Why weren't Victorian upper class women fat?

[waltzingparrot]

They sat around drinking tea, playing the piano, embroidering, reading. Just the odd amble round a park, occasional dance.

How did they stay slim with their tiny waists?

I agree, snacks and processed food have always been around

Snacks have not always been around. I grew up in the 50s, nobody had snacks. They certainly weren’t around ten years before that when rations barely covered meals, let alone anything in between.

@AuntMasha

Women on average were so short,. When I see photos of Victorian and Edwardian ‘beauties’, they look less than 5 feet tall with very short, thick legs, chunky thighs, not actually slim. Tiny waists, but obviously everything is held in with corsetry for that hourglass shape. Incredibly different body shape to today’s tall, slender aesthetic.

Queen Victoria apparently had awful eating habits - overeating and a tendency to wolf her food down.

Isn't it fascinating to see who was considered a 'great beauty' back then? Lillie Langtry for example. Not sure she'd create such a stir these days.

@Blossomtoes

I agree, snacks and processed food have always been around

Snacks have not always been around. I grew up in the 50s, nobody had snacks. They certainly weren’t around ten years before that when rations barely covered meals, let alone anything in between.

I take your point that the 40s/50s were probably low points for calorie consumption, but your experience isn't universal. I remember my grandparents reminiscing about snacks during the war, because both were teenagers who ended up doing some work on the land, and they were introduced to things like lard on bread that they'd never really had accessible before.

Certainly, though, if we are talking upper-class Victorians, we are talking about a culture with a lot of interest in cramming in lots of different little meals. We may have changed how we eat those things - I bet Victorian ladies didn't take a nice cup of tea and a wedge of caraway cake with them when they went out for a walk - but I don't think that means people were eating a strict three meals a day with nothing in between.

Mmm, imagine an afternoon of paying calls and being given a slice of cake at each one. It would be rude to refuse…

Victorians invented afternoon tea , so I think snacking and eating cakes , bread jam and butter was quite fashionable.

Mmmmm afternoon tea.

One of the best inventions. Give me that over spag bol any day.

Although l think it was around well before the Victorians.

I think the cold was a factor, in parts of all homes.

I believe people snacked between meals but it’s the duchess of Bedford who made it fashionable.

Growing up we used to eat pain au chocolat as an after school snack
Funny how it’s considered a treat in my house. now . would want my DCs to eat it everyday !

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Mmm, imagine an afternoon of paying calls and being given a slice of cake at each one. It would be rude to refuse…

Wouldn't it be great? And ratafia (whatever that may be, but it sounds right).

I think also coffee houses would be wonderful.

Because their food wasn’t that tasty - few herbs and spices, no pasta or curries or McD…even in the 70s food was boring and bland. No quick snacking - you couldn’t pop down to the kitchen and eat a big bag of tortilla chips and humous in one go (I’ve heard) - you’d have to boil some potatoes or something. Everything was manual, so far more effort keeping floors and bathrooms etc. clean. You die younger, so less time to get old and fat.

@Wiredforsound

Because their food wasn’t that tasty - few herbs and spices, no pasta or curries or McD…even in the 70s food was boring and bland. No quick snacking - you couldn’t pop down to the kitchen and eat a big bag of tortilla chips and humous in one go (I’ve heard) - you’d have to boil some potatoes or something. Everything was manual, so far more effort keeping floors and bathrooms etc. clean. You die younger, so less time to get old and fat.

Um ... have you ever read a Victorian cookery book?!

They were so keen on curry they made kedgeree as breakfast food.

I wouldn’t have minded attending one of those upper class ‘ladies-only’ gin parties that well-to-do women of the 18th century indulged in. It seems absolutely crazy to us now, but Gin was actually recommended as an antidote to tea addiction in the 1700s.

@AuntMasha

I wouldn’t have minded attending one of those upper class ‘ladies-only’ gin parties that well-to-do women of the 18th century indulged in. It seems absolutely crazy to us now, but Gin was actually recommended as an antidote to tea addiction in the 1700s.

That’s brilliant!

@waltzingparrot

They sat around drinking tea, playing the piano, embroidering, reading. Just the odd amble round a park, occasional dance.

How did they stay slim with their tiny waists?

They didn't have all the processed food crap that we have.

I remember frequent snacking on crisps, sweets, chocolates and sugar sandwiches in the 1970’s.

@SarahAndQuack according to Ruth Goodman, very few women learned to cook beyond the same handful of meals. Food was not plentiful so a housewife, even one with a few maids would have to be careful of waste. Not a time for experimental cookery.

Conversely sewing skills were of a very high order across the classes with boys also learning for a few years.

Have a look at one of those old photos of the household staff gathered together. The younger women tend to be thin as they're doing all the heavy household work. The housekeepers and cooks are often pretty hefty but heavily corseted. TB was prevalent across the classes. All kinds of reasons really and snacking, sweets and takeaways weren't available. Many people didn't have enough to eat.

They were not skinny just heavily corseted, it was very unfashionable to be thin anywhere but in the waist as it signified you were poor, most ladies were fairly buxom and thin women were not as attractive

They didnt have heating , cold uses up a lot of calories as well as housework

even in the 70s food was boring and bland. No quick snacking - you couldn’t pop down to the kitchen and eat a big bag of tortilla chips and humous in one go (I’ve heard)

My DF was greek cypriot we always had humous, taramasalata in the fridge in the 60s let alone 70s. I was bought up on a mix of welsh and greek cypriot cooking, bowls of olives in the kitchen to snack on, greek breads etc

@bruffin

They didnt have heating , cold uses up a lot of calories as well as housework

even in the 70s food was boring and bland. No quick snacking - you couldn’t pop down to the kitchen and eat a big bag of tortilla chips and humous in one go (I’ve heard)

My DF was greek cypriot we always had humous, taramasalata in the fridge in the 60s let alone 70s. I was bought up on a mix of welsh and greek cypriot cooking, bowls of olives in the kitchen to snack on, greek breads etc

Presumably you’re talking about the 1970s and not 1870s though?

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but I read that most women were larger than we think - they would have worn their corsets daily (and they weren't as tight as we think) - so they wore out. The corsets we have from that time are the 18" waist ones because they just weren't worn as much - they were samples for tailors and so on (used less cloth), so they survived more. Some people were that tiny, but it wasn't the norm. I don't know how true that is - need a historian on that really.

I often wonder why there are no fat women that live in Chelsea or Knightsbridge now…. Very few upper class women are fat, I suppose Clarissa Dickson-Wright was one?

I imagine the lack of refrigeration might have also caused more frequent cases of food poisoning. In my experience, food poisoning is a really great way to lose weight.

You can never be too rich or too thin.

re Chelsea lack of fat.