To resent people who use the "she's thin because she's rich" fallacy?

[GinDaddy]

I recently read an article on Carole Middleton, mother of the Duchess of Cambridge. It was one of the creepy DM ones that highlighted her "trim figure" in a bikini or whatever nonsense they wrote, at her age of 60-something.

What struck me were the comments underneath the article. Hundreds of them saying the same thing:

"She's only thin because she's rich and has the time to be thin".

AIBU to think this is a slightly silly fallacy, a nonsense argument used by people who potentially resent their own weight and situation?

ok YES I agree that if you have staff, you have a business and/or are retired and therefore can control your hours and schedule, that automatically opens up huge swathes of time for the gym, and home cooking.

However how does that account for Oprah, Rebel Wilson, Gemma Collins, etc etc? These are well off (rich in Oprah's case) powerful women whose weight has fluctuated a lot. I'm not criticising them whatsoever. I'm just suggesting that surely there's more to it than just "she's rich therefore she will be thin?"

Carole Middleton has good genetics sure, but it's clearly more than that. She has had a life of self discipline, perhaps borne out of her initial job in the skies, and a slightly old fashioned sense of weight and "keeping one's figure" that has clearly been transmitted down to her daughters. I think her approach pre-dates the money, it's clearly simply a life choice - one no better than anyone else's, but a choice nonetheless.

AIBU here to think the "she's rich, therefore she's lucky and can be thin" is a bit of a straw argument, when I can see plenty of folk around me who don't have such resources but perhaps share Carole's ethos and therefore have prioritised the things that make them a certain way?

Fully prepared to be stamped on as is the AIBU ritual but it's an argument I see time and time again

YABU. The link between poverty and obesity is well documented. However the link between being rich and maintaining weight is not.

I put on weight after my pregnancy like most people. After my second DC, I went on a weight loss camp for 4 days. We were a group of 10 women and the common factor was everyone was wealthy, with spare time, help at home.

10 years on, I am in perimenopause and struggling with weight gain again. Im looking at doing this again - just to get me out of the rut and kickstart something that i can maintain.

And this is not to mention all the other things that help. Ability and time to buy and prep healthy, tasty meals, time to work out etc.

I could put it all down to my iron will and discipline but having just polished off most of the Christmas cake on my own that would be a lie.

You don't need a chef to cook nutritious meals. Get a slow cooker.
My EE friend buys potatoes veg meat stock flour and makes all her food from scratch.
She isn't restraining herself it is just the way she learnt to eat.

tbf though you do get the posters who say they struggle to eat a sandwich in one go. I used to do modelling & then worked in the fashion industry. Many of them survived on diet coke & cigarettes & I found that the older, more senior women tended to be the thinnest.

I'm poor and thin 🤷‍♀️

I put on a lot of weight when I became employed again (freelancer before).

I am not rich, more working/middle class.

When you are out of the house 10-11 hours a day, have a small child, a house to run and crippling childcare bills, leaving you with barely enough to live on, I can assure you that you are not in the mood to do much/if any “self care”.

I piled on the weight by simply never walking anywhere as I am too time constrained to not drive, not eating proper meals (again a time thing) and then binging in the evenings on wine and ready meals/takeaways. Sleep and repeat...

Freelancing meant I could work in short bursts full time, but say only 3 months on a project 3 months off, whilst earning the same as my current annual salary. I had much more time and energy to look after myself better.

I have lost most of the weight gain this year, but have a stone to go. I haven’t been exercising as I still don’t have the time, but I am making sure I eat properly.

If I was to add in Extra caring responsibilities or become a lone parent I would certainly be obese by now..

Don't underestimate genetics. My husband has been underweight all his life yet stuffs himself with rubbish all day. This morning he's eaten a Twirl bar and a bowl of Heinz tomato soup with buttered bread, and he'll be having a Sunday roast later on, and drinking beer.

tbf though you do get the posters who say they struggle to eat a sandwich in one go. I used to do modelling & then worked in the fashion industry. Many of them survived on diet coke & cigarettes & I found that the older, more senior women tended to be the thinnest

True. Its the extremes though that are annoying. Eating half a grape and claiming you are full is just as ridiculous as eating a massive three course meal and calling someone a liar for not wanting a mcdonalds an hour afterwards

I'm a member of a private club and am surprised at how practically all the women are very slim. It's very noticible. They can't all be trophy wives .....(I'm JOKING!!!!!!!!!)
It is weird how socioeconomic background has such a significant link to weight. Not just in women but in men and children. It also seen across all ages.

I'm slim but I have to fight to stay thin. I think having money helps. I have time, gym membership and ability to afford to eat healthy food. To me being slim is really important. It makes me happy. I see it as one of the most important things I can 'give' myself. No one else had any control over it - it's just me.

I think food companies have a lot to answer for. A lot of food comes in ridiculously huge portions and all the buy one get one free nonsense doesn't help.

Bingo! A MN weight/eating thread can never be without the ubiquitous 'people stuffing themselves'. Now we need chomping, gulping, slurping,

We're not doing each other any favours by denying that most people are fat because they choose to eat crap

Neither are we doing fat people any favours by assuming that their weight gain is down solely to eating crap.

FruitcakeOfHate I think, after 15 years of marriage, I am a legitimate authority on what my seven stone husband eats, and how he eats it. He stuffs himself with rubbish and stays thin as a rake.

I also think there is a difference between being slim & thin. I can be slim by eating relatively healthy & exercising 3 times a week. However if I wanted a 24" waist & 34" (i'm 5ft 10) hips again after dc & over 35 I would need to restrict myself a lot. I technically have the time & money to work out every day but I personally don't want to be that thin or deprive myself.

I think if Carol Middleton was just an ordinary retired woman I'm sure she would still be slim (good genes and self discipline) but it's unlikely she'd be as sculpted and toned as she is now.

My mum is older than her and has always been slim (small appetite, not actually that bothered about food, very active) but she's never been toned like that.

Stress, lack of sleep, quality of food, time to exercise and genetics are all things that impact on weight. Money can help with some of those things.

Just about every single MN thread asking, 'How do slim people stay slim?', results in the overall consensus being that most slim people eat/drink less than overweight people.

So as much as it's linked to poverty, it's still linked to how much food is consumed rather than just the quality.

I'm just suggesting that surely there's more to it than just "she's rich therefore she will be thin?"

YABU for mistaking a correlation between wealth & thinness for causation. Nobody is saying that all rich people are thin.

YABU for reading the DM & taking anything they say seriously.

There is ample evidence that less advantaged folks have less time & money to access e.g. gyms, classes or personal trainers. That they are more prone to live in food deserts, or may not have enough time outside work to access fresh foods, or have enough money to spend on high quality nutrition. Processed carbs & lard are cheap, readily available in 24-hour supermarkets, heavily promoted, & addictive without fulfilling the body's needs.

You can read up on this to learn more - google up some proper studies, & forget about encountering any 'facts' from the tabloid press.

Statistically, it has been proven that those with less money are on average larger in size.
This is down to so many factors.
I worked in a severely deprived area and many children we obese, and this was predominantly down to lack of education with the parents; they thought that chicken nuggets were healthy because they “were chicken” and banana milkshake was good because it “was banana”
Not saying this is for all people or the case for everyone, but I certainly felt it was a big factor.

oh damn i missed that memo.
Thin, never ever been rich or even well off
pure genetics on my part nothing else
i dont exercise and eat as i please
but i dont eat when bored or past that full feeling

I think that wealth and obesity have complex links.

Yes, there are the pressures of poverty overwhelming people, live for today because tomorrow looks shit too. Combined with the relative cheapness of unhealthy food and lack of opportunity for exercise. Add in the difficulty of initiating change when everyone around you is in the same position and you can see why it happens.

But I’d also add in past trauma and personality traits informed by that trauma. Trauma gives us a need for comfort, if that comfort is not emotionally available then people often turn to food, perhaps in the past they might halve smoked a packet of cigarettes causing an equal but less immediately visible harm.Whilst trauma can cut across wealth it also tends to effect poorer people more, look at evidence around Adverse a Childhood Experiences.

Finally some people are naturally more able to demonstrate restraint, to delay gratification, to make the choice that is best for them. These are traits we are born with, to a greater or lesser degree, but again hugely influenced by our early life experiences. Having these traits is likely to build you up to experience success and therefore relative wealth as well as slimness and health.

Finally there is how much slenderness is valued by the societal group you are part of and by you as an individual. For me, it’s very important to be slim and that overrides my desire to eat lots and I can achieve that because of a number of other advantages that I have as a well-educated relative high earner.

Missed genetics, I think a significant influence not just on physical characteristics but the personality traits that impact on eating behaviours.

I was at the Harvester last night and most tables had overweight people there, me included! It was cheap and plentiful, 2 things attractive to those not so well off!

There is a link between deprived areas / low average income, and obesity so in some ways the comments are right the richer you are the more likely you are to be a healthy weight.

However talking about individuals is never useful in statements like this

Yamihere montmatre it's choices, not poverty. You don't see many obese people in sub saharan Africa.

I think the whole poverty = over weight is a modern thing and very much related to the amount of cheap rubbish food available.

My parents were born at the very beginning of the 1900s. They were far from rich but were both slim their whole lives. However, they ate a healthy diet, and of course, absolutely no fast food, as such places didn't exist.

They had seven children. My DM - it was usually my DM, although my DF was also a great cook and would cook at the weekends - cooked all meals from scratch - lots of fish, vegetable, fruit etc - and we all grew up tall and slim. Again no fast foods. And my DCs are likewise slim.

The tall, slim frame is clearly governed to a great extent by genetics, but the fact that our diet from birth was healthy would have informed our eating habits and my DCs - now adults - all eat in a similar way and feed their children the same way.

If you haven't grown up seeing meals prepared in the home and have been fed fast and/or poor quality food, then you are going to have very little idea of what constitutes a healthy diet.

I also think good food is relatively more expensive now than when I was growing up so feeding a healthy diet back then was, to a great extent easier if you were poor.

The pace of life is so much faster now. Food is fuel, it's not something people want, or have time, to spend hours preparing. So much quicker to just pick up something that's ready to pop in the oven. And so much cheaper in a lot of cases.

Americans were the first to have fast food and look what's happened to their overall size as a nation.

Every country that takes on the fast food habits sees a rise in body weight of the population.

During WW2 the vast majority of the population in British were living on a very restricted diet. Most women had to cook, the food was very limited. Very few fat people around, I imagine.