Everyone is so thin?!

[weeducky]

On holiday at the moment. I swear that a good 80% of the women here with their kids are very very slim with flat stomachs, walking around confidently in low waisted bikinis. I thought the average was a size 14, but I'm not seeing it at all! I'm a 10- bit of a tummy from pregnancies and wouldn't wear a bikini because of stretch marks and honestly I'm feeling quite the chubby one here! Does everyone just diet for holiday or something or am I at some highly unusual resort? It's nowhere particularly fancy, just a standard TUI resort in Europe.

As a country we have an addiction to cheap processed carbs and sugar..

Nowhere else in the world is refined processed carbs (white bread) laden with a tin of sugar (baked beans) considered a meal 😁

The "poor" people around here order McDonalds from Ubereats at 11 at night because they can't be arsed driving down to the place..

Blossom Hill wine from Coop galore!

The vast majority of people are overweight. Almost everybody eats too much. It’s kind of disgusting, actually.

Look at film footage from the 1940s and 1950s, especially of soldiers bathing or people jumping in the sea. The first thing that strikes you is how thin everybody looks. But they’re not thin. They’re normal size. They only look thin to us because we’re all overweight.

can't afford day out/after school activity but can a bar of chocolate or fizzy drink I think this idea is mention in Road to Wigan Pier

When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let's have three pennorth of chips! Run out and buy us a twopenny ice-cream! Put the kettle on and we'll all have a nice cup of tea!

2 punnets of grapes are 2 for £3 in Morrisons, whereas a pack of custard creams is about 40p. 4 choc bars are £1.25. I know there are cheaper fruits and veg, that was just an example, but I can see why people with less money buy foods that are cheaper and will go further.

Exactly - we've had times when every penny counts and fruit was limited and DH and I didn't eat it so kids had it and 40p pack of custard creams were useful- for us it was usually temporary end of month unexpected bill and they still ate well with frozen veg in main meal.

Even in poor areas not everyone is massively overweight - there are always exceptions it's just much more common.

Yep. And back under the rug it goes!

@MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake oh, well done.

I’m thinking back to the post by the exasperated GP when I say this. It’s shocking how many people in the UK don’t take an active part in managing their health.

Living in the US I have an annual check up and it was a real problem that I was overweight multiple years in a row. I was sent to the hospital weight loss group where they figured out I was overeating and binge eating due to anxiety. They had a therapy team that helped me figure it out. I’m now managing to keep to a lower weight which is ‘overweight’ but I’m always going to have that fight. I also had access to a dietitian who made it damn clear that I need 50% of my plate to be vegetables at every meal. I follow this and it’s made a huge difference. Lentils, potatoes and smoothies don’t count according to them and that has served me well.

A lot of people in the UK quietly watch their health and that includes their weight. A lot of nicer clothes store don’t go above a 16 and they have the highest quantity in the 10/12 range.

We recently had a beach holiday in an area of Greece mainly frequented by Greek families (very few other brits there) I was comforted that my more curvy/pear shaped body fitted in, and also how relaxed women were about wearing very tiny swimwear. They were all beautifully tanned though. It's really nice if you can reach a stage where you feel that really, no one is looking at or comparing me. I think we Brits are hyperaware of weight so notice body shapes around us far more (whether we are slim or not)

I think there is something about build in different countries. I am 5ft 8 and have always been 'slim' but I definitely have hips so when I was slimmer I looked quite underweight (hip bones etc). I think on a beach you look at people and think 'I will never look like that'. And that's ok.

I spent too many years being self conscious so I now go to the beach and wear a bikini and enjoy it without caring if people are looking at me.

Yes to this! When I have been in France, Spain, Italy etc everyone (who isn’t British) is SO much thinner. It’s really really noticeable. The only fat people are Brits & the odd German.
Whenever people make excuses about mental heath, medical issues, whatever, that makes them fat, I often think ‘why aren’t they all fat in France then?’
We are a nation of fatties. It’s fact. I wish people would stop making millions of excuses about it & trying to justify it (& the massive MASSIVE burden to the nhs & taxpayers) & perhaps just eat a bit less.

I think it's an anomaly. Whenever I go on holiday, I see a lot of women much bigger than me with the confidence to rock a bikini.

I'm going on holiday on Saturday and I've been dieting for this. Lost half a stone but I am still a size 12 and will wear my swimming costume (not a bikini).

😂

Slightly off topic but I would be considered slim (5ft 4 and 8 stone, size 8, small frame) yet really hate wearing shorts, exposing my body, always have my legs covered up. It's not just about appearing attractive, slim etc it's how we feel inside. But it's mainly due to me being so pasty I look like a cloud if I strip off! Can't be bothered with fake tan. So I've decided I'm just going to go for it and buy some shorts for next season. Life's too short! p.s I actually love seeing women embrace their bodies in swimwear on the beach no matter what size.

I’m 5’5” and weigh 8 and a half stone, dress size 8-10. In the UK I feel slim but here in Geneva I am average compared to other women. People here eat really well and are soooo active

I agree. Depends where you go though, sometimes you see lots of slim people another beaches you go everyone seems to be very large.

I was at the park at the weekend and was thinking the exact opposite. Lots of very obese mums sitting together on benches far away from the children while they play.

There was one family I used to see when I was dog walking where the much slimmer dad would run around with the kids and his extremely obese wife would just be sprawled out on a bench watching from afar, just made me sad for her and the kids.

Lots of European countries have a different attitude to weight and different lifestyles especially the French.

No one is looking at your stretch marks, please wear what you want. When you're old and wrinkly, you'll wish you did!

People who can pay to go on holiday can also pay for fitness classes and liposuction. I’ve also found that thinner women were often brought up doing ballet or similar.

I wish I could afford liposuction!

Maybe it's true about ballet. I wanted to try as a child and my mum said I didn't have the right figure for it (bit stocky, never overweight as a kid). She was prob right.

Liposuction can look bad once you know how to notice it and gets messy if you regain weight. I’d avoid it even if you could afford it.

As for ballet, there are many adult beginner classes around these days, as well as video classes online. Doesn’t matter if you have the “right” body or not.

We went to a French campsite this year and 90% of the guests were French or German - I agree, nearly all the women were slim (even older women) - no bigger than a 14. The men too.
I’m on the smaller side at home but felt a bit big there!
DS (7) is classed as very skinny at home but most boys were his shape.

DH & I were talking about this whilst away and came to the conclusion that they don’t snack so much and have a proper meat & veg meal most evenings which is filling and stops cravings for crap food. Also there’s far fewer fast food restaurants.

Why ARE we such a fat country though? What makes us different to France etc? I’m really interested.

I found that when I went to a more middle class resort people were slimmer at the resort but on the beach you get all sorts of shapes and sizes, as long as there is a mixture of ages as well. I'm a size 14, 46, 5'7" a bit overweight but hour glass shape and fit and there are always plenty of people who look a good deal fatter and older, spottier, hairier than me and don't care, so why should I cover up?

I tend think France goes the other way too much and are fucking obsessed with women in particular being thin and not being fit, strong or sporty. Every window in every chemist was on about cellulite treatment and slimming tablets and that sort of thing. I was a size 10-12 (25 years ago) in the UK when I was there and BMI 22, ran and went to the gym regularly and was made to feel like a massive tall barbarian with big feet (size 6.5 UK by the way) when I went clothes or shoe shopping. Particularly underwear, they only had like size 28 - 30 bras and AA, A and B cup in department store and the assistants had to go and find bras in the store room to fit my gigantic (fairly modest) C cup breasts. People in the gym would tut and openly make comments about my solid thighs and were aghast that I used weights.

Many women (men don't give a toss) are very self conscious about their bodies. Especially in the UK neck of the woods, so there is a reluctance to bare the belly just in case someone might comment. They don't.

It is a confidence thing I think. Those who bare all no matter what size they are don't care what anyone else thinks, and those who have lithe slim figures like to show them off. Why wouldn't you?

I'm of the "hide the bumps and lumps" variety, and avoid beaches like the plague. I have lots of lumps and bumps and varicose veins so I feel it is unfair to show that to strangers (lol). I'm 5.6 and 67 kilos. Not bad at all, and I will never go on the diet cycle, but seriously we all know what crap to avoid, and to keep moving where possible.