Shocked yesterday at just how many people are overweight?

[Whatevskev]

And I know I’ll get loads of bashing but I’m not judging- myself and all my family may well be included in this observation

The day before I’d been watching a documentary about the 40s and was struck by how slim the vast majority of people were. We got chatting as a group and I remembered there was only one child at school who was considered to be overweight (this is the 80s) so I got a photo out and realised by today’s standard he wouldn’t stand out at all.

Then yesterday walking around town I started actually noticing and it struck me that only about 1 in 10 people if that would be classed as properly slim and how normalised carrying extra weight is. Many people who would have been maybe a size 12 so ‘slim’ are actually carrying so much more body fat than our ancestors.

Once I looked it was striking.
No blame on anyone- society makes it almost impossible to maintain a lower weight unless you have iron will with all the food availability and snacking culture and calorie laden drinks and meals.

And we definitely have reset in our heads what is slim and what is ‘normal’.

How on earth do we reverse this is a society or is it just going to rise exponentially?

Sorry cross post. Although we can reminisce about penny sweets...😁

Yes it stands out to me. I think in the last few years it has become really noticeable.
I am looking to loose another stone lost one last month.

What chance do our children have. Supermarkets are to blame tbh with supersized snacks which were generally only available at Christmas.

Looking back to the 70s. We had no snack food and perhaps a jar of rich tea. A Cornetto was for adults and an icecream was a big event for us. One choc bar at the weekend and that was it!

Actually not every weekend! A finger of fudge

I got my metric calculations mixed up, should have been 10 stone so around 64kgs not 60kg 😳
Which of course doesn't make it any better. I look better at the lower end of the BMI scale then the upper. You must be very tall @Coffeeandchocolate9 my DP is 181cm tall and looks overweight at 81kgs

I don’t think we can blame shops. I don’t buy shit/supersized food in supermarkets, I just walk past it.

I don’t blame clothing shops for tempting me to buy their clothes.

Looking back to the 70s. We had no snack food and perhaps a jar of rich tea. A Cornetto was for adults and an icecream was a big event for us. One choc bar at the weekend and that was it

Yes people didn’t really snack in the 70s. We had nuts and raisins in the cupboard. We were unusual in having packets of Penguin biscuits (which I really disliked) or KitKats or Club biscuits for tea. But we only had one and they were fairly small.

We never ate chocolate or sweeties. We didn’t even have chocolate at Easter. My mum used to give us wooden painted eggs to collect.

Pudding was yoghurt or junket (meh) or rice pudding or fruit. We used to make our own cakes and flapjacks in the holidays.

We all just ate a hell of a lot less.

Just because a shop sells something doesn't mean you have to buy it. It's your own unhealthy ways and lack of willpower that is to blame, not shops.

Yes I really notice it too. My mum said when she was young you'd some some "stout" older people but now there are so many young people in their teens and 20s who are very overweight - not just that, they look unhealthy. Their complexions are grey and dull. I remember my friends and I all having rosey cheeks in our teens. People are less active, eat more refined foods and junk. My hairdresser is in her 20s. She's so lovely - and very large. The other day a colleague of hers was getting her lunch at the supermarket. I listened to my hairdresser order a smoothie, a packet of biscuits, some mini donuts and 2 twirls. This was her lunch - All of it was highly sugary. No proper food in my opinion. I think people have forgotten how to eat. I'm a size 12 and people are always telling me how slim I am but I know in the past I would have been seen as a big girl.

@MadameForest I am 181cm too (and the shortarse of the women in my family!). I'm definitely obese now, but at my slimmest I was the equivalent of 80kg and I honestly couldn't have dropped more weight and looked healthy. I have a large frame and appreciate that others would look overweight at the same stats.

Also, the NHS' calculator thresholds for high level of activity seem really low - 60-150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week seems fairly tame to me

@Coffeeandchocolate9 @MadameForest

I’m 5 feet 7 and I look my best at about 9.5 to 10 stone. That’s a BMI of 22 ish. There are women who are taller than me who would look gaunt at 10 stone.

I have boobs and a bum. Even when I was 56 kgs (BMI of 19), I still had boobs and a bum - I just lost weight from around my neck and face and looked gaunt.

People are built differently.

In my local area there has been a drive through bakers, Tim Hortons, Bob and Berts and at least 3 of the dessert shops that sell monster waffles and crepes open up in the past 2 years. Even my local corner shop has started selling Tango ice blasts.

I have gained around a stone and a half recently, I am shocked at how quickly it piled on. It only took a couple of months of not weighing myself, eating take aways and kidding myself I would eat properly from tomorrow and not exercising to do so. I felt a bit heavier but it took standing on the scales to tell how bad it was. When food is everywhere and you don't actively track what you are eating it is so easy to grab the most calorific supermarket sandwich or a few soft drinks and a take away over the week without really noticing.

I'm back to exercising and cutting out crap and in a couple of weeks have lost 4lb.

Thatoldpinkumbrella I don't know who your post if 11:19 was aimed at which began 'what advice do you need' , but if any if it was aimed at me saying I wanted to help DS's friend but didn't know how - my issues were absolutely nothing to do with not knowing how to eat healthily and the importance of exercise. What I would love to be able to do is to help an 18 year old girl who I think will have problems in the future - but as she is not my daughter I cannot go handing out advice she hasn't asked for.

My mum was so skinny growing up (born in the 40s) and when she talks about it now, that she had to try to put on weight to fit into adult clothes, she says the food back then was pretty bland and really not great. So i can see how eating a meal (meat and two veg!) would be something you just do, and could get pretty bored of, certainly you might not over eat. She also had to walk more, didn't drive everywhere and not every house had a telly so had to find other things țo do outside. It was a really different time.

We need to work so much harder these days țo retain those healthy active areas of life, and curb cravings for high fat/sugar/salt foods.

I may be fat but I'd rather be fat than stupid @ whoever it was who declared that anyone woman, regardless of height, who weighs more than 9.4 stone is overweight. How embarrassing.

But anyone overweight just needs to look in the mirror to know they need to lose weight, myself included, my middle looks like a lumpy sack with bulges over trousers, under bra etc. And it's very disheartening to try on lovely new clothes only to find you still look like a lumpy sack.

I bought levis a couple of years ago and the waist was huge, I had to go down 2 inches in waist size, and M&S t shirts hang out like tents, they're never going to look nice (though I see they are doing slim fitting now).

I wonder if all the cookery programmes on tv (which very few actually follow or we would all be eating home cooked food) just make cooking look tricky, all those spices and unusual veg.

Delia Smith did a back to basics cookery course in the ?90s - perhaps they should rerun it.

I'm also 181cm. I don't think I've been 60kg since I was about 12. I'd look seriously skinny. My best weight, when fit and muscular - my triathlon weight--is around 70 kg. That's a 12/14 on me. I stopped fitting in size 10 at about 13 when I developed hips.

Not all of us are 5 foot 4, and we don't have to make ourselves take up less space horizontally because we're tall.

Vanity sizing definitely has a lot to answer for. In my early 20s, I had a 26 inch waist and wore a size 12. Some size 12s now have a 31 inch waist.

Some years ago, there was a lot of debate in the media about size 0. That would equate to a size 8 when I was growing up, which wasn't uncommon.

Totally agree Dave.
I'm a size 12 have been since I was 18. However I'm a stone and a half heavier.
In the 80s I'd have been a size14/16.
I weigh 10stone 10. I'm 5ft6 and only just in the ok BMI range. I feel bigger than I should for my age -50s and need to loose at least 1/2 stone.

Its wrong to goad people about their weight but it needs to be made loud and clear what is healthy and what's not, how else are we supposed to have any idea what to aim for or how we should be.

I'm now happily entering grandparent phase. The shock some of my D friends are in when they discover they need to be consultant led because they thought they were over weight but healthy with it !

I think it's not always accurate to say that lack of time and money is the main reason why many people are overweight. There are ways of eating very healthily which don't require much time or money, as Jack Monroe demonstrates. I suspect the real problem is often that people have never experienced eating this type of food. If you're a second or third generation of "beige" food eaters, and as a result you've never had lentils and pulses, have never been in the habit of eating vegetables, and have very limited cooking skills, it might be very daunting to change.

People often come onto threads like this, extolling the benefits of pulses and porridge, but, without wishing to sound patronising, nowadays these are considered quite "middle class" foods. People like Jack Monroe are trying to change that, but I suspect it is very hard to persuade people, who might have lots of other things going on in their lives, to make changed to a way of eating that is completely alien to them.

I remember that a few years ago, a peer (I can't remember which), who was involved in an initiative to address our poor national diet, said words to the effect of, "The poor can't cook". She was of course lambasted for this, although the comment was less blunt when read in the context of everything she said, but I think there was much truth in it. I would add that many people have never learned how to eat healthily, so don't have any incentive to cook or even to make healthier food choices where cooking is not the issue.

Brilliantly put fozzle.

It's calories in versus calories out. Nothing more complicated. We have bigger portions, fattier foods, high carb, lots more sugar and we sit around more. When coronary disease kicks in for 30-40 year olds that will thin out the population and then we will all go back to thinking there aren't many fat people!

I agree, @minesagain.

However, it is perfectly possible to limit your calories even in a so-called obesogenic environment.

Wetherspoons give the calorie count of their meals, as do McDonalds.

And even if other places don't, it's pretty easy to get this info online.

People need to take responsibility.

Some years ago, there was a lot of debate in the media about size 0. That would equate to a size 8 when I was growing up, which wasn't uncommon.

Size 0 (US) is actually a UK 4! Size 8 (UK) would be US 4.

I have kept my weight most of my life, although I've increased a bit in later years and I have not noticed any vanity sizing in the 6-8 (even 10) range. So, it's only in larger sizes or its an urban myth. I do see clothes that are supposed to be worn looser sometimes all stretched out, though.
And I suspect that clothes for older women will account for a smaller waist to hip ratio because we do get more volume at the waist.

I agree. I first noticed at my kids last sports day, I'd say about a third of the kids were overweight. It was quite shocking actually. I get a lot of comments about how 'skinny' my kids are but actually they are both a normal healthy weight. We are just all so used to seeing fat people.

Off subject slightly but It's the same with dogs. So many fat dogs. If you have a dog with a normal weight, (which means being able to feel their ribs slightly) most people would see it as underweight, especially labs!