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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Boris declares war on fat

865 replies

Weallhavevalidopinions · 15/05/2020 09:25

Boris has said his being overweight contributed to his problems with Covid-19.
Stories this morning suggest he will wage war on fat...

What type of help do you think might be suggested?

Have you decided to lose weight due to Covid-19 worries?

YABU - no I will not lose weight due to Covid worries
YANBU - I will lose weight due to Covid worries

OP posts:
flamegame · 15/05/2020 10:09

Not because of Boris but since being overweight is a known risk factor, most people will be trying to be more careful. Being stuck in with nothing to do, financial worries and home schooling is not terribly conducive though!

Iwalkinmyclothing · 15/05/2020 10:11

God, this is going to be dreadful. Few things as fucking irritating than a person who has kicked an unhealthy habit and is now evangelical about getting others to do the same.

randomer · 15/05/2020 10:11

So, Jo Public sees Boris and thinks, wow he's so insprirational. He was ill and now he wants to lose weight. I must model myself on this wonderous person.

stopandListen · 15/05/2020 10:11

I'm losing weight, not just because of covid, although there is no doubt being fat is a very real risk factor. It's because as a lifelong emotional over the eater I'm just fed up being fat!

Fed up dreading summer as nothing looks nice, feeling hot, sweaty and uncomfortable, fed up being a bad example to my young children, just generally fed up being fat.

Lost 6lb so far and determined to get to a healthy BMI.
Good on Boris I say.

feelingverylazytoday · 15/05/2020 10:11

The bellicose language is becoming tedious
You know what I find extremely tedious? The amount of negativity on this forum, the continual denial over weight issues, the refusal to accept personal responsibility for health, and the continual need to slag Boris Johnson off, no matter what he says and does.
He is completely right on this issue, the science and stats back him up, and he has acknowledged that he has a weight problem himself and that affected his recovery from coronavirus.
So yes, I expect some people will take notice of what he says on this and start to lose weight. Some people have already started.

SomeHalfHumanCreatureThing · 15/05/2020 10:12

"Does anyone know if Boris smokes? Apologies if the statistics are readily available but I wonder how smoking affects recovery."

Smoking, weirdly, is protective against covid. It's very unusual, but that's what the numbers are saying.

BogRollBOGOF · 15/05/2020 10:12

I've always wanted to maintain a healthy weight because I don't want to drop dead in the street of a heart attack in my early 50s like my dad did. Losing your dad before you've left junior school is more than a bit crap.

Lockdown is having a bad effect on my waist becaus I'm missing the low key regular movements such as walking to school about 15 times per week. I'm still running, but my background movement has nosedived. Having the constant presence of a DH and DCs in the house means that I can't please myself with a lighter lunch of fish or salad and makes 5:2 harder (OK, I can, but it's double effort and double temptation). There is much more sugar and carbs going on with them beeing fed. The DCs have ribs like xylophones, so keeping any meat on their bones is a good thing.

It's good that attractiveness is now being seen as something far more diverse than 90s heroin chic, but "big is beautiful" does nothing to minimise the increased health risks of obesity, añd we can't even see the lower ends of obesity anymore because "healthy" is now the minority. Slim/ healthy is now seen as skinny which implies unhealthily underweight.

Making healthy choices and keeping to a healthy weight is a constant battle against hard practical choices out of convenience and what is avaliable and soft cultural pressures, "just one/a bit more", wine/gin/ cake cultures. Things like big plates that completely distort your sense of portion control.

We all know that obesity is a risk and most people have a pretty decent idea about where they stand, but we have a culture where it is so difficult to maintain a constant sense of management/ control for losing or maintaining weight.

Particularly for women, there is also the side of calories in/ calories out is complicated by the calories out being distorted by hormonal and immune conditions, and medications.

Iwalkinmyclothing · 15/05/2020 10:12

To answer your questions, I lost a significant amount of weight pre coronavirus. I think I have gained a bit back recently and will work to lose it again, but not in connection to the virus.

SomeHalfHumanCreatureThing · 15/05/2020 10:12

ZaraW

"Boris needs to loose the weight himself before he can dish out advice."

Read.
The.
Fucking.
Thread.

LellyMcKelly · 15/05/2020 10:13

What’s he going to do? Chase us round the parks? Dick.

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 15/05/2020 10:14

Being overweight makes you at risk of early death already. Are people that irrationally afraid of coronavirus that this will make them get healthy when cancer, heart disease and dementia didn't?

I am with you on that. I think it's because if media talked about risk of getting cancer/diabetes and dying early when being obese the same way and with the same insistence and frequency as they do about covid and obesity there would be massive cry out about fat shaming and how obese people know that and don't need to be reminded all the time.

ducksback · 15/05/2020 10:14

That's Boris the sylph like Super model, yes?

Boris needs to loose the weight himself before he can dish out advice

And still they come...

randomer · 15/05/2020 10:15

How about.......Government puts into place health hubs to support and encourage people to lose weight. Free food, free cooking lessons, free exercise facilites.

Or just Boris " declares war "....yawn.

Iwalkinmyclothing · 15/05/2020 10:15

Smoking, weirdly, is protective against covid. It's very unusual, but that's what the numbers are saying

Yes- one paper I read suggested that being a smoker may reduce your chances of contracting it by as much as 75%.

Lots of anti smokers in my family who spent the first few weeks of this preaching to us filthy degenerate smokers that now we must quite or we would die... some of them have reacted to the evidence suggesting that smoking may actually be protective with outright fury. My auntie says all such research is clearly being funded by Big Tobacco, the eejit.

vanillandhoney · 15/05/2020 10:15

Boris needs to loose the weight himself before he can dish out advice.

Yes, that's the ENTIRE POINT of what he's said. He's said he's overweight and that he knows his weight is a contributing factor to him ending up in ICU.

Are people just coming on to have a pop at Boris without actually reading the post?

Lockheart · 15/05/2020 10:17

I don't like the "war" mentality, but I agree that a bigger public health drive is needed. Our population is seriously overweight.

Yesterday I was watching a clip on twitter of the BBC's morning talk show from the mid-80s. Their "outsize" model was a size 16 and to my mind she looked almost slim compared to many people you see out and about.

Nowadays a 16 is average and a size 22 is considered outsize.

People also place undue emotional feelings and value to their weight. Yes, there are many societal and cultural pressures which mean we may be sensitive about it. But we need to try and be pragmatic, not emotional. Deal with the facts of the matter and not your feelings.

When I realised I had put on weight, yes I was upset at first. But I realised being upset wasn't going to help me. The fact was that I had put on weight. The fact was if I carried on doing what I was doing, I would put on more weight. The fact is that putting on excess weight is unhealthy. That was the reality of the situation and my being upset didn't make any difference. Therefore I decided to lose it.

No value judgements, no shame. I saw the problem, I dealt with it.

ducksback · 15/05/2020 10:17

I am with you stopandListen!

Great post feelingverylazytoday

JoeExoticsEyebrowRing · 15/05/2020 10:18

I am with you on that. I think it's because if media talked about risk of getting cancer/diabetes and dying early when being obese the same way and with the same insistence and frequency as they do about covid and obesity there would be massive cry out about fat shaming and how obese people know that and don't need to be reminded all the time.

This has already happened with Cancer Research UK's marketing campaign last year which stated that obesity is a risk factor. Loads of 'fat shaming' criticism. People don't engage their critical brains at all on this stuff.

ducksback · 15/05/2020 10:18

What’s he going to do? Chase us round the parks? Dick

Hmm
Ethelfleda · 15/05/2020 10:18

Interesting about the smoking. I wonder why that is??

BeatrixPottersAlterEgo · 15/05/2020 10:19

Yes, to be honest. I've been a little overweight since having my youngest. I'm greedy and I carry it well, so I've let it slide. But I notice the difference on my health in a low key way, and I'd rather lose two stone now than add on to the weight as I get older. Weight related issues always seem so far away, but seeing pictures of some of the younger people who have died has definitely brought it home

Sandybval · 15/05/2020 10:20

Good, lose weight save the NHS should be the next slogan. I spent the first 3 decades wavering between a BMI of 25 and 34, overweight and obese. Always making excuses about one thing or another, since losing weight I feel far better and have far less trips to the doctors. Even if you run marathons there is still the extra burden on your body carrying the extra weight. Quite often though it's wrapped up in far more complex factors than just because people are greedy. If he is serious he needs to increase access to support for MH, dieticians etc and to make gym membership more affordable.

Needmoresleep · 15/05/2020 10:23

Good that Boris has spoken out. Perhaps others, with different backgrounds, and perhaps more acceptable to some posters, could as well.

We know that smoking is bad for you. However obesity is bloody dangerous as well. And that should be made clear. Not in a fat shaming way, but so that people are motivated to look out for themselves and enjoy the best lives they can.

I put on quite a lot of weight in the autumn after my mother died. My blood pressure went soaring up, as did my acid reflux. I negotiated a six month delay before being put on statins so I could lose weight. It’s worked. My blood pressure is near normal, I am sleeping better and the worst of the reflux has gone. With the bonus that Covid19 (which I assume that strange virus I has was) may have lingered a while but did not make me very ill.

It can be done. I recommend a mix of Paul McKenna to help understand why you over eat, and then Michael Mosley to give you the tools to curb your eating.

LivingOnAnIsland · 15/05/2020 10:23

That is very interesting re smoking! But I'm not going to start again, even though I didn't have a weight problem till I stopped smoking.....

JustAnotherPoster00 · 15/05/2020 10:24

Boris declares war on fat

There is a demonstrable link between childhood obesity and poverty, are the Tories likely to address poverty? Highly unlikely due to the amount of children theyve thrust into poverty.

So I'm sure the new narrative soon to be announced look at those fat benefit scroungers we need to get rid of the 'money' of benefits and give them a card they can only use on healthy food. Hmm

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