, she looked a pretty normal size in that, so it might be the BBC camera's. She does not look that over weight at all

Your last paragraph is immediately below an excerpt of my post and looks like it is referring to that. I didn't say the Mirror article was based on the Heat article. I said the Heat article was picked up by the media. This is normal - the actual interview is in one publication and is picked up and then regurgitated ad infinitum by the rest of the media. I don't quote what people verbatim, I just post what I remember the gist of something to be - this is a forum about a dancing show, I'm not giving evidence in court! You clearly prefer every word to be verified and I clearly am happy to recollect what was said, with references if they are to hand.

So to quote from the DM article on the link you provided -

Natalie was originally thrilled when she lost weight for the fitness DVD through a combination of healthy eating and working out. With the huge response from the public to her transformation, the actress admits she soon became obsessed with her weight and her appearance. She tells the new issue of Heat magazine: 'I really wasn't well. I was bordering on having an eating disorder.' The 5ft 4in actress admits her weight plummeted as low as 7st 12lbs, which meant with a body mas index of 18.5, she bordered on underweight. After parting with her trainer Dee, Natalie lacked guidance and began to experiment with a succession of diets in a bid to slim down even further. Now a size 14, Natalie is happier with her weight, although she admits she would like to improve her eating plan and tone up with the help of Coleen Rooney's trainer Elise Lindsay. She continued: 'I just want to be normal, and if that means me staying this size, then I'll stay this size. 'What I was doing wasn't sustainable. I couldn't keep on that way. I was ill. I had a problem and it was borderline obsessional.' Natalie is now focused to getting fit and healthy again after going through a tough time personally over the last few months.

So the article explains Natalie was originally thrilled when she lost weight for the fitness DVD through a combination of healthy eating and working out. Her problems seem to have started when she continued to lose weight after she did the DVD and split with her personal trainer, because of her own unhealthy eating plan, which included taking laxatives. Surely you accept that there is no healthy way to maintain a BMI of 18.5? Perhaps not.

Just like many other women Natalie wants to eat healthily and exercise regularly and needs support to do that - luckily she can afford a personal trainer to provide that support.

If she was a size 8 after finishing the DVD and was a size 14 at the time of the Heat article in May, saying she is a size 12 now doesn't seem unreasonable. If she continues to lose weight and tone up as she does SCD, then I would imagine a size 10 would be about right for her height.

As I see her a quite a normal person and not playing any games. I'm happy to interpret things and you seem to prefer to have everything accounted for, so we will rarely agree.

I agree she does not look that overweight. I think she has toned up a little over the last couple of weeks.


Yes many different sizes, it really depens which shop they come from or which country they are made. If I try something Italian I get very unhappy... it is definately not made for a tall avarage size Dutch girl...

With all the exercise she's getting, if she stays in the competition, she could be down to a size 10 before this thread closes.

I don't believe for one minute that's she's a size 12 otherwise all the other females in the show must be size 4 or 6! However, that's not why I find her so irritating. She appears to believe she's much better than she is. She's good at the performing side of the dance but not much else.

An interesting article:

Why are fat people abused?

Yea I suppose a size 12 would look large up against the 8 minus sizes which must be the dancers sizes..

She looks pretty normal to me.

At least we agree on something!


Thank you for this.

No offence, but it matters not in the slightest to me.

You should try buying clothes in China They are really really tiny!

I have said the same , I couldnt give a toss if the she a size 12 or 18 , he over familiarity with the judges and Tess and Bruce and her draping herself over Vincent are bugging me .

I haven't noticed this with Natalie, but when Zoe Ball was all over Ian Waite like a rash all the time, it used to really annoy me!

I think Natalie has an unfortunate heavy look - whatever size she is.....she tries to be delicate but there is something about her that just looks heavy .....

Exactly!

Now it's not her fault, well maybe it is, as I believe she was a lot slimmer not that long ago.
I could never understand why there were so many comments on how wonderful she looked, but maybe that's because she was a BBC employee.
It the beginning of the series with her over accentuated pear shape figure, she reminded me of one of those weeble dolls and that she'd roll back upright again if you pushed her over.
I can see she has lost some weight since the beginning of the series, but others have done so too.

If I recall you've already told me that before. Personally I think it says a lot more about you than me, that you take the time to post such comments.

Err..

You're the one with the long posts and seem to take it all far too seriously. It's only telly.

Or are you one of the many who never go back and read what they've written?

So much psychoanalysis to do and so little time, eh?

"Fattism" is, unfortunately, an "acceptable prejudice", but so is the equally offensive prejudice against slender-to-thin women who are insulted by being referred to "stick insects", "skeletal", etc and face frequent implications that they are not "real women".

The idea that heavier women such as Natalie C are somehow standing for "ordinary women" or even "normal women" is a version of that implication.