To think if we eat and adopted some of the lifestyle of the europeans we would not be the fattest country in Europe.

[WonderWendy1]

I went on a med cruise two weeks ago we stopped in Portugal, Spain, South Of France and Italy.

I think of myself as a fairly fit size 12 (14 in some things). I would say i'm on the slimmer side in the Uk. I go to these european cities and the women (and men) are much slimmer then me and dh.

I was then in Paris for a few nights a week ago and I can only say my gosh nearly everywomen I saw had the legs of Taylor Swift.

Aibu to think we need to be doing what the europeans do to avoid becoming the American country of Europe.

The obesity levels have started to rise at the exact same time that smoking levels have started to go down.

I think that's purely coincidental tbh. Before the smoking ban/decrease in smoking, this happened...

A massive boom in junk food shops

Takeaways being delivered

The internet became popular

Umpteen TV channels to choose from

Games consoles

Far less parents allowing their kids to play in the street

Easier availability of cheap shit foods

Parents snacking and never leaving the house without snacks for their kids.

I never get the whole junk food doesn't fill you up thing as to me it is very filling. I suppose it must come down to very stretched stomachs if it doesn't fill you up.

Tinkly Little laugh your post only talks about looks and not health.

Ive lost ten stone and carry some loose skin despite excersising. I dont go to the beach I dont like the sun.

But if i decided to i cant help wondering if ppl would be able to tell the difference between loose skin and flab.

We cant all be toned and bronzed.

Two doctors have told me only surgery will sort it.

Your stomach can shrink too. Mine has. But it took months not weeks like the magazines will have you believe.

This thread is harsh but true. I do need to eat more veg, salads ect. I use to work with a lot of other Europeans and their lunch compared to mine was different.
I eat a lot of roast dinners and crisps but have started juicing a lot

Perhaps they should stop selling off the playing fields

It's more to do with exercise, in my opinion, than junk food.
Nope.
All of the medical evidence is that exercise levels have less than 10% of the impact of calorific intake.

In Croatia there were no play areas at all of any kind
kids stay indoors in the middle of the day because its too hot
but they do not eat junk

There's exercise gear in most of the parks where I live.

I agree though that often it is more to do with lack of enough exercise, especially for children who aren't allowed to play out and have no gardens.

Not to mention how many people won't walk a simple 30 minute walk to the shops and would rather drive.

It's telling how many excuses people have come up with for obesity just on this thread. From climate to smoking and everything in between. That's how people explain why they get fat. It's never because they eat too much, there's always an excuse.

One overweight family I know posted on FB earlier how they had an outing today. An afternoon out included first a pub lunch and then a trip to McD's. Seen as perfectly normal.

Another obese friend posted yet another "fat blogger" blog post full of excuses for why it's unacceptable for anyone to say she's fat.

Last year I went to my (then 11yr old) son's football tournament.

There were 120 boys and girls and only one could have been described as 'chunky'. All the others were very lean and toned.

The majority of parents/grandparents and teachers however were overweight or obese.

And this is one of London's most deprived boroughs. So imo it's not all about food quality, but also mainly about food quantity and of course exercise.

Worra perhaps the fact they live in a deprived borough is a bit of a clue.

The parents may be eating crap themselves so they can afford to give their kids the healthy stuff.

And its me saying this And im the childfree one. Youd think another parent would have been able to work it out Apparently not!!

Helena, no I really wasn't posting about looks, I was posting about the large number of young people who seemed to have chronically unexercised flabby bodies, like the sort of bodies I would associate with middle aged people. And I suppose I normally wouldn't really notice it if they were dressed. I think there is a whole generation of young people who have never been active and run around as children.

It isn't exercise per se it is constant movement as me and Jenin have described. I don't believe it is food over exercise. Exercise is the most important factor ime and that if all other really skinny people that I know.

The parents may be eating crap themselves so they can afford to give their kids the healthy stuff.

Not in my experience no.

During the time I was there, the adults (because the tournament was about 4 hours long), had many snacks and picnics with them.

Their kids were eating the same food as them. Also, after the tournament finished, most of us went to McDonalds which is just across the road.

Again, the kids seemed to be eating pretty much the same food as their parents.

So I firmly believe that in the case of the 120 lean children, they were lean because they're so heavily into sport and exercise.

And its me saying this And im the childfree one. Youd think another parent would have been able to work it out Apparently not!!

I don't know if your blinkered post was due to you not having children or not. That's not for me to know.

skinny (from iamralph)

flabby

bodies.

Nah you are right We are not talking about looks at all

I am talking about looks as well as being able to do more and not get worn out. I fully admit I wouldn't want to look fat and neither do I want my children to look fat.

Surely you meant that you want your children to be healthy.

Healthy and slim. All mine do lots of sport and exercise. Dc1 wins nearly every race she enters. It is probably to do with sh and I doing such a high level of exercise with her.

I was on holiday in France this summer. And they DO eat convenience food. But the difference is it's healthier and it doesn't attract the high prices it would in the UK. You could get reasonably priced fish and vegetable dishes you bung in the microwave for a few euro.

If the same thing is sold here it's probably sold by Waitrose for almost a tenner a pop. Whilst people on a budget eat Weightwatchers processed crap because they think it's healthy and affordable when actually it's sugary crap.

I really wish we could have more healthy, affordable convenience food like that. I was seriously considering looking at importing those sort of meals as a business proposition, but I just don't have the expertise. Maybe I should go onDragon's Den?

How old are your kids ralph?

7,4 and 1

I dont touch Weightwatchers food or ready meals I dont like them.

Flabby isn't healthy though. Physically or mentally.

Re junk food- it's not as filling, if I eat a Big Mac meal I'm starving an hour later, because it doesn't contain enough carbs to fuel me for any longer. And to get sufficient carbs from Big Mac meals I'd need to consume more fat than I want. And if you don't have a skinny persons attitude to food and need to feel your stomach is full to feel full, then for what's in a Big Mac meal calories wise I bet you could eat a large heaped plate of new pots with butter. Dd could tell me by age 7 that after a takeaway she 'couldn't be bothered' with high physical activities. Because unlike carbs, greasy fatty foods leave you sloth like.

The vanity sizing is well out of control and that isn't helping people to get a perspective of their size. It's a double-edged sword that manufacturers have increased the size ranges in fashion clothes and that has helped give acceptance to obesity. Going back 20 or 30 years, there were one or two 'outsize' shops (and that's what they were referred to) and the sizing wasn't in the ranges you can buy now.

Of course people need clothes, need to be able to dress to suit themselves BUT I can't help wondering if people would more readily tackle their weight if they started finding fewer nice clothes to fit them.

There are very many young girls wearing what their slimmer counterparts do, it's not flattering and it's deceiving them into perception of 'health'.