Is it just me or are Londoners freakishly slim?

[manicinsomniac]

Not all of them obviously. And I don't mean that individuals are unusually thin. More than the population as a whole seems to be much thinner than the UK population in general.

I went in to London yesterday evening to meet a friend who was very late so I had lots of time to indulge my nosy, people watching habit (usually I just rush from A to B and don't look at anyone). And after a while it really struck me that almost everyone was slim.

So, now I'm wondering if it was a coincidental thing or not. And if not, then why is this?
Because so many people don't have or don't use a car?
Because, on average, the population of London is perhaps younger than the UK average?
Because, on average, Londoners are wealthier than the UK average?
Because so many artsy people whose weight/looks affect their jobs in some way live in London?
Because London is more multicultural than anywhere else and some ethnicities are genetically smaller and some cultures eat a different (better?) diet?

Or something else I haven't thought of.

I just thought it was interesting. Apologies if it really isn't!

but you also get these in the brittle thin blonde county women - you know kids at private school drive an unnecessary 4 by 4 and husband wears a naffo signet ring
they are always teeny. and look slightly cross

Haha, actually (apart from not having a husband and finding my 4X4 quite necessary at times), I fit that description pretty exactly. I'd rather be a skinny Londoner though - more glamorous ;)

"More that very few were overweight making the view as a whole 'freakishly thin'."

You think that somewhere comes across as freakishly thin because most people are not overweight? That's just a sign of how much obesity has become normalised in British society.

I go back to Britain at most once a year for a week or two, and every time I'm struck by the extreme numbers of overweight and obese people - and how quickly it's increasing. And yes, there are places within the UK where it's far more extreme than others, and that seems to be largely driven by wealth and education. But if I started using judgemental phrases like 'freakishly fat' to describe areas with high concentrations of overweight people, some posters would no doubt be very upset - and rightly so. So why do you think it's OK to use that term for people who probably simply have a healthily low BMI?

Well we don't know they had a heathy low bmi. In London I noticed many more with a clearly unhealthy low bmi.

As to why Londoners are slim, it's so they can pack themselves on to trains obviously.

We walk everywhere!

Ironically I do think commuting by public transport means you get a bit more exercise. I do 20 mins either side of the station both journeys. I am not freakishly thin though. Not even thin

I think that some places in London just feel like places where the really image conscious conglomerate.

But I wasn't referring to individuals Arch, more that the general view of a crowd of largely slim people was unusual enough for me to call it 'freakish'. Maybe freakish comes across as unkind and judgemental. I certainly didn't mean it to be. My own BMI is 15.7 so believe me, I know all about being judged for being too thin instead of too fat. I really wasn't judging. I think it's a good thing. I'm wildly jealous of the glamorous (and apparently slimming!) London lifestyle and would give anything to be part of it.

Brilliant article Jasss

^'Almost all of the areas with the lowest proportion of obese and overweight peopl were in London....
Tower Hamlets, Richmond upon Thames, Hackney, Brighton and Hove and Hammersmith and Fulham were the only other local authority areas in which less than half of the population was overweight.'^

I think it's definitely got something to do with the amount of walking you have to do in big cities. Brighton&Hove also might be on there as so many people who live there are so health conscious?

maybe they're thinner in the rich bits, but not everywhere in London. I felt positively waif-like at a size 14 when I lived in an unglamorous bit of SE London. IIRC many London boroughs have very high rates of obesity, child obesity in particular.

Oh... my italics didn't work. You get the point though.

Also, I remember watching a program where they mentioned the North/South size divide and said that it was partly due to the fact that in the past most jobs in the North were more physical than the South so the workers obviously had bigger appetites and ate more. Now jobs have changed but eating habits haven't, as things like meal preferences and portion sizes are passed down through the generations. ie if your mum used to serve up a big roast dinner you'll serve up a big roast dinner too.

That's a very simplified way of explaining food socialisation but I thought it was interesting when I heard it.

What's freakishly thin though? Go to any world city, as we're fortunate enough to have in this country, and people will be at the extremes. It's also industry related.

I live in central London and the Cotswolds, and I notice people's size when I go elsewhere in the UK, it's a different norm.

I live in SE London and work in central London and find it pretty normal, but I think I'm used to it since I haven't lived anywhere else in the UK other than London.

OK, manic, sorry if I came across as a bit snippy. I think, as a lifelong slim but not underweight person myself, I'm a bit sensitive about the way it seems to be OK to be negative about people who are actually a healthy weight by calling them 'thin' but - rightly - not OK to say the same kind of thing about overweight people.

But I get what you're saying about certain groups of people (just don't like the term freakish to describe it). Last year we were at a classical music concert in the middle of a European capital city. At the break we were wandering around, there must have been 500 people or so in the audience, and not a single one of them was significantly overweight that I could see. Honestly, not one out of 500 - could you honestly say the same for London? And this was a country that is also generally renowned for its, er, plump people. The only explanation is that classical music fans who go to concerts are statistically unlikely to be obese.

I live in a "wealthy" London borough. There isn't one child in our class of 29 in a very run of the mill state primary who I would consider to be overweight and no more than a handful in the whole school. There is much more peer pressure to be slim around here sadly it passes me by

Maybe London is what everywhere else should be aiming for weight wise...

I always think this in the part of Cornwall where I live. Barely anyone overweight at work and very rare to see an overweight child. Can't think of any at the dcs school.

It's a very outdoorsy culture here - lots of people run, surf or ride bikes or horses. wonder if this is the reason.

Plymouth is an entirely different story.

I'm sure it's affluence. We went to the Green Man festival a few years ago, and over the course of the whole three days I only saw one fat adult and not one single fat kid.

What I've noticed, living in London and visiting further away, is that adults in London are less often obese, but that kids in London are more often obese. Lots of the kids in the leafy London borough I'm in are overweight, very different experience to kewcumber.

I have noticed this, but Londoners seem to be more of a healthy weight compared to other areas where you see many more obese people. I think it's down to many things: younger, mainly working people, students, gym culture, being too busy at work, but mainly down to doing so much walking. Even if you get the tube you still have to walk so much more than someone who drives to work. And you have to go up lots of steps. Having to stand on public transport also uses a lot of calories. You see lots of people walking, running and cycling so that is seen as normal behaviour rather than being a "health freak".

Definitely thinner in cities.

Look at Manhattan and LA and the enormous obesity inbetween. There's apparently a 4 size average difference between Alabama and New York State.

Agree it's about the wealth, the walking and the models. The major cities have all the 'lookist' trades like advertising/acting/modelling/PR

I would say it's because capital cities have a disproportionate percentage of the brightest and most educated (and often wealthiest). Look at NYC vs. rest of America - like a different country!!

It's also valued in many work places and sectors that are mostly in London.

Obesity is highly correlated with class. It would probably depend where in London you go. I barely see anyone who is significantly overweight in my Oxfordshire commuter village, or when I go to work in central Oxford and I find the obesity stats hard to believe. Then I visit some other towns and cities nearby and I can believe them again.

I was in London 2 weeks ago and over the day I walked 25,000 steps.

I barely make 1000 every day in the burbs with my sedentary job

I think we walk a lot more than other areas of the UK

I think there might be a lot of truth in that. Public transport is good and also cheap and roads can be congested, so people would think nothing of walking for 20 minutes to the local tube station, while people who can use their car more easily, or who don't have such good public transport options get into the habit of considering a 20 minute walk pretty lengthy.

I stayed in Walthamstow for the odd week when my ex worked there and i must have walked miles, every day, even just popping to the shops.