Specifically waist size (for men at least). Not sure for women. (Don’t worry, I don’t need to know!)
Shoulder/chest size going up may be due to gym visits.
Pinching a layer of fat just above the waist is good too and can be measured with special calipers.
Yes, for women too. Although it is not the first place (or the more visible one) where most women put on weight.
Opinions? 
A professor of medicine and metabolism has said to stay healthy, you should be able to fit into the same jeans you wore at the age of 21 – and people are not impressed.
Professor Roy Taylor said adults are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes if their waist has changed in size since their early twenties.
He made the comments at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, while presenting the results of a small study.
He added: “As a rule of thumb, your waist size should be the same now as when you were 21. If you can’t get into the same size trousers now, you are carrying too much fat and therefore at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, even if you aren’t overweight.”
@Tom1234 what’s your opinion on this specialist’s opinion…would you fit the jeans you were wearing at 21? Don’t worry, you don’t really need to answer; it is more of a rhetorical question…
Well, his opinion might be a bit extreme, but “body positivity” has done more harm than good. I personally can definitely fit in my old clothes, and honestly, I don’t see a reason why people shouldn’t be able to control their weight, should they chose to.
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Well I don’t think I can fit in my old clothes from 21.Though in general I agree with his ideas, I think 21 is a bit “random” but he probably chose this age as a “rule of thumb”.
No wonder the reprimands on social media or within the general public.
Edit; and where did you see “body positivity”? In America maybe?
I definitely couldn’t fit in to the jeans I wore at 21 but having kids definitely affects body shape so it’s not surprising really.
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He may have a point. I guess the problem is that people may not want to hear what he has to say.
Conversely, I know people who can’t wear the jeans they wore when they were younger as they have actually lost weight and have a more active, healthy lifestyle now.
Yes, I can still wear the same jeans.
This is something funny because clothing trends change.
When I was 21, baggy clothes were cool. I could gain easily 10 kilos and still fit in there if I still had them.
This idea of fitting in certain clothes “X years after” is anchored to the skinny jeans trend.
So, clothes are clothes and body mass is body mass. No need to mix them.
I think he’s specifically talking about the waist size.
I don’t think he’s suggesting you keep your old-fashioned jeans and try them on but even so tight-legged or baggy, the waist size is still the same and one could easily check with a tape-measure.
I always buy normal fit jeans. If your cycle, then with anything tighter in the leg, if you cycle up a hill they are likely to rip along the seams at the thighs as your muscles fill with fluid.
Obviously the specialist is talking generally. There will be people who had anorexia or other illnesses in their early adulthood.
There will be people who may have the same waist size but massive legs due to some sports.
Are there any sports which give you a wider waist?
Baggy was baggy to the point that without a belt you’d wear the trousers on the ankles.
I’ve always been a shorts guy. When I arrived to CH I was sad because I had to wear pants on the bike. One day I found out about the insulation layer to wear under the baggy shorts…I found bliss!
I guess the doc is very poor science communicator. People will look back at their own life at 21. One girl mentions anorexia, people at my university were eating amphetamines as nutrition supplements during finals, there’s a bunch of 21 YOs out there who have not enough to feed themselves…so, back to the BMI. The BMI may be dumb and it may trigger muscular guys. But that’s fine, it’s not making anyone remember a war or famine.
"As a rule of thumb, your waist size should be the same now as when you were 21. If you can’t get into the same size trousers now, you are carrying too much fat and therefore at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, even if you aren’t overweight.”
Your trousers can be as baggy as you want. Your trouser size is not your waist size.
As I wrote before, you measure your waist size with a tape measure.
A clown does not have feet this size:
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Good for you, I was very skinny back then because I didn’t have the time to eat. (not really, but simply “forgot” to eat) I don’t long for my 21 y.o. jeans. OH too was tall and thin. Same reason - not a proper nutrition, lots of time spent in libraries where you couldn’t snack etc.
At 21 I was just breaking free from the competitive swimming circuit and was all shoulders, thighs and no boobies. Absolutely wouldn’t dream of going back to that body shape, thanks v much.
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Again, the specialist was talking about waist size and not shoulders, thighs and chest?
Why do you think he specifically said waist size ?
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Who cares? I was just reminiscing about being 21 and not wanting to revisit that body shape.
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He is, because one of the reactions was: 
Someone policing womens bodies again.
even though he didn’t specifically mean “women”, but he excluded body changes from his equation, that may or may not specifically affect women…
But yeah, agree he should have been much more nuanced.
Every profession has its idiots.
If this was even remotely true then 90% of the population would have type2 instead of less than 10%.
Many medical professionals have dogmatic views that are easily demolished.
EDIT: Over 70% of the US population are over weight and 30% of these are severly overweight, i.e.obese
Only 11% have type 2.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/obesity/90142#:~:text=Another%2030.7%25%20of%20American%20adults,at%20a%20rate%20of%2046%25.
He didn’t say you would get type II diabetes - he said "adults are at risk of developing type 2 if their waist has changed in size since their early twenties.
I guess to please everyone here, he should have stated what that risk increase was.
He didn’t aim to please everyone here. He said it at a diabetes conference for medical professionals.
These medical professionals probably understand disease risk and didn’t need it spelt out to them.
Sometime you read doing “a” will double your chances of getting “b”. That may sound alarming.
The chance of getting “b” without doing “a” may be 0.0001% amongst your cohorts so doubling your chance is not such a big deal.
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He was speaking at a diabetes conference for medical professionals.
He probably felt, under the circumstances, that he didn’t need to be more nuanced.
Without enumerating the risk he is talking nonsense.
Probably he did give numbers but the media ignored.
As you wrote doubling the risk if one in a million is irrelevant