那么英语中如何恰当而又有礼貌地表达 “胖”呢?下面是一些常见的委婉表达法。
1. gain weight: 增加体重。例如：
People who drink diet soft drinks don’t lose weight. They gain weight, a new study finds.
2. super size person: 超大之人。例如：
No more hamburgers, I don’t want to be a super size person.
3. heavyset: 体格魁伟的。例如：
He was tall and heavyset.
4. nutritionally endowed: 营养丰富的。例如：
Though garlic is a nutritionally endowed food, it is only consumed in small amounts.
5. gravitationally challenged: 受地球引力挑战的。例如：
That girl is gravitationally challenged.
6. well-built: 体格健美的，体型匀称的。例如：
That girl is well-built.
7. stout 结实的，壮实的。例如：
She is getting too stout for her dresses.
8. big-boned: 骨骼粗大的。例如：
I’m not fat, just big-boned.
9. overweight: 超重的。例如：
Overweight in a child should not be neglected.
10. chubby: 胖乎乎的(多指小孩和女子)。 例如：
The baby has a chubby face.
11. buxom: 体态丰满的。例如：
A generation ago, fat babies were considered healthy and buxom actresses were popular, but society has come to worship thinness.
同样，“瘦”不能说skinny，它是“皮包骨”的意思。要形容一个人苗条应该用slender,slim，或delicate。“减肥”则可以说lose pounds或lose weight。
总之，“胖”和“瘦”是英美人敏感的话题， fat和skinny的使用要十分小心，注意回避。但是有一个例外就是phat(妙，好，酷)，是fat 的异体词，在口语中常常用于赞美美妙的东西，相当于cool。例如：
The car is really a phat.
