Surprised at numbers of overweight adults - surely more needs to be done?

[OrangeSunset]

Fully prepared for this to be fairly controversial but here goes.

We’re on holiday in the South West. I am honestly shocked at the numbers of overweight adults on the beach today. I’d say at least 50% were overweight, across all age ranges. Really it was more like 70%. DH and I are ok but being harsh I’d say we could/should each lose 5kg and be more lean. It’s just miserable and I was shocked - even more so when you see overweight kids too as we all know that sets them up for a lifetime of weight issues.

I’m not sure what my point is, other than to say that Boris cutting some adverts just isn’t good enough. The prevalence of shit food is condemning people to an unhealthy life with medical issues and challenges that us as humans just shouldn’t be subjecting ourselves to.

How do we break this cycle? Anyone who points it is out is seen as judgemental but it’s gone beyond the point of individual choice surely - it doesn’t work and is ruining people’s lives and perpetuating the cycle.

[WorraLiberty]

@minnieok

If I could get a decent full time job I would have less time to snack! No chance at the moment unfortunately, 50 jobs and counting

You can't blame the unemployment market for your own body weight.

Besides, if you happen to be an office worker (no idea if you are) loads of Mumsnetters blame their weight on other people they work with because they 'keep bringing cakes and biscuits in for colleagues to share' 🤷‍♀️

[SkinnywannabeKBH]

I'm fat. I 100% hate being fat. I'm trying so hard at the moment to lose weight before my health starts to suffer. But I'm still fat. It is extremely difficult. I am a good enough cook, I try hard to cook from scratch most days and I eat a healthy lunch most days. My issue is snacking. Even on the days I don't have any food in my house to snack on, I'll find something. My husband could do with losing a stone maybe but he's always been pretty lean. His weight has crept up due to not playing football now. He can loose it just by stopping his snacking. Me on the other hand, I have at least 5st to loose and just cutting out snacks isn't enough for me. Our daughters are not fat and have no extra weight anywhere. I restrict snacking with them, they don't ever have sugary fizzy drinks, they get the odd diluting juice but mainly they drink water or milk. I hate that I'm so good with them but yet have no strength for me. I don't know how to get myself to a healthy weight anymore.

[feelingverylazytoday]

@DimidDavilby

Health and fitness are difficult to achieve and expensive.

Campaign for free gyms with a creche. Cheaper fruit and vegetables. Cookery classes. Accessible healthy convenience food. Better/any mental health provision.

There are many things which could be done to help if Johnson was actually serious rather than just window dressing.

Health and fitness doesn't have to be expensive.
Fruit and vegetables already are cheap in the UK. No one has to join a gym to get fit. Walking is free, there's plenty of workouts on youtube.

[Pieceofpurplesky]

So you not think, OP, that fat people know? Do you not think they sat on that beach knowing people like you were judging them? Do you not think they notice the looks and sniggers at the gym? Hear the insults from car windows??

If it was as easy as eat less and move more we would all be slim. If you have a time machine, OP, could you take me back to 17 and stop me from getting raped? Prevent me from a lifetime of self harm by over eating?

Yes, people are fat but maybe life is just hard for some.

[Gooseysgirl]

Sorry not NRTFT, but I spent the day on a beach recently and noticed very high numbers of overweight people and yes I was surprised. There was a child playing near us who was same age as my daughter and double her size

[Ploughingthrough]

Well it is not news op, it is a well publicised fact that many adults and children are overweight.
Yes something needs to be done, amd actually I think in most cases people need to take more accountability for their health and well being. but yet more mumsnet posts wont help anything.

[rainkeepsfallingdown]

Actually, I think part of the issue is the Government pushing exercise.

A lot of people are shit at sport and/or are still traumatised from their school days. But as the saying goes, 'you can't outrun your fork.' Exercise is good if you can do it, but the key to weight loss is actually nutrition. You exercise for health, you control your food for weight loss. They're not really interchangeable concepts.

You don't have to exercise to lose weight. People need to be made aware that they can regain control of their weight without having to wear lycra (which can feel like the worst thing ever if you're not happy with how you look).

People don't know how to cook and/or don't have time to cook. There needs to be more education around nutrition and how to cook reasonably healthily on a budget.

Education starts in schools, but for the adults who don't know how to feed themselves, we need fewer Masterchef programmes (where the nice food has loads of calories and is full of fat) and more programmes where healthy food is shown as within people's cooking abilities. Given the BBC is still funded by the taxpayer, that would be a good place to start.

Personally, I think WW is a load of overly complicated shit, but the Government could give away free subscriptions to weight loss programmes like that for anyone with a BMI of over, say, 28. So covering a bit overweight as well as obese. I think if you are very obese you can sometimes get access to these things through your GP, but they're not exactly easy to access.

More funding for tackling eating disorders would also be good. Part of our problem as a nation is a lack of nutrition knowledge, most of the rest of the problem is mental health related.

(There are some people who can't help putting on weight due to the medication they're on, but I'd suggest they are not the majority, and they have other health issues to focus on first.)

[MsTSwift]

It’s a perfect storm of factors all mixed together.

Prevalence of addictive cheap easily available shit food.
Move less due to internet especially kids.
Stress of modern life leads to comfort eating.

I had a medical and bmi got to 27. I lost 2 stone in 4 months and have kept it off. My eyes have been opened at how little I actually need to eat.

Drastic action needs to be taken it’s gone beyond tinkering. Personally found the nhs advice was utterly wrong. I intermittent fast which could help some people works for me as I eat the food I like but in a shorter window and less of it.

[Shesapunkpunk]

The U.K. is in such trouble with regard to obesity. I was recently in Norway and I was honestly the fattest person I saw the whole week (I am size 12/14- but fat not trim) I have also experienced this in Germany, Iceland, Finland and the Netherlands. On the back of my anecdata, I am actually quite concerned.

[SheepandCow]

We all need to take up smoking again. Hand out the valium too.

People need some form of stress relieving treat. Since the options above decreased, people have turned to food.

Alternatively we could ensure everyone had access to decent housing, good working condition with fair pay, and prompt effective healthcare.

[daytripper28]

Sugar is addictive. And there are so many different ways to eat it. There is so much choice and advertising of junk food it'sI surprising that only half the population is overweight.

The sugar driven industries are profitable, and the powers that be all love money too.


Years ago there were like 4 breakfast cereals to choose from (if that). Now there are whole aisles devoted to breakfast cereals. And people don't even think of that as sugar - yup - it is.

Likewise biscuits etc

Likewise crisps.... so many different flavours and choices. When eaten crisps breakdown into sugar...

Even diabetics are invited to carry on eating biscuits in NHS hospitals now and have puddings etc. (Type 2 diabetics).

People will eventually wake up and realise that Dr Jason Fung knows what he's on about. For those who don't know he is a Canadian nephrologist who wrote The Diabetes Code

[BonfireStarter]

I think taxing junk food would help, at least the extra taxes could be used to help the NHS.

I'm overweight, tbh there are a lot of bullshit excuses on here. No one is compelled to use a takeaway, no one stuffs junk food in peoples mouths. I think it has to be a personal responsibility, like smoking - choose to be fat and you will likely have worse health and die younger.

[Trashtara]

It's the kids I feel sorry for. Pre-lockdown I was a spectator at a gymnastics competition and despite these kids (4-16) being some of the fittest in the country- some train 4 or 5 times a week at least 1/3 very obviously overweight, I'd hazard a guess that a fair few were obese.

If gymnasts are overweight what hope is there for your average child?

At least with adults it is within their control. I appreciate it isn't easy, I'm overweight myself BUT it's my fault.

[bumblingbovine49]

@Kaiserin

people have personal responsibility and self control. They’re just choosing not to use it and until they can help themselves nobody can help them.

This is a simplistic outlook which chooses to ignore that

• in some countries, obesity isn't such a problem
• a few decades ago, obesity wasn't such a problem either

So what happened? What changed?
Did entire populations magically start losing personal responsibility and self-control? Sounds preposterous (even if these qualities have been lost, which isn't a given, the cause cannot have been magical, it was material)

So obviously, there are external factors at play. If they can be clearly identified, then they can probably be reversed too.
Yes, something can be done. We just need to work out what.

Maybe the real question here is "Why hasn't this happened yet?"
(and perhaps "Who may have a vested interest in the root causes of this obesity pandemic not being identified and addressed?")

This.

People.who talk only about personal too responsibility in that infuriating and smug way when talking about.obesity have absolutely no critical thinking skills

Every country in the world seems to get fatter as they get more industrialised and richer. The observational evidence (and we have lots of that now) is that the majority of human bodies react psychologically and physically to a particular environment by gaining weight. Not all many do.

Do people really believe that this is moral failing of some sort? That is so patently not the case that I despair of the human race sometimes. Until we can understand that our economic and social system of living is broken we are all fucked.

Covid and obesity are both results of this ' economy' is king '. Profit above all else , I'm alright Jack mentality.
While it is economically more ' efficient' to mass produce nutritionally empty foods in large factories in order to provide profit and employment . Advertising of these foods also provides employment and profit. It is risible to say that ' introducing the ideas of class and wealth into the discussion of obesity are a distraction.' . On a personal level that may be true to a limited extent but on a population level it is the core of the problem.

In my opinion obesity on a national level is absolutely caused by the environment. Some people are more affected by the environment than others because of their genetic response. That won't change and people will stay fat unless we change the environment and that included changing how we measure a successful society .

Unfortunately seeing how we have reacted to covid which has posted similar ( though more immediate) challenges, I am no longer hopeful things can change.

[SheepandCow]

Quality of life is as important (if not more) than longevity. Burden on the NHS? If they die younger they'll be savings on social care or pension costs.

If someone has a shit life - traumatic experiences, or relentless grinding poverty, for example - why would they want to live longer? I refuse to believe it's a coincidence. The increase in obesity coinciding with the fall in smoking and sedative use. People need something to keep them going.

[FancyARoot]

I think the whole ‘big is beautiful’ movement was a big turning point. It became celebrated to be overweight.

[jalopy]

There seems to be a public perception that it's the government's & NHS's responsibility to 'parent' them through life.

[Somanysocks]

Until individuals stop making excuses and blaming everything and everyone else for their greed and laziness nothing will change.

There will always be medical exceptions but we all need to take personal responsibility for our own lives and diets.

[SheepandCow]

I also think it's interesting seeing how heavily modern antidepressants, which can cause weight gain, are pushed. Not just for depression but for anxiety, menopause (instead of HRT), and often to fob off patients who have real physical illnesses, because it's cheaper (upfront) to dismiss patients instead of paying for scans or other investigative treatments.

Now there's a push to prescribe them instead of effective pain relief. It's a worrying direction. Many chronic pain patients are mobility restricted and less able to exercise. The last thing they need is a medication strongly linked to weight gain.

[popcornlover]

It’s because people have too much of a good life nowadays. They don’t have to save in order to have a food treat; they can have ten treats a day if they want. They don’t have to do as much physical labour around the house. They think they’re deserving of every cream bun they stuff into they’re mouth because society tells them “be nice to yourself, you’re number one.” People nowadays are too scared to comment on people’s fat bodies, whereas a few decades ago they would tell it like it was, and that was a good incentive not to get fat.

[justanotherneighinparadise]

Processed foods are made to be highly palatable and thus are overeaten and the body craves more. They work on the dopamine circuits in the brain in a very similar way to illegal substances.

The only way to break the cycle is to cut them out and eat food that doesnt cause the body to release insulin across the day. The science is there. We KNOW why humans have got fat enmasse and it’s nothing to do with willpower. We’ve slept walked into allowed food manufacturers and takeaway shops to dictate our nutrition.

People used to buy meat and vegetables and eggs and go home, prepare a meal and eat them. No longer. Everything’s in brightly coloured packaging and whereas water used to be the go to drink, now I see kids walking around slurping out of 2L bottles of coke (where did all the cans go?!!!!).

[KatherineJaneway]

We were all told obesity is a risk factor and then I walk into sainsburys and see a mountain of discounted chocolate in front of me ffs

You don't have to buy it though and, even if you do choose to purchase some, you don't have to eat it all at once.

The diet industry - diets only work for the companies selling them. They work for a bit, are unsustainable, people put the weight back on (often with a bit more) and then they try another diet and the cycle goes on and on.

The diet industry thrives as people are looking for some magical answer as to how to lose weight quickly. When changes to lifestyle have to be permanent, not temporary once the excess weight is lost. Most people fall back into how they ate before and the weight piles back on.

[chatterbugmegastar]

When someone finds the holy grail answer please let me now because fucked if I do

You just have to eat a calorie deficit

It isn't necessarily easy or pleasant if you're used to eating lots of food

But it works every time (unless you have a medical problem which needs balancing before you can lose weight)

[justanotherneighinparadise]

There is a magical answer to lose weight quickly and keep it off. It’s called eating real food that grows on stuff and has roots and refuse to feed into the processed bullshit. If you see the junk food producers as drug pedlars it gets easier.

I’m hoping in the future that continuous glucose monitors will become more common place and people can see how their way of eating is spiking their fat storage hormone across the day like a lab rat. If you knew the effect on your body that a bloody banana has there is no way in hell you’d be scoffing down a bag of M&Ms.

[chatterbugmegastar]

I'm fat and tbh it's not life ruining as people seem to like to believe.

It will be when you get one of the illnesses linked to being fat