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

Because it would be, for some people, be unnecessary offensive. There are other words that mean exactly the same thing. No need to be rude.
Obesity is a medical condition.
And making people/patients feel worse doesn’t actually help anyone. Yes, there is a big element of personal choice, but increasingly we know that overweight and obesity are a very complicated interplay with multi factorial causes, some of which people have little or no direct control over. For example genetics and gut heath.
It’s so brilliant that you’ve halved your size and well done, I applaud you. Whether you’ve had bariatric surgery, meds or just diet alone, it’s fabulous. But just keep in mind, not everybody can access support and for some people, their lives are such a struggle for all kinds of reasons, losing weight is almost impossibly tough.
For this reason, I wouldn’t want to talk about ‘fat’ and possibly cause more stigma and hurt. I’d stick to the proper terms, unless someone else wished otherwise.

Wishing you the best of luck with MJ. There's lots of support on the WLI boards, if you're not there already.

According to the world health index, Australia has a higher percentage of population who are obese than the UK, by a noticeable amount

Nothing stopping you. It isn't really a thing that you think you are not allowed. Of course you are.

How is that...err mediterannean diet working out for Greece, turkey, Malta, Croatia, etc? All of which have higher rates of obesity than the uk?

I agree but would be terrified to say anything. One of them featured a young woman with her legs wide open.

I'm fat, 5ft 7 size 16-18, late 50s would like to lose weight but not disciplined enough. I also have a condition that means i will never be truly lean no matyer how little i eat or how much exercise i take. I walk my dog twice daily. Don't smoke or drink but admittedly my diet is pretty atrocious. I'm standing by Catherine Deneuves assertion though that you get to an age where you choose between your ass and your face. A bit of fat fills out the wrunkles. Someone today called me gorgeous...no he didn't have a white stick...and I think he probably regrets saying it but I 'll take it !! I'm not ' gorgeous ' by the way ...very ordinary. I am single and live only for myself, wistfully think it would be great to look better in clothes but I will always look not quite right.

But I’ve read over the years that lower income=poor literacy=worse health/obesity. I think it’s very interlinked.

Re mounjaro, I don’t know if I would have taken that route had it been more at the forefront 2 years ago. Surgery is a bit drastic but I wanted a permanent solution. I’m all for it, tho. 2 colleagues have used it to great effect, one has lost 4 stone since October. It is, as I’ve mentioned recently, something bariatric patients use to lose the last couple of stone. I’ve debated it but don’t want to go there just yet.

Fat has negative connotations. It only took the first few posts on this thread to show it. “Bellies hanging out”, “stuffing their faces” “disgusted”. Those people weren’t stuffing their faces, they were eating. People look at a fat person and make negative judgements and derogatory comments about their lives and general behaviours. Fat people are often percieved as being scruffier and lazier than their slimmer counterparts.

Not using the term fat is a way to discuss weight without all of those negative connotations.

I'm sure you're right on a population level (although this situation doesn't really apply in my own family...despite my plumpness, I'm a smaller build than both my mum and her own mother).

However, it's not just that we are taller and broader than our grandmothers. Our shape has changed too. Proportionally, we have much larger stomachs and boobs than previous generations. Besides, I don't believe this creeping inflation of dress sizes is simply the result of us generally being bigger than our grandmothers. It's clearly done to collude with us in a state of denial so that, despite what the scales and our ever-tighter waistbands tell us, we can ignore the reality of these extra pounds. If I try on similar-fitting jeans in Shop A and Shop B but the ones in Shop A are a size 10 whereas the ones in Shop B are a size 12, I will buy the ones in Shop A (assuming similar price, quality etc). And so the size expansion continues...

Yep it’s not good.
I know I am overweight and I’m a small size 14. I say this and people reply “you don’t need to loose weight!” bla bla bla - yes I do! I know I am healthy at a size 10/12 and when my bmi on the lower end of the healthy range. I think people have become “fat blind” to an extent.

We can! It's driving instead of walking, eating processed food, junk food and calorific drinks e.g. Starbucks and energy drinks.

Very little terrifies me these days. The people in those adverts look like they've escaped from a Victorian Freak Show.

It is challenging to lose weight and keep it off post menopause for sure. I do think it helps to work on building and maintaining muscle mass as we do lose it quite rapidly as we age. I used to eat 1000-1200 calories a day and was also running 70-90k per week. Lifting weights I now can eat twice that and can maintain a bmi of around 22 fairly easily. I don’t drink alcohol and I do track calories/macros, so it’s not effortless, but I feel a whole lot better eating more. I also don’t do a tonne of cardio, about 120
minutes, including one interval session per week. Before I was doing hours a day.

Everyone's talking about it all the bloody time

Tbf everyone and their aunt seems to be on weight loss injections nowadays, I know of quite a few, even getting themselves into debt, that number will increase if GPs are allowed to prescribe in the future, most people can’t afford to spend £150+ a month on them.

I'm fatter than I've ever been now, but I feel stronger, happier and healthier . When I look back at times I've eaten less and felt like I was fading away and not really able to function - I sort of regret it in a way, and I like to think I'll encourage my daughters to feel strong and healthy rather than thin and beautiful.

Yet I look at this sort of thread and instantly feel guilt and shame that I'm not a 1975 version of a size 8 🤣

@AquaPeer
That’s true!
According to ChatGPT
U.K. = 28% adults with obesity
Greece = 25% adults with obesity.
UK:
Sedentary lifestyles
High consumption of ultra-processed foods
Socioeconomic disparities
Marketing of unhealthy foods to children
Greece:
Despite Greece’s Mediterranean heritage, diet shifts and lifestyle changes contribute to obesity, including:

• Westernized eating patterns
• Reduced physical activity
• Economic difficulties impacting food choices

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03336/SN03336.pdf

They will for a while until people come off them

Could take your own initiative rather than waiting for the glorious state to stop you eating

On the face of it - I have it all. A great marriage. 4 kids. Well educated. A stellar and well paid career. A lovely house, in a lovely area, drive a lovely car, a great pension, savings. Success...no?!

I am also fat. About 3 stone overweight. I am stressed. I am menopausal. I don't sleep well. I have sore knees. I am knackered. I work full time in a senior and very stressful role. I commute by car. I have young children. I am exhausted 99% of the time and none of that exhaustion is due to physical exercise. I eat well but too much of it. I drink too much. I am sedentary. I am not giving my all to anything. I am stretched too thin and existing day to day balancing the proverbial plates.

Turns out we cannot have it all. My lifestyle the one that was (is?) held up to mean success, is actually physically and mentally unhealthy.

I notice it when I go back - I now live in a rural backwater. I've always assumed it's because you walk so much in London! Out here it's 10+ miles to anywhere with hardly any public transport. Our town itself is only 1 square mile. If you're in town you don't walk far; if you're going somewhere else, you drive.

When I was pregnant with ds1, I had gestational diabetes despite being a size 8 at the time.

Got referred to the diabetic clinic and was seen by another obese Doctor. He lectured me on how I needed to change my diet to control my weight gain as ds was measuring on the 99th centile. (I only gained 10lb by 32 weeks due to extreme morning sickness). 😒I had to explain to him that it was only my fasting levels that were high most likely due to having Pcos and he finally agreed. Funnily enough, ds was only 7lb when he was born at full term.

Well I said postcode to be fair, I didn't mean London V the north.