‘Millenniums’ set to become heaviest generation ever

jenpax, that is so sad and downright awful. Hopefully now you are in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing and has your health and best interests at heart.

I do think that when someone is housebound or even bedridden because of obesity that their wants should not be facilitated by well-meaning relatives or even by carers.

But old meg you are assuming that a person can do something to control their weight.
There are complicated emotional and sometimes physical factors behind someone eating more than they need, not to mention the fact that obesity is more prevalent in deprived areas.
You could argue that obesity is an eating disorder as much as anorexia is.
Are you going to say to an anorexic patient they should just eat more and deny them care and treatment?
Are you going to deny a family state benefits if the mother doesn’t control her weight?
What about other ‘lifestyle’ conditions the NHS spends money on? Treatment for alcohol and drug addiction?
What about a cigarette smoker with lung cancer?
Where are you going to draw the line?

OldMeg, I am afraid that I agree with your posts. We have normalised being overweight.
When I was younger I was a standard size 12, 34 inch bust and 36 inch hips. I am still a size 12 but my bust is 38 inches and my hips are39 inches. Vanity sizing to kid us on that as the inches pile on we are still the same size.
Food portions are too big, food is cheap, people no longer pop in to each other's houses for a cuppa, they meet for a coffee and a muffin at Costa or Starbucks.

I agree it’s an impossible situation. As far as I’m concerned if people choose to dig themselves into an early grave with their knife and fork then that’s their own business.

BUT what sticks in my gullet is the way they expect the NHS to pick up the cost and take up more than a ‘fair share’ of the limited NHS funding available. It means that others have to suffer and do without, have operations delayed, etc because some are draining resources through their chosen lifestyle.

It simply doesn’t seem fair
?

I actually know someone who gets disability benefit because of her weight. She is barely able to walk to her mobility scooter.
Is it right to pay her benefits so she can shop for food every day? Chocolate, crisps, and so on? Would it be right to tell her that her benefit entitlement would depend on her doing a bit more towards controlling her weight?

I'm not saying it acceptable, I'm saying I don't see what else can be done. I'm not the health minister, just a gran.
We have a binge drinking culture, we have recreational drugs being used, what can we do about that? Its not because people aren't aware. Its not because they're ignorant of the facts. I don't know what the answer is.
People eat themselves into morbid obesity, but how to stop them, I wouldn't know.

My own millennial is the skinniest of us all.

Yesterday we were telling DGD that it is fine to eat a bit of chocolate, a biscuit, as long as the rest of her diet is healthy. The extremely skinny girls at her school are quite nasty to anyone who is of normal weight for their age and height and there is only one child who appears to be obese, a boy.
Eating problems are so prevalent these days.

Trying to find a balance between teenagers becoming obese and others becoming anorexic must be very difficult for today's parents.

So you are saying that it’s acceptable that levels of obesity just be allowed to rise?

I think its a hiding to nowhere trying to make people do what's best for them.
The information is there, moreso than ever before, the supermarkets packed with all kinds of healthy options, the tv is always showing cookery programmes. There are gyms, spinning classes, apps for phones.
I don't see what else there is to do?

This is sad jenpax and nothing on this thread is should make you feel ashamed. You have an illness which sadly ought to have been diagnosed at a earlier stage.

What we have MissA is a problem with obesity. How do you think we should deal with this or do you think it’s OK for people to put their own health at risk?

I get really angry with fat shaming!
I have had a large stomach for some time which has got much bigger in the last few months increased weight gain as a result, I visited my GP a few times about the weight gain and each time was given a fat shaming lecture about diet and exercise including most recently By the nurse doing a routine smear. however it has now emerged (after a DVT diagnosed by a lovely locum GP) that I have a rare stomach tumour which now needs to be removed, and as well as the tumour will go my kidney and spleen!
All of this could have been avoided if my doctors had not been so hung up on just assuming that I was over eating despite me telling them of my healthy dietary habits! And if I had pushed my doctors to investigate properly. I did not push my doctor about it because I felt ashamed about the weight and hated the lectures? these led to me avoiding going to my GP and nearly killed me! I wish GP’s were more mindful of possible other causes of weight gain before issuing lectures! My consultant tells me that the tumour will have been getting larger for a while and that sadly he sees people like me who are too ashamed to seek help because they assume that weight gain is their fault?

Well, I certainly don't want to decide for them. Presumably they're young adults, aren't they?

Is it really ok for young people to ‘decide for themselves’?

I think all the additives and so on are quite addictive, loaded with sugar, and so on, but its really up to young people to decide for themselves.
Not that I can talk! (Tub-of-lard-emoji)

Food is marketed to young people that can hardly be called food if you are looking at nutrition. Makes you wonder how they can get away with it.....

Too large portions, additives, hormones added to meat to increase animal size which goes into the food chain and surely over time will add to increased weight of those consuming, and lack of movement. As a teenager I walked everywhere, we did not have a car. Nowadays, people drive and sit, housework is so much easier than our mother's and grandmother's generation with all the conveniences of modern day appliances. Not sure where the answer lies, everything seems a contradiction and out of balance

I’m with you in your thinking Nonnie. There seems to be a cult which glorifies obesity and tries to make it the norm.

If, for no other reason except the perilous state of our NHS shelling out vast amounts on illnesses, including diabetes and several cancers, which are linked to obesity, then the seriously overweight should stop and think.

Renee, the model shown in the posters here is within the bmi range which is considered healthy apparently. She looks great to me.

Is there something wrong with fat people feeling ashamed Annie?

Some of us have everything stacked against us, meds which make us crave carbs, hypothyroidism etc but we just do our best to stay within the 'a bit overweight' range rather than obese. Is self -control dead? I remember giving up smoking without any kind of help, no patches or nicorette etc in those days. Oops, will the contrary brigade tell me to stop rubbing my halo again? Just stated facts.

The storm of protest over the 'beach body advert was due to concerns about young girls and unrealistic body size and shape expectations which could lead to eating disorders MissAdventure, all the models were of very low BMI. I agree that being overweight to some degree seems to be the norm now, but I am not sure it is just the millenial generation, on a recent holiday I saw a lot of huge male bellies bulging over shorts, and women who were very 'chunky' and they were all of the over 50 age group. I am overweight myself, although not obese, and have two beanpole millennials!

There was an ad with a picture of a 'beach body model' on it. Fit, toned, slim and it caused a storm of controversy as it 'shamed' fat people.
I'm not sure, but I think it was removed from billboards.

Nonnie
"• In 2015, 58% of women and 68% of men were
overweight or obese. Obesity prevalence
increased from 15% in 1993 to 27% in 2015.
• In 2015/16, over 1 in 5 children in Reception,
and over 1 in 3 children in Year 6 were
measured as obese or overweight."
Statistics from this NHS report
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/613532/obes-phys-acti-diet-eng-2017-rep.pdf

Has any research been done into when obese people put on the weight? It would be interesting to know if it started when parents were in charge of providing food or if it started later.

MissA ...that made me laugh ( fear of seeing your belly wobbling past on tv!)

baggs I agree, it’s just too much food without the exercise.
If you don’t do a manual job then don’t eat so much.
Eating whilst watching tv seems to a national pastime as well.
Link all that with not walking anywhere if you can jump into a car and it’s a recipe for obesity.