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?

[Charles11]

I think it’s our reliance on wheat that’s contributed to it. Countries like Japan and other Asian countries that choose mainly rice over wheat tend to have slimmer populations.

[StartupRepair]

I think many of us are genetically predisposed to overest and store fat when we are surrounded by abundance. Trouble is there is now abundance every day not just special days. Add to diminished exercise, increased anxiety and comfort eating and a culture of snacks, large serves and processed foods and we are sitting on a catastrophe.

[MadeleineMaxwell]

Fat people know they're fat.
Fat people know they have a problem.
Fat people have been told day in, day out, by all kinds of people that they're fat and it's a problem.
Telling fat people they're fat and it's a problem does not solve said problem.

0.7% of fat people currently lose the weight and keep it off.
Fat shaming doesn't work. Current approaches don't work.

'Eat less, move more' is a lazy and stupid approach to a complex problem.

Try something else.

[cushioncovers]

I'm 49 and overweight. Have been since I had my last child at 30. Up until then I was average build.

What I have noticed during my time is that when I was growing up it was generally only middle aged people that seemed to be overweight. But these days many children and teens are also very overweight. That was Something you didn't really see in the 1970s and 80s.

[TwelveLeggedWalk]

I'm MC, live in an active area, am very well educated about food and all the rest of it, and I'm a bit overweight. I could easily become very overweight. A few things I've realised:

• Most of us have absolutely no idea how many calories we eat. Using MFP is a total eye opener. When I was a teenager I had friends who did WW and could tell you the calorie content of EVERYTHING like a reflex. I always thought WW was a total frigging con and the feminist in me thought there was way more useful things to be filing my brain with than the calorie content of 2 digestive biscuits. Then I had babies, got older, stopped moving so much and got fatter. I'm having t to teach myself now. Things like one latte, or one bagel, don't feel like treats until you count them up.

• Crappy weight loss advice. From WW/SW which rely on people faliing to keep paying, to the Boombod/juice cleanse crap that's marketed to teenagers, even to the obsessive macro/high protein diets (REALLY hard to keep your calories down when you're eating that much protein and probably fat) it is really bloody hard to find something that is sustainable healthy eating.
JAmes Smith and the guy on instagram whose name escapes me are excellent for cutting through the bullshit..

• Kids are set up to be fat. We've recently changed our uniform suppliers and the parents at our - very active, healthy - school in an otherwise not very wealthy area are up in arms. The t-shirts are basically square, and everybody's been asking ' who the hell does this fit'. I went to the shop to try and find something that might fit my DC and was shocked to realise that every other child in the shop from other schools in the area was quite seriously overweight. The kids needed those generous cut t-shirts to find uniform that they felt comfortable in.

[Excited101]

But people also teach these eating habits to their children- constant snacking when they’re in the buggy or to stop boredom or distress. Those kiddie crisps etc. I know there’s nothing really in them, but that habit, that ‘need’ will just be fulfilled by the full fat and salt equivalents when the child is older.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

NumberblockNo1's post is really pertinent. Always on threads - any threads - it's clear that posters are using their own reference points as a baseline. Those points are poles apart so there's no meeting of minds or real understanding.

[Weathergirl1]

For those interested, I'd recommend Gene Eating by Dr Giles Yeo. Really good book.

[Camomila]

In a lot of Europe they certainly 'body shame' a lot more - thinking Italy, France, Spain etc especially drs!

But culturally we don't see it as shaming I don't think...its just a normal part of health and of course the dr is going to weigh me...
DM and her friends will talk about needing to lose a few kgs but mention their because of their cholesterol etc first and looks 2nd. You equally get told when you are too skinny (eg, cousin getting stressed during uni exams or me when breastfeeding)

[3luckystars]

I know we always had homework, but years ago there was one parent at home usually so it just wasnt as stressful. I may be totally wrong about this, bu I think everything is so rushed now, homework could be limiting in a very busy house. On the night we dont have any, it's a great freedom, we are off out doing things.

[thatoldpinkumbrella]

but to keep weight off and to lose a significant amount, it really needs to be more than 30 mins a day

weight loss is 20-30% exercise MAXIMUM, 70 - 80% diet.

30 minutes of intense exercise 6 days a week is enough to tone you up, you won't lose weight as such though. I can walk 1 hour a day, I don't lose a single gram, it's mainly diet or doing a lot more than an hour a day. What's 300 calories really?

But it's a mindset. First you are moving, and not stuffing yourself. You are drinking more water, you stop yourself from over eating.

It's like these people kidding themselves about the amount of calories they "burn" when doing the housework - let's face it, they've be doing the same housework for years, starting to count it as exercise won't make any difference to their weight!

[BeyondMyWits]

I'm fat... size 22 fat... and there are a variety of reasons

1 - lack of self control. Main one - I like food and want to eat, to taste all the different foods.

1. increased choices - when I was growing up I lived on a small island. We had meat and potatoes and vegetables, we had porridge for breakfast. That was what we ate - EVERY day - EVERY SINGLE DAY for 16 years. Has definitely contributed to point 1.
   

Supermarkets have not helped in that regard - HOW many choices of breakfast cereal? Pasta? How many different treats to try - sweet, savoury - Crisps are a prime example - we used to have to make do with ready salted/salt&vinegar/cheese and onion - prawn cocktail was "exotic"

1. sedentary leisure - we watch telly, we use the internet, we play computer games - when young we didn't have telly(we had 2 channels)/internet(nope not even close)/computer games(well, pong in the early 70s perhaps). When I was young I went fishing, building dens, cycling, walking about - everyone had a dog (kept the rats down) and the only sitting was when you stopped to chat on a wall - or playing monopoly - which in our house of 4 competitive kids was not a sedentary pursuit!
   

1. money/snacking - when I was young we couldn't AFFORD snacks. Snack foods where available were expensive in relation to wages and other food. We never had a fridge full of food either. Now the kids have a snack at school , after school, after tea...
   

1. the notion of a treat. A treat was a once a week or once a month thing. A mars bar - Dad's payday treat for us... A 10p bag of mixed sweets - (black jacks/fruit salad etc) was when granny took you to the shop to get out of mums hair on a Saturday. People complain now if their kids can't have a kit-kat in a lunchbox - since when were chocolate biscuits not a treat, but something to be had daily!
   

just my general musing. I think the biggest contribution is choice.

[bobstersmum]

I do think you're being judgy op whether intentional or not, but your post has made me decide to lose weight!

[littlehappyhippo]

YANBU @Whatevskev

I have recently been watching re-runs of FRIENDS (which started in 1994.) I cannot believe how absolutely super slim Monica looks (Courteney Cox,) also Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) is too. I mean, really slim. But when I watched it in the 1990s they didn't look particularly very slim - they just looked a normal size IYSWIM.

On a similar note, Mark Addy in The Full Monty (1997) was classed as 'The fat bloke,' and yet 22 years later, in 2019, he is classed as a fairly normal size. He just has a 'dad-bod!'

Also weirdly, I was a size 12 in the 1980s, (as a teen/young woman,) and I found an old skirt of mine from 1989 in the attic around 5 or 6 years ago, and DD tried it on (she is a size 8,) and it wouldn't quite fit her! Same with 2 dresses I had that were with the skirt. Both size 12 but wouldn't fasten up on her. Proving that 'sizings' have changed.' In the 1980s, my size 8 daughter would be a size 12!

So anyone these days who says 'I am a size 8-10' is an original size 12-14. Like no WAY was Marilyn Monroe a size 16, she was no more than a 12. (Maybe a 16 in todays world, but not in the 1960s.)

But it is true that as a society we are much bigger/carrying more weight.

When I see schoolkids trotting through town on a school outing, some 2 out of 5 of them are what I would class as overweight - even obese. When I was at school in the 1980s, hardly anyone was overweight. Maybe half a dozen kids out of a school of 900.

I also see lots of young people (under 25,) who are very fat. Like maybe 7 to 8 stone overweight, by the age of 20 some of them. I just think 'they are going to have some terrible health problems down the line, and are probably taking 30 years off their life if they don't do something about it now!'

I have been between 9 and 14 stone during my lifetime (currently 10 stone,) and I can honestly say that you do notice how big people are/how many bigger people there are around, when you lose weight yourself, or are generally someone who is slim.

[TwelveLeggedWalk]

This is the instagram guy @Thefitnesschef_
He's so good at getting the message across

[Sadbadglad]

I know I am obese and I hate it. The medication I take stops my brain from knowing when it is full. Every meal is a battle.
Dont always judge from just looking

[thatoldpinkumbrella]

bu I think everything is so rushed now, homework could be limiting in a very busy house.

I disagree, people make themselves "rushed". Most still seem to miraculously find the time to be on internet, on social media, to watch tv, go to the cinema, play video games.

get rid of your tv, your phone and your computer - unless you stick to online shopping, emails, and genuine admin crap that needs to be done - you will suddenly find yourself with plenty of free time!

[ragged]

Public shame is supposed to be a big reason why Japanese people remain so slim

[Rhubarb01]

Just on a purely historical note - I've read that, despite rationing during the war, people actually consumed more calories than we do today. Although the composition of their diet would have been somewhat different. However, most people were engaged in physical work whether it was farming, working in factories, or straightforward housework at the time, and burned off the calories they ate. Added to this, was the fact that very few ordinary people had cars and with petrol rationing this would have been little help anyway. Basically, people walked a lot and spent a large part of their day engaged in physical activity. Society has changed dramatically and so have all of us.

[WorraLiberty]

I don't think homework is to blame.

Years ago you did your homework and then went out to play in the streets. Hours of playing tag/hopscotch/run-outs etc.

Now even kids activities are structured. Parents will drive their kids to and from an activity. By the time the kids have got changed, stood around listening to the person running it etc, the amount of actual exercise they get can be pretty small but parents think it's enough.

Add to that the huge amount of food kids are given in one sitting from weaning stage and the amount of snacks in between and they really are being set up to follow in their parent's footsteps.

[rookiemere]

Also another issue I just thought of, food is available everywhere. So on Friday I went to TK Maxx to buy a suitcase and bought and ate a chocolate bar because they were selling them at the till. Completely my fault for doing it, but had it not been at the till I wouldn't even have thought I wanted chocolate. In rest of Europe food is only sold in food shops rather than everywhere.

[thatoldpinkumbrella]

Fat shaming doesn't work. Current approaches don't work.

it's not fat shaming to state a simple fact.

What doesn't work is to pretend being overweight is "normal" and to be proud of.

See the replies on so many of these threads: "oh but the average uk woman is x size, so being that size is not fat!"
That's looking at it backwards! Fat might be what the average is, but it's still fat - not normal, not something to be encouraged!

[user1497207191]

I'd say well over half the nurses/staff/doctors at our local main hospital are seriously overweight. Not good at all seeing as they should know the health implications.

[Baguetteaboutit]

Is this where we pretend all the smoking didn't play a role in the slim waists?

[ScreamingValenta]

3luckystars It depends on different experiences, I guess. My mum stayed at home when we were tiny, then worked part time when we were at junior school, but she went back full time when I was at secondary school, so there was no parent at home until about 6pm. It was common in my circles (comprehensive school) for both parents to work, although possibly one might be part-time. It might have been different for those at private schools, or conversely in deprived areas where one or both parents were unemployed.

My recollections of those days were that being out and about as a secondary-school aged child didn't usually involve a parent taking you somewhere - you walked or got the bus by yourself.