Perceptions of 'healthy' or 'overweight' are really skewed by the area you live in?

[alwaysdream]

I'm sure I'll get roasted for this, but here goes anyway...

I live in an area of London where pretty much nobody is 'overweight.' Particularly young people.

Last night, in Wembley Stadium (Harry Styles concert), the ONLY food available was chicken and chips or doughnuts. That's it. And - I know this will sound very judgemental - but I'd say about 7 / 10 people were quite 'overweight,' but all walking around in tiny shorts and cropped tops, etc (I know this is the vibe at this kind of event). It made me wonder if this is 'normal' for young people, on a national level? I know it sounds judgemental, but AIBU? Are most teens overweight where you live?

London is affluent and has a higher proportion of young educated professionals. There is more public transport usage and therefore walking. There is a wider selection of food and money to afford it. Culture is different. There is a huge range of health in London and life expectancy has a higher range in the boroughs after linked to diet and well being

As my philosophy teacher used to say, trying to state what is “normal” is never a good basis to an argument, you can’t define normal and it’s a slippery slope. There is no normal, we live in a society where food is heavily industrialised and our society is incredibly unhealthy as a result. It’s offensive to use terms like “disordered”, it is not automatically a mental affliction to struggle to maintain a healthy weight and want to do so.

I was shocked recently. Where I live I feel very normal if not slim. My size 12 clothes started to feel a bit tight and so weighed myself and was horrified to see that I was in the overweight category. I’m back in to normal BMI but now feel slim when in reality I’m only just not overweight. Aiming to lose another half a stone and then I’ll be happy.

So in summary, yes, I think areas of the uk have lost sight of the healthy weight/shape

The sneering attitude is solely down to lack of education and ignorance. I pity people like this.

Some really offensive assumptions being made on this thread.

So we saying rich are all using WLI?

Nobody said it was an affliction. There are many ways of trying to maintain and lose weight and some are healthier than others. It's just an acknowledgement that for some people it impacts their thoughts and enjoyment of life more than others.
I'm by no means suggesting that it's a bad thing to be mindful of it nor that it isn't an attractive concept to not have to really think about it at all.

But from a personal perspective , I'd sooner cut out/down on UPF's and eat more whole foods, home cooked foods if I was trying to maintain.

It is tricky, and it wasn't my intention to offend anyone who makes different choices to me. I just have a couple of friends who are a bit of an eye opener on how they stay slim.

No literally no one has said that, how have you drawn that from this discussion?

Yabu to comment as if people who are overweight aren't allowed to wear shorts or crop tops. They are allowed to wear whatever they want same as anyone else.

There are lots of studies about the strong links between poverty, education and obesity. More deprived area = more obesity. Clearly there are always exceptions but this is the proven rule.

Similarly the normalisation of obesity is more prevalent in deprived communities because of the education gap and the lack of money to do anything about it once you become obese.

Aot of it comes down to parental behaviours and education.

Fat parents tend to beget fat children. Positive role models and healthy life goals help with positive body image.

A limited life where food becomes the main pleasure leads to what we might call "fat Labrador syndrome"!

Because parents can not always be trusted these days to know intrinsically what is healthy we need more education I am afraid. I see so many fat parents mollifying their children with sweet snacks. It's disheartening.

We went to a concert recently at Wembley and there was a box place that you could go to and you could pick up a normal manner of foods Thai curries pizzas pasta
Not massively healthy but more healthier than chicken and chips

We’ve lost sight of the restrictive logistics of mass catering 😭

Have you never been to America then?

My DGD was probably one of those overweight young people that you saw at the Harry Styles concert, and she wouldn’t give two hoots what you thought . She had traveled from the North West and had two overnights in a hotel with her friends in order to attend the concert .
it cost her a fortune and she had the best time. She has been a One Direction fan since she was 5 when they started out and what she weighs does not alter that .

*alwaysdream *I'm a mum obviously and I'm a size 10 and I would probably put myself as medium / large around here

Go back 20 years, before vanity sizing changed everything, you would have been 12/14 size. One thing to be aware of when buying of ‘vinted’.

In your opinion OP, what are overweight young people meant to wear in a hot venue during a heatwave?

I've only ever seen poor food options at stadiums so thought that was normal...as frustrating as it is.
Yep. Lots of overweight people up here (North). No judgement though.

It’s easy to be overweight, harder to be slim. If you live in an area where obesity is the norm it is easy to fall into that approach. If you are surrounded by people making unhealthy choices and the area is deprived, it becomes normalised. Likewise, if you live in a “slimmer” place, it is easy to be slimmer.

I do think it is a class thing. The really obese are invariably working class. If I see a really obese person and they turn out to be upper or middle class I am always shocked.

Being fat is normalised in this country. People get testy if people discuss it, asking what the agenda is on this thread, what are you trying to achieve, you are body shaming teens, stop being obsessed with other people’s bodies - it’s a subject like any other and up for discussion because it is a major health issue in this country. We can’t ignore it however uncomfortable it makes others.

Chicken's healthy though...? Pizza and pasta is simple/ fast carbs....

well yes, agreed of course! I misssd out the word ‘European’ above. I used to live in the US.

catering in venues is always rubbish- they have a captive audience, maybe some people did not have time to eat before or thought that there would be more choice

A lot of it is down to the way we spend our leisure time. If you don't have much money the leisure activities available to you are mainly screen based. This enables you to eat at the same time. I notice it myself as screen time has crept up. When I was a teen I was always out - the internet wasn't a thing and there was one TV in the house with 4 channels, mostly with my parents choice of programmes.

I was always out, never home and as I couldn't afford to eat out I ate very little when out of the house. When I'm at home these days there is constant thoughts about what food I have in the kitchen and I find myself snacking. I notice my own children, while not overweight are bigger than the skinny teen I used to be and they spend a lot more time at home than I did and graze while gaming etc. They do sports and gym, but a few hours a week of that doesn't entirely cancel out the extra calories available to them.

This was all the case what before WLI. However go back over a hundred years and only the very wealthy could be fat

It stands to reason that if you're wealthy enough to buy yourself an easier, less stressful lifestyle you'll have more headspace to focus on diet and excercise and more money to throw at it.
If your life doesn't consist of costly nice things, you can see why the relatively cheap pleasure of food is attractive.
I was at an event the other day where an additional physical activity for children cost £10. Ice creams cost £2. I heard at least one child ask to do the activity and be told no, but you can have an ice cream. And the length of queue for ice cream versus activity suggests they weren't the only one.