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

Yep! And my Dad too! And they would always comment on other people’s weight eg if we drove past someone. my mum also talked about her weight and body sizes at various points a lot too.

I went on my first diet aged 11 and had a raging eating disorder for most of my teen years/ early 20s.

I was born in 1977 so was a teen in the 90s.

My mum never mentioned her weight and was never on a diet. I don't remember hearing any of my friends' mums talking about it either! Definitely not the norm for me.

My lovely mum had an eating disorder at one point in the 90s she weighed six stone, she also nearly died. We were lucky she lived another 30 years but it got her in the end. 😥She was the kindest, loveliest person.

Constantly. And she was always a bit overweight aside from the couple of times she got to her goal weight at Weight Watchers, which never lasted more than a few months. She was either on a diet or semi on a diet and moaning about how she needed to be in a diet. She’s in her mid 70s now and still the same, except more overweight.

Yes and I had an unhealthy relationship with food. It’s only now I’m almost 40 that I see food very differently and as a way to feed my body rather than something that should be constantly measured.

People with dementia usually don't know they've got dementia....it's not a choice, it's part of the illness.

How many points everything was!

always 'going on a diet tomorrow'
not slim

yes, it was CONSTANT.

This is x points this is y calories.

This bag of crisps has more calories than this bag of crisps.

It was appalling really.

Yes absolutely. I knew that a size 12 was “bad” from a very young age.

I do have a good relationship with food though.

By the way she is still the same!!!

Keeps doing the same thing but is always overweight, and unhappy with her body. Won’t try anything else!

I was born 1973 and yes my mother was absolutely obsessed. She still is. She just constantly talked about diets and moaned being fat (she wasn't, but dieted herself into obesity actually). She was obsessed with my weight as well and I developed bulimia at about the age of 16 and did not stop until I was around 48 or so. She lives abroad and when she comes to visit I cut out all the size tags of my clothes as she always takes a sneaky look'.

Her biggest compliment she can give someone is 'you have lost weight!!'. She said it to my 80 year old aunt last time I was there. It was 'You have lost weight, you look so good, how much are you now?'. My aunt pointed out that terminal cancer tends to do that to you.

Yes my mum was constantly on a diet, I remember the only time she ever really noticeably lost weight was after my brother was born and she went to slimming world, in the photos age looks very thin at that time. I also remember her and my auntie telling my sister who must have been about 14 that if she lost a stone by the summer, my auntie would buy her a completely new outfit - and shoes! - but she didn't lose the stone and she didn't get the outfit.

I don't remember being explicitly told I was overweight, but I remember being very aware that I was, I remember being embarrassed the first time I realised I was, and I do think that shame of being overweight from a young age has hugely impacted my life.

I was born in the first half of the 80’s and I was actually thinking about this yesterday. Me and my sister were so lucky, our mum never once mentioned diet, weight, calories or any of that stuff. She was a ‘normal’ slim weight. It just wasn’t a thing. Just absolutely none of that stuff was on our radar at all. We ate normally, spent our pocket money on sweets, and looking back now, were so incredibly fortunate that that kind of stuff didn’t feature in our childhood.

Exactly the same for me. I don't think I've ever heard my Mum talk about her (or my) weight. I'm so grateful for that.
She cooked, we ate and we had pudding most nights. There was no emotion bound up in it, we ate what we enjoyed eating - didn't eat unhealthily but also didn't have to sit for hours until the plate was clear.

Yes she was always on some new diet every other week and talked about it constantly. There was always snacks in the cupboard that were "just for mum" because weight watchers allowed it, or slimming world allowed it, or ryvetas were the new thing, or sugar free was meant to be better. She can tell you the calorie content of anything just by glancing at it. Ironically, all while she fed us kids nothing but pizza and chicken nuggets.

She has always been overweight, its a real mental struggle. She is still obsessed with dieting and is currently on holiday, eating nothing but raw vegetables because her pre holiday diet didn't work and she is punishing herself for some reason. I have a 9yo daughter and never ever talk about diets. We talk about how exercise can be fun and good for your mental health but never push it. We exercise together when she wants to join in and loves it. Food is, everything in moderation. No "good" or "bad" foods. She is a healthy weight and a happy, confident child. I don't think my mum realised the damage all the diet talk does when you are a young, impressionable girl.

I was a teenager in the 80s; DM was very slim and extremely critical of anyone who she deemed to be overweight. Even now, she talks about weight all the time. For example, she comes back from her holidays and decries the amounts eaten by what she calls 'fat old things' on her table at the hotel, in comparison to her own scrupulously dainty appetite. It is very wearing.

I’m another whose mum, at 77, is still on a diet. Just this weekend she was talking about ‘needing’ to lose 4lbs before she went on holiday. In the 80s/90s she did slimming world and weight watchers, always going on about ‘syns’ (still does). Would never swim with us on holiday as she didn’t want to be seen in a swimming costume OR ruin her hair. Whenever she saw someone larger she’d say ‘I don’t look like that do I?’ She’d always go on about her ‘big fat stomach’. Would tell me I had big hips, you can’t wear that. I got lots of praise when I lost some weight after giving birth like it’s the only thing that matters.

I now am conscious of food issues but try not to let it rule my life. I have never mentioned diets or weight in front of dd and just encourage healthy eating instead. I have had to stop mum talking about it in front of her.

When I look back I’m really cross, and sad, for both her and me.

Yes she lived on Ryvita and Slim Fast and apparently it was my fault she was fat as she was slim before she had children.

I did the Special K diet in the early ‘00’s when they were still advertising it on tv (always for the new year!). It worked….dropped 1.5 dress sizes in 3 weeks. Probably wasn’t very good for me though!

No, nothing like this for us. Things like weight, fashion and make up just weren't on her radar. But she is also a person for whom food = love, so lots of my memories of time spent with family involve food in a positive way. She still bakes a lot and has passed that love to me.

I do remember mum having a week of corned beef and beetroot for tea but I don't think it lasted - the lack of willpower runs in the family!

However at 79, she's fat phobic. Speaking loudly about the fat person getting on a plan, the fat person sitting near us in a cafe... so awful and embarrassing. We shoot her down immediately but it's awful to think that person may have heard her.

Yes. She became a slimming world teacher in the 80’s and I would go along and collect the subs. There was a woman who was nine and a half stone probably five foot four and my mother was just agog that she weighed “so much” and didn’t look fat.

I remember her saying to some mums of my friends “TorroFerney used to be so slim” Yes when I was ten and I’m now 16!

I thought I was really fat , she tried to help in her own way. I was probably a little bit plump when I was late teens, she took me to the doctors, we both bought slim fast and then she took us both to a private doctor and we got slimming tablets although I was too scared to take them.

She’d Gained a lot in pregnancy ( I was unplanned as well and she was in an unhappy marriage ) and the slimming world photo she had to inspire people was her holding me as a baby.

im bonkers about my weight , assume as a result of all that. My day is better or worse depending on what the scales say. She’s in her 80’s still very slim and yes she thinks it makes her superior.

Yes, and all her friends.
and now it’s still the same with us mums always being on a diet etc, but maybe we keep more quiet about it in front of our kids. And don’t say negative things to them about their weight.
It’s very shit how it seems to be women always fighting their weight.

I was a teen in the 90s and yes, my mum was exactly like that. I don’t see her now but apparently she is still the same at almost 70.

I remember her weighing herself daily and dwelling on it. It was all about her weight, she wasn’t bothered about good nutrition and never exercised. She would make me weigh myself in front of her at least every couple of weeks from when I was about 13. Strangely she didn’t want me to be fat as she’d have been embarrassed by that, but she was also obviously annoyed than I weighed less than her. When it came to meals, she’d eat very small portions and suggest that I should eat less. When it came to things like chocolate for Xmas or Easter, she would suggest I made it last months. My brother never got any of this aimed at him, in fact she was one of those women who would prioritise food for the men, they would get the best bits etc and us women just had what’s left.

Thankfully I have always been happy with myself and have never had any issues around food. Fuck knows how with her as a mother, she was shit in other ways too.

I can’t imagine doing this to my own children.