AIBU to ask ....

[ItsOnlyAQuestion]

Do overweight/fat parents tend to have overweight/fat children?

I am 25 stones and my DS is slim. I often get asked, if he is my biological child!

I'm 5"5 and rather ahem, "curvy" whilst my sister is 5"11 and my brother 6"3 and slim. My parents were both slim but I was always a chubby child, even before I started to comfort eat, which I still tend to do. I only pray that my 1 yo DS takes after his dad - 6"2 and slim!

YABU

HTH

Yes, I too was chuuby as a child, but I think I did comfort eat, even then.

yes.

I am enormously fat and so are my dc.

I agree with others on the thread that its more likely to be lifestyle factors responsible for the fact that overweight parents are more likely to have overweight children. There may well be some genetic component to it but things like portion size, types of food consumed and activity level have a far greater input.

SenoritaVita people are not overweight because of 'unfairness' though . Using this as an excuse, along with 'I am big boned' and 'I have a slow metabolism' is simply sidestepping the issue. People are overweight, quite simply, because they consume more calories than they burn off. I appreciate that keeping at an 'ideal' weight is easier for some than others for all manner of reasons, not least complex psychological ones but at the end of the day if you burn more calories than you comsume you WILL lose weight, and if you consume more than you burn you WILL put it on.

DH and I are porkers but DS is a whippet and DD (6mo) is just normal sized. DH and I are fat because we are lazy and eat too much cake but DS is 3yo and has a much better diet and more exercise. DH and I are now trying really really hard to set a better example!

Googles 'SenoritaVita :)

People have always had different metabolisms and they always will.

However, part of maintaining a healthy weight for ourselves and our children is recognising that and eating accordingly.

There's no point in comparing ourselves to others who can 'eat like a horse' and remain 'stick thin'...we need to eat and exercise according to our own bodies.

SenoritaVita posted at 09.51 on this thread and one of her comments was 'However, there are many parents who are overweight for other reasons (health, unfairness etc.)'

Hope that makes my post make more sense OP

Exactly WorraLiberty. I think you have made the point I was trying to make better.

My food consumption level is outta control recently, (again) :(

The replies are bringing me back to the harsh reality of how, in actual fact, I'm slowly killing myself with food.

Worra :)

Last night, I had tightness in my upper chest area, similar to the description of heart attack warnings. Obviously very. very mild.

I'm usually in excellent health.

I need to heed the warning.

Sorry, Yellow :)

You almost never, ever see a fat (as in obviously very overweight, not just a bit chubby) child with slim parents. If only one parent is overweight it tends to be the mother, otherwise it's both. (I've spent years looking )
There was a great thread on this a while back but I think it will have gone poof by now.
I'm overweight, and my DH is overweight and we are very careful to not let the DCs slide into being overweight. It's so easy to see fat as normal when you are fat, and big portions and treats as signs of love - especially if that's how you were raised. DHs mother worked in a sweet shop when he was small and he associates sweeties with her and being loved, even now.
We are desperate for our DCs not to end up like us, but we also don't want them to have issues with food and diet so we have to be careful how we go about it - it's no good just blanket banning things or telling them XYZ is BAD, it's more teaching them about balance and restraint. Even something like, if they say they're full, then they are allowed to stop eating. A lot of parents will try and make/encourage a child to finish everything on their plate, without even thinking about it. My sister and I were always encouraged to "eat up" with the "children starving in Africa" hanging over us, and it hasn't done us any favours now - we both struggle with weight and my weight is a serious health issue now, making it even more important to me to stop my DCs ending up the same way.

It's interesting. Here in Australia there is an 'obesity epidemic' - government advertising all over the place.

And yet my not at all scientific research walking around shopping centres has tended to show that those parents on the slender side are more likely to have chunkier children.

It's a bit of a mystery.

On the other hand, I am fat because I comfort eat, my two dc don't comfort eat and are both (though very tall) slender. In fact my dd has the suspicion of a six pack (and she is 8). I tell them to 'eat or don't eat. I don't live in your body, I don't know how hungry you are'. So far at least it's working.

I agree Pom

I had to ask my mum to give the kids comics instead of sweets, I said to her: why give them dollops of poison in th ename of love?

Mine are very thin, partly because aside from dinner (vegetable heavy) I never feed them - I always wait for them to say they are hungry cos I hate cooking.

My parents, brother and sister were/are all thin. I was a fat child, teenager and for quite a while adult.

Food, was how my DM expressed her love too. I never had a hug or I love you, ever! . I eat so much food as it is how I show love to myself.

Pomdo you think your DH shows love to your DC via food, more than he should?

Some good points there Pom

Also I think re comfort eating, it's easy to teach our kids to comfort eat without even realising we're doing it.

Giving babies/kids food to keep them 'occupied' or quiet at the supermarket, during a school concert for an older sibling, at a wedding etc...is a form of comfort eating in itself and sometimes the earliest form.

I'm probably an old git but when I was little, most parents would distract/comfort kids without using food to do it.

Worra

Do you think one of the reasons as to why parent's would distract/comfort kids without using food, was because food was more expensive at that time?

Hully stated both She and her DC were enormous, upthread...

The earlier one may have been a lie, I am abit large though

No wonder you don't believe anything you write read on here anymore Hully. Practice what you preach.

Oh oh oh i'm so sorry

Youtube the self beating, post the link, because I don't believe you! You've only brought it on yourself.

that's a bit pervy