Are people still getting 'fatter'?

[NiceSausage]

Or has it plateaued?
I've done a bit of mooching for studies but only find conflicting articles. I am used to hearing people say we are all getting fatter as time goes by, but wonder what the real stats are for this.

I then thought, since we are all more aware of nutrition that we used to be, with so much info available online, etc, it seems strange that we would be getting fatter if more and more of us are cutting out carbs, bread, sugars, sat fats and so on. If knee jerk articles are to be believed It seems as if the more we exclude the worse it gets?
Simple dietary moderation rarely creates a buzz, unlike exclusion diets and fads (at least in the popular media), but if any of these contemporary/popular diets work, surely we would all be getting thinner?

Or is it something else? I understand that there are obviously strong connections between unhealthy diets and poverty, but taking a good look around me both online and in real life, people across all social strata appear to be as concerned with dieting as ever.

Are there any good sources for info on this? The tabloids and media will always over hype such issues so I would appreciate some unbiased, up to date news, if possible.

Just because it’s average to be a size 16, does not mean it is normal or healthy
Average and normal DO mean roughly the same thing though, I know that in this instance you mean normal in the sense of healthy but normal can also mean 'the norm', aka 'what most people do'.
This blurring of meanings is what allows people to think/ pretend that it's healthy to be a size 16....
Most people are overweight = being overweight is normal = if it's normal and everyone does it it must be okay

For a tall woman e.g. 5'8 or 9+, size 16 may be healthy, just wanted to point that out. Yes, for someone who's five foot nothing it won't be.

Most dog walkers near me are obese like everybody else around here, I think people really kid themselves with it.

@Welshcakes1

Your grandfather was lucky, mine died slim, following several years of living with a double amputation and surviving in a wheel chair from refusal to give up the disgusting toxic habit of smoking.

I wonder how many slim posters arguing on here smoke to keep their weight down?

As well as food and movement changes to clothing are a factor. When we all wore tailored clothing every day we felt even a small weight gain. We couldn’t afford to replace school uniforms or workwear easily.

Not only is clothing relatively much cheaper and less durable but so much more is elasticated.

Often on threads about weight and height I struggle to work out how people can be 3 stone heavier than me but the same dress size. However, I can still pull on stretchy jeans and leggings from Sainsbury’s and Asda in a size 8 despite really being a large 12.

Often on threads about weight and height I struggle to work out how people can be 3 stone heavier than me but the same dress size. However, I can still pull on stretchy jeans and leggings from Sainsbury’s and Asda in a size 8 despite really being a large 12.

You have to count in their height as well as weight.

I wonder how many slim posters arguing on here smoke to keep their weight down?

People can be slim just by eating healthy and moving. There doesn't have to be anything else to it. It doesn't mean they smoke, diet, restrict entire food groups, or exercise excessively.

Losing weight is complex, I know. But sometimes I think it is made over-complicated too.

Certainly complex, but I don't really like the assumption that people who are slim are doing something crafty such as smoking or starving themselves. Generally, they are just living life and eating when needed is part of that.

Agree. Usually they just have different diets. Not starvation or denial. Just different.

They don't eat much that's what it is. I saw a mum walking her baby in the pram and alongside her was her husband and son. They were eating ice cream except for her obviously she didn't want to indulge with them.

They don't eat much that's what it is.

Or they eat less? Or they prefer to eat other things? Not everyone eats ice cream.

That's why I usually say I am the actual measurements for a 12 or 14 in shops, not that I'm really an 18 but squeezing some stretchy leggings on, clever clogs.

Obviously I don't know what they eat, but my friends who are also friends on Fitbit who are lean do about 30-40% more steps than me a week. They also don't do a full time sitting down job. I do what I can, about 90,000 steps a week and they do 120,000.

I'm not sure why there's lots of discussion, humans are evolutionary programmed to not waste time expending energy and eat high calorie foods. They wouldn't usually run for fun it was done to catch food it's why children stop running when they get older to stop wasting energy. Look at most mammal species its exactly the same and why animals in captivity are more prone to gaining weight. We are also programmed to prefer high calorie foods because that's what staved off starvation. Evolution hasn't caught up with a McDonald's drive thru on every corner.

I'm not sure what the answer is but it's not a morality thing we are a lazy species as are pretty much all mammals.

The problem is kind of time , I'm slim but I eat a ultra processed food if I'm working I leave at 6:30 and I don't get home until 8:30. I'm not peeling chopping at that time it will be convenient food or quick to prepare. Ibought a hello fresh box and omg the amount of chopping. I have to buy pre chopped veg to save on time it is more expensive though.

How we're evolutionary programmed is just one part of the discussion, it's only one factor that can help to explain why people may behave a certain way. We can't just look at the evolutionary basis for something and think that that's all there is to it, because it's not.
People try to say the same about men fancying 16 year olds for example...."most fertile, biologically programmed blah blah" yet some men would see them as children and are not ruled by that.

We can also override programming with our habits. Someone could have always conserved their energy and had no motivation to exercise, then they form a new exercise habit or eat healthier food and they love it and continue it.

As someone who is 5 ft 8, I'd be very overweight at a size 16 and also overweight at a size 14. I'm a size 12 and hardly skinny. Can definitely pinch an inch!

@BodegaSushi I actually agree with you having once been very skinny and now overweight I appreciate how we have to represent all sizes and shapes. I'm just saying it's not healthy just like people complain about too skinny models being unhealthy. I got bullied at school for being too skinny and I'm sure it's affected me when I have got older and found myself being too fat. I guess I do admire the confidence

Yes but putting it as a morality issue isn't right. It's a health issue and needs to be medicalised luckily the professionals agree.

I'm not saying it's a morality issue, and I do believe that it's a medical issue once the person gets beyond the point of return.....such as when obesity has taken hold as a disease, rather than something that someone can reverse.

But as a population most of us have control over whether we become obese in the first place (whether it becomes a disease or mainly just excess weight).
Of course some don't have control, they have medical issues or were obese as children etc.

A lot of emphasis needs to be placed on not getting obese in the first place, people seem to think that if they do they can just lose it, but unfortunately many obese people find out the hard way that that's not the case.

So we do need to talk about what's gone wrong, what things are likely to make a person obese, what changes can we make, what will help, what won't etc.

That's obviously not going to help the people who are obese where obesity is now acting as a disease and uncontrollable and irreversible for the patient if they were to try themselves...and I certainly hope that medicine and science makes big strides in helping those people and giving them their lives back. But we still must try to emphasise that people should try their best to stay at a healthy weight in the first place and discuss how best to do so.

It's not about judgement or morality, it's about disease prevention.

I think laziness is the real problem. People are too lazy to cook proper meals and too lazy to do proper exercise.

Life is hard for a lot of people and sometimes just getting through each day takes priority.