Perceptions of 'healthy' or 'overweight' are really skewed by the area you live in?

Yep let’s fat shame the poor teens shall we? Nice op. Haven’t you got anything better to do?

What a nasty thread.

Would you prefer all of those young women were ashamed of their bodies and hid underneath tents?!

Obesity is a problem in this country, yes - for a lot of people. Why target young women on a night out?

And the Wembley food comments are just weird. All of those big concert venues and sports stadiums sell fast food and not much else. Wembley is no different.

Yeah I also live in an affluent area in London, much fewer overweight people here.

All those talking about obesity and poverty/depravation, have you seen how much Harry Styles tickets are?!

Those paying hundreds of pounds for a ticket and paying the food and drink prices at concert venues (£10 a pint, anyone?) are in no way the “deprived” in society.

Since the wide availability of low cost, processed food there’s been a correlation between poverty and poor health, its multifactoral not only about money but money is definitely a factor. There’s nothing controversial about this, its fact. You only have to compare average weight between an affluent postcode in London and an average one in somewhere like Glasgow.

The advent of GLP-1s has massively exacerbated this too as wealthy women can afford to take them as a lifestyle choice as opposed to for health reasons.

I agree that food choices in stadiums are routinely awful but as a one off no one becomes obese eating chicken and chips.

Its much more deep rooted than this and takes generations to fix.

Know not "no"

Brandy Melville actually had a documentary about them over this. I do find it quite a negative vibe as it's a bit ridiculous that there are no other sizes as young teen girls like mine actually find some of the stuff too big, then you see perfectly slim women who are 20, 21 in there but no that some things are too small and don't accomodate the shape of a women, makes that person feel like shit I would imagine!

Rural Norfolk: yes plenty of young people are rather chunky. I dunno if majority are large, but can say that being large is not unusual.

This is not bcz of high density of KFCs.

Maybe Harry styles fans are disproportionately on the larger side? Maybe that's why they only had chicken and donuts? I mean I thought concert food was always unhealthy really.

I think it's true there are lots of chubby kids. I guess if they're in the majority then they feel more confident in their appearance? Who knows.

I rarely see morbidly obese people in my area, but it's not like everyone is really slim.

It depends v much on socio-economic groups. Presume you live in a fairly affluent area?

My kids go to state school in affluent area, and only v small proportion are overweight.

I moved from the midlands to Geneva two years ago.
Here very few people are overweight, I am a size 6 and pretty normal size here, in England I find it hard to find clothes in my size as what says a size 6 on the label is far bigger than the European equivalent.
I really notice how big and generally unhealthy people look when I arrive back in the UK but also travelling to somewhere such as Lyon where it’s less affluent I see people are bigger.
Also I notice the British kids are far taller than the ones local to us (multiple nationalities).

I live in a poor deprived area and what I do notice is the number of fast food outlets. If I go out of my front door and head to the main road on the left of my home I will find the following:
KFC
Subway
A chip shop
A chinese take away
Dunkin Do-nuts
Lots of vape shops, off licenses and betting shops too. I can't imagine permission being given to crowd a "naice" area with so many businesses of this sort
Our city centre has more chicken shops than you can count, lots of burger places including 3 MacDonalds, at least 5 Dessert Palours. In fact now I come to think about it, since the demise of the high street the city centre is little more than one giant fast food outlet.

When my chikdren were young they went to a little church school that was very middle-class and I felt large in the playground as a size 12 to 14. We then moved across to the school which was much more deprived and I felt slimmer.

There is definitely variations between wealth and poor areas in the numbers of obese children in particular.

And most people do surround themselves with people like themselves. People filter thier lives by where they live, types of jobs, schools they would consider and shared interests. Its very easy to end up in a bubble of your own making - not just middle class people.

My town is very affluent, and hardly anyone is very overweight. At my school, there are hundreds of slim parents, and probably less than ten who are overweight or lower end of obese, and not a single person would be classed as morbidly obese in my opinion. There are very very few overweight children, and of those that are, many I know to be ND, and obviously issues around food are often a trait.

The nearest city to us (more deprived area) is notably different. Not at all unusual to be overweight there.

I hope that weight loss treatments become more widely available on the NHS in future, so more people can benefit from them than just those that can afford it. As a pp mentioned up thread, currently WLI are just widening the divide in terms of health by postcode.

It’s an interesting observation. I used to live in London and it can be a bit of a bubble, people walk a lot to reach the tube etc. I remember I once took a work trip to one of the poorer south coast towns and the level of obesity was evident, reflection of poverty and limited opportunities. I’m in southern Scotland now in a coastal town where people are generally slim and healthy/active but again on a recent day trip to Edinburgh zoo the level of obesity was high. It’s a v hilly zoo and some families were struggling to walk up the hill to the top.

Nobody attack me pls, we should be able to say what we observe as it reflects the problems with our country which will impact society for decades. Poverty, limited food choices, lack of education, food ‘deserts’ and so on

I think there’s a point to be made here @alwaysdream

everyone and their cat is opening up cake sheds and cookie huts that sell cookies the size of your head, cakes that could stop your arteries at 100 paces, fuck off burger vans and Mac & cheese trucks. The tv chefs on the morning shows just make unhealthy crap. The obesity crisis is well in swing and seemingly for good reason.

I’ll bite.

in a doctors surgery last week.

out of the 10 females in the room, 2 were a healthy weight. The rest were overweight / obese with one being substantially so.

one of the obese females was in her late teens, on her phone and complaining to her (overweight) mother that she was always tired all the time so needed to have her daily nap.

Lots overweight by me. It’s not even always about not knowing. It’s money and time in lots of cases.

Im overweight but my dc aren’t although older dd does no physical activity which is same for most of her friends. I’d say most late teen girls have given up all forms of exercise by this point round here apart from a few who go to the gym but that tends to be more in their 20s.

I can only give my experience but we love fruit and veg but most fruits doesn’t fill you up so stodgier and cheaper snacks are bought - mainly bread based products.

I do a lot of overtime as I’m a single parent and yet it’s mostly desk based which vastly reduces my step count and just time left over to exercise.
Life can feel pretty bleak sometimes (more so in winter tbf than summer for me) and having a drink of an evening or sweet treat feels like an affordable quick way to have a mood boost.

I have a gym membership and love hiking but overtime, kids and house jobs all take priority so exercise is often the one that gets cut.

I know these things above can be looked at as excuses but it’s the same for a lot of my friends as well. No money to get help in to free up time and most of us are all full time. Id say our kids look healthier than we do but whether or not they grow up to be healthier adults remains to be seen.

I’ve been to Wembley several times as a vegan and have been able to have both falafel and a vegan hot dog. I just googled and the website says they still offer those options.

It stands out in certain contexts. I live in a relatively affluent area. But a town I sometimes visit is deprived with high level of overweight people and it does stand out to me as it’s different to my norm. In the deprived town near 50% of yr 6 are overweight or obese so it stands to reason they then become overweight teens/20s. Clothing choices accentuate it. Primark stretch clothes are popular, there’s a big primark in the deprived town. Brandy Melville you mentioned is very expensive and only in London.

I do think that people with money have more opportunity do enjoyable leisure activities, while poorer people are more likely to get their quick, cheap, dopamine fix from food.

Wembley stadium is piss poor for food choices. I don't even bother with the support acts as I'd rather eat my own picnic / go to nandos etc and eat something veggie and substantial before I start dancing for two hours and have a late trip home.

I’m obese and working on it. Food out and about is always a nightmare so I take my own. I wouldn’t expect to get a nice salad at a Harry Styles gig.

Even at my heaviest I didn’t feel like an outlier because everyone around me was similar. Until I moved to a nicer bit of the country and people are slimmer. And it’s slightly easier to make better choices as there are options out and about, hosts offer better foods, social opportunities are often more active. It really matters who you are around - our relatives are mostly fat, so family events are a minefield of sitting, UPFs and booze. But local social events tend to be healthier. I really feel like obesity is somehow contagious.