Have you recently gone to buy a t-shirt in your usual size, only to get in home and find that it doesn’t fit? If you have then you’re not alone! While many of you may think that it is simply a case of those of us finding this problem having eaten too much of late, there are more and more people discovering this problem.

I will use myself as an example. I am a rather large man who has almost always worn extra-large size t-shirts. There has only been one period in my adult life when I was able to fit into a large size, but that didn’t last for too long.

I have noticed recently that when I go out to buy a new t-shirt, more often than not I need to find a double extra-large size in order for it to fit me comfortably. Now I must admit, when this first happened, I thought I had simply put on weight, but all my usual clothes fitted me and other new clothes such as jumpers, jeans and the like fitted with no problems.

This phenomenon is not just limited to a few stores. I have found this to be the case in many high street stores and large supermarkets. I have no idea how or why this seems to be happening but it can make shopping a much more involved process than it really needs to be.

The only reason I can think is that by making smaller t-shirts, producers can save money by using less material. Now please don’t misunderstand me, I am not looking to start any new conspiracy theories or to give any particular company a bad name, I just wanted to let anybody who had the same problem know that they were not the only ones.

Of course, it could all be in the imagination, but there is a pretty good way to check. Next time you go shopping for a t-shirt, take one of your own t-shirts from home that you know fits you well. When you are in a shop, hold up the two together, one on top of the other. I have done this many times and found the new t-shirt to be physically smaller, especially under the arms and around the chest area.

Now, I realise that for many of you reading this, my revelation may not have much of an impact on you if you are a size small, medium or large. But when you are an extra-large size like myself, there is not really anywhere else to go with the size, as many manufacturers simply do not make shirts or design in double extra-large size.

Maybe it’s just paranoia, maybe I have been eating too much in recent months, who knows? All I know for sure is that what used to be a simple trip in to town to get myself a new t-shirt seems to be a thing of the past. This is also means that because manufactures want simply more money to create bigger sized t-shirts, bigger people end up paying a higher percentage of every piece of clothing they buy.