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.

the fat couple i noticed werent swimming in the sea, they were eating fish and chips on the beach!

i blame the takeaway culture

I went to a carvery place last week for the 50 percent Eat out to Help out. There were two families by us who were both obese. Children between 3 and 8, all obese. Plates piled high, starters desserts, refillable drinks again and again.

We are greedy as a society. There's no portion control and fast food is cheap and easy

I am overweight, but have worked to ensure my children generally eat well and exercise (as my own family had strange ideas when it came to food).

A family member was addicted to food. She had bariatric? surgery, part of her stomach removed, and lost stones.
Now she's an alcoholic. The addiction manifested elsewhere.

It's a complex issue and I'm not sure how to fix it.

@Foodroofandfamily so Blame everybody except the individual? It’s incredible the number of external influences you packed into your reply without any reference to the fact responsibility ultimately lies with the individual. The individual is the only person who can directly influence their weight and what they put into their body.

It’s not the government’s job to police what individuals eat and how much exercise they take.

People need to go back to eating real food.
Sometimes we don’t have time to prepare meals from basic ingredients and it’s easier to get some fast food or put frozen processed food in the oven. But that’s ruining everyone’s health.
Fast food and frozen easy food are mostly based on cheap carbs and fat which is the best combination for taste, but the worst for health.
As well as being high in calories, it’s so low in actual vitamins.
We need to switch to basing meals on protein and veg, and smaller amounts of carbs and using real food for most meals.
So many people are eating hardly any veg these days.

@CrowdedHouseinQuarantine You have to eat fish and chips at the seaside , its the law !

Campaign for free gyms with a creche.

You don't need a gym to achieve a basic level of fitness. There is much you can do in your own home or garden (if you have one)

Cheaper fruit and vegetables.

Sorry, but in season fruit and vegetables are some of the cheapest things in the supermarket.

Cookery classes.

You tube

Accessible healthy convenience food.

Oranges, apples, bananas, nutritious soups?

Better/any mental health provision.

Yep, agree with this.

[quote frumpety]@CrowdedHouseinQuarantine You have to eat fish and chips at the seaside , its the law ![/quote]
@frumpety
my dh and dd would absolutely agree with you, but I try and break that particular law

i blame the takeaway culture

I love a good curry, fish and chips or pizza as much as the next person. I just don't make them a cornerstone feature of my diet. I love cheese, but I know it is something indulge in now and again.

Totally agree with the OP but for me it goes further than that... I was in the city centre on Friday eve recently and there were groups of young men and women out and dressed up for nights out. A lot of the young women were wearing outfits that Kylie Minogue might wear and look stunning in...sadly these young ladies did not have her figure to carry it off - I'm sorry but why on earth would someone walk around very overweight with quite bad cellulite in hot pants? In other countries women tend to dress to show off assets and COVER UP less flattering areas... The men were the same - wearing tight t-shirts whether or not they had the bodies for it, showing off arse cracks...?

And then there's a whole cohort of people who take absolutely no pride in their appearance, students walking around in pyjamas, people wearing tracksuits for days on end... Don't get me wrong, I'm all for comfort and sympathise with people with mental health issues but there's something going wrong in this country. What has happened to personal pride in ones appearance?

@TeamWTF

grokles? Nice bit of othering there

Peak MN! 😂😂😂

'Othering'.

I'm on holiday in the West Country right now. And I'm therefore a Grockle. Were I in actual Cornwall, I'd be an Emmet.

😂😂😂

'Othering'. Whatever next.

As you were.

@frumpety
my dh and dd would absolutely agree with you, but I try and break that particular law

Shame on you and your anti-food of the Gods peccadillo @CrowdedHouseinQuarantine

@blue25

We need to do something about the amount of sugar in our food & drink. It’s toxic and is slowly poisoning so many people.

Please lay off of the drinks. I have type 1 diabetes and sometimes need something sweet to drink when I have a hypo. The rest of the time I drink water or tea without sugar, which should be normal. Just drink water, not every bloody drink during the day needs to be a sweet. You wouldn't eat 8 slices of cake during the day so don't drink 8 glasses of sweet.

Also, why does lunch have to be more than a ham sandwich? When has it become normal to have pasta for lunch? Or crisps? When did it become normal to drink alcohol (almost) every day?

I put on weight during lockdown (I rely on a stressful but enjoyable job and a long commute by public transport to keep the weight off normally). I decided to lose it, plus the stone I could have done with losing already. I looked at the apps out there and chose one called Noom (saw it recommended on here). It cost £99 for three months. I had to buy a cheap step tracking watch and a pair of scales. I have needed to buy a lot more fruit (to have something to reach for that's not a biscuit) and swap e.g. white pasta for wholemeal versions. Firstly, while I could have done this more cheaply, the app's main focus is on the psychology of eating. It makes a huge difference to think about WHY you are doing the things you do and tracking it all makes you accountable. Plus you need the luxury of time and headspace to think about it all. I don't think I could have done it while working full time/taking normal holidays/having access to normal shopping and snacking options. And I have only lost 5kg of the 20kg which is my goal. It's hard hard work. We should be studying the proportion of the population that isn't fat and copying them!

We are also on holiday in the UK and I thought the same yesterday whilst on the beach. I definitely think people who were already overweight or boarding overweight have put more on in lockdown. I am a healthy weight but have also put on.

There are certainly people who are overweight due to medical reasons but this does not explain the majority of people. Putting those with medical issues aside people I think overweight people definitely need to take personal responsibility. It can not all be societies fault or the governments responsibility.

I personally think the opportunity to eat badly is there too often. We had lunch at a cafe on the beach, the menu was filled with pizza, burgers, chips etc. A fridge full on fizzy drinks and a ship full of sweets. Do people really need this for lunch? I struggled to find anything healthy. I find this is the case with so many places, soft play, cinema, take aways, restaurants, motorway service stations. It's cheap and easy to eat and comes in massive portions. Buying healthy is expensive. Kids menus are all geared up to be chips with everything.

I think the government needs to

1- stop places like this selling such rubbish and we need a shift in the society thinking that these are the types of foods we need for lunch/dinner. Places that this should be selling salads, sandwiches and healthy options. Kids menus shouldn't all be pizza and chips.

2- raise the price of these foods so they become the expensive option not the quick, cheap option. Lower the price of fruit and veg.

3- stop more and more takeaways opening up, put clearer guidelines out on portion sizes that should be sold. So many people don't know what a fair portion size is- I didn't myself.

4- stop chocolate, sweets etc being at checkouts and so readily available everywhere. Why do bookshops, soft plays, petrol stations etc need to sell this? It is unnecessary and means you can pick it up without thinking anywhere. One thing that helped me loose weight was stopping buying this stuff at the supermarket so nothing like this was at home. if I wanted something sweet I had to make the extra effort to go and get it and I fold I wasn't that bothered to do that.

5- personally I think putting calories on menus would really help.

6- I hope that if we shift to working from home more permanently it will mean people have more time to exercise, don't pop to the shop for that unhealthy lunch at lunchtimes.

7- for time short people or people who struggle to make healthy meals, I think there should be investment in schemes and the price should be lowered on those companies that deliver the ingredients for healthy meals in a pack that come with menu cards. This could encourage those people to cook more, cook healthy and they can cook quickly. Plus it shows people what a decent portion size should be. I think once people have this guidance they are more likely to continue to make these meals them selves, have access to healthy ingredients and see what a portion size should look like.

Going on diets doesn't work most of the time, there needs to be a shift in mindset and lifestyle. People may comment that my ideas will lead to a nanny state but I think maybe we do need more of one to support these people with more handholding.

I am in the South West too - A LOT of overweight kids and adults on the beach.
Eating out I have noticed that most restaurants have chips as side dishes, all the kids meals are fish/chicken nuggets/burger/sausage with chips. No vegetables in sight. All the food is so unhealthy, eveb the mussels are served with a ton of chips! Depressing

I have a suspicion that the reason Boris is going so hard on the lose weight message right now, is to lay the groundwork for the dismantling of the nhs. If it is similar to the US, you will likely be required to pay a risk-based insurance payment. If you are overweight you are considered higher risk and pay more.
Government can turn round and say we told you so.
Maybe that's a bit far fetched but it's strange how there is a sudden focus on weight. People might say Covid, but you can't outrun this virus. People at higher risk are overweight, but the weight we are talking about can't be lost in a matter of months. You are more likely to catch Covid than lose 5stone by the next wave.
I've seen a massive increase in these fat people threads recently and guessing it also has something to do with the increased media/government focus. I agree British society in general has a food problem. It will be a very expensive one to fix. Treating diabetes costs a fortune.
If people want to save the nhs, massive funding is needed, it's been starved of money for so long. But no government can inject that amount of cash to solve the diabetes problem.
I think a lot of people will be in for a big shock if they introduce health insurance and calculate payments based on risk factors such as drinking, smoking, and BMI.

Whenever healthy food is mentioned on MN there are always snidey comments calling them 'the tofu and sushi brigade who wake up for their yoga and green tea".

All the while people are mocked for wanting to feed their children healthy ingredients, it creates a stigma against cooking from scratch and using primary ingredients.

Plus there are weekly threads on here about people's weird eating habits, which normalise eating a whole pack of Hobnobs or a family size pack of crisps in a loaf of bread slathered in mayonnaise in one sitting. And if anyone dares to ask if they think that's a good thing to do, they're told ODFOD for being spoilsports.

So it's pointless agonising about More should be done and why isn't the Hovernment doing more when the reality is people are free agents to do what they want, even if they know the facts it doesn't necessarily change their behaviour.

I agree! My son asked for a fried chicken meal for him and his friends when he had a birthday recently. I bought the meals, which were aimed as single meals. It seemed a huge amount of food so I looked it up and it was almost 1000 calories for one person!!! So getting takeaways to limit the calories in the meals targeted as one person meals would help. And not trying to get round it by making bigger things and using the word 'sharing' like in crisps and chocolate bars etc. Also, it's impossible to buy a sensible sized pizza for one person - the smallest ones would easily serve two.

When you look at old photographs you very rarely see overweight people, and Takeaways were also rare or not in existence!

I’m 65 and have battled weight all my life. I don’t take any medication, walk every day, not sedentary, all my vital signs are good. I’m currently a little overweight but have been up to 17 stone in the past (around menopause).

When I was 11 (in 1966) my mother decided that I was chubby (I wasn’t) and put me on a very restricted diet....when she decided that I was an acceptable size she baked me a cake to ‘celebrate’. This soon became a vicious circle which has lasted all my life. Every day is a tough battle of willpower over craving.

It’s so easy to judge people. It boosts your own self esteem and massages your sense of superiority. I know that I do it when I’m in a lower weight phase..it’s human nature sadly but it doesn’t make you a better person.

I don’t Know what the answer is but I do know what it isn’t; it isn’t the diet industry which has a vested interest in keeping the cycle going. I was asked to leave Weight Watchers when I repeatedly questioned the hard sell of their ‘diet food’ of various ‘chocolate bars’ and ‘crisps’ at every meeting.

The only thing that works for me now is plenty of exercise, 1400 calories a day and keeping sugar to a minimum......and it’s bloody hard. The other thing that is hard is dealing with all the people that want to feed you....and get offended/upset when you decline.

Sorry, rambled on far too long! But to those of you who dismissively say it’s simple..you are so very wrong, to those who sneer at fat people trying to exercise..you are part of the problem... I used to ride a bike until I got mocked one too many times..just don’t do it, other people’s efforts to improve themselves are not your business.

It’s not “chucking in class and wealth” to muddy the waters though, class and inequality are absolutely central to this. In normal times I work in a professional job, have middle class university educated friends and family, live in a fairly affluent area, my office is next to 2 universities - and at a size 18 I’m the fattest person I know or encounter on a day to day basis by miles. If I lived 2 miles away and had a different social circle my size would be more likely to be the norm.

@Trashtara

If it were that simple why wouldn’t all the people who have dieted in their lifetime lost weight and sustained that weight loss?

Because simple and easy are not one and the same. Weight loss is simple. It is not easy.

Weight loss is only simple if the diet advice is accurate. Then it’s easy to stick to as you’re not hungry all the time and your cravings are gone.

I agree. Being overweight is now normal so most people don’t think to themselves as fat, just that they could do with losing a few pounds. And because parents are overweight, their perception of normal is skewed. Both in terms of what a ‘normal’ diet is and what ‘normal’ children look like. My DB is overweight, and he described his DD7 as a ‘skinny minnie’ when she already had the beginnings of a tummy/a bit podgy. And he says that the children inherit their genes, but they eat coco pops for breakfast, there are packs of Mr Kipling in the cupboard and fizzy drinks in the fridge as normal. Just cut out the crap.

I do think the food industry is like smoking and giving children that sweet processed crap on a daily basis is as bad as giving them fags.

The only thing that works for me now is plenty of exercise, 1400 calories a day and keeping sugar to a minimum......and it’s bloody hard. The other thing that is hard is dealing with all the people that want to feed you....and get offended/upset when you decline.

I agree. This is my technique too, but lately every visit to friends seems to accompany offers of food and alcohol and an offended look if I say I'm being careful/off booze etc!

You have to eat fish and chips at the seaside , its the law !

Also the law to have ice cream at the theatre, popcorn at the cinema, chocolate eggs at Easter, cake for a birthday, alcohol on a night out, chocolate coins and more than one massive meal at Christmas, roast potatoes on a Sunday, anything that anyone offers you at their house (especially if home made), chocolate when you are upset, party rings and haribo at children’s parties, sweets for children at the barber’s, sweets are rewards from teachers, even tasters at SlimmingWorld group, treats at Halloween, ice cream on holiday, crepes at the Christmas market, chocolate for Valentine’s Day, biscuits after church on Sundays, cakes when the school organises a cake sale and on and on.

Sugar and high fat food is engrained everywhere in our culture and you almost have to be rude to avoid it.

Unfortunately the only solution to the poor eating options in seaside resorts is to take your own food. We've been forced to pack a lot more picnics during lockdown. In my 70s childhood you had to do that anyway as there were a lot fewer options when out. You're more likely to eat lettuce when you've got it with you and you can start eating when you're hungry rather than bingeing. Takes time and planning though and staying somewhere self-catering.

A big chunk of these problems arise purely from affluence (relative to past generations and with a side order of eating out is much cheaper but the really beneficial things like secure housing are much more expensive).