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.

People are lulled into a false sense of security. I’m the same size I was 25 years ago. Always stay the same, no idea why. Just bought some trousers in a size 6. Used to be a 10. Then an 8. The 6s of today are exact same size as a (very old) size 10 pair from years ago 🙄

I’m over the moon with op, I’m due to go on my first cruise and as a size 10 gym attendee I’m now delighted to hear I’m going to be the slimmest on the ship, pass me the chips please.🤣🤣

I go to the supermarket and walk past an aisle of offers and it is ALL biscuits / crisps / chocolate etc. I’m not a nanny state supporter but I can we please get rid of offers on junk food?

I’n not judging at all. I’m overweight myself with the menopause. But I think it’s just the sheer amount of food available all the time. Sharing bags of sweets and crisps, snack food available everywhere. Lots of restaurants, takeaways ect…,

Food was a lot more basic just 20 years ago. You couldn’t buy a donut and a supersized milky coffee in the local shop / as a very small example. My whole childhood I ate 3 meals a day.

You sound lovely @Hartley99 . Why would this young women you're insulting give a tin shit what you think about the way they look, or anything else? Do you make crass assumptions about everybody based on their appearance?

My mother loves to comment on what other adults are eating whenever we go out for lunch, and look down her nose at anybody whose weight/appearance she deems unacceptable. I've pointed out that the people she comments on would likely rather be a bit fat then quite such a sour, nasty, judgemental bitch.

That's really, really not why.

Society normalising being unhealthily overweight

And if they weren't dead, they were starving and mostly suffering diseases of malnutrition such as beriberi. WW2 Japanese POW camp diets do not count as healthy under any measure.

A biscuit no no ,the packet then were talking particularly if it Jaffa cakes.

It is not the governments fault that people are fat

This!!

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with this.

I suspect you'll be pleased that someone has pulled you up on it though...

Are you for real,many pow of the Japanese left as broken men.

I have the size twelve jacket I wore at 22, in the seventies. It went with a pair of crepe flares. The waist is tiny, half the size of a size 12 now. Very deceptive for us.

I think on the charts the US is a more overweight country relatively speaking. When I was 6 in the mid 1980’s my Mum organised this 7 week tour of the US, it was great but my Mum in particular couldn’t get over the portion sizes and the endless fast food places, back in London at that time fast food was Macdonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s in central London but not in the suburbs. By the 1990s that all changed - I’m unsure if there is a corresponding trajectory of overweight Brits. I remember as a young child being most impressed y the array of colourful cereals with sweets in like marshmallows. My Mum really found it difficult in some states as she missed vegetables. I have Scandinavian heritage on her side and childhood food was full of vegetables and more fish than my friends. Even now she mildly criticises the lack of veg in my dinners which are cooked mostly from scratch:

What’s not true?

Saying being obese is unhealthy is very, very simplistic. Not everyone who is overweight or obese is unhealthy, just like not everyone who is thin is healthy.

And what about people like me? There are many of us. Those of us who dieted ourselves fat? I tried for nigh on 20 years not to be fat (and I wasn’t when I started) and yet here I am, bigger than ever.

I went into a large Tesco Express last year looking for bread. I found a tiny bread section on the end of an aisle - and then a whole long aisle of crisps (crisps stocked on both sides).

Just wander round a supermarket one day and assess the healthiness of the food. It seems to be aisles and aisles of crap (and a lot of it masquerading as 'healthy' food).

I’m fascinated how many people think this.

there are more overweight and obese people - they are now represented in the media. Do you seriously think that people decide they want to become obese?

it’s to do with food. Pretending overweight people don’t exist does nothing,

Self obsessed? You seem to think that giving consideration to what you put in your mouth is a bad thing. I seem to recall there being a quote about that. 'Obsessed' is a word used by the lazy to described the disciplined, or something like that.

Or perhaps you are making excuses for your own situation.

Actually to some extent it is. In the 80s the school curriculum that covered domestic science (basically cookery) was changed to 'food technology' and instead of learning how to cook actual food/meals children spent time 'designing' pizza toppings and deciding how to market yoghurt. One of the aims of this was supposed to be training people for the food industry (which had always managed to train people who could cook until then) but the real point was to discourage cooking from scratch to a) make it possible for more women to stop being 'economically inactive' (being stay at home mums), and b) to boost the processed food market by creating a customer base for its products. One result of these policies is an obesity problem. (Another is that a mother of three under fives is now considered to be unemployed, which I find vile.)

Very true!

Looking for a quick fix to a long term problem is never going to work. Eating quite well all of the time is the way to be healthy and maintain a good weight. Eating impeccably or doing some silly FAD for a few weeks or months before falling off the wagon never works. Other than to line the pockets of various dieting product companies.

"Being healthy requires a certain amount of money/ time/ energy which many of us just don’t have."

Grow up fgs!

You'll probably find that if you eat more vegetables and actually cook from scratch more, you'll actually save money.

And as for exercise, I discovered an amazing yoga video in lockdown which my whole family still follow now - and it's free:

I'm not sure about this. My DD does food technology at school and they very much do cook food from scratch each week. They also learn a lot about nutrition in these lessons.

Hi

I can answer this as I am British. It is because you were on a cruise. The stereotype is old people and chavvy people for cruises. Chavs are often overweight for the same reason Americans are - junk food is cheaper than good food.

Anyone in poverty isn't buying ben&jerry's icecream have you seen the price of it!

For me I have long term mental health struggles plus also suspect I may have ADHD. I only have an occasional drink, don’t smoke, don’t take drugs and don’t gamble. Eating is what gives me my dopamine hits. Not excusing it, just giving an explanation.