"employment is at an all time high. Are you trying hard enough?" Ahhh you're a Tory! Explains a lot! Off topic but it actually really ISN'T at an all time high the figures are fiddled. There's also far more people TRYING to find work and therefore applying for those jobs than the tories will admit (they only include in those figures those on JSA or UC equivalent. Not those not claiming any out of work benefits nor those claiming income support or ESA or equivalents)
Also there are HUGE regional differences and people CAN'T always afford to "get on their bikes" and just move to where there are more jobs (but higher living costs!), then there is (understandably it's an employers market) the prejudice against anyone who's not worked for several years and PARTICULARLY If the reason for not working is ill health - it's why all colours of govts have had to provide incentives to employers to get them to even CONSIDER long term sick returners to work. Incentives which under the current govt have largely been removed.
As someone with a family full of addicts, yes I am sympathetic to addiction - to a degree.
There's an ELEMENT of choice with obesity and addiction and particularly imo with illegal drug addiction - at some point BEFORE they were addicted those addicted to illegal drugs CHOSE to take an illegal known to be highly addictive substance. But it's far more complex than JUST choice and even the choice is to a degree subconscious.
With addiction to alcohol again huge cultural issues with this which are just STARTING to be addressed by govts. Advertising is still problematic here, even with quite strict rules.
Smoking - govts worldwide are starting to make real headway not only with getting those already addicted to quit but in preventing new addicts being created - interesting that many people agree that strict advertising rules have really helped here yet REFUSE to see the same could be true for food & soft drinks.
PanGalactic - considering there's a HUGE number of common medications and a wide variety of DIFFERENT medical conditions that can make it easy to gain and hard to lose weight AND if you add to that from reading a lot on mn and elsewhere generally, talking to hcps and in particular on another thread I have running that it VERY much looks like hypothyroidism is massively underdx and treated in this country I think it's entirely possible a majority of those people DO have medical reasons that CONTRIBUTE to their being overweight.
Add in cultural issues including pretty much unrestricted advertising of the least healthy foods and it's the perfect storm really!
"Eating more has got to be the real reason." Reducing it to that won't solve the problem. We need to understand WHY people are eating more than previous generations.
Anyone who watches food/social history programmes or reads on these subject areas will know ONE factor is that relative to income certain types of food (the supposedly "junk" food) are cheaper than they've ever been. To take an example given upthread - if you've a family who are BARELY getting by and you've the choice of spending MORE on initial outlay to make a chicken stew from scratch AND spending more on fuel to cook that food OR for half the price frozen chicken nuggets and chips that take 1/3 of the time to cook therefore less fuel consumption too you're going to choose the latter.
Add in to that scenario knackered parents who are working 2 jobs each just to get by and they're not going to have the energy/motivation to peel and chop veggies, chop meat etc after a long working day with hungry kids baying at your feet.
There's also the factor of its not actually eating more in terms of volume but in terms of cals. A good few times at ww our leader referred to several studies that showed that pretty much everyone eats the same VOLUME of food daily but the TYPE of food means the calorific content varies. This is where you get people who "don't eat much" but are still overweight. I've also seen this theory illustrated by dietitians on various programmes like "eat well for less".
200g of chips is far more calorific than 200g of carrots. But the chips are actually less filling as they take up less volume.
That's why schemes like ww DON'T just say cut down how much you're eating but instead recommend less calorific foods to eat instead (and motivate/educate members by making these foods "free" or lower on their points system) to fill the gap left by having less of the calorific foods.
People who've never been to ww, sw etc may also not be aware that these programmes are very aware that many of their members ARE dealing with
Being on meds that slow metabolism/inc appetite (the meds that do this tend to be guilty of BOTH!)
Having medical conditions that do the same.
Have reduced mobility due to disability/illness
Have mh conditions that make the sufferer lack motivation to prep, cook...even go eat at all! Certainly I know that part of the reason I don't eat as well as I could/should is because I lack the mental energy/motivation to cook (even though it is/was something enjoy) and also because I get very anxious regarding things being "off" (partly fuelled by the fact I have a stomach that reacts really badly to the slightest upset, but also part of my OCD).
I was really nervous when I first went thinking (wrongly) I'd have little in common with other members (mainly due to the mh issues) only to find I may as well have gone to mh group session! In terms of who was there! Mh meds in particular are buggers for screwing with appetite/metabolism.
"You only have to eat a little too much each day over a long time for it to creep up gradually and most women don't need 2000kcal a day if they are short/more sedentary etc." Yes I think this is something a LOT of slimmer people forget - overweight people didn't BECOME overweight overnight! But then also overweight people forget this and we get frustrated when it doesn't come OFF overnight either. It also tends not to be linear. Anyone who's monitored their weight over a long period of time for whatever reason will know they don't gain/lose regularly every week. Hormones can be part of that too - so many female ww members learned to accept if they weren't yet post-menopause there'd be at least one week a month they'd be grateful if they just didn't gain! But the following week you'd likely get a significant loss - even without doing anything different.
RaceCarDriver - those are unfounded prejudices though. As I said upthread I've met plenty of slim but unfit, lazy people. Size doesn't automatically indicate ones personality or even level of fitness. I've 2 friends who are overweight but not obese who regularly take part in marathons, triathlons and endurance swimming competitions and do very well at them! Several of our slim friends would struggle to run for a bus! And they're off work sick more often than these friends too. One in particular seems to get every winter bug going and they hit her really hard.