Quote Originally Posted by arnaew
I'd never been overweight until I hit middle age - now I'm 87k (about 190lbs). I'm 5'8" so I'm carrying about 10k too much according the weight/height indeces for my age.
Jus' like me. I'm about an inch taller and a pound heavier, which oddly enough makes me a full size larger, but mostly I'm just not as good a cyclist as you yet. Oh, that prob'ly explains the size thing. Got it. I'm carrying fat; you're carrying muscle. OK. Back to the gym Sunday for another workout. And out to do hill repeats soon as the bike gets here. Hope some day I get to where I can do 200k a week.

As for the shopping thing ... I've found a few places I can reliably find things that fit, that have bright colors, and that allow me to look "zaftig" and/or athletic rather than shapeless. Having found those places, I pretty much boycott the rest. Don't know where such places might be in your part of the world, but good luck looking for them. If it's any comfort, some of us also have to suffer the same when buying shoes. Shoes are very rarely cute in a size 12! In fact, they very rarely fit well, even when they (very rarely) can be found. I once had to buy several days' worth of clothes (for lectures, meetings, dinners) in Zagreb when my luggage didn't arrive. My petite hostess took me all over town looking for ANYTHING in my size at all! Amazingly, I finally found one skirt, two tops, and one pair of shoes -- all still among my favourites.