yes you can be overweight and in poverty

[Mumof4worriedfor]

Just saw this story on ITV twitter.com/itvnews/status/614128648585617408

Most of the comments are about her weight. Don't people understand the cheaper food is more unhealthy and you can very quickly get into poverty! Really annoyed by the response.

Tired, I think my neighbour would argue that it's as much a question of choices as anything else.

I also think that saying if you don't like carrots it's understandable that you'll identify with the 'unhealthy' eaters is also very sad

Where I come from, if you're in poverty, you are grateful for a carrot. The idea of it being perfectly ok to turn up your nose at it and 'choose' nuggets instead is both illogical and insulting to the millions of people living in real and abject poverty and who do not have such a 'choice.'

I have seen real poverty.

There were no nuggets.

Maybe Im just overly sensitive There is a lot of pressure on women looks wise.....much more so than men.

And for overweight women on a low income its just another layer of pressure on top of everything else.

My experience is different. We have little money right now as I am retraining. We are all very skinny. Reasons:

1. the more stressed you are the less you eat
2. There is rarely time to eat
3. I eat all unhealthy food but eat on the move and small amounts to make it last

Yes unhealthy food is cheaper so from a purely obesity view: eat less of the bastard!

Example:

I am on a diet, but if I eat once pizza a day (for the only meal of the day), I still lose weight. I'm not saying that's healthy but from a purely obesity perspective - I'm losing weight.

No excuse to be fat.

Agreed from a weight perspective you can eat junk every day and you won't be fat if you don't eat massive portions

No excuse to be fat.

I absolutely hate comments like this...so unhelpful.

Formerbabe it is a fact though, whether you like it or not. Barring a few medical causes most of us can be within the normal health range.
Yes obesity is associated with poverty in our society but it doesn't make it inevitable. British people used to be much poorer overall yet obesity was rare.

noeffing And yet this thread is bursting with posters falling over themselves to give excuses - the children will cry at lentils, there is no other way to pass the daylight hours while watching television other than to eat biscuits, among others - so clearly there are plenty of excuses.

I can't decide whether it's patronising or not. This thread is truly one of the most depressing things I've read here in over ten years.

I think I'll hide it and go for a long, free walk.

Formerbabe it is a fact though, whether you like it or not. Barring a few medical causes most of us can be within the normal health range

You are forgetting the whole issue of mental health. It's like saying "there's no excuse to be a drug addict". I put on a lot of weight when I suffered from a very close bereavement...is that a good enough excuse to be fat for you?!

Fun if i ate pizza every day even if it was the only meal i would gain weight. We are all different.

Im not suited to eating sugar. its why i dont eat ice cream even in 30 degree heat.

puffin junk isnt very filling which is why ppl end up eating more of it. Ive yet to meet the person who would feel full from a handful of Pringles or a couple of custard creams.

Buried You think THIS thread is the most depressing. Even though this site is full of threads about women suffering domestic abuse and threads discussing the cuts and how ppl are being badly affected by them.

Have a word with yourself and check your privilege FFS!

The thing is, one person's idea of eating pizza every day is different to another's.

For some people it will mean one slice of pizza with salad and possibly a slice of garlic bread.

For other people it will mean eating the whole pizza, and even then they come in small, medium and large so one person's 'eating a whole pizza', will be different to another's.

Fun if i ate pizza every day even if it was the only meal i would gain weight. We are all different.

No, you wouldn't.

One pizza. 1000 calories more or less. Very few people gain weight when eating only 1000 calories. FFS.

groceries.iceland.co.uk/iceland-thin-and-crispy-double-pepperoni-pizza-371g/p/50759

Worra with me its the dough. I cant eat it at all. If i keep my carbs as low as possible i keep the weight off.

That's the think it is filling if you have never eaten too much to start with as it is to do with stomach sizes. I realise that is hard to chance I know it would be really, really difficult for me to be overweight so I do get it the other way round. You get used to what you have always known.

*thing

I eat for health as well as weight loss. And i know my body You are talking to someone who has lost TEN STONE and you think you know my body better than i do.

Stunned absolutely stunned.

I cant eat like that It makes me bloated and gain weight.

First time on slimming world i ate pasta every day and lost weight I was 29.

second time on sw i had to drop the carbs because i was staying the same or gaining once i had hit 40

I realise we're all different

However, I never knew that carbs was a 'thing' before I joined Mumsnet.

I read all the time about people low carbing/cutting out carbs/eating too many carbs.

My experience though of people who are not overweight, is that they don't tend to worry or think about carbs. They just have a little bit of what they fancy, with the emphasis on a 'little bit'.

It must be exhausting to have to watch these things all the time and I do sympathise with people who feel they have to, instead of eating less of everything/exercising more.

And I wholeheartedly agree with the PP who said it's a lot to do with stomach sizes...which is why I think a lot of kids today are being set up for weight problems in the future, due to the volume of food they're often given to eat in one sitting.

Some 5 and 6yr olds eat dinners the size of mine.

I eat whatever but I find it hard to sit still and I have no drive to snack. Dh is skinny but he does things like eat a whole pack of biscuits.I hate it and I dislike when people bring out massive portions as I find it really offputting. It is weird how everyone has food habits engrained in them. Congratulations on the weight Helena.

People don't realise it is a lot though Worra. I have oveeweight friends who think I eat like a sparrow whereas to me their portions like huge. It is what you have always known. I look at it as I would find it impossible to eat what they eat in a day so that must be how difficult it is vice versa.

*loss helena sorry I have a baby attempting to claw my face!

Exactly puffinrock. If people are comparing to those around them who also overeat/overfeed their kids, then they probably think their portions are reasonably small.

I don't know how anybody can eat a whole pizza (thinking regular size pizza, not the mini ones). If I tried to eat a full pizza, even a thin crispy one I would be very bloated and feel sick. Eating a full pizza, especially regularly, isn't the result of poverty, it's just greed.
Surely if you are that poor it makes more sense to only eat half a pizza and save the other half for tomorrow's main meal.