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.

Hmm, whilst there might not be official smoking areas in Uk schools, I think you'll find most have an area where a blind eye is turned. No teacher wants deprived nicotine addicts in their class.

not in any school I've taught in. Even when I was at school myself teachers were generally pretty good at tracking down smokers. We have serious smoke detectors in toilets etc- which the kids sometimes set off with bloody deodorant and hairspray. We don't really have any hidden corners in the playground etc. teachers who smoke have to walk off site (at the back) and Sixth Form smokers walk to about 2 streets away from the school.

I know it's the case at Dcs "outstanding" school after I complained when DS2 complained about smokers where he and his friends hung out (turned out they'd picked the unofficial smoking area)

When I posted about that in here, the consensus was that I was mad to expect anything else.

This school was in Papillon.

He said lots of teachers smoked there too, even though they had their own pupil-free smoking area.

Maybe I'm hopelessly naive and our students are all puffing away somewhere. I'd be surprised though... I notice the smell of smoke on colleagues and occasional sixth formers so I think I'd notice if there were kids regularly smoking. It's definitely not because we're turning a blind eye though. There have been long deliberations at SLT meetings about how far away our 18 and 19 year old sixth formers should have to walk before lighting up.

[Fuzzy] from S1 (Scotland) onwards children are allowed to exit the school at break and lunchtimes. So can do as they wish.

On Scandinavia:

Not seen many newsagents or takeaway places, people just bring a cheese sandwich (dark brown bread), (junk-), food just isn't fetishised there as much I don't think.

In my particular neck of Scandinavia there is plenty of fast food, but other than McDonalds, none of it is the kind of place you walk down to/past and buy from. It is instead shops listed on just-eat, and the quality is bloody awful and the price is astronomical. It's all kebab shop type food and even the best quality I've had from these places would be of questionable acceptability in the UK. It's hard to spend money on that shit when it costs so much and leaves such feelings of disappointment and regret...

Generally though, I think it's just a) huge participation in sports clubs and gyms (partly due to the country's strong history of these and similar things - they in part lay the foundation for the huge influence of unions in the political sphere, IIRC) and b) low tolerance of fatness. It's just not widespread enough for people to feel comfortable being fat and leave off doing anything to shift the weight.

I noticed a tag on adverts in France this summer- like the 'consomez avec modération' for alcohol 'don't eat between meals' on crisps.
There's definitely much better food available in canteens and street eating is frowned upon.

Better quality food, no snacking, low tolerance to obesity, more physical activity. I was born and brought up in France and you ate lots (3 course meal twice a day) but at meal times only, and lots more fruit & veg. Yes children are given biscuits when they come out of school but the mothers don't eat them. And yes, when I was doing the baccalaureat we had 2 courtyards, only one of which was a smoking one!

I left 20 years ago but return for a fortnight at least twice a year to visit my family. The crap aisles in the supermarket have grown, as have people's waistlines. But when I take my children to the market, they are the only ones eating. No-one else snacks or impulse eats.

I work in London and I am always shocked that whatever the time I am on the train, people are always eating. I am just as bad, my lunch break is 20 minutes, and I eat at my desk as we have no communal facilities. In France most of my family have subsidised work canteens, and if no canteen, vouchers towards the cost of eating in a restaurant/cafeteria.

YANBU people in this country who are out of shape eat too much and/or exercise too little, most have have excuses but very few are genuine.

I agree that obesity for the main part, boils down to eating too much food and not exercising enough.

I know some people like to blame the food industry/poverty/too many carbs etc

But imo (and that's based on my experience of many, many overweight people whose eating habits/exercise habits I'm privy to), they just eat too much, too often and don't burn enough off.

"I had to Google Taylor Swift, but I agree Worra, she doesn't look exceptionally thin to me"

Not that I think any of the 'zomg everyone is fat now' type actually like facts or anything, but based on this: healthyceleb.com/taylor-swift-height-weight-body-statistics/924 , Taylor Swift's BMI is apparently 16.6, which is quite seriously underweight using the same categories that you are using to define 'nearly all British people' as overweight/obese. Now, I understand that you may have your own special categories that have nothing to do with science/medicine/common sense, but either you have to admit that Taylor Swift, along with most other female celebrities, is underweight, or you have to deny the validity of BMI, in which case you have no basis for saying that many people are now overweight. Pick one and stick to it, ffs.

DH works for a Japanese company in London Fuzzy. When Japanese staff first come over they have terrible trouble with the change of diet, chocolate makes them really ill because they simply don't have it at home.

This is rubbish. Japanese supermarkets and convenience stores sell loads of chocolate.

Woodlice yes - 'apparently'

Today (according to Facebook) the Beckhams were 'apparently' breaking up...

Again, she looks like a normal slim woman to me.

As does Amanda Holden who is apparently 'wasting away' and 'painfully thin' according to many Mumsnetters.

I'm sorry Woodlice, but there' no picture of Taylor Swift I've come across where she has a BMI of anything like 16. If she's 5'10", there's no way she weighs 8.5 stones. Is there a possibility that either she's fibbed about her weight or the celeb sites make it up?!

I actually think the pressure not to get fat is a significant factor. I've lived in 5 European countries and nowhere is it so normal and acceptable to be chubby than in the UK. And of course if everybody around you is overweight, your view of your own size becomes distorted. I'm a size 12 - I feel slim in the UK (or US), I feel like a heifer in France. Often this is the biggest size you can find in shops.
Or take kids, there have been several threads here where poster os outraged school told them their child is overweight. But when they post photo or stats, the child clearly is. But as many classmates are the same size, they look average.

I live in France. Women are obsessed with weight to the point of being boring and not enjoying life. Lots of my friends starve themselves and are miserable fucks.

I eat what I want - steaks, pastries etc. I always get tuts from them. But I am still slim and enjoy my food. I know which I'd prefer.

I live in France. Everyone round here tucks into puddings (the favourite local dish is rice pudding with milk straight from the cow), pastries and potatoes with gusto. I would say most of the women in our village are a sturdy size 14 to 16 (and they all seem to be able to buy clothes in those sizes). I have never heard anyone obsess about their weight.
It does rather depend on where you live in France.

if everybody around you is overweight, your view of your own size becomes distorted.

This thread made me realise that.

I'm a bit fat at the moment. But the mirror isn't really telling me that.

In the mirror, when dressed, I think I look slim to normal. But I know, from my weight and the clothes that fit me, that I am anything but slim.

It's weird.

I don't even live in a chubby town. Most people around me are reasonably slim.

And also pretty hard to motivate yourself to do anything about it when you basically think you look OK

"And also pretty hard to motivate yourself to do anything about it when you basically think you look OK"

I think you've absolutely found the crux of the matter there Bathtime. So many people see weight as a matter of appearance (I'm happy with the way I look so shy would I do anything to change it?) when there are so many more important reasons to eat well, exercise and take care of ourselves.

On holiday with friends children who are French - always choose salads first as as a starter when out. No cajoling from the parents, they just do!
Also have noticed when in France, wine glass standard is still 120ml or less than 100ml if eg kir/fizz predinner. Bigger glassses avail but not the norm! Struggling where we live in UK to get 175ml as standard!

It doesn't help that talking about weight is pretty much a taboo subject now. My Facebook feed is full of women constantly posting about "fat acceptance" and "health at every size", and any suggestion that there's a link between weight and health is seen as an insult.

We've returned from the best part of 2 weeks driving round the Loire region although we did a Paris day as well. French (and European) women most certainly can be fat. I'm a size 12 5 ft 5 so not the thinnest by any means but around the pool and the site I was at the slimmer end of the spectrum - and no it wasn't all Brits!

There were some very thin, very tanned French and Italian mothers but they were in a minority. There was also a kids club with some fairly hefty members.

I actually remember thinking to myself at the time "well, so much for French women not getting fat."

I also saw vastly more smoking across the board and, get this, in searing heat around the pool I was always the only woman in a hat. Whilst I concur that being brown makes you look thinner the baggy, saggy skin of many middle aged Europran women is not a look to which I aspire.