Pants Lie

I came to a harsh and startling realization the other day:  my pants have been lying to me.  I know it's hard to believe, but pants are liars. Big fat liars. I suspect dresses are liars too, but I have no first hand experience with dresses (why? what did you hear?)

No long ago when I started my 4 Minute Fat Loss program, I asked all of the participants to take measurements.  For they guys, it was the waist I was interested in, for the women it was waist and hips.  So after one guy didn't email me with his measurements I asked him during the session.

"So what is your current waist measurement"  I asked as I set up the workout.

"36" he replied quickly. The answer didn't seem right.  I have been at this game a while, so I know when certain numbers sound fishy.

"You used a measuring tape?" I asked.

"No, but my pants are a 36."

There it was, so I told him "Go home and use a measuring tape"

I got an email later that evening that he actually measured and his waist was in fact 42 inches.

I'm sure he thought what I thought: How can that be?  The pants said 36! That's when it really hit me: Pants are liars.  I asked my other 4 minute Fat Loss guys what size pants they usually wore, and they all answered 36.  But each of them had actual waist measurements of 40-42 inches.

So I decided to do a little experiment.  I will say that I do not wear long pants all that often.  You see I have big legs, and have always had big legs so it is hard to find pants that fit right.  But it's usually pretty warm here, and even when it isn't I can get away with shorts 90% of the time.

it just so happens that I wear a size 36 pants, so I took my 36 inch jeans (the finest jeans Old Navy has to offer) out of my closet and measured them. Here is the actual tag.

These jeans are freshly washed, and not stretched from wearing.  I put the tape measure up to them and this is what I got:

I know that is a little hard to see so let me zoom it in for you.

Now I think I was being generous as I did not full stretch them out as if one was to wear them, and even then it measured at 19 inches. Now do a little math and multiply that by two and you have the circumference.  The result is 38 inches. I think I could have probably squeezed out another inch or two if I was to yank on them a bit.  The only good news for me is that these pants are loose on me, so that is something.

So what does this mean? It means clothing manufacturers are trying to make us feel better by giving us smaller numbers on our clothes. 

I expect politicians to lie to me, but not my attire. Pants lie. Dresses lie. Tape measures do not.

The Bottom Line: Do not believe everything you wear.

Joshua Carter
http://carterfitness.com

PS: If you want to make your real numbers smaller, shoot me an email.