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

YANBU. I think the clothing choices make it more obvious too. Teens/early 20s very overweight wearing crop tops, skin tight leggings or shorts, and fat bulging out everywhere. Can't understand why their parents/whoever they live with don't kindly say something.

I teach in a very wealthy part of Oxford but live in an ordinary market town.
The difference in physical appearance of the kids and teenagers I see is very marked indeed.

Close your eyes or stay indoors if people are triggering you that much. A few words come to mind over people like yourself, but I'll keep them to myself. However, you're about as vile or even worse than a playground bully - That's me being polite. Please stop forcing your sly narrative on us. You were too spineless to even say what you really wanted to, which I suppose is also a bonus. People like you are ugly on the inside, making your outsides just as ugly. Ever thought the public don't want to look at ugly people like yourself?

Have a day off. Cretin.

Did you need to remortgage your house for the pic n mix

I think facts and emotion often get combined when speaking about a topic such as this.

Taking emotion out of it, yes people are far larger than they have been. Yes we have a bigger obesity problem than the rest of Europe. No there is zero shock factor to this, have you been living on a cave?

Why is this?

Many reasons. Cost of living. It’s far cheaper to buy processed foods which make up a meal, than fresh ingredients. People need to eat. Sometimes they simply don’t have the luxury of selecting what. In this scenario more should be done to either make food cheaper (won’t be happening for some time), or make processed food healthier. This also comes with a cost so it’s a lose lose situation. This is also why statistically, those in less affluent areas have a higher chance of being overweight.

We also work very different hours to much of Europe. Many Europeans have longer lunches than us. Schools here seem to rush children to shovel their food down within 10/15 minutes, this will create habits later in life. We also have a naturally very different diet, lot more carb heavy as root veg is historically what we have grown well due to weather conditions as well as the nature of the work we did.

We cook less from scratch both due to cost of ingredients and time…but also knowledge. Adults now are often the generation who got meat and 2 veg. They also got introduced to convenience food which has got routinely more unhealthy. Many often simply don’t know how to cook. Cooking lessons on a budget aren’t something taught in schools.

Throw that in with the fact we are ‘moving less’, again for various reasons - long working hours, and for children’s accessibility to sport - once again due to cost, there will naturally be weight problems. It’s very sad that children cannot easily access extra curricular sports now without significant money paid out by parents.

Therefore yes statistically we are much larger and following inline with America. We eat far more processed foods, we have less money and we are moving less. That’s all factual.

Emotionally I don’t think this solely relies on parents at all. The government could be doing a lot more to make all of this accessible (not speaking about Labour, all governments. It’s not been a focus for years). Therefore, no, I don’t think you should be either shocked nor judging anyone. We’ve been heading this way for years. Better people have self confidence than have shame due to their size.

I completely agree. I live by the seaside so in the winter it’s just locals and most of us (pre ozempic) were a bunch of fat mfs. In the summer a lot of out of towners come down and I must admit they’d remind me that I’m not as good looking as I thought I was 😂

I just don't believe a word you said.

I was there too! Great show wasn't it! Shania at 60 in those boots wow 😂 so impressive

anyway yes I was shocked as well at the amount of overweight young women. Sorry but I was. I didn't comment or stare or anything (I'm only judgy in my head)

a pp said it's because there were thousands and thousands of us all crammed in and so we saw it up close. Nothing to do with Harry!

I had the chicken and chips it was great although we shared (a mumsnet favourite)

and!!! We had some pick and mix as well if anyone is interested 😂

Took dd to Lana del rey at Wembley and I didn’t see many overweight teens. Similar age group. Maybe it’s Harry styles fans 😂

I live In the Cotswolds and I can say there is not one obese/overweight child in my children’s school. Also very few overweight parents, however everyone lives a very outdoor life and there is sport 3-4 afternoons a week at school plus Saturday matches. There is also outdoor ed and farming ed, so that teaches an understanding of food and where it comes from. We also couldn’t get a takeaway if we tried, it just doesn’t exists where we are.
i also find it interesting when I need to head into a city the difference I see with people’s weight and eating habits versus what I see where I live.

@LostInTheDream not sure what’s disordered about taking GLPs as a 10-12 to be honest. GLPs enable people to more easily eat a balanced, healthy diet and not become overweight. Whether there is an element of vanity feels irrelevant, if it’s a drug that helps people stay in a healthy weight range I don’t know why we’d view it different to other drugs that enable people to stay within healthy ranges such as blood pressure medication.

Weight comes down to genetics and lifestyle choices. One you can control and the other you can't 🤷‍♀️ A weight one person can contol almost effortlessly will be a lifetime battle for another (irrespective of the current number on the scale).

When you really know people you realise that there is sometimes quite disordered eating going on to maintain weight. Hearing people who are a size 10-12 taking about GLP1's etc.

Comparisons between teens at state and grammar schools are interesting. Primary food options at state level are ok imo but once you get to secondary it's a different story. It's burger, chips, pizza, panini's, doughnuts . Bacon and sausage buttys in the morning. And it's all free choice with very few healthy ones in the mix. It's not changed from when I was at school when it was pizza chips and beans every single day (I think they had a very small number of jacket potatoes and salads which the staff tended to get as they could go straight to the front). In contrast, my DS went to an event at one of the private schools and said the lunch was the most amazing thing ever and sounded quite healthy and fresh.

What I have have also noticed is that most of the viral food trends are ridiculous. Loaded burgers and milkshakes, huge american XL portions etc. My teen would also feel like he wasn't welcome in a lot of cafes serving ordinary healthy things and will opt for big fast food chains because they aren't so worried by having teens in so he tends to frequent KFC, McD's, Greggs etc. I have suggested to him that if he is polite and respectful he may be surprised, but honestly I'm not too sure he's wrong in some cases and there are ND safe food requirements in his group. What I have found personally is the choices you make in your teens tend to set your path for life when it comes to weight.

If you've never been overweight, it's easy to be judgemental and make assumptions about what people are/aren't doing for their health and what barriers they might have (money, ND, genetics, health, injury, time, education). These threads always come across as quite sneery tbh.

Not sure how it relates to Harry Styles,

I think , but could be wrong ,that using Harry Styles concert as a reference was because op saw thousands of people in one are at the same time and was able to make observations about their rough age bracket, weight and style.

I do think being bigger has become normal to the extent that slimmer people are often thought to be underweight. I'm a size 8 and 5"2. Apart from a very stressful time at uni where I didn't eat properly, I've always had a healthy BMI, and yet I've had people tell me that I'm too skinny or underweight. I put this down to the average size having gone up as much as it has. I have been a size 8 since I was about 16. I still have the occasional item of clothing from then, which still fits me, so I know I'm not the one who has changed. In a lot of shops now, I struggle to find clothes that aren't too big for me. If they go down to an 8, the 8 doesn't fit. I've even had shops that go down to a 6 and that's been too big, so big I question if a 4 would also be too big. I understand the need to provide bigger sizing, but why make an 8 what would have been a 10 15 years ago.

As a chubby young adult I lived in a nice area of London and people were very slim. I lost weight because I worked in an office with skinny ladies and realised for the first time in my life that it wasn’t normal to eat constantly.

I have now moved to the midlands and am shocked at how overweight people are. The women are all so round and no one seems to think it’s bad that a lot of the children are as well. A lot of the children’s clubs still have tuck shops and children always seem to be drinking full sugar cans of coke. Healthy eating doesn’t seem to really exist.

Definitely. I'm about a UK 12 or 14 depending on brand. At home I feel, not slim, but in okay shape. Here in Tokyo? I can't even get clothes in some shops. I used to do a baby movement class in a room with full length mirrors and would feel massive compared to the other mums, which I never felt in group exercise classes in London.

So there is that for sure. But to me, there is 'body confident' and then there's people wearing things they really don't need to be wearing.

So is the thread about the demographics of weight in the UK or about shaming people? You started out with one thing and have now transitioned to judging young women for not being ashamed enough to hide their fat from your field of vision and, I guess, offending your aesthetic sensibilities.

The whole thing seems pretty disingenuous. Was it the first time you'd left your neighbourhood?

I get your general point, but your logic is flawed because people will have travelled from all over to attend the concert so you couldn’t possibly make a link between obesity and geographical area.
Being overweight is obviously on the rise overall and I’m sure there is a link between obesity and social deprivation so you might well find it’s more prevalent in certain areas.
People in lower socioeconomic groups may find it harder to afford a varied diet (although some on here will say ‘oh but it only costs 28p for a bag of wonky veg and some chickpeas for a curry for feed a family of 9- what do you mean you don’t have curry powder, cumin, garamasala and lazy garlic in your store cupboard and grow coriander in your garden?), are more likely to be suffering from mental and physical health issues that can contribute towards obesity and are less likely to have access to good quality public amenities that promote exercise such as safe, clean parks and leisure centres.

There are lots of 'poorer' people on WLIs - they're not an indicator of wealth and the great thing is, as more generics become available, prices will continue falling so that everyone can access these drugs and have the choice on what size they want to be. Fantastic!

You can look at overweight and obesity stats by each authority in the UK - https://www.ons.gov.uk/explore-local-statistics/indicators/adult-obesity-prevalence

So, what actually is the point of the OP?

Is it that poorer people tend to be fatter than richer people? (which is ‘no shit, Sherlock’ in this country - but quite the opposite in many other parts of the world).

Or is it that fat women shouldn’t wear revealing clothes?

Or that nobody should wear revealing clothes? (but especially not fat women!)

Or that lots of people aren’t stylish enough in your oh-so-important opinion?

Or that Wembley Stadium should serve a few quinoa salads alongside chips and doughnuts?

OR

Are you just enjoying your anonymous little dig behind your screen at lots of other women (and girls) being free and having fun, like we aren’t judged and castigated enough for the way we look and dress by the rest of the world all the time?

I was there last night.

I thought the atmosphere was amazing. Women of all ages and sizes dressed up to the nines, lots of silly costumes and everyone having a great time. It seemed such a sharp contrast to when I was a teenager and Kate Winslet and Geri Halliwell were being called fat.

No it's doesn't, it's 30% where I live it's 15%.

I think some of it is the constant fake reassurances and lies we feed to teen girls. The presumption that they are all delicate flowers on the verge of a mental health crisis. I'm not suggesting anyone should fat shame anyone but advice on how to dress for your body shape would help. When they are shopping or considering clothing someone is always telling them they look amazing. They are constantly reassured that they are not actually as big as they think they are to the point of almost being gaslighted. So a 14yr old sees massive wobbly thighs in the mirror and everyone around her convinces her that it's only her imagination and she has in fact got beautiful legs and should indeed wear the tiny shorts to show them off. And so she convinces herself that her own sight and thoughts are actually delusional and everyone else speaks the truth.