Why can't we discuss how fat we've all become?

[Nodinnernogift]

Obesity is becoming the norm. Why aren't we allowed express concern or any views that are less than celebratory about this?

I mean seriously why?

If whole parts of your country were in the grip of a meth addiction we would be allowed have a discussion about it.

National campaigns to stop people smoking are applauded.

Look around you. Look in the mirror. We are all getting bigger and bigger. It reminds me of when people would visit the US in the 80s / 90s and come back with tales of huge people and massive portion sizes.

Does nobody care? It's like the Emperors New Clothes. I don't get why it's a sacrosanct topic.

Yabu - it's nobody's business
Yanbu - it's fine to address this as a societal problem

Every is different. We need to start ignoring BMI (I’m a weightlifter and classed as overweight very slightly but with a body fat slightly too low for a female). It stings when you’re judged on a number but yes, we need to stop mollycoddling and get real. My real dad died of “morbid obesity” aged 50. End of his life (last 5 years) were atrocious. Shitting on all fours on a bariatric ward then having his bum wiped as he couldn’t reach, fourniers gangrene due to zero air flow to his groin, bedridden. Instead of sugar taxes and body positivity we need a reality check. Show people the actual outcomes of obesity. Heartbreaking. Nobody chooses it. Body positivity movement turns my stomach, so many dead from that movement so young. I take after the islanders side of my family and was into weightlifting and running from a young age and being outdoors. I said on another thread we seem to be isolated and locked in now, a lot of people have never felt fit and strong and genuinely don’t know how good it feels.

I feel sad for them, must be the shifts and the stress.

Ask yourself why that might be. They work silly hours, and excepting the senior doctors, aren't paid very well. They suffer abuse from many patients. They'll get home knackered and demoralised, too tired to cook anything even quite simple, and many will bung a ready meal in the microwave or phone for a takeaway, because that's what it takes, sometimes, just to keep the show on the road.

Agreed, when I think about my office the majority of women, not so much the men, would class as obese.
On the school run anyone of a healthy size is few and far between.

I know I was agreeing with you.

I don’t think OP knows posh affluent Londoners either. I lived in one of the poshest parts of London for 15 years and there were plenty of obese Middle Ages hooray Henry’s in red trousers. Absolute myth rich people are thin.

Why are you under the bizarre impression that we're not talking about it as a societal problem?

It’s seems since were no longer allowed to ‘body shame,’ and quite rightly so, more obese people are showing themselves on social media trying on clothes, doing GRWM’s etc it’s become normalised.

I’ve just returned to the UK after some time away in Australia. I was genuinely shocked at the contrast in physiques - not everyone in Australia is a supermodel (far from it!) but the vast majority of people look fit and healthy. It was honestly depressing to come back here and see how unkempt and overweight such a huge proportion of our population seems to have become. I can’t remember seeing a single overweight child over there yet it has become the norm in the UK!

We are all heavier. For example a size 12 now was something like a size 18 in 1975. I have an 80s evening dress in size 12 - it's tiny. Even tinier is the waisted jacket I have (had matching trousers originally) which has something like a 26 inch waist. Neither are anything like the size of a current size 12.

What makes you think we aren't allowed to when obesity is talked about all the time?

Indeed, clothing was not so stretchy.

In the late 60s you could go up to a size 18 in stores but beyond that, you'd need to buy your clothes from "outsize" shops. There's not so much incentive to keep your weight down when high street stores now go up to a 52.5" bust, waist 49" and hip 55".

In the 60s, I had a 32" bust and wore size 10 tops and 10/12 in skirts/trousers.

I now have a bust that measures 38/39 and a waist that is large due in part to an enlarged fibroid uterus. But I fit current size 8 and 10 in tops and 12 in jeans and I could probably get into M & S size 10 jeans.

The Wombles are fairly chonky…

I feel like obesity is talked about all the time OP. It was in the news today that they are wanting to give out glp meds in local chemist shops to help tackle it. Sadly its an obesogenic environment out there, people are stressed and unhappy and food is used as a way to numb out.

I was obese at the top end of a size 12 and I was still the slim one in the office. It’s hard to see how fat you are getting when everyone around you is getting fatter too.

The problem is that we’re so far down the road of overweight being the norm and the reasons are so complex and different for everyone, it’s very hard to turn it around. The only way people will lose weight is by getting to the point where they want to and take personal responsibility to get it sorted. However they do it, it needs to come from them and no government campaign or healthy eating program is going to help. People know what to do but only they can do it.

Tbe availability of weight loss medications are helpful for some to give them the headspace and positive start to losing weight. Then they can implement other changes which can help maintain a healthy weight long term.

I think those adverts (Snag?) are grotesque. There's nothing sexy or empowering about impending Type 2 diabetes or heart disease.

In my neck of the woods a lot of people appear to be shrinking ...I know a hell of a lot of people on the WLI. However, saying, I was in a hospital recently and was shocked to see so many fat nurses 😳

Tbf I wasn't referring to people with health issues issues/medication who are overweight. That's completely different.

It’s an interesting discussion. I’d just like to mention that it is very very hard to maintain a healthy weight after the menopause. I wish somebody had warned me
I do remember my granny eating a grapefruit for breakfast, and my mother having a slice of cheese and an apple for lunch. My granny was tall and slim until she died. For me now to lose weight at 57 I have to be incredibly serious about it. I think people may be don’t always realise that some slim people eat very little. When I lost weight in my early forties, I basically just had one meal a day, with maybe a few nuts in the evening. The reality is that losing weight is not easy and you have to be so motivated to do it.

I recently joined Facebook (had to for a specific group) I was shocked at the amount of parents posting Easter holiday photos with fat kids in. It was shocking. When I was at school there was probably one fat kid per class. It seems like 50% of my kids class are over weight. It’s really sad.

This is a good point.

I've not read the whole thread so apologies if said before. My parents were brought up post war, they were taught to not waste food, I, in turn, wasn't allowed to leave the table without clearing my plate. Sugar wasn't seen as an issue. I was a fat child and suffered abuse 'fat cow/bitch etc.' I lost some weight as a young adult but a combination of poor diet knowledge and years of normalized overating was hard to overcome. I have been on a diet for 25 years on and off and can never sustain it. After having my child in 2021, I have become fatter than ever. Someone shouted at me I was a fat bitch when I got in the way in a car park. The word fat for me is not a word I want to say because it is linked to insults, bad, wrong, shame not merely a describing word in the way thin is. I am now on Mounjaro, hoping to finally get sorted but it's early days. I am embarrassed to tell people as I don't want to talk about being fat or be perceived as taking the easy way out.

I fi understand what you are saying. Lizzo was the poster woman for body positivity for bigger girls now she's lost her weight people will hopefully still see her as an inspiration. I have always loved Lizzo I know she's had some controversy but it doesn't change my mind about her.

I'd forgotten the Outsize shops of yesteryear. Big smock dresses with bows. The shame of it.

I'm wearing a size 14, a 12 looks like dolls clothes to me now.

I agree that something needs to be done and it shouldn’t be covered up with nice words and “body positivity” but it doesn’t help with all the vitriol people get when they take weight loss medication. They are addressing it but get criticised at every turn because they’ve apparently not done it the way that many think they should.