after measuring my a** at the lbs, i got a toupe 143, and was informed that most people fit on a 143.
now looking at popular saddles the pros use (flite, slr, arione, concor light, etc.), they are all much narrower than 143.
why is that? is my lbs full of s***? do pros have narrower butts?

they're damn liars

Pros don't have any butts.

Why do you care what the pros use?

Also I have a 143 Toupe and an Arione... I wouldn't characterize the Arione as much narrower.

Yea you have a big ass, if you bike more maybe you will fit a pro saddle.

i don't care about their saddles, but i care about the well being of their butts.

btw, seeing you have both, which do you prefer?
i'm not sure if i like my toupe...

143 is not particularly narrow. Many pros such as Boonen use Regals which is 150mm wide.

I can't stand the toupe... I have it as it came with my bike but I took it off and replaced it with an Arione CX. The toupe may have just been the wrong size, I never did the ass-o-meter. I just measured the Arione and it is 140mm across, so it's about the same width but the toupe is flatter across the wide part, IIRC. Someone is borrowing my Toupe right now so I can't do a side-by-side at the moment.

Regal as in Selle San Marco Regal? That's 127 according to the website...

toupe cures the numbness problem that i had, but i can't seem to find a comfortable position to sit on.

Ok.

I got measured for a Toupe at 143mm and it rubbed the inside of my thighs raw. I went with the Arione which is a 130mm and 2000 miles later I love it, thanks again umd.

I guess I have no idea where they measure the "width" of the Arione... Anyway, just looking at them they are about the same actual width across, but I guess the Arione has less functional width.

I've got a toupe in 143. I hated it for the first 500 miles or so. After it and I broke in I love it. It flexes in all the right places. Not looking forward to the break in of a new one though.

I found with my Toupe that the seat angle has to be just right. Just a bit too far down or up made the saddle uncomfortable. I wound up getting a micro-adjusting post, the one bolt post's serrations were too wide.

Once I got it set correctly for me it's the best saddle I have used.

I'm trying out a regal right now and it feels wider than the arione.

The more your bent at your waist (read greater bar drop) the more your roll forward your hips. As your hips roll forward, the part of your sit bones that you're sitting on becomes more narrow. So the more greater bar drop you have, the narrower of a saddle you can use (relative to an upright position).

Some people use narrow saddles in a more upright position, so when they're down in the drops they need even narrower saddles.

Some people use wider saddles when in a more upright position, and narrower saddles as they develop and ride with more aggressive positioning and bar drops.

this could be a reasonable explanation, since generally pros carry a larger drop than us.