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

😂

More extensive than your assumption. It is a known fact that western countries sizes are larger than others through attitudes and what is the norm.

I think this thread has offered a valuable point of discussion on a topic that NEEDS to be talked about for the sake of the health of future generations but if you want to 🙄🙄🙄 then crack on. Good day to you.

But then tax payers are expected to fund their medical expenses when they undoubtably do have complications from being obese, When no effort has been made on their part to reduce their weight?!?

Thats the issue?!?

fat, as compared to malnourished as in the romanticized pre 1950 silhouette?

you realize there was food rationing and wars with a life expectancy of 60.5 years.

@TryingToBeHelpful267 I wish we could just get beyond the judgement and make change.

@MonsteraDelicious other parents mainly i guess (like here). It's statistically way harder now to be slim and healthy. If it gets worse I worry about my DC. It's my job as a parent to worry about them. If there's no decent explanation as to what caused this change in society (and I don't believe people just 'got greedy') then I don't know how we can do our best to prevent it.

And I myself have never found it particularly easy to be slim. It is getting harder.

Yes, it’s what size 8 was 15 years ago.

No, when I see footage from the 90s we all look remarkably slim. No food shortages whatsoever.

Let us hope that cheap, easy Mounjaro etc in annual pill form aren't far off!

Definitely not many fat people in central London. The walking and pace of things help I think!
I do think people have changed in shape a bit, less defined waist, bigger chests but I dont think thats because we’ve all got massive or are eating too much necessarily - i just think we grow and evolve over time

Toxic body positivity is to blame for it, people are shouting from the rooftops to love your body no matter what way it is and to embrace your curves etc etc etc

Agree, am sure it's been mentioned in at least 1 pp, there's current hysteria around how awful, evil, wicked and cruel.it is to EVER suggest 'eat less move more'... that the science of burning more calories than you eat is damaging and abusive...

Because it’s Fat-ist or Obese-ist

England: BMI of individuals by gender 2022| Statista
So up from an average of 25.7 to 27.7 from 1993 to 2022.
with a BMI of 25 being the tipping point into overweight and 27.7 still being in the overweight zone. hardly earth shattering.

If you're worried about your kids I would just try and support a healthy and balanced relationship with food.

I'm overweight and that's partly because I had pretty disordered eating and under ate until mid twenties which seemingly ruined my metabolism. I stopped denying myself food and gained weight massively. It's very hard to have a healthy relationship with food if you aren't raised with one. My children are healthy weights. I'm trying to feed them a healthy diet and don't encourage them to finish the plate if not hungry. If they can feel the benefit of healthy eating and learn to listen to their bodies from a young age that's surely the best thing. I don't think you can really do much other than that though.

Well yes..and to suggest that people are responsible for what THEY eat?!!! How very DARE you!

Who’s judging people for eating cake? What’s the context? My friend and I went to a bakery on Sunday and devoured 5 cookies between us (we wanted to try different flavours 😅). Didn’t feel even slightly judged. No one cares if you’re eating cake/baked goods, just like no one cares if you’re sipping a glass of rosé.

Wow I'm really surprised. It seems so much more dramatic than that.

And I agree that’s a problem. But presumably no one is asking you personally to pay more tax to help resolve this issue, so I kind of don’t see why you’re so invested.

I’ll doubtless be accused of being part of the problem for saying this, but in your case judging by the tone of your posts on this thread, you do sound disdainful of bigger people in their own right, and not just because of perceived tax burden.

I can't remember who said it but I was responding to a poster who said she judged when she saw overweight people eating cake

Yes. In the same way the NHS treats smokers with lung issues, or rock climbers who break a bone, or all sorts of people who find themselves needing the NHS for things that might have been avoidable with different choices. Because medical staff follow the Hippocratic Oath and because we are a civilised country who doesn't ask people to justify their lifestyle choices before we give them life saving surgery.

Right so this is a very clumsily crafted argument but if you took US for example and compared minnnesota to somewhere like California it doesn't seem to be so offensive to consider Minnesota might look at California and say "what are they doing differently there and how could we implement those lifestyle choices here?" Maybe I'm wrong and maybe that would be hugely offensive.

But surely it's not a bad idea for the UK to take example from countries where they aren't facing these problems?

So obese people, smokers etc etc shouldn’t be encouraged to amend their ways in order to lessen the burden on the NHS….is that what you are saying

To be fair smokers are continually preached at, I would know as I used to smoke a long time ago but made a conscious decision to give up as i didn’t want health complications down the line

Yes I don't remember the poster either but that attitude irl repulses me so much. I thought it was on the decline but I could be wrong; some judgemental person shaking their head at witnessing a larger person for eating. Yet some skinny person wolfing down massive amounts of food is often regarded as adorable.

Can you give me an example of a country that has successfully reversed their obesity epidemic that we could get ideas from?

@JasmineAllenyou keep saying this, and plenty of people on here have been vile about WLIs (the Wall-E comment for example), but I don’t see why you think that at all.

It’s increasingly becoming clear that WLI injections may well be like a whole bunch of other medication for chronic health conditions.

Statins is a great example. Blood pressure meds another. Diabetic medications (for T1) a third. You get put on statins because of high cholesterol (for instance), but they are intended to be for lifelong use. You don’t stop taking them when your cholesterol drops, because it will rise again and you might have a stroke or heart attack. I have to take iron tablets basically forever because my body just won’t retain iron.

It’s looking like for many people obesity is a lifelong chronic risk. So you take mounjaro or whatever, get to a healthy BMI, titrate down, and then stay on a maintenance dose - for life. And that makes sense, there is absolutely loads of research about how obesity can have lifelong impacts on things like your insulin resistance and metabolism, there research about how diet culture has fucked people’s bodies up. Decades of bulimia and anorexia for me (when I was extremely thin) has really messed up my body and ability to safely manage weight.

At the moment, the tricky element is cost. You’re talking about people paying £30 a week for the rest of their lives to stay at a healthy weight. Better and cheaper access through pharmacies would help. Better access through the NHS will help. Greater competition from providers bringing costs down will help. New innovations with annual jabs or pill forms will help.

But these sniffy, po-faced, superior, unpleasant attacks on WLIs and people who use them will not.