The original title of this blog was "Size 10," but I was so busy prying money from people who owed me (another blog), that I went down another size in the meantime.

For you number crunchers, I’m down to a svelte 145. Now, I’m trying to decide what my goal weight should be. From about age 16 to 22, I was about 125 pounds. But in my older years, I think my old ‘fat weight’ of 135 would be much easier to maintain, but I digress.

No matter what anyone says, size matters. If it weren’t true, then clothing designers and stores wouldn’t engage in vanity sizing. Now, I was thrilled when I ran into The Gap to buy stopgap pants because my others were falling down around my waist. I started with size 12 and quickly worked down into a size 8, with room to spare. I thought, my gosh, this diet is really working; I’m just getting tiny. But somewhere in the back of my mind was a niggle of doubt — and I was right to trust that instinct.

And this is where the vanity sizing comes in.

I remember back before being fat that at 125, I mostly wore an eight. I was never able (with my ample bottom) to fit into a size 6.

If I get down to that ephemeral 125, I’ll probably be a size four. I may be short, but I’m not a size 4.

So a bit of research reveals that while Americans have gotten fatter, so have their clothes.  In an effort to disguise their weight gain — and make them feel good and to keep them coming back for more, stores and designers fib to their customers — even though we all know the scale doesn’t lie.

Yesterday’s size 12, will be today’s size 6, and so on. It turns out that there are really no standards — which of course makes it difficult to buy anything sight unseen.

My elation quickly dissipated when my size diminution wasn’t so much because of my accomplishments and was more because of marketing. It’s also scary on the other end. I thought, "Well, I’m not really getting that fat because I never got above a size 12." But now I know the sizes were growing as I was.

It makes me wonder what other bill of goods I’ve been sold.