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!

It's a big city thing. People in big cities are apt to be thinner.

More walking. Smaller food portions (because of the foodier culture). More image consciousness and fashion consciousness. Also, there may be a lot of immigrants from places like Poland, where people seem to be slimmer.

What is "freakishly thin"?
Someone who's 5"10 and 7 stone? Or just someone who's not overweight?
Cities breed thin people, not eating, walking, fashion culture, everything mentioned above.

What is "freakishly thin"?
Someone who's 5"10 and 7 stone? Or just someone who's not overweight?
Cities breed thin people, not eating, walking, fashion culture, everything mentioned above.

Its more a case of what your tuned in to seeing. The fact that you describe people as "freakishly slim" suggests you find slim people as, well, freakish. Whereas if you were used to seeing slim people you would probably describe them as healthy or active, or similar.

Its probably a case of the rest of the UK having rising rates of obesity, and you would probably find the rest of Europe "freakishly slim" too...

I suspect also that motivated people (and many people who move to London for work) tend to be slim, as do people from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds other than English.

My new phone has a pedometer. On a work day (walk to station, walk to work from station, nip out for a few bits at lunchtime) I do my 10000 steps. On a home day I don't despite going for a 5k run as I drive dcs to school, drive to supermarket walk round supermarket, drive home, drive back to school only about 6000 steps. I think that really illustrates that not driving just causes incidental exercise.

That table of weight by borough is fascinating - far more interesting than an Ofsted table which is the only other thing I look at by borough.

Its strange that I moved from a city place to a more country place and my initial impression was that there were lots more fat people in my new home but actually on the table they were both as fat as each other. Maybe I just moved in thinner circles in the past.

My main issue with living outside a city has been the amount of time I have to spend in cars. When we lived in the city we didn't have a car and we all walked everywhere.

When we first moved here I had visions of striding across the rolling hills every weekend working up an appetite for pub lunches by roaring fires but in fact the reality is that I spend most of the weekend driving DS to distant sports fixtures where he runs around staying thin and I stand about eating bacon rolls to pass the time.

I agree, Paris is 'freakishly thin'. There's thin, and there is Paris thin.

Londoners look normal to me, and squash together very nicely on the tube.

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!!

Quick geography lesson for the few people who have said the same thing about capital cities; NYC is not the capital of the USA...

I am currently in NYC. This evening we walked home 22 street blocks from supper - about a mile and a half.
The sidewalks were packed with people of all ages and hues.
New Yorkers are slim because they walk LOTS

Go to the capital (DC) and watch the fat politicians and thir drivers clogging up the roads

Agnesf- a lot of people I know who moved out into the countryside (rather to a town outside London) have said similar things to you, the idea you'll walk loads in the country just isn't true. I know several woman who moved pregnant, buying buggies/prams suitable for off-road and just barely used them as they drove to the carpark of wherever they were going the just used the buggy for carpark to building crossing.

People take far better care of themselves by and large in London and most are concerned about their diet and nutritional needs.

If true, I think its a commbination of wealth and large number of 'incomers'.

Have recently moved from London to wealthy part of south - people are same weight as in London.

If you add to that people who either come from a country where obesity isn't a problem, and people from other parts of the uk who have background that has enabled them to move to london, you are cutting out alot of the socio-economic drivers for obesity.

I think the walking is a really big factor and people not from the uk. There is a lot of poverty in London actually alongside the 'wealth'. But yabu op because they aren't freakishly thin at all. In fact when I have to visit our London office yeuk I am still much slimmer than average

Quite right, RedToothbrush!!! V. stupid error on my part……But point about big cities where most of the key jobs are still stands.

I am overweight , I live in a city and I walk more than most every day.. I don't have options to take trains, undergrounds etc More than 10,000 steps a day easily done and its lots of steps up and down as well.....

I'm stick thin and grew up in London, although I don't live there any more. The rest of my family are stick thin too. With the possible exception of my Dsis, we've never dieted. DM stayed at home, and cooked from scratch, and she was (and is) a very good cook who served tasty, balanced meals.

One of the odder recollections from my childhood in the 80s is vaguely associating things like oven chips, beans, fish fingers and fried eggs with council houses. Not sure where that came from - not from DM who would never make comments like that, but probably more likely from the other kids at my school. So maybe the diet-class thing isn't so recent. That said, I don't remember fat children tending to be working class. Perhaps they ate worse than the rest, but they (at least the boys) tended to play more football.

One thing DM has mentioned is the lady at her church who looks after the Sunday school. She is a Northerner and is (in DM's opinion), a typical northerner in that she doles out heaps of sweets!

I lived in the west of Scotland when older, and thought what was considered to be an appropriate diet there atrocious. Lots of fried stuff, and the veggies in the shops seemed tired.

Went back to London last Christmas and was overwhelmed by all the delicious - and comparatively healthy - convenience food one can get there. Not cheap, but then London incomes are high.

I think it's because no one drives (or drives very much), everyone gets the tube which involves walking, standing about, generally not sitting on your arse every day. My sil came up to visit recently and what I would have thought of as a mediumish walk, to the train station, was nothing to her. Opened my eyes to how I never walk anywhere and that's why I'm a lard arse.

From that article about local authorities the 2 la's that tend to be most expensive in terms of housing - Richmond and Kensington & Chelsea also had least overweight people. Wandsworth and kingston also had comparatively low percentages. However, with >40% people being overweight, even the richest boroughs have problems.

Looking at people wondering around central London, many of them don't live there.

Or even wandering around central london!

I agree about walking more. IMO, this is the single biggest factor in increasing obesity rates. People don't get usually get overweight by eating 5000 calories a day or by mainlining sugar. It's usually just by eating 100-200 calories a day extra over time, and this amount can easily be offset by more walking during the course of the day. This is one of the main differences why few people used to be overweight. We still ate carbs, sugar in our tea, jam sandwiches etc.
A lot of people drive absolutely everywhere nowadays. I don't drive myself, and it's amazing how many people think a mile is a long walk, or they can't get wet in the rain or something.

Also London has a lot of first and second generation immigrants. Many of those eat whole foods and plenty are not well off - just look at the huge number of fruit and veg places in those areas. Those people are not (yet) on the whole fat because they try to eat their original good diet, although gradually, just like the fattest people on earth in the Pacific islands who moved from veg/fish when they were normal slim weights to Western junk food and got huge, they will put on weight in the same way 3rd generation Indians and arabs who move to a higher sugar diet here tend to find they do with disastrous diabetes implications.

I think giving the weight is the only way people will realise what is a normal healthy weight and what is over weight. too many people hide from that fact.

moving is very good for you and most people don't move enough but if you want to lose weight eat less and don't eat junk. I am not however saying it is easy.

They walk more.

Our office isn't in London but just by looking at us you can tell who gets out for a short walk at lunchtime, and who eats at their desk.

Perhaps those who are motivated to go for a walk are also a bit more careful about their diet, Meglet?

I do find it quite fascinating when talking to friends and family who don't live somewhere quite large and urban about how short a distance they'll get in their car. We've moved out of London to the commuter belt and though we have a car now, our default is still to walk anywhere under a 20 min, definitely. But friends who have grown up here will get in the car for the shortest of drives.

Car reliance is a big factor in health for certain people, imo. If you have a desk job and also drive too and from work, you're not getting much daily exercise.

Depends on the area of London IMO. I have been in some parts and nearly everyone appears to be obese...whereas I then go to a smarter part of town and I am always the fattest person around (size 14).

Weight is definitely related to class/money.