To wonder what exactly middle class and upper class Mums do to be skinny

[Humpy84]

I am a Mum of a two year old turning three July. Not an age that he can be packed up for long walks in buggy.

I have gained weight and feeling overwhelmed by everything.

I have noticed and I think it is obvious that middle and upper class Mums tend to be slimmer.

I want to know if you identify this and if so what is your weekly shopping routine, meal plan, how do you exercise with or without toddler/s, tips and tricks etc, diet plans, etc etc.

but a packet of 5 Fair-trade bananas is £.90

For 90p, I could buy three packets of biscuits from lidl

I was just pointing out that it's not easy or fun

I was just trying to point out it can be. In summer when you wake up hot, early in the morning (not unusual for me I'm peri menopausal), it's lovely to get out in the cool fresh air and feel breeze when most people are asleep. I say hello to the dog walkers and other runners, listen to my music and it's all like a bit of a dream. Get back for breakfast.

Citadel, thanks. It certainly motivated me to try and I was not in particularly good shape at the time.

For 90p, I could buy three packets of biscuits from lidl But why would you want to when you could have bananas?

Why would you buy 3 packs of biscuits v 5 bananas?
Loads of reasons,

• if you were on a strict budget 3 packs of biscuits would be more servings/snacks than 5 bananas
• if you were solely calorie counting, a rich tea, possibly even 2 might have less cals than a banana
• biscuits are not perishable
• if you had 3 kids, for example a pack of biccies might do all week for after school snacks....

I wouldn't do that, but I can see why people do. If you had three dc and were skint...3 packets of biscuits would stretch much further than 5 bananas would.

I'm most definitely middle class and desperately need to lose a few pounds as do most of my friends so if you find out let us know!

Someone posted about job satisfaction is more likely if you are a high earner

I think just general satisfaction about your life you are not as likely to use food to satisfy yourself

Food can be hugely satisfy especially high fat high sugar foods and is used for comfort and enjoyment. When your circumstances are not particularly satisfying it’s easy to see why that option is used and becomes almost addictive

But why would you want to when you could have bananas?

Exactly. Why would you think that, particularly when feeding your children, it is better to buy cheap biscuits than nutritious bananas? PPs have written about familial influences on their diets and thus parents have a responsibility, particularly if they know better, to instill a healthy food outlook. The small difference between healthy food and nutritionally poor food actually is misleading. If you look at the actually price difference in health long term between the two, you'd realise that the junk is much more expensive.

Biscuits? I just don't snack. Not hungry between meals. What you eat can make a real different. I discovered that years ago when I did a low carb diet. Between meals I just drink redbush tea or water.

It is the eating habits that make the difference once you've taken account of your heritable weight.

Like pp have said, having poor food in your kitchen will directly lead to poor eating.

If your kitchen doesn't have frozen chips, pizzas, crisps, biscuits, frozen ready meals,but is full of raw ingredients its a case of having to make something of you are hungry.

Also, if you need to eat quick you don't have to cook, there are loads of snacks you can eat that don't require cooking, or really quick things.

Food can be hugely satisfy especially high fat high sugar foods

The enjoyment only lasts as long as it takes to eat them though. There are lots of other enjoyable things. Books, tv, music, a bath.

It's a mindset I really struggle to understand. When I was living on benefits I bought the essentials, the real food, including fruit and vegetables, and only things like a packet of biscuits if there was money left after buying the essentials.

That is is instant is what is so satisfying

Of course there are many activities that give satisfaction but food always has and now we have an abundance of cheap instantly satisfying food

I think there's definitely a class issue! I'm a nanny but also a single parent. They have time to go to the gym, time and money to eat healthy food/plan meals. Harsh but true there's a huge amount of women who have nothing better to do but look pretty for their wealthy husbands... I've seen it happen!!

Just pretend you had the rubbishy snack a minute ago, then?

The more money you have the more food you can buy, and the more expensive restaurants and delivery services you can frequent.

The key to staying slim is not eating too much.

I find buying good protein - lots of fish for example quite expensive but I prefer low carb.

If you do simple calorie / portion size reduction probably cheaper than above

Sugary food can be addictive which makes it different to other ‘treats’

@Gwenhwyfar, I can't figure out from your post whether you want to lose weight or not. Because you keep saying healthy food doesn't taste good, do does this mean you are going to stick to eating unhealthy? If so, either you massively reduce the portions or you accept that you will most likely never be slim. There are no magical formula.

OP, its great that this thread has motivated you, good luck.

My advice is simple. Don't restrict yourself totally. Food is a source of pleasure and that shouldn't be denied. The key is balance. Don't look at what you eat daily but what you eat weekly so that if you have a day of eating half of pack of biscuits, it's OK, next day make it salads only or add an hour to your gym routine.

Play with portions sizes, work out which bad food you can easily cut out and what you refuse to so will have maybe only once a week.

Don't expect too much too quickly. What matters is changing your habits. Good luck.

I don’t think this is a class issue at all, I know plenty of working class slim people.

It literally is down to your diet. Some people believe they can eat whatever they want provided they exercise a bit but it simply isn’t the case. I remember reading that diet is approx 90% of the effort with weight loss and I believe that.

I lost seven stone in a year after gaining a lot of weight following the birth of my three DC in quick succession. I did exercise a lot but I was very strict with my diet too, I had to be.

Since people are basing it on who they know I had a look to see what gov sources said

Obesity and health inequalities
No one is ‘immune’ to obesity, but some people are more likely to become overweight or obese than others. The Marmot review highlights that income, social deprivation and ethnicity have an important impact on the likelihood of becoming obese.

There is a strong relationship between deprivation and childhood obesity. Analysis of data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) shows that obesity prevalence among children in both Reception and Year 6 increases with increased socioeconomic deprivation (measured, for example, by the 2010 Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) score). Obesity prevalence in the most deprived 10% of children is approximately twice that of the least deprived 10%.

From Health Matters: obesity and food environment

Marsha but just knowing you are statically more likely to become obese does not mean you will become obese. Yes, there are challenges, some of which are income related but eating healthily and exercising is within reach for most people.

If I, personally, took statistics to heart my prognosis would not be good. I've had hormone negative cancer and a reoccurrence. I have had to make the decision to live as best as I can. I decided exercise, fitness and weight loss would be the surest thing to make me feel better about my body. So that's what I decided to achieve along with addressing my diet. I don't regret this decision.

Statistically

Oh no doubt Bird!

I had always thought there was a link but I started to question it so I googled

Absolutely people can and hopefully will buck this current trend

If you dont have sufficient food you will lose weight.

Eating take-outs, sweet chocolate, fries foods, etc will not help your body to be well.

I find it hard to get healthy take outs but they are out there. Fresh cooked crisp veg etc.

If I buy crap I find it hard not to eat it!

Eating planned healthy meals sorts most of it out, that and portion control,and balancing the amount consumed with the amount of calories burned.