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.

It was roughly 50:50 those who gained weight vs those who maintained or lost it.

The Roly-Polys were a comedy musical act. Their schtick was that they were (by the standards of the time) incredibly fat.

Is it thought?

Most European countries get proper cold winters and proper warm summers.
The UK especially the West side of the UK gets rain, and overcast and damp weather much of the year.

It would be wonderful to be able to plan a BBQ two weeks in advance.
Half the reason British people go to the Med is to get a weeks guaranteed sun.

We've lost sight of what a very good thread looks like

Asked by different posters though, just as many other questions are asked repeatedly on here by incoming posters.

I saw a TV programme about a place in the US that had totally altered it’s infrastructure to encourage walking, there was data recorded on the before and after of the community over a few years I think and it improved the health in a very short space of time a year or something!

I always think the French a little condescending about British diets, when, outside Paris, there is little difference currently in obesity numbers. However, you are a little rosy-spectacles about thirty years ago - that's only the 90s - because an increase in sedentary life-styles has been going on since at least the 50s for most people (fewer and fewer work on the land) and an exercise culture of any sort has only existed since the late 80s (and the working-class cycling clubs that existed up to the early 70s have also disappeared). The difference is that people ate less. Compare a 50s or 70s size portion to a modern portion of food and you would be as stunned by the increase as I am when I look at the tight-waisted jacket I wore (buttoned up) in the 70s, which is a size 12 (so relatively large for its time), compared to a modern size 12, which is about the size of a 1970s size 18.

I wish it was that simple. I'll sit and think and think and think about snacks and then....well I don't know what happens. I'm can't control myself, I wish I could.

oh wow, they are overweight but yes not really ‘fat’ by today’s standards although would be amongst people I know. They do seem happy though.

You can't blame the weather. Ireland, Northern France, Netherlands, Belgium, Northern Germany, Denmark, coastal Norway all have weather equally as maritime (i.e. crap) as the UK.

Yet outdoor activity levels vary hugely among those countries - Ireland is similar to the UK, whereas Netherlands and Denmark are considered the cycling capitals of the world, and the Norwegians are famously outdoorsy.

I am the young end of the much maligned Boomer generation.

When I was growing up (not poor, not wealthy, but not poor) food was expensive. Especially ready prepared food.

A holiday picnic was lettuce and salad cream sandwiches (lettuce often home grown by grandad), an apple, Tupperware of squash mixed at home, an apple and one Mars bar cut into 4 for us to share. No crisps. This was normal, we didn’t feel hard done by.

Meals were home cooked, homemade rissoles from hand minced leftover beef, loads of home grown veg (neighbours all swapped, grandparents did a lot of the growing), apples in every possible form as we had an apple tree in our small garden.

None of our parents would have dreamt of spending money on ready made sweet drinks, bought cakes or regular chocolate. Crisps were a treat.

I was listening to R4 last week and a Dutch commentator was saying that the libertarian pov is to protest the Nanny State making rules about processed food, but actually we are all under control of the nanny state of the massive food manufacturers and their marketing.

A project in Leeds had reduced obesity in a generation of the poorest families through food education and support.

Finding a foothold from which to build our own way to nurture ourselves healthily is hard.

For me, now, I think of it as a political issue. I do not wish to sacrifice my body to the capitalist multi national corporations. (Just as my unwillingness to pay money to the Gvt has kept me from smoking).

What's not true is the post I was responding to, that the body positivity movement was just about trying to have a healthy relationship to your body.

That's what it was 30 years ago. What it is now is a differernt thing all together. And while it's perfectly possible to be heavy and fairly healthy, and even fit, that is not the case with people who are severely obese. It takes a serious toll on many body systems.

Have a look at what's going on in the fat positivity movement now, it's very shocking.

Yeah that definitely affected me (alongside the constant takeaways and home baking) I WFH and live 2 hours from London.
when I occasionally commute to London for a work and then maybe do a social
thing with friends in the evening before I go home , I do about 12-15,000 steps with all the walking about between station. I use to do that every day.

Whereas if I’m not careful when I’m WFH in my 2 bedroom apartment with no stairs my step count can easily be less than 2,000.

Now I go out of my way with home walking workouts or pacing the floor during calls or using the stairs to take the bins out to make sure I keep my step count up. But for a long time it was < 2,000

Very often abuse in childhood. Then comfort eating to numb the pain. But keep on bashing overweight people. Im sure it helps... People who bash overweight people are no different to racists, just more acceptable in our fucked up society.

When I was a kid a picnic was jam sandwiches, an apple, squash and a packet of crisps with a blue packet of salt in them to shake over them and maybe a Jacob's club biscuit.

I think it's rather different these days....

60% of the population were abused in childhood - really?

I do a strength/weights class. It's run by a company who market heavily towards women who are out of the habit of exercise, need to lose weight, "drop a dress size in 8 weeks" - that sort of thing.
There is a very active, very supportive whatsapp group. What I've noticed is a mentality towards food as the enemy, as a reward, as a guilty pleasure
e.g. I've earned that cake now, or I definitely burnt off that cheeky Nando's, or I shall enjoy my massive roast, or now to sit in the bath with a big glass of wine.

Until someone shifts that mindset I do think (if you are already overweight) then it will be very, very hard.

Very often abuse in childhood. Then comfort eating to numb the pain. But keep on bashing overweight people.

This can also be true in many cases @LuckyStone . During the pandemic I had a lot of time to think and I began struggling with a lot of past trauma I’d suppressed for most of my life.

I don’t smoke, drink, take drugs or have hook ups like some do to numb the pain but for me food was my comfort thing. Many of us are self medicating - just in different ways.

Ireland is 9th ranking is one of most obese countries in the world. Equally, does population not come into this so the population of London alone is double that of the whole of Ireland, similar to Denmark and Norway. If you were just comparing the overweight people of London and these countries I wonder how overweight we would look in comparison.

I do think overseas countries have governments that actively encourage people to be sporty in a way that they don’t hear. In Denmark and the Netherlands they have invested in a proper cycle infrastructure. Scandinavian countries also have marked, maintained forest trails in every town, lit at night and groomed for xc skiing in the winter. People use them.

It's always interesting to look at photos of people who were considered fat in the 70s and 80s. Think of Buster Bloodvessel (the singer of Bad Manners) who's entire stage act was based around his enormous fatness - their best known song was Lip Up Fatty. You wouldn't look twice at him on the street now.

Even more extreme is the changes in the US - check out the audience members line dancing on Soul Train clips on youtube.

It sounds awful as well but there is a lot of money to be made out of overweight people. Think about it - IF everyone just ate there normal calorie intake how much less would we consume?

So the only incentive comes from a) government policy and b) personal responsibility.

It's very hard to take personal responsibility when you are trying to stay afloat.

And for those people trying to think critically about the whole situation, companies have come up with highly addictive UPF.

Even those people who are slim, are no necessarily slim because they have a healthy diet and healthy body.

Finally I think we are under muscled. If we had more muscle from lifting heavy weights then our metabolism would be higher etc.

A lot of right wingers blame it all on the lack of 'home cooked meals'. But since the 1970s wages have stagnated in real terms as globalisation has given employers access to a cheap global workforce. At the same time the disaster of quantative easing has sent asset prices sky high. This means both parents often have to work to afford the roof over their heads. At the same time we have more single working mums due to feckless fathers. All this means that many women simply don't have time to meal prep healthy lunches and then whip up a lentil spag bol for their progeny.

My money is on the increased availability of processed food.

Health conditions OP?
I have a 30cm cyst attached to my overies and tubes that has caused severe every day swelling? Been waiting 4 years for surgery

you don’t know what goes on in people life’s and I don’t think that’s really for you to judge!

if your not from a newspaper I think your a very rude person to be saying this!

also some women have children and were very thin before hand and now can’t shift the weight due to c-sections etc etc..

I bet you’re not over weight at all tho? Just coming on here to voice this and make people feel 10x worse than they already are cheers OP feeling great 😊