Why are there so many overweight and obese British women?

[EvaHara]

Genuine post and I promise I am not a weight troll. Recently I was on a cruise and couldn't help but notice that many other British women onboard - especially younger women - were considerably overweight or obese. Some were in fact huge and easily as big as some women I saw in the US when there a few years ago.

What has caused this rise in overweight people, particularly younger women? I don't remember there being this many overweight/obese people even 10 years ago.

I am not judging, just curious.

diet, lack of exercise, environmental factors, and genetics

Ok but she wasn’t rude or judgemental, merely stating what she saw.

So many people on this thread while pontificating about why fat women are fat, have been at great pains to state that they are not fat at all.
Maybe being judgemental does something to fat cells or something and causes them not to hold on to fat or something?
Maybe we have lost sight of how being judgemental keeps you teenie tiny?
#makesyouthink

This makes sense.

Perhaps the cruise you went on is for lazy people with little imagination or culture who just like to eat and drink all day. Or sad people who just sit and stare at strangers enjoying the cruise they paid for and having more fun than them and then generalise an entire nation as fat? Just curious. Get a life.

Obesogenic environment. Next question.

Oh well done!
sadly I’m a bit meatier than you now.
I remember that ‘Ryvita ‘ women were encouraged to wear a belt ( 24”) and you were supposed to keep within that belt. I gather that French women regularly kept a metal or even gold belt around their waists to remind them to keep slim.
I also remember ‘Aids’ which were chunks of low calorie chocolate that you could eat two of to replace a meal.
Awful but women were encouraged to be slim.

Yet now, we daren’t say that a women’s is fat and we’re also fed the lie that obesity is ok by dint of adverts!

There are many people on this thread who are rude&judgemental! Why start this thread if she wasn't judging these obese women?

So much UPF food availability, snacking normalised, takeouts no longer treats and being overweight also normalised. Anything said = fat shaming!

So many people think that 'poverty' is a significant factor. The OP's observations are of people on a cruise ship, so I think that's unlikely in this case. Maybe it's something to do with the nature of people who are attracted to all-inclusive cruises with their endless eat-yourself-senseless buffets and no compensating physical exertion except for strolling back to the buffet for another go. Just a wild guess...

And that’s the Great British Attitude Problem right there.

Lots of factors.

But mainly eating and drinking too much of the wrong things, and having generally sedentary lifestyles. Calories were simply harder to come by.

My grandparents indeed lived through the war and ate plainly, but then they ate like that for the rest of their lives too.

Their daily meals world be something like this, although they smoked a lot too:

Breakfast; small bowl of cornflakes or one round of toast, tea

Lunch: plain sandwiches, with an apple or orange, more tea

Dinner: meat and two veg with boiled potatoes / homemade chips and egg / hotpot / ham or egg salad in the summer. More tea. Occasionally just boiled eggs on toast.

No desserts, very few treats, they didn't really drink anything except tea.

Treats would have been the odd shared portion of fish and chips on a day out, two Marie biscuits with butter on a Saturday afternoon, a few chocolate caramels on a Saturday night and a sherry/whiskey and dry only on a very special occasion.

They walked to work, had manual jobs, looked after their gardens, did a lot of manual housework and DIY.

How to devolve personal responsibility for weight to your environment.

Tbf though none of those reasons should apply to people on a cruise, and I say that as an overweight woman

Driving everywhere. Vastly increased consumption of alcohol especially wine at home compared to the 60s.

lol. The opinions of unknowns on the internet are of no interest to me. Call me what you like.

The simple fact is that eating too much and not moving enough makes you fat*. However whenever this gets pointed out in blunt terms for reasons unknown people seem to get offended.

If you are happy eating too much and not exercising that's fine. But then why get defensive when others call a spade a spade?

*Genetics aside

Is that a game show? Like The Great British Bake Off? I'd win it hands down, if so.

I was on that cruise because I couldn't fit my fat arse in a plane seat.
That make you feel better OP?

The reason for the current obesity problem has to be down to overeating. That’s why Wegovy, Ozempic, etc work.

Cruises are all about eating and lazing around. Of course a lot of the people who enjoy that kind of holiday are quite likely to be fat. Same with all inclusives.

I agree with the impact of all those issues. But on the question of whether anything should be said - it is quite simply rude to comment on someone's appearance. Unless they are a close friend or family member, then we have no idea what's going on in their lives. I had a friend many years ago, a single parent with two small children, who got terminal breast cancer. She was put on steroids and god knows what else and, from being very slim, blew up to become very fat. The very idea that someone might have commented on her weight is incredibly painful. She died a few months later.

If you know someone extremely well and are concerned that their weight is adversely affecting their health, then you might - just might - consider saying something. But the chances are they already know it and your comments won't be helpful. Our relationship with our bodies is complex and, quite frankly, nobody's business but our own. Our size should be the least noteworthy thing about us.

To much choice of bad food . The U.K. is on a few ways the ISA of Europe , always taking the USA trends and likes etc . I also think a few generations failed to learn how to cook properly while in other countries cooking from scratch seems the norm .

Isn’t it just. As if she had no idea.

😆

I think there is a thing about not being aspirational in the UK, its viewed as suspect if someone wants to improve themselves or their life.

Ive mentioned on other threads that theres a strnage thing that has been developed about 'mustnt judge', or not wanting government to interfere.

We didnt apply that to drug taking, drink driving, smoking, not wearing seatbelts, any number of public health and safety initiatives, so why obesity?

I also think that (as is evidenced by many a thread on here), there is a snottiness or snobbery about weight loss drugs, or weight loss surgery. the NHS should be making better use of these tools. One of our family members (not British) abroad has another relative who has been almost pestered by her GP to consider/investihgate weight loss surgery. This person is about 4 stone overweight (by sight, I dont know how much she weighs). It simply isnt tolerated or considered ok to be overweight it seems.