English Audio Request

Very thin

Scrawny

Underweight

Thin

Skinny

Slim

Slender

Slight

Plump

Chubby

Pudgy

Overweight

Fat

Heavy

Very fat

Obese

In the United States, most people would like to be thin.

Fashion models and actresses are usually slim and slender. Some people say they look scrawny because they are too thin. In the 1960's a young woman named Twiggy was a famous fashion model. She was 5 feet 6 inches tall (1.65 meters) but weighed only 92 pounds (41.4 kilos). Many people believed she was too skinny.

Paintings and sculptures from decades and centuries ago show people of many different weights. The Venus of Willendorf is a small sculpture of a woman. This statue was made in Austria sometime between 15,000 and 10,000 B.C. It represents a woman who is very fat. It is a symbol of fertility.

Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish painter who lived from 1577 to 1640, painted plump women and chubby children. He seemed to like people who were a little pudgy.

The Venus de milo is a beautiful Greek statue. It is made of marble and represents Venus, or Aphrodite (the goddess of love and beauty). It is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. A doctor might say this lovely woman is at her ideal weight. She is not fat and not thin.