No old overweight people at today's vaccine clinic

[balzamico]

I volunteer at a local vaccination centre. Today most of the recipients were over 70 having their second dose and it struck me that none of them were overweight.
Some were much fitter and more able than others but they were all slim (there were 300 through so it was a large sample).

My question is: is this the post war generation (most dob were 1940s) or simply that they are the ones that make it to their 70s?

Am slightly alarmed by this observation as dh is and always has been obese

My DDad is late 70s and obese. He talks a lot about slimming down and not eating fattening food, but he has been fat for over 40 years.

@picklemewalnuts

Smiley Slimming world claim that smoking, obesity and inactivity each reduce your life expectancy by 6%. I find the different treatment of each category interesting.

Smoker? Here, have free treatment and support to help you quit.
Obese? Limited support depending on your region.

We're encouraged to be more active, but there's not a huge organised campaign about it, as there is smoking.

Sadly, this is the case. I have a friend who is a doctor. Her speciality is diabetes. She has said many times that there is simply not enough funding in the NHS to support people with weight issues. She even said that she thought that most of her overweight patients could be classed as having an eating disorder.

there's not a huge organised campaign about it, as there is smoking
Well that would be quite difficult, seeing as even discussing obesity leads to claims of fat shaming. Any attempts to regulate the food industry seems to lead to opposition.
I think ultimately weight control does come down to individual choices and lifestyle factors, more so than smoking. The government can make smoking very difficult to carry on with (increasing prices, smoking bans, etc etc) but it's difficult to see how they can put a stop to people eating too many calories.
Re older people and obesity, I think it's a case of age related and obesity related risks combining so there probably are fewer obese people in their late 70s onwards.

Many of the very overweight people I see in my area are younger, often in their thirties. I don't know how typical that is.

Both my grandmothers (80S and 90s) and one of my grandfathers are overweight. My parents and none of my siblings are, everyone is slim.

Maybe we’re against the grain? But their diets have all been awful! Mind you, they’re doing pretty well to reach such ages...

I think people don’t even recognise when someone is overweight anymore. My friend is overweight verging on obese and just doesn’t believe in BMI. I used to work in a specialty in nursing where 99% of the patients had got their condition because they were overweight I gave up telling them to lose weight as they were often in denial about their weight and became aggressive. I have a BMI of 24 and am constantly fighting to keep it down but my friends and family tell me I’m skinny where as in reality I’m nearly overweight. Our perception of normal has been lost.

All of my grandparents were ‘overweight’ until their 70s. Their digestion and eating habits changed as they got older and they were slim in their 70s and 80s.
It’s quite strange looking back at photos of them when they were younger!

It would be a biased sample as at that age people in the worst health are dying off after years of poor health and chronic conditions, and those in very poor health may be vacvinated in other settings.

Traditionally you had "middle age spread" the odd lb or two accululating gradually through the years especially as metabolism slows. Being slim through youth and becoming overweight in later life is not such a bad thing and far better than hitting the physical strain of obesity in youth. In older age as illnesses hit harder, that bit more physical reserve is beneficial for recovery.

Size is no reflection on qualities as a human being, but it does at a population level have a significant effect on public health. That's just medical reality.

Maybe because most of the obese people have died off in their 50s and 60s?

My grandma was obese and lived to be 91!

My grandma is 89. She wasn’t overweight before lockdown but is now. She used to walk into the village and back every day but had to stop and have a rest on a bench/at the library etc... when everything was closed she had to stop going as there was nowhere to have her regular rests. So pre lockdown she was slim and agile, now she’s overweight and lost the majority of her mobility.
I do know a fair number of overweight elderly people though.

ive worked in care there are absolutely obese old people in care homes, there are also very slim and average people. old people tend to eat less generally though.

@Marguerite2000

there's not a huge organised campaign about it, as there is smoking Well that would be quite difficult, seeing as even discussing obesity leads to claims of fat shaming. Any attempts to regulate the food industry seems to lead to opposition. I think ultimately weight control does come down to individual choices and lifestyle factors, more so than smoking. The government can make smoking very difficult to carry on with (increasing prices, smoking bans, etc etc) but it's difficult to see how they can put a stop to people eating too many calories. Re older people and obesity, I think it's a case of age related and obesity related risks combining so there probably are fewer obese people in their late 70s onwards.

If you reread my post, Marguerite, I was talking about activity levels.

There is a huge amount of discussion about obesity- not a lot of support, but a lot of discussion. There is a huge amount of support for quitting smoking.

There is barely any discussion of inactivity.

As an aside on activity, MiL was active into her early 80s in a generalised walking up to the village way. Even pre-Covid, by Oct 19 when we last saw her, she'd dropped the routine. First she began pulling muscles easily. Then she'd had an illness that knocked her. She rallied, but then lost it again. This past year she has only left the house for medical appointments. I've only seen her on photos, but you can see the muscle wastage from photos and her clothes are hanging off.
It's not just the physical walking, it's the loss of first hand village gossip, not buying the paper, not taking time to read a different angle on a story in different detail to the TV news, not having the daily quizes. A huge amount of mental stimulation came from that bit of activity.

She's of a generation that were generally active through life being more manual. There wasn't much culture of formal exercise. Women have had their risk of osteoarthritis aggravated by a lack of weight bearing exercise, plus poor nutritional advice about dairy/ high fat in diets.

GPs have had schemes to "prescribe" gyms but they've been of limited benefit. Parkrun "referrals" have had better rates of success.

Exercise slots on daytime TV would be a good way to encourage an older audience to have bursts of exercise. There used to be a slot on TV am in the 80s. A few slots per day showing variations including chair based versions would be good for people who are more sedentary due to age or disability.

Purely anecdotally - all of my older relatives lost weight in old age. Both my grandmothers were overweight/obese in middle age but by the time they died were absolutely tiny. My grandfather has never been overweight but always muscular/well-built, and is now looking increasingly frail. I don't know if this is a general pattern but certainly seems to have happened in on both sides of my family.

I used to work in a care home. We had plenty of obese residents.

I suppose I was thinking more of the over 85s than the over 70s....

Once I got to 60 I looked around and realised that the older people I saw out and about enjoying life were, without exception, slim. The writing was on the wall and within 9 months I lost 4.5stone and that was two years ago and I've kept it off and I will keep it off. I don't want to be a burden on the NHS for preventable conditions and I don't want to live a miserable increasingly dependent life with sore and damaged joints, diabetes, etc etc etc etc

I volunteer at a gp vaccine centre and have noticed the same thing. Slim over 70s.

Being overweight or obese can considerably shorten lifespan unfortunately. That might be a factor in there not being many overweight over 70s.

I visit care homes professionally, most residents are within normal weight ranges @Neonprint. You do get the odd resident with a wider reinforced bed but these are in the minority. In the same vein I’ve not seen a polio survivor for years or a rheumatoid arthritis suffered for a while.

64% of uk adults are overweight now.

When my (normal mid size) 90 year old mother was in hospital for a heart stent, she was the oldest by some 30 years, and also the slimmest by some 15 stones. The ward was full of very obese 50/60 year olds, bed bound, wheezing, immobile, with bandaged legs, and walking sticks. It was actually horrifying.