If you were a teen in the 90s did your mum spend a lot of time telling you that she was on a diet?

[Bartg]

Quoting her current weight. The weight she was at school. Whether she put in weight over the holidays or not. And also going on fad diets. Ryvitas, slim fasts etc.
And saying things to you about how you should watch your weight and whether or not clothes are slimming etc etc
this is what my mum did. And her weight was fine. Slim. Basically size 10 I would say.

i am just wondering how normal this was for that generation. It really messed me up and I feel sad for my teenage self

Yes and she’s still like it now at 60. I’ll put “9st when she got married” on her bloody gravestone.

She was astounded the other week when she found out I don’t know what I weigh, don’t own scales, and - shock horror- really don’t care! I’m no Gisele but I’m healthy, active and can do everything I want and need to.

it’s funny because I constantly remember her being in a diet but she never did any exercise beyond normal daily activity.

Yes, I was a teen in the 90’s and my mum used to always make comments about her size / watch what she was eating although I don’t remember her ‘dieting’.

I went on to have eating issues (anorexia/ bulimic) then I was ok for years then became obese through comfort eating.

looking back at photos my mum looks anorexic as in size 6-8 and bony.

she still now often says she needs to watch what she eats and once said to my young dd she’d have no dinner that night as she had a cake in the day, I went mad.

No I don't think I ever remember her ever being on a diet in her life. Not that she needed one.

I am much older than you. My mum has been on a diet my whole life. All of her friends were too.

She now has dementia. She gets lost on the way to her bedroom. She forgets where I live. She is in complete denial about her illness and is non compliant with help/strategies/medication. She does however still fret endlessly about her weight. Eg if she puts on two pounds over Xmas, she will say she is embarrassed about how fat she is, while being unconcerned about her horrific cognitive decline. That's how deep the messaging about weight goes with her. It was the same with my mother in law. She never expressed concern about dementia, which is what killed her. She did worry endlessly at the prospect of being fat.

My mum was often on a diet, usually a low fat diet, but as far as I remember, nearly always overweight.
All her family were overweight so I think partly was genetic
I never knew how much she weighed and she didn't encourage us to diet but myself and Dsis had eating disorders in our teens/20s.

@Bartg no, my Mum was never on a diet or going on about weight, thankfully. I suppose she could have been a little overweight but weight was never a big thing in our house.

No. My mum is naturally thin, and can eat anything. Sadly, I thought I'd be the same, however, my size 20 clothes say different

I dont remember my mum being on a diet but she was always very slim. She did suggest that we could ask the Dr to cut out some fat when i was going for an appendix operation when I was 10 and chubby. That one stayed with me
I spent most of my teenage years obsessed with dieting and being smaller and have yoyoed my whole adult life. Im not happy unless I am slim

Gosh, you've all reminded me of the constant bloody ryvitas my mum had! She would have them for her evening meal whilst we were eating a proper meal that she herself had cooked!

I have never, nor will I ever eat a ryvita after that.

No, my mum was active/sporty and had a lovely hourglass figure looking back, she always had a generous bust and curvy hips, I don't remember her ever commenting on weight.

No, she was perfect, always slim and had an amazing figure, I on the other hand was apparently fat and needed to stop eating and be perfect like her.

Yes! My mum used to eat Limmits meal replacement biscuits. Constantly went on about her weight despite being tall and slim. Harked back to being what she described a a fat teenager (she wasn't). Even now she will say at every meal that she can't possibly finish it.

She fed us huge portions of very carb heavy food, suet puddings etc so my DSiblings and I were always overweight. We've struggled with weight ever since. If we lose any weight she says we look unhealthy.

I've never understood it.

I remember the conveyor belt of Ryvita, Crispbakes and slimming bread. There was also a season of Slim Fast thrown in somewhere. My mum was a size 16/18 then and still is now at 81.

I must admit that the the lack of exercise bothered me more. We lived quite rurally but never walked or did anything outdoorsy as a family because she didn’t want to ruin her perm.

Yes. Constantly harking back to her 22" waist when she was 20, wearing jeans to come out of hospital post-birth, resenting being 9st 2 size 12.
The Cambridge Diet was done at some point. Lots of faddy, crash diets. Ryvita. Penis portions.
A youth experiencing rationing, 1960s young adulthood when Twiggy was venerated and general internalised misogeny were all at play.

It's a wonder I've got a decent attitude to food. I did sometimes secretly eat as a teenager when I was ravenous and she didn't accept that growing teenaged females needed larger portions, but fortunately ate to what my body needed rather than resorting to binging. When I went to university, I enjoyed being able to make an interesting, healthy variety of food for myself. I've always had a healthy build so have dodged the constant critique of the female form being directed at me, unlike other female family members.

Constant restriction, the poor dietary advice of the era, and sexist attitudes towards male/female fitness until recent times will have contributed to her struggling with osteoarthritis for decades.

Ryvita looks (and probably tastes) like the stuff they used to build 1960s schools!

Yep, and she had anorexia most of my life too, I ended up with Bulimia by constantly hearing people were fat cows. I became hyper obsessed with weight and looks, only getting over it now in my 30s

70s yes. I remember going to the chemist with my mum and her buying Energen rolls - weird light crunchy "bread not bread" rolls. She also bought Ayds - weird toffees that you ate half an hour before meals. Dieting was the norm for me growing up. When I was 14 the doctor prescribed slimming tablets. I weighed about 8/9 stone which my aunt called puppy fat.
I have been on a diet most of my life. I could write my own book about the many diets I have tried and yet I am still overweight.

Fucking constantly. It had a huge impact on me.

No not at all. My Mum and Dad ate very healthily though.

It’s interesting how many posters say that their mums were naturally slim in the 80s and 90s and yet were obsessed with weight and dieting. There must have been a lot of pressure on them from adverts, magazine articles or other campaigns maybe. Maybe about this time fast food was becoming more common and people started to put on a lot of weight. I think being bigger is more accepted today.

Yes. I think she was on a diet since I was born! I remember her doing the Slim Fast diet and Herbalife, and asking 13 year old me what I thought would work for her!

She did a lot of talking at me about her weight, how she was trying to get slim - and there were lectures about how women should be slim or their husbands will start looking elsewhere.

One of my uncles had an affair. I remember coming home from school one day and my aunt (his wife) sitting at our kitchen table, crying to my mum that it had only happened because she'd put on weight and he wouldn't have looked elsewhere if she'd been slimmer. My mum sagely agreed with her! My aunt had only just given birth and he'd been cheating while she was pregnant FFS.

I was anorexic and bulimic between the ages of 13 and 17.

Now mid 50s- my mother never ever mentioned anything about diets or weight. She occasionally now in her 80s tells my father he needs to lose a bit...
I didn't realise at the time how unusual it was.

No, my mother never mentioned her weight or dieting. But she had breast cancer throughout my teens (it eventually killed her when I was 25) so I think we all had more fundamental things to be worrying about.

Yes, constantly. She put on a lot of weight after she had me and was very uncomfortable with it.

More annoyingly, my MIL still talks about her diet now. It's so boring.

My mum didn't speak about weight, hers or mine. She was not into appearance at all.

However, grow up with an appalling disordered approach to eating. I have no idea where it came from.