Men, are you attracted to plump girls or do you only date thin ones?

I thought that was their final verdict for the magazine. It is a matter of individual taste. Some men cannot stand plump girls and some men actually like them. Body shape is only one factor that causes attraction.

That sounds like my kind of woman, I like Rubenesque women. Where did we go wrong in life that the ideal for womanhood has changed so drastically from healthy, sexy women to women who look like they come from a refuge camp. Oh its so sad. It used to be a sign that you could look after your family if they were well fed now we are accused of trying to kill them early. I know that some people are overweight but I do wonder were all these healthy weight categories and so on came from.

I think that it is possible to be a little too chubby too. Stick insect thin presumably looks attractive to stick insects. If I want to cuddle up to a bag of bones then I'll go and buy a skeleton. Women are somehow seduced into thinking that very thin is beautiful. I often hear it said that men have manipulated women to be this way. Maybe sometimes, but mostly I think that it is women conning themselves.

He didn't do a very good job with me then! LOL.

I agree that everyone is different, each man has his own preference, as do women. What bothers me the most is the myth that men only like slim women. I believed the myth for years even after I met a man who told me how wrong I was. I sort of believed him but thought he might be unusual. Then I saw the Cleo shoot and realised that there were a lot more men in the world that thought this way so the myth is wrong.

It is interesting that a lot of men like plump women. That is what Cleo found as well. It makes me wonder where the super skinny image of women came from. I am glad it is changing again.

I agree. I was trying to point out that it is the person inside the shell that matters and while being pretty and slim is a nice addition it is not everything. I used to believe like one of my respondents that men only liked slim girls but I found out that I was wrong. My partner actually likes girls to be slightly plump as he likes padding and other men I know think similarly.

I quite agree. I said plump not fat, a well rounded girl with curves. I think I gave an example of Sophia Loren. She had a lovely figure and I was sorry to see the starvation period that we went through and still seem to have problems with.

Yes we are all different with different tastes. If everyone learned from that and lived life the way they wanted to be rather than the way they thought others wanted them to be then I think the world would be a much better place.

I worked in a circus for a while, as the road-crew cook and running the canteen during interval. We had a replacement acrobat for a short while, quite pretty, but ... I sent the circus manager (female) and her daughter, who were working with me in the canteen one night into hysterics, when I looked at this trapeze artist as she went off to get ready for her next show, and mused not so silently to myself, "It'd be like screwing a surfboard." Lash

I think it varies from man to man. After all we are all individuals. The thing is that I grew up thinking that men would never find me attractive and I found out how wrong I was. I had a hard time dealing with self esteem but I learned to conquer the problem. Models are not healthy as they are always on the verge of starvation and they look like bones with skin over them. Yuk!! When it comes to a choice of partner you date a personality not a body, if you just marry a body it will not last as you need a personality you can live with. I have met men who love big women and I mean BBW's. (means Big Beautiful Woman) It is all a mater of personal taste.

True but I was talking about plump rather than obese. I know that some men like girls who are huge as well but you can be plump and still be in your healthy weight range.

I think it may be a fair concern for someone to worry, being comfortable does not mean you should let yourself go and adopt unhealthy behaviors that lead to becoming obese. It can also create health concerns that in turn would lead to somebody being a widower. I say this because a lot of older women are in this boat - I could be too if I hadn't started taking care of myself again. It is truly important, not just for the sake of being thin, rather for the sake of being healthy so you can continue to have a long life and enjoy your marriage and see your children grow up and spoil your grandchildren.

I think I covered the meeting online thing with my comment about personality might be an attraction factor if they are in close contact say in an office or meeting some other way. You asked the question and I answered it. Men and women make a first impression and they decide if they want to pursue the meeting further in between the first 10 and the first 45 seconds depending on which study you read on looks alone. Evidence of this is that most relationships are short term because personality clashes arise after the initial meeting. I would have got into a long discourse on body dismorphic disorder too where people perceive themselves as fat or short or ugly when in fact they are not but the question was on what men find attractive not how attractive you think you are, as you insinuated you did not feel attractive when you said "maybe I was not unattractive to men after all". Obesity is as much a barrier to men attracting women as the reverse. By the way you misquote me I said "obese is not sexy" [and I might add in both sexes].

Well I have had male partners who were large and it did not bother me at all. I have no preference for slim or large as for me the personality is the most important thing. When I went looking for my partner I was looking for a person not the package he came in. As for my male partners they all preferred plump women, if they had not they would not be going out with me. I know all about exercise and have done lots in my time but due to illness it is no longer and option for me. I was a size 12 in my 20's but I have spent most of my life in the 14 to 16 range and I do not eat doughnuts. However some people have body types that tend towards fat just as some will always be skinny no matter what they eat. You should never assume someone is fat just because they eat too much and do not exercise, you might be right a lot of the time but not all the time. People who are unable to move much will get fat eating ordinary food

I'm going to piss you off right now, and say that's a lie. Not that I want to piss anyone off, or offend anyone, but people refuse to believe the facts. There is no excuse for being fat. Its laziness. If you are fat and think you work hard, then you need to work harder. I use to say the same thing. Oh those people can't help it. Its in their genes. No. Its not.

You have probably pissed her off, and you have certainly pissed me off. I have fought weight problems all my life. Even when I played football (at bordering on first grade level) in my late teens and early twenties, and was training four nights a week, I could never get within 7 - 10 pounds of my supposed ideal weight. When I stopped playing I ballooned, and at 30 decided to do something about it. I spent twelve months running daily, walking almost everywhere, exercising before showers, and watching my intake, and got down to a weight supposedly 20 lbs over my ideal. In my 40s and 50s I was working in kitchens, hard physical labour in very hot conditions, and could not keep my weight down below 40 lbs over my supposed ideal weight. Now I am in my 60s, with severe arthritis and emphesema, so I find exercise very difficult, although I drive myself to the exercise bike most days and still manage to almost control a one acre property and its gardens and lawns. I eat very frugally, yet cannot get down under 80 lbs over my supposed weight. I am a living reminder of my maternal grandfather, who at my age was working a 10 hour day as a master plumber. He weighed as much as I do now, despite a high energy job. Don't tell me I'm lazy or that I do not have a genetic inclination to put on weight. Lash

Yes a person's face is important, especially the eyes. They say so much about someone. I find it interesting that so many people either like curvy women or have no problem with them and yet the idea that we should be skinny as an ideal is still around. It is so strange.

I think the bony models look like they are skeletons. I like a nice curvy girl with hips and a bust. After all busts are just fat there are no muscles there at all. I like Sophia Loren I always thought she was sexy role model.

Why? I'm a girl and I started it. I wonder if I should have just left the men bit off. I quite agree that as a whole we like healthy weight people. I have seen evidence that the photos are manipulated and not real images. They create false body images so do cartoons that emphasis huge busts and hips and tiny wastes. It just does not happen in nature. You are very kind to think I am like that. I can be quite fierce when the wrong button is pushed. I am still very sensitive to the inequality of women in our world and I wish I could change the whole world's mindset so that they see women as equal, not inferior. I grew up very sensitive about my weight as I was constantly made to feel ashamed of it by my family and my schoolmates. That did nothing to make me lose it in fact I ate more but in secret. I did eventually get it under control but now that I cannot exercise it is creeping up again. I used to work out an hour every day and not I struggle to do a few minutes. I do know that people like me as I am but it took a lot of personal development courses for me to achieve that realisation. Sadly there is a huge problem in Australia at the moment with children and adults who are endangering their health by being too big. I believe it is not so much over eating as the nature of the junk food. It does not take much junk food to put on weight. I used to drink Gloria Jean coffees until I found out that it had a days calories in one iced coffee. I have never been back. People have no idea what they are eating at shops like this and once the damage is done it can be very hard to get rid of especially if you are unable to exercise.

I had the same problem with my weight no mater how hard to worked out I could not lose it all. At the time I thought I was supposed to be 55 kilos but I have since discovered that I high 60's and up to 72 is ok. I never could reach that so called ideal weight no matter what I did. Now I have slipped again since I am disabled and cannot exercise so I have to find another way to lose the weight. I like being slightly plump but I do not want to be unhealthy. I certainly have no interest in being skinny even if I could get there which I cannot. The funny thing is that we are all different, some people have solid bones some have light small bones, some come from races designed to fight the cold and those people tend to be fat because you cannot survive the very cold winters unless you have lots of fat. For the rest of us we are a mixture of races like this and our body type can vary a lot.

True but there are also a lot that do. The funny thing is that some men think that plump is seriously fat when it is actually padding. I do not know where this ideal weight idea came from.

Well being plump is a good thing in cold weather as it insulates and keeps you warm. You find a lot of plump women in cold climates, or used to.

I agree that love is the important thing but what attracts you to a person in the first place.