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

This!

I'm apparently a size 10-12 (the same dress size, amazingly, as I was as a teenager, despite being around 10kg heavier now). However, my mum recently offered me a vintage top of hers, (Marks & Spencers, but from the days when their clothes were labelled St Michael). I tried it on, it fitted nicely, looked good. Then I looked at the label.

It was a size 18!

@Sweaterbag where did you get that from?

Salmon fillets are Aldi/tesco are £12 for 4

OP you need to think about why you are bothered by overweight people. Is it a moral thing? Obesity is associated with gluttony. Being a glutton is a sinful thing, it shows lack of self control or self restraint and should be punished somehow. Or is it that it’s triggering some mammalian response that if one human overeats there is less food for others?
Early 20th century people were thin because food was scarce, or restricted or expensive. Latter 20th century people were thin because they used smoking to suppress their appetite. They weren’t morally superior and blessed with better self control.

Me me me.

Can you not look past you and yours to the national crisis we are in? Where NHS resources are being spent on poor health caused by lifetimes of overeating and terrible diets? It is everyone's business and is hardly rude when we are discussing a general problem

I think it's a class issue with more deprived people having the poorest diets. Of course, there are skinny poor people and fat rich people but I'm talking in general. I work at a uni and recently everyone's been dressing in skimpy clothes because of the heat. I really noticed how incredibly slender 99.9% of the students were. They all have posh accents too. Different story when I go to deprived areas. So many people are obese.
Inequality is the biggest issue in our society, in my opinion.

This doesn’t make sense. If it’s offensive to you - you do something about you.

You being offended by fat doesn’t mean someone changes their body.

and obviously, you already know what a vicious bitter person you sound like.

I don't celebrate obesity and would love a healthier nation. I can't see it happening though without huge societal change. Families often used to have a sahp who cooked from scratch, I think the need to have two working parents often results in families too tired and time pressured to cook healthy stuff. I also think people often don't really care and use that as an excuse.

I think people aren't taught to cook at home or at school properly and it's not really valued to be skilled in the home.

I think it's easy to think you're eating healthy stuff but actually the food producer is tricking you. Like saying "no added sugar!" when it's full of artificial sweeteners. Or things which were relatively OK 20 years ago but are now full of gums and additives to make it cheaper.

I think the government needs to care more about food quality and food security than it does. Encourage farmers. Make whole foods less expensive and upfs more expensive.

Etc.

Don't fret OP, fat jabs/tablets will fix it over the next few years.

You sound delightful.

Everyone isn’t obese!

I actually think, if anything , it’s this rhetoric that’s allowed people to ignore it for 30 years. It’s just a poor, stupid persons problem so we will help by trying to educate them

it’s only part of the story and allows you to avoid addressing your own issues

There's no excuse really, if your clothes stop fitting reduce calories or fast. Hiding behind psychological excuses or thyroid problems is like an impenetrable shield to avoid accountability for their weight and if you say anything after someone has brought up a sob story on why they eat so much then you turn into a super villain bullying a mentally ill person.

I've been between a size 6 and a size 14 at my biggest while on a strong anti psychotic medication when I was 16 notorious for weight gain (seroquel, if you know you know) I never stayed above a size 12 for longer than a year because the heaviness and the thigh rubbing and the sweaty boobs were so horrible. It's never hard to get rid of the weight with CICO, even a 2 day fast is safe for most healthy adults if you really want the weight off. People think being hungry is starving and unhealthy and that if you can see ribs the person is malnourished when you should be able to see ribs and some clavicle on most people of a healthy weight.

Taking injections to lose weight is something out of the movie Wall E.

@Nodinnernogift this thread has already attracted the usual kinds of harshly critical comments about fat people. So, apparently plenty of people can’t discuss it sensibly and look at it from a societal point of view. They’re more keen on telling fat people how unattractive they are and that they should be charged for healthcare if they aren’t able to lose sufficient weight.

Is it because everyone has stopped smoking?

I’m a higher rate tax payer. I‘m paying for obese people to ruin their bodies and put extra strain on the NHS. There is far too much coddling of fat people in this country

I know I am over weight and I have always felt over weight since I was primary school age.
I know for me the biggest problem now is how easily accessible take away food is now. Take away coffee, take away meals etc. WFH in a job where I need to be logged into a phone system all day has lead to me doing less then 1000 steps some days. My weekends are spent with a coffee and a pastry or lunch out etc. Gradually my weight has increased year on year to a size 18 now.

On a personal level - yes, it's rude and has always been rude, even when people would openly point and stare at overweight individuals, and 'the fat woman' was held in universal derision.

However, on a societal level, it's a really important subject that should not be skirted around. Diseases related to overweight and obesity are on the rise, even among younger people - insulin resistance/ T2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease and stroke cost society in general far more in lost work opportunities and to treat than, for instance, providing school meals that are truly nutritious or providing exercise, nutrition counseling, cooking lessons, and incentives to participate in all of those via the NHS, which is currently a sickness service, not a health service.

People become 'fat adapted' once they have been over weight a long time so it really is not true this calorie in and calorie out stuff. Read Dr Jason Fung work he has been working with obese people for years and explains it really well.

I think food was pretty rubbish in the UK in the 70s and 80s and that is part of the reason people were slim. It's also because people tended to smoke quite heavily then compared with now. They certainly weren't healthier.

Don’t forget that we are all bigger than previous generations. And by that I mean taller, broader, bigger hands and feet. My grandmother was a tiny little bird of a woman at 5ft 1inches and 6 stone. She was born when food was scarce and disease was rife. She didn’t get the chance to develop as she might have done during other times.

I agree OP, especially as so many overweight people really want to lose weight and are at a loss how to do so.

The shutting down of discussion on a whole range of 'difficult' topics, because it might make some people uncomfortable, is counterproductive IMO.

Yep! Which is why it's so important we make sure to rip the piss out of that kind of behaviour. Personally I find it funny, but there are other obese people (not that I am one now thanks to MJ) who might take it seriously, and we can't have that. WLIs change lives.

There's a lot of truth to this

I'm not particularly bothered by fat people but I find it odd how some people are obsessed with them. What drives that?

People aren't fat anymore. They're living in a bigger body in an obesogenic environment. Apparently BMI is an outdated measure that is both sexist and racist. I'm willing to concede that it was developed on white males for looking at entire populations, but trotting this out as an excuse when your BMI is 40+ is a stretch. Hopefully GLP1s should be a help where other measures have failed but even they won't eat your protein and lift your weights for you. And yes i've been fat before. It's not fun.