Why are nearly 25% of British women obese?

[twitterer]

On the news this morning we are told that British women are the fatest in Europe, why? Of course it is down to eating too much and exercising too little. But other populations don't suffer so badly. I wonder if there is more (healthy) pressure from society, men, employers and others to be healthy

a good friend of mine who is very obese says he just feels the need to "reward himself with food" all the time.

He has had a tough youth, his father died when he was young, he looked (and looks) after his mum, who has a chronic illness and sister (SN). She used to reward him with food and snacks from a young age.

He is very ambitious and successful and happy, but he cannot stop the deeply ingrained habit of rewarding himself (and his wife) with food. He always cooks from scratch, so it's not laziness. But then he eats dessert and then cheese. Every day. The irony is that he is a Healthcare professional. He KNOWS all about healthy living but to him life without treats seems too bleak. I guess in a way he prefers to be obese.

that's just one story.

Obesity is a complex issue I suspect.

I think talking about inidviduals health problems masks the real question - why are more British women obese than any other nationality in Europe?

From my experience in France there are 3 main differences:

1. Drink - French women don't drink. They may have a glass or 2 with lunch on Sunday but they don't drink on a daily basis. Nor do they drink fizzy drinks, you never see people walking down the street with a can of coke for example.

1. Portion size, particularly in restaurants, but that is probably an indication of the partions at home too. One rarely leaves a french restaurant stuffed.

1. Eating between meals - the french don't. There are no newsagents selling bags of crisps and mars bars. People eat at meal times and that is all. And meal times are very fixed, so no-one would eat lunch at 3pm for example.

Any talk of a difference in excercise culture is rubbish. The French don't excercise. There are no gyms. People will take their car rather than walk 400m.

Not all french women are skinny, far from it. But far less are obese which is the important point.

People dont exersize enough- I have 2 sets of friends mainly. 1 set are from my uni swimming team- all good physique still- as they see sport as part of dailylife not as an extra. The other set are my mummy friends and only a few exersize and see it as something to try to fit in. This wrong attitude is going to pass down to their children.
As a minimum I do sport at least 4 times a week but do something physical with dd daily- a walk/ swim/ house work etc.

Food wize its taking easy options and not learning how to cook. The skill and place needed to create healthy meals isnt seen as important or valid as material posessions.

Also alcohol consumption is partly to blame. As is vanity sizing- I cant believe my clothes size ranges from a 8-12 when I'm a size 10-12 in text book measurments. Childrens clothing isnt helping either- its all massive- making parents feel their slightly over weight dc is normal and therefore healthy- when they are not.

I also beliweve parents pass their PE phobia and hatred down to their kids- letting them not participate.

frenchfancy - those are good points - and similar to my experience in Belgium. Many women I know here eat three proper meals a day, only snack on fruit, and they never pig out, and that is why I'm a size 14 and they are a size ten.

The culture is one of self control - pigging out is simply not done.

Frenchfancy - regarding exercise it does depend on where you live. I thought people who live centrally in Paris tended to walk because it is such a nightmare driving.

In many Belgium cities children and adults cycle. It is dangerous though - a boy was killed in my road a few years ago and I know many people who have been injured on their bikes.

From my experience of Sweden, these are the differences that stand out:

a) quality of food- more Swedes cook from scratch

b) snacks- crisps and similar items are seen as party foods, not everyday foods; biscuits and sweets and fizzy drinks are relatively expensive

c) outdoor activity levels- ordinary people are active and spend time out of doors; you don't have to be a sporty person to exercise; so unlike France there is an exercise cultures though much of it not tied to formal sports

Fellatio, sorry but how do you know that the average middle age italian woman is overweight? Did you learn it from the Dolmio advert???? No, seriously, but again, i can introduce you to my mother, my aunties, even my dead grandmoer, some family friends in milan, rome and even naples (the most "workingclass"). And u will not meet any middle aged obese woman.
Very difficult from here (and please note, i live in london, that is probably one of the places with the lowest ratio overwright/slim).
Numbers are clear.
I repeat myself. I think it is part of the diet. Even when uk peoplecookfrom scratch,thisinvolves butter,loads of flour, gravy. Take the roast dinner. You add that disgusting gravy to everything. At the end you have apple crumble with custard. Our sunday lunch. Is 50/70 gr of pasta (check how little is 50 grams!), some meat with salad of iceberg and tomatoes with little olive oil, followed by some fruit. Also a slice of bread....of course without butter. Have this difference of calories everyday for your life and see why italians are slimmer!

Could it be the indoor culture? I would guess UK kids on average spend more time indoors than those in most other cultures... We live in southern Germany - on average winters are a lot colder than the UK, but kids still spend more time outdoors, and have more freedom than uk kids who are kept "safely" inside playing on their nintendos/ watching TV/ doing "work books" when the kids here are running around outside playing.

Also nobody here would even think of giving a 6 year old a hand held computer console like a nitendo, but they seem to be THE present for the 6 year olds of my UK friends this year! The kids grow up slower here but part of that is they play outside longer I think, and the outdoor culture stays with a lot of people as they grow up, and being outdoors a lot more usually means more exercising and less eating...

Its all only average though, plenty of well covered ladies here (I'm one, but actually I'm British so don't count - my kids are slim and very active indeed), plenty of slim ones who walk miles in the UK, obviously...

Added to that processed/ ready prepared food, but this will change as it creeps into the shops in other countries - even 4 years ago when we moved here you could buy very few ready meal or ready sauces etc. here, but more is creeping onto the shelves. If there is almost no pre prepared food in the shops obviously far more people cook from scratch.

Frenchfancy - regarding exercise it does depend on where you live. I thought people who live centrally in Paris tended to walk because it is such a nightmare driving.

I'm sure that is true of most big cities though, certainly it is of London, so doesn't really explain the huge difference in obesity.

I'm in NI, I think we are fatter than the national average.

A year ago, I was obese (16 stone at 5'7). I'm now still flabby bellied but a healthy weight 10 stone 8.

I was not fat through stupidity or lack of understanding.

I was fat because I have spent my life, since the age of about 9, being told that I needed to watch what I ate/ was fat/ aren't fat people disgusting etc etc etc. I alternately starved and binged through my teens, and by my twenties I was overweight. Then I moved cities, married, had kids - and was miserable. Sugar makes you happy, at least momentarily, there's a good association with it! Then I was a single parent, alone in a new rural town, and ate because I was bored/ tired/ sad/ lonely.

I have dieted, with some success, in the past (losing 30lb and 20lb after DC 1 & 2, all of which was regained, with interest.)

This time, I haven't dieted. I've been mindful, and I've talked myself through what/ why I'm eating, but if I want something, I damn well have it. I won't have "low fat" or diet alternatives in the house - I use butter, eat good bread etc.

It's going to stay off. I've plateaued, but I think this might be the size I am meant to be (I am a big person, very broad shoulders and muscly legs/ arms).

The legacy of the fucking about I did as a teenager/ early twenties has taken the guts of 10 years to work through, but I genuinely believe I'm there now. I won't be fat again. But I know I'll have to weigh myself every day for the rest of my life (it's part of my mindfulness) and that I'll never be truly carefree about food and eating. Old patterns are too easy to fall into.

adverse I don't know about that, I drink a reasonable amount, doesn't seem to have affected weight loss at all? How much are people drinking?

(I would have 3 or 4 whiskies on a night out, or 3 or 4 pints, which is plenty, as I am then pissed. Lightweight!)

Maybe it's not so much the alcohol as the chips 'n' kebab at 3am.

Having had an eating disorder and being very tiny I would just like to say that a size 14 is a lot healthier and attractive than a size 0.

I would like to be a 10/12. I don't think I will be a 12 up top though as my tits are too big.

I never used to like exercise but when my mum died of cancer recently I started doing Jillian Michaels almost every night with fantastic results. I can't believe I doidn't embrace it sooner.

I would also like to say that fat is not at all acceptable in our society. The pressure to be tiny IS enourmous. However, the food available is fatty. Resulting in lots of young women with eating disorders and wieght issues. It's very sad.

I've been told (by nutritionists / medical researchers, but it was three years ago or so so I may have misremembered) that there is a surprisingly large effect based on the town in which you live.

IIRC, if you move to certain towns in the UK, you will, on average, start to take more exercise, start to lose weight, and increase your educational level. The researchers felt that it was probably a mix of certain places making it easy for you to do all these things (e.g. evening classes, easy cycling / walking, gyms) and then new norms being established amongst your friends, neighbours and colleagues.

Agree that French Fancy makes 3 very valid points but I have to object to the generalisation that the French don't exercise and that 'there are no gyms'. We moved a few months ago and DH has managed to work out once/twice a week for 6 weeks just trying out all the gyms in this small city. He has only just had to commit to one and pay the subs.

We used to live in a rural part of France and there was a gym in the local town and aerobics/toning classes in all the local village halls at least once a week, aquaaérobics and aquastep at the local pool, lunchtime openings for swimming lengths (aimed at office workers I presume) and hordes of people cycling past on Sunday mornings.

I am a terrific cook, love fruit and veg, and I do take a reasonable amount of exercise. Since I developed osteoarthritis, however, I have put on four stone. I also have an underactive thyroid gland - I can put on five pounds in a week whilst eating the same as previously, if it's not in balance.

The consultant explained to me that when you are in chronic pain, you tend to sit very still, too still, so you reduce your energy output without realising it. I've tried reducing food intake accordingly, but I just ended up feeling ill a lot of the time, as I do if I up my exercise past a certain point.

I think I am doing the best I can, but realistically I think I am going to be overweight for the rest of my life, unless something metabolic changes. I did take Reductil for a while for that exact reason, and that worked extremely well, but sadly it is banned now and consequently my weight has gone back up. It is a bit of a worry, tbh.

I have moved to Switzerland where the women here actually have the lowest BMI in Europe - suprisingly not the French, but of course Swiss aren't considered "Europeans". Interestingly you see more of a median here - everyone is around the average.

What do they do differently:

They still eat fatty foods - chocolate, butter, croissants etc, but they eat less generally - food is expensive, meat is very expensive, portion sizes are much smaller. Although we claim the UK is a rip off, food is actually very cheap compared to a lot of other countries.

Birchermuesli is a popular and common breakfast dish.

They generally have a two hour lunch break here and eat their main meal at this time of the day, and a smaller evening meal.

Food is generally simple, seasonal and rarely convenience.

Majority of Swiss mums are stay at home or part time so they have time to cook from scratch.

Everyone walks, all the time, for the majority of people this is the form of exercise. Every evening, weekend you see families all out walking - round the towns, villages, forests etc for at least an hour a day.

Private healthcare - if you have to pay extra for your healthcare because you're fat (and this happened to me when I moved here , it can cost you an extra £120 a month as a couple! Also you'll get charged extra if you have to have an op/treatment linked to your obesity. When you rely on the NHS to pick up the bill it doesn't cost you to pay for your diabetes tablets, heart tablets, high blood pressure meds etc.

If it costs you money to be fat, you'll try your best to be thin. Believe me!

I think food has become far to bloody complicated.

There is so much choice, so much hidden sugar, so many rules, so much stuff!

I try and eat healthily and have always taken a lot of trouble with my DC's diets. But I look back on what I fed the oldest ones and realise that I made a fair few mistakes.

Or did I? Did having a certain food every so often really make that much difference?

See now I am confused.

I think a major reason is the sheer availabilty of food. When I was a kid you had to eat at home because you only really had the local chippie to get takeaway stuff. Most of them were only open a few hours in the day.

Now there is food everywhere. You can eat 24hrs a day.

This 25% figure though - will this help to stop the horrible snobbery that its only poor stupid peope who are overweight?

I lived in the city I walked everywhere - at least 1.5hours a day with nursery runs etc.. Now live rurally drive everywhere. You would think I would have put on weight I haven't put on a pound.

I really don't subscribe to the calories in and out idea. I did do a crash diet for a month lost a stone last year. I've kept it off except for 2 lbs. I've have stayed the same weight for a year. I've gone back to eating how I used to. Not a pound has gone back on and I do less exercise. I don't understand.

BinFull - very interesting what you say about the Swiss.

"They generally have a two hour lunch break here and eat their main meal at this time of the day, and a smaller evening meal.

Food is generally simple, seasonal and rarely convenience.

Majority of Swiss mums are stay at home or part time so they have time to cook from scratch.

Everyone walks, all the time, for the majority of people this is the form of exercise."

Following exactly that lifestyle has allowed me to lose 2 stone in 3 years without dieting. I now weigh the same now as I did when I was 21 and have a BMI of 22. I used to have a BMI of 26 which is slightly overweight.

I dont have a car so I walk a lot. I like food but cook from scratch every day. I eat very little and often nothing at all in the evening. I do drink wine but never beer/spirits and never without a meal and almost never in the evening. I am 48 and like most men of my age do put on weight very quickly around my middle almost by accident. It takes a certain amount of diligence and effort to keep the weight off.

Perhaps men are generally slightly less overweight because more of them go out to work and tend to get a bit more excercise than women. However, this is an important health issue for men and women so I think the focus on women is both unfair and misguided.

In my early 20's I was a size 14 but at 5'8 I looked fine in clothes not so great without :( now past 40 and I am a size 18 and do look lardy but hold my hands up and say I am too lazy to do anything about it

I truly believe it is our portion size that has a lot to do with it - huge dinner plates look kind of empty with a normal portion size so you fill the plate up and eat it...... Take pasta for example - I used to cook 1/2 packet for 2 adults and 1 small child and we would eat it all and then actually started to measure out 75g per person and saw how much pasta we should have been eating instead of what we were actually eating.!!

If we could all eat less, move more and cut the crap we wouldn't be so fat and we shouldn't kid ourselves as previous posters have said - we are FAT not CURVY. Parents need to realise that an 8 year old with their bellies hanging over their trousers is tragic.......

I totally agree with the posters who are mentioning the drinking culture in England and it is probably one of the worst aspects of our lifestyle for health and obesity; in every class. The' reward yourself with a night out on the booze' for my DD2 is making her ill and fat. The same for the "have a glass or bottle of wine after a hard day with the DCs and or work" culture.

Alcohol is insidiously addictive.

I spend part of each year in France and the very small differences are astonishing:-

1. Having been obese, I know that you stand out like a sore thumb in France. You are pitied/despised for letting yourself go.
2. There are no ready meals in the supermarket. you cook from scratch. when you do that you are far more likely to throw a salad together/grill a chicken. Especially when the quality of veg is so good.
3. In local restaurants you don't get given any crabs. OK, there is the basket of bread of course, but your steak comes with some sauce and greens, and maybe just one boiled potato on the side (in tourist restaurants of course it is the usual chips/pasta stuff). People just don't expect to see a pile of carbs on their plate.
4. There is a big 'quality' thing going on when it comes to chocolate/desserts - yes you will have them on occasion, but if it isn't top notch, you simply don't bother. Poor quality sugary stuff is considered 'children's food' in much the same way as we consider 'quavers' or 'jam sandwiches' to be children's food.
5. As has been said before, a glass of wine with dinner is pretty much it, alcohol-wise. If there are 4 of you out with dinner you will have a long discussion over whether to get a second bottle of wine for the table, whereas in the UK it would be odd not to.
6. Food generally costs more (fruit and veg aside). You make educated choices about what you eat because of this. you don't just throw a pack of jaffa cakes in the basket. The level of 'food poverty' in this country is horrific. In the UK you pay virtually nothing for crap food like biscuits/cakes.