After all the talk yesterday about booty, body shape, and body image, I’m curious… what body shape are you?
What body shape are you?
There are so many differences between people. One difference that is just as apparent as being short or tall is your body shape. Your body shape has implications for how you look, how you dress, how you gain weight, and even health implications.
(No clue the original source of the sketch. Found it on Tumblr.)
I love this sketch that illustrates the different body shapes. Apple. Pear. Hourglass. Rectangle.
Depending on the source there are lots of different body types with different names including:
- Hourglass Body Shape – This body shape is curvy in the typical attractive way – in the bust and booty.
- Circle Body Shape – Commonly called apples, the circle body shape has smaller shoulders and hips, slender legs and a slim booty, with a wide middle.
- Triangle Body Shape –This shape has a shapely bottom, with a tinier waist that is a traditional feminine shape.
- Ruler Body Shape – The ruler body shape has a bit of curve at the hip but is mostly straight through the torso and shoulders.
- Inverted Triangle Body Shape – This body shape has a broader shoulders and chest with a tighter torso and waist and is athletic and strong.
My Body Shape
I’m undoubtedly a pear. It helps to know this so I can dress my body shape (resources for that below).
Dress Your Body Shape
I think body shapes are important to recognize. We don’t all look the same and that’s okay!
What is important is to accept your natural body shape and then learn how to maximize it’s high points. No matter what your weight is, you can look amazing if you dress well for your body. Here are a few books that will help you learn how to accept and dress your body shape to look your best:
Dress Your Best: The Complete Guide to Finding the Style That’s Right for Your Body
The Body Shape Bible: Forget Your Size Discover Your Shape Transform Yourself
How To Dress A Pear Shaped Body And Look Fabulous
I’m a pear so I read books about dressing pear shapes, obviously. :)
Which body shape are you? Do you like your body shape I’m clearly a pear and I like it. ;)
Hourglass, but as I get older and my (very substantial) girls drift further and further south, I may be morphing into pear, at least when naked, ha! :-)
Either Pear or Rectangle. Probably pear.
This is interesting! When I was 250 I didn’t think I had a body shape. I guess I was kind of like an apple shaped. Just round, especially in the middle. It was fun to see my body change losing over 100 pounds. Now? My body shape is a “V” because I swim. Swimming gave me really broad shoulders and a narrow waist. I’ll take it!
I’m a pear too. I generally like my shape (though I still have insulin resistance, which is essentially pre-pre-diabetes), but oh my goodness, my lower half is just so huge compared to the upper half. I really do like my curves (boobs, small waist, large hips), though. :)
I’m an hourglass for now, but the more weight I lose the more boob I lose, so who knows what I’ll be in a few months? I just know I’m excited to find out!
I’ll let you know once enough fat melts off to see for sure. I’m big all over. Some people are trying to tell me I’m an hourglass but my measurements say nay nay.
I’m definitely an hourglass shape. I’ve got it coming and going I guess.
I was definitely an hourglass at my lowest…but after packing 25 pounds back on from my lowest, I’m more of a rectangle right now…
Hmmm. I feel that this is a pretty limited sampling of what basic body shapes are. It’s a fun picture, but yeah, possibly lacking.
I agree. :-) I was just going to comment that I don’t think I really fit into any of these categories. Sometimes I feel like one, sometimes like another, and sometimes like something completely different. My body doesn’t change very much objectively, but every body changes at least a little, and so do peoples’ feelings about and images of their bodies, so that might be part of why this could be considered limiting.
I actually agree with you both. It is limited and it’s just a fun drawing. There are so many types of different body shapes really.
Pear and I love it!!!
I am something between a pear and an hourglass – I don’t have a tiny bust, but it and my ribcage do tend to be a little smaller than my hips and thighs and butt. But now with a large enough difference to be a true pear. But my bust isn’t quite as voluptuous as my hips, so I am not quite an hourglass. See the dilemma here?
I guess I’m a rectangle. Which is good I guess because while I don’t read newspapers, I do like to read in general. LOL. No, really, if I had to pick, rectangle wouldn’t be the shape I’d want, I’d rather have curves, but since we don’t get to pick, I’ll just make the best of it.
I am not really any of these… I don’t really fit into this because I am not apple & pear for sure BUT not hourglass or rectangle. I am more hourglass but NOT a small waist & my hips are not as full. I have a more gymnastic body bod but not the straight up & down type like the rectangle… I am always not fitting in the norm for these things and always in between sizes! ;-)
How about none of the above?!? Haha. yep that’s where i am!!!
I’m def an hour glass and it’s funny how that is only just now coming back into the popular view of beauty. I grew up in the 90’s and if you weren’t the stickiest, thinnest super model type, you weren’t beautiful. Curves were fat.
Once I got a little older, like twenty, I started realizing that I had womanly curves and that doesn’t have to mean fat, it can be healthy but it’s just not a stick!
I am an exaggerated pear. So much so that when I stand up or my bottowm half comes into view, people would say, wow, you didn’t look like you’re that big at all. And I only entertain that from salespeople in clothes stores or related, otherwise I don’t take to it kindly at all! Because who asked you what you think… lol.
Apparently I’m an hourglass. However right now I feel more like a marshmellow than anything :)
I’ll get there!
I like to call myself an Hour-and-a-Half-Glass figure.
I’m somewhere between apple and rectangle. And oh how I wish I were and hourglass. But alas, nothing short of removing a few ribs could give this glass a waist (major long legs / no torso over here.)
I’m also a V, very broad shoulders and a lot up top, not much of a waist or hips, and awesome legs. I guess up there I’m closest to an apple, but not quite. Cute pic though!
I am more of an apple, which I like :)
I’m between an hourglass and a pear. Before I got a stressful job and stopped going to yoga (not a good plan) I was much slimmer through the waist and tummy but oh well, gives me something to work on. Thanks to Mary’s inspiration, am now doing squats in the rest room every time I end up there. Forty today alone! Now to find a way to sneak in abs…
I used to be an hourglass, but the middle exploded into an apple shape. Hoping to get my hourglass back with lots of hard work and dedication.
Without the extra 100 pounds I’m back to the hourglass!!!!
I think there are more shapes than just those but I know they’re the basic shapes. I saw an interesting sketch once but I can’t remember where it is. I’ll have to find it sometime. Out of these I think I’m an hourglass although my figure needs some work. I’ve always had a really thin waist though when I do lose weight. I’ve been lucky in that respect.