was everyone slim in the 1950s/60s

[ambereeree]

I've been watching old films and it seems that everyone was slim in the 50s and 40s. Even women with quite a few children. Is this reality or just in films?

People just ate less. There was very little convenience food. The supermarkets now are stuffed with sweets crisps ready meals, every conceivable snack.

People constantly drinking lattes and eating snacks has a lot to answer for.

I have my old class photo from year 6, one girl looks a bit bigger (possibly first to start puberty) everyone else is small and thin, even the teacher. When I was 14 in 1974 every single girl in our class took a 10 or a 12 in the PE skirt we had to wear, then an American girl joined and she took a 14. She was noticeably bigger than the rest of us, though probably a perfectly acceptable size.
As to clothes sizes, they were a powerful incentive to stay as thin as possible. I remember weighing 10 stones 4 when I was 19, which put me into a size 14. I was quite upset about it and thought I was massive.
I don't think people thought too much about health though, it was all about fitting into your skin tight jeans. If you needed to drop a few pounds you just starved yourself for a few days, living off tab or one-cal, and probably something like cottage cheese and lettuce leaves.

Of course, ironically an awful lot of the people who grew up in the wonderfully slim and healthy 1950s and 1960s with their cutted-up Mars bars are the ones now costing the NHS billions a year treating their type 2 diabetes. Over a quarter of those aged 60+. That generation seems to have something of a sweet tooth.

I can’t comment on the 50s & 60s, but certainly in the 70s most people were definitely much slimmer than they are today.

Why?
Far fewer cars, so people walked much more.

Food was, relatively, much more expensive so treats were treats, not something people ate every day.

Many more people did physical jobs compared to sitting on their arses all day every day.

Most people smoked.

The diabetes is hitting the following generations earlier though.

The diabetes is hitting the following generations earlier though

Possibly, but also very large people who get it younger may not live long enough to enjoy 20+ years of state pension and NHS treatment.

Yes, I'd say most people were slim. In my primary school class (of over 40 kids) in about 1969 I think, there was only one child who was overweight. I've got the class photo to prove it.

Like I said up thread plenty of slim people in my family were dead early of work / smoking related cancers. Not much pension claimed if any.

A lot of school kids are pre diabetic. Those of us who grew up in the 50s were pretty healthy then but we now live in the unhealthy 21st century. Mars bars were cut up in our house as well.

In my 20's there were few size 8's so I had to take size 10 in. I'm a size 10 (8 in some shops) yet I'm 8 stone compared to under 6 1/2 stone then. ( 5'1" so not emaciated)
Remember desperately wanting a pair of levis 501 and smallest size was a 10 which were far too big. I sat in hot baths trying to shrink them to no avail. Ended up sewing up inside leg and putting darts in the waist band. Always sewing skirts up the side seams when no size 8 was available.
And yes the weekend mars bar cut up between 4 of us! Never eating between meals no takeaways no ready meals. Walking 2 miles to school.
The rare fat child at school was last to be picked for sports teams because they couldn't run.

Many women were underfed, and smoked to reduce their appetite.

Yes, a lot of adults smoked.
Children of that time were very slim and they didn't smoke.
So the non-obesity back then wasn't purely down to smoking.

When I said corsets earlier, I didn’t mean the laced in, boned items ( though my grandmother did wear those) - I meant the umbrella term of foundation garments, including roll ons, long length bras and the supposedly lightweight pantygirdles. The introduction of pantyhose / tights made a big difference and smaller, bikini brief became popular with girls in their teens and twenties but they were very expensive in the 60s. My mother was still wearing stockings attached to pantygirdles in the late 60s/early 70s.

I was shocked when I heard of all the people she knew in the 70s who died of cancer. I thought it was a new thing! I think tv has caused so much because people sit and snack instead of going out walking and also if you look back then there was also more cooking from scratch and very little snacking (according to my mother!)

I live in the north west and every time I go to London I notice how much slimmer people are, lots of rushing around and walking quickly probably helps.

It's the same in New York. I didn't see hardly any overweight people.

Oh yes, I remember the girdles and roll ons. They were often made of heavy elastic material and were meant to pull you in. It was like being encased in iron.

I remember a friend of mine who was probably a modern day size 6 with a completely flat stomach and she still went on wearing this awful garment even though they were beginning to go out of fashion at the time.

Oh the relief when tights came into fashion!! Although, the first ones were pretty awful and very expensive compared to stockings.

I remember buying a pair of very pricey ones for a special occasion and when I opened the packet found that one leg was about ten inches longer than the other.

I don't know about the 50s and was born in the 60s, but I do remember the 70s and yes, everyone seemed to be slim. Families with a car, well, dad took the car to work and mum and kids walked to school and shops, a diet was 1000 cals a day, all us kids played outside in all weathers. On the rare occasions we saw an obese person [was obese even a word then?] they were a source of amusement. Also we were all racist as hell without even knowing.

Ah, the sliced mars bar on a saucer in the fridge.

I remember putting a bit of weight on and having to go up to a 14 in top shop in the early 80s. You were hard pushed to find a 14 and never a 16. So i was the LARGEST SIZE Top Shop sold for a while. Wow i felt a fatty. I dieted.

Not being able to find clothes over a certain size was an incentive to keeping the weight in check. Jeans getting a bit tight? Time to cut down on the cakes.
Now there are more and more shops that cater for larger sizes. These shops try to make being fat sound like a good thing by relabeling Fat as Curvy.

It's no wonder there is an obesity epidemic.
Tough love is what is needed, not pandering.

Glad to read Im not the only deprived child of the 50's who had to share a mars bar!
I can easily eat a huge mars bar all myself now so maybe that level of restriction didnt do me any goid.
Agree with those who talk about portion control. I use the same amount of butter cream to decorate 12 fairy cakes that I see on one huge shop bought muffin.

If you buy an old dressmaking pattern and cut it to size you'll see the MASSIVE difference in sizing. A 10 and a 12 are TINY and a modern day size 10 could squeeze into the 16.

Thought of another reason!
Lycra! Clothes didnt use to have stretch so if they were tight you cut down a bit, not so now, several mars bars could be accomodated in my jeggings unlike skin tight rough denim from the 60' and 70's

Agree with the vintage dress patterns too, nothing to do with corsets just larger bodies now all over

Overall people probably were slimmer but I know my Granny talks about an auntie in the 50s who was like a little round ball and couldn't hold the baby (my dm) on her lap as her tummy came over her thighs when she sat down. Sadly I think I take after this side of the family - short and fat

By the way I am presently sitting at Gatwick airport waiting fir my flight and doing an age/size survey!
I remember going out for a walk with my youngest in the pram early 90's and walking past a cafe at 2.30 approx and wondering why there were people eating! Was it dinner? Tea? All changed now, im always in thereat any old timehaving a cup of tea, trying to resist cake to go with it though! So much temptation

I don't like these threads. They start off interesting, then they descend into, 'Think you're a size 8? Pah! I was a size 12 in 1973 and I had a six inch waist!'

Also, there's a moralistic undertone to a lot of the comments about self-control and how much more physical work people had to do back then.

Frankly, I'm quite happy not to have to starve on rations and scrub floors, and if it means I'm a bit bigger than my grandma was, good. She was dead at 36 from a heart condition that would have been easily treatable now, and it was exacerbated by the fact that she starved herself to feed my mum properly during the war, poor lass.

Rose tinted glasses, people.