Why are British kids fat?

[VogueVVague]

So time, two parents working, low budget/cost - all these things can result in ready meals being served up etc. but that still doesnt explain why, compared to the rest of Europe, our kids are the fattest.

So whats the reason?

Is it political?
Cultural?

Something must have changed for us and mot the rest of Europe in the past 50 years (doubt kids before 1960 were chunky).

sirzy oh to be a size 8

I'm bigger than i should be but that's mainly because I cook dinner for the kids and dp then im out the door. So my dinner is usually just something picked up from a shop on the way to work.

I also have a bad habit of "saving" every thing for the kids lunches as I want them to eat well. I should care more about myself really.

I have lost some weight though. Cos by the time I get back from.work im past being hungry...

I'm constantly fed called mean by my family because I will share a jacket potato between them rather than one each.

Because I insist on playing up theirs myself because they really like on more than even id eat telling me the kids are too skinny particularly dd1 because she's apparently so much smaller than the other kids (bit some of those other kids are bigger than they should be.trying to catch her up with them would be unhealthy for her) she's within normal range there r kids smaller

The clothes size thing is bollocks. My DD has clothes 2 years above her age and she isn't overweight at all, just very tall.

Portion sizes.
Lack of cooking skills being passed down the generations.
Snacking.

We have been scaremongered into not letting our kids play outside alone, but that shouldn't stop parents taking their kids to the park or to any open space. If you have parents who are sedentary, then it's likely that the kids are sedentary too.
Not all activities have to cost..go as a family to Parkrun weekly, it's free. Go for a walk, it's free. Take up Pokémon GO, it's free, gets the kids out. Take up Geocaching, it's free and takes you to places you might never know existed. Learn how to cram three bikes and three people into a small car and drive somewhere safe to cycle...or buy a bike rack.

But, that is all down to the parents to get the kids out.
It's no good complaining that playing fields have been sold off when there are still plenty of open spaces in all towns that can be used for a walk.

Both parents working full time and being driven everywhere is not a new thing.

I grew up in the 80s and that was my childhood, and that of all my friends.

So I don't think you can blame it on that.

Children are taller nowadays. My slim just turned 10 year old wear age 11-12 and sometimes they are too short for him.

I'm 5'2"...when I was growing up, I was average height amongst my peers. Teenagers tower over me now!

Teenage girls are much taller than they used to be. I saw my 13-year-old niece on Mon - she's 5'7" already with size 8 feet!!!! She's much bigger than I am (5'4" and size 5 feet). SIL was saying how hard it is to find clothes that fit her in the DC's sections. I'm not surprised when she's considerably bigger than many fully grown women.

I think lack of exercise plays a large part. I grew in the 70s and 80s and ate mostly processed crap. I also ate a huge amount of sweets, as in chocolate pretty much every day and spent my pocket money on bags of boiled or jelly sweets. My teeth paid the price, but my waist line didn't, I was an very skinny child, my first name starts with M and I was nicknamed Boney M.

My DD has always eaten a much better diet, not perfect, I'm sure people on here would pull it to shreds but she's eats mostly home cooked food and plenty of fruit and veg. She rarely has sweets, she still has Easter eggs left (this is her choice, I haven't hidden them). She's not fat, but not skinny either like I was.

The difference is every evening after school, pretty much all year round I was playing out at the local park with my friends from the end of school until around five or six. I wish I could let DD out in the same way, but no child here plays out by themselves until about secondary age. Most (and I included DD here, I'm not judging) are ferried from school to clubs to home in the car.

I have teenage nieces too...youngest being 13. They are all taller than me! I was never considered especially short when I was a teenager but I'd be an absolute shrimp nowadays!

But that still doesn't explain why the waist measurements fit.

If they were just tall then they would be massive around the waist.

And over weight often means overall too.they end up shorter than their peers long term because they did all the growing much earlier

Overtall

But that still doesn't explain why the waist measurements fit

Really? I have to tighten the waists on all my ds's jeans using those elastic things they put in the sides of the waistband.

DD is very slim, she's always been slim. She eats loads and snacks a lot, both healthy food and unhealthy food. She will probably stay this way until she hits 35 and then will pile it on, like everyone in our family seems to do.

I think it’s more socially acceptable to be fat in the UK.
I live in a European country and people comment on other people’s weight much more to their faces anyway.
In fact, my neighbour just stopped me to ask if I’m going to have another baby and said it should be easy for me because I’m in good shape and not fat. They don’t have the same boundaries that Brits have. I’m wondering if this shames people into staying in shape, from childhood onwards. If my child was fat, I would expect to be pulled in by the teacher for a meeting about it. I don’t think that happens in the UK.

That’s it’s Giles, my 7 year old is very tall BUT clothes hang from his waist because he is very slim with it.

I've read some comments on here about it being rude to comment on someone's weight, but people do not seem to find it rude to comment if you're not fat. In the past few weeks I've been told I look like a 'skelf' and a 'matchstick' by people I work with. This isn't complimenting someone, it's just being rude. My BMI is 20 so not as if I'm underweight. I do wonder how she'd react if I said 'you look like a donut'.

We have been scaremongered into not letting our kids play outside alone, but that shouldn't stop parents taking their kids to the park or to any open space. With the best will in the world, parents aren't going to be able to take their kids out for more than a couple of hours most days, which doesn't replace the exercise one used to get by being out every hour that you weren't at school or asleep

Paris, yep, there's a double standard around commenting on fat people and doing the same to thin people. I get called skinny (ugly word IMO) and accused of being anorexic, not eating, being a vegan , all kinds. I am none of those things.

It's not just the kids is it, most adults are overweight these days.

Also there is a field outside my local swimming pool with a park. It's going to be knocked down so they can put a Greggs there

They are going to knock down the park to build a Greggs? Have you got a link for that or are you virtue signalling?

4 oranges as one snack!?

Ahem . For the WEEK

Swimbikerun - just googled from where we used to live to our town centre is almost 2 miles, moved there when dd was 8 coincidentally, we regularly walked into town only getting bus if weather truly horrendous, but even the bus stop was a good 15 min walk away.

Paris - even a little fibre plus the nutrients is better than Coke. I'm not saying juice is a "healthy" drink especially not loads of juice BUT it is healthiER than Coke which pps claimed and it is frequently stated on mn that it's "no worse than" or "just as bad as" it's absolutely not.

Agree with you on this though:
"I wish more restaurants gave you the option of smaller portions - there are places I avoid as I can only make a dent into the portion and it's such a waste."

I've even offered to pay full price for a children's portion of the SAME meal and been refused - how does that even make business sense? Now dd is older too she wants to order off the adult menu but often the portions are so big they're off-putting and so much is WASTED which is dreadful environmentally too.

Eating less healthy food for pleasure is NOT as simple as being lazy/lacking self discipline. Certain foods do affect the brain in the same way as alcohol, certain drugs that give a "high", the feeling of being loved. Of course people enjoy and seek to replicate that.

I remember watching Oprah discuss this once in terms of her belief that certain foods are addictive and certain people are more prone to addictive behaviour. If you're addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling... You can quit them completely. Not easily but you can live without them. But you can't do that with food. You're exposed to your 'drug' daily and have to keep the addiction controlled without being able to completely walk away from it. Ask anyone that's dealt with addiction to alcohol, drugs etc if they could stop being an addict by "only" having a small amount of their drug.

Getting school uniform for dd was a nightmare her first 2 years at high school as the prescribed items even in the smaller sizes were huge on her they looked ridiculous! Skirts and trousers we could get from anywhere thankfully but I still had to get slightly too big for the length to be right and the adjustable elastic inside the waistbands I had to pull in further than the buttons initially and secure with safety pins!

She still struggles with length to waist ratios now and mainly shops online for "bottoms".

Quorn mince £3.50 for 350g no shrinkage and that would be plenty to make a lasagne for 4.

@DarlingNikita I don't remember this happening years ago, I'm pretty sure I was seen as 'normal' weight for a good while when I was younger! It's annoying, I'm not even 'thin', just petite.

I've always been called 'lanky' (which I am) but I think it's only as an adult that people have started with the 'skinny' stuff and asked about my eating habits etc.

I'm not skinny and I eat a lot (attested to by those who know me well!) I agree, people have a skewed sense of what a normal body is. And no idea of how serious anorexia actually is.

I don't think children are eating too much though. It's what they eat and how much they move. As a kid my siblings and I ate like horses-chips, massive stews, home made cake, more masdive stews and none of us were fat, and while I may be spreading a bit we are none of us fat now. My son kind of needs 2 lunches a day (or at least 5 small meals) because he just burns it up. A couple of pitta/hummus strips and a bit of fruit is his after school snack, then he has a big proper tea at 7 ish. He is in the lower 25th centile for weight, but he will choose sport or playing out over being in every time.
He fatter friends come here and eat way less than him but they never want to leave the x box.

I think our views on what amounts to a portion of food is massively off kilter now, people just eat too much, of everything. We are also far more sedentary and kids rarely 'play out' like they did 20+ years ago.

As a kid I would go out in the morning in the summer holidays and have to be called in to eat a snack and later dinner, playing rounders, dodge ball, football, on my bike, tag etc. I don't see many kids out now without a parent in tow.