Overweight Brits abroad

[Artyfart]

I know this will upset people but it’s time to face facts and I’m talking about myself here too. Just got back from second holiday abroad this year when once again it was painfully noticeable how overweight British people are compared to our European neighbours. We stand out a mile! Every time I saw someone fat I’d wait for it and…. British accent. We look a state and it’s time to do something about it. No wonder the NHS is on its knees. I came back more determined than ever to lose weight.

Problem with this lazy, surface level comparison is that it never leads to anything good.

What are the factors causing these British holiday makers to be bigger compared to their European counterparts?

French smoke more, have more work life balance, they have more employee friendly policies, which gives you time for other things including cooking and exercising, they have better climate, and many other things. UK is also the most densely populated European country. So life is a bit more difficult than in Europe.

NHS is not on knees because of overweight people. It's due to bad government policies.
French are not passive when it comes to major government policy change. UK has a more keep calm, carry on approach. Look at the shit show Tory government has caused in the country in last 10 years. Be it handling of Corona Virus siruation or Brexit or economy. French would not be sitting calmly and carrying on.

People are working harder to get basic income. They are tired, so it is essy to go for processed meals at the end of a tiring day. Processed meals taste good, are addictive.

How about you vote better next time, care about the politics and economy of the country, focus on your weight and health and stop blaming people you know nothing more than a superficial observation of how they look.

Hey OP,

Your thread was always going to go down like a lead ballon because we live in this weird defensive society…… Its bizarre.

So much whataboutery and nuanced examples, it is exhausting.

Long thread already but yes we are more unhealthy and overweight

Hard to change that though

However, 2/3 rds Brits are overweight and obese.

Overeating, consuming breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and alcohol are among the causes of this issue. It is astonishing that even with access to detailed information about our food production, people still behave ignorantly.
We do not need all those meals.

I also think some brits are untidy in appearance.

Meant to add as talking about it makes people defensive

Not style no, health.
You don’t have to be stick thin to be healthy but a diet of processed crap will make you fat AND unhealthy

The smoking abroad is interesting either there haven't been the public health programmes or there is no interest in them. It's really strange to sniff the aroma everywhere. There's ashtrays indoors, outdoors wherever you go.

In Europe, I meant.

Because the more you see people making unhealthy choices the more it becomes the norm - or at least it makes it easier to justify to yourself.
Also the fact that people are more worried about looking cool / posting on social media. Starbucks coffees for ex. Large spreads of food. Eating out, treating yourself to a takeway.

I mean, this is just my opinion, I respect yours of course :)

In Europe it seems to be Latvia, Malta, Ireland, Hungary and UK.
Although different sites show slightly different percentages.

I’ve always voted Labour 🤷‍♀️

Source: WHO report into rates of obesity per country 2022:

What about the Germans is relevant because this is a global issue. The denial comes from people insistent it's just lazy Brits being greedy and ill-disciplined. They are the ones in denial about what's causing the sustained rise in obesity everywhere and while they deny the causes, they'll never solve the problem.

The mind your own business posts aren't in denial about obesity; they can see the pointlessness of the OP's post in pointing out fat people on holiday. It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't mean people are denying she saw obese people on holiday, but for years people have been posting with faux-astonishment on MN about how they went to a swimming pool and saw some fat people. Yes, we know. Fat people are everywhere. And a lot of people would rather bewail this on the internet than identity why it is, why its increasing and how we can find ways as a society to address it. Starting MN threads about omg saw a sunburned fatty in Spain amazingly enough isn't it.

Haven't rtft but UK is 60th in world for female obesity according to this https://data.worldobesity.org/rankings/?age=a&sex=f

Tbf some cultures are more direct when it comes to weight. Which involves an element of shaming. It tends to work.

As for the NHS being on its knees, having not long left hospital, many staff there were heavily overweight - largely it seemed as a result of being employees of the NHS with shift patterns that seemed to be designed to wreck the metabolism.
It would be good if - as the biggest employer in the UK - the NHS helped its workers first, I'm sure it would lead to better patient outcomes as the staff wouldn't be so knackered.

Also if you're going to a resort popular with the working classes, you will see more obesity, because there is a social gradient to obesity.

Yes but then those 6 babies in the broken system cannot be supported perfectly and they become unhealthy adults. Not to mention, until they are adult, government needs to spend on their education, provide them lunches, and of course they would need to use NHS frim time to time. And some of them may have those lifestyle problems you mentioned as adults.

It is not one thing which is draining NHS.

Then should they take up smoking to lose weight?

Agree with you OP. I work at a university and the majority of people there, students and staff are overweight, a lot likely, dangerously so. The body positivity movement and the normalisation of being unhealthily overweight has a lot to answer for and the hateful phrase "real women".

The burden this puts on the NHS is huge, type 2 diabetes, cardiac issues, mobility problems, inflammation and lots more. There needs to be change at a societal and policy level as well as individual. It's highly noticeable when in Europe how much bigger British people are.

I whilst I agree the Tory government has decimated the NHS the UK public abuse it as well and largely don't take responsibility for their own health outcomes. I used to work in it trying to solve insoluble problems because of that factor, hence leaving and no intention of going back. Whenever I met non UK patients they were always shocked at how British people abuse what they are very fortunate to have in comparison to the health delivery model in other countries.

So the media bang on about. I'm not convinced.

Yes, so there are a lot of external factors that influence people to make these choices. If we focus on how to mitigate those factors, we can make it easier for people to make better choices. This is what I mean - its hard for individuals to fight against the tide. But acting collectively, we can create an environment that helps people to overcome it.

I have not RTFT but just to say: I'm in Croatia, on an island where there are absolutely no Brits at all. There are overweight and obese people everywhere.

Of course one post on MN isn't going to change things, but if it sparks debate that's surely a good thing.

FWIW, I think the following issues contribute* to the problem:

End of Home Ec lessons as standard in schools – cooking from scratch is no longer being automatically being passed down as a life skill from parents to children...

Which leads to...

Over-reliance on processed foods. And even supposedly fresh food, like fruit and veg, is most packaged and air freighted in...

Which means...

Processed food manufacturers have ridiculous economic power to influence Govt policy and are given free rein to pump products with hidden sugar, which is driving the rise of diabetes II and making us all sick and unhealthy.

*I say contribute, because overeating and lack of exercise ARE down to human choice too.