General Chat

I'm not convinced about how they measure obesity. OH had to see the nurse at the GP's for some check up. She did his weight and height, and declared him overweight. He's 5' 7" and has a 31" waist and no belly at all.

I prefer the womens guide which says the waist should be no more than 34". That's more like it.

Mine after first baby was 19, just done my 3 kids and they are all 21, their heights range between 5.2 and 6.4 and have diets which range from very healthy to very unhealthy. Must be a genetic link. I did youngest's before current pregnancy. They were all skinny kids as was oh and I.

Agree that very fat children have to be helped NOW. Seen too many TV progs where parents buy junk food 24/7. It's much more expensive and is condemning the children to serious health problems and an early death.

Sorry a bit OT but this trend means size 24 will be marketed as 16 soon. That of course means I'll be a size 10 again.

John I would give right arm to be able to resume sports can't see it anytime soon

:-(

I can't speak about this from the female point of view, obviously, but concerning BMI I can address that at least.
According to 'the charts' .... my BMI places me on the border of 'overweight' and 'beware entering the Red Zone' :-S
I'm 6' 2"" and 78Kgs .... well, you know where you can stick THAT chart, to start with!

However ((there is always is an 'However' :-) ) on the 'outside looking in', and having been the purchaser of such items as well, your ladies sizings are a mystery and, imoh, vary from shop to shop based on commercial greed - they want the customers who 'want to be smaller', so reflect it in their stock.

'Obese' is a word that really, really gets under my skin applied as it is today.
Why? Because it's become a generic term used when the GP's etc know they just don't have the time, or perhaps inclination, to address the underlying cause of someone perhaps being overweight.
If you are 5' and 30 stone, then yes, the 'nasty O' probably apples, or you are really ill!!

For some people, it may be that they need to badger their GP for a FBC test, particularly if there is no apparent reason for the increase in weight.

A lot is, I think, down to the historic change in our lifestyles - as referred to above, an overweight child in the 60's early 70's was unusual. I can agree with that. An indication that 'all was not right medically', perhaps!

Today, it is rare not to see overweight children ... what does that say?

Some form of regular (note - regular) physical exercise always helps. It may not be much, depending on what you do/can do, but it's better than nothing.

As for that ridiculous 'stand up at your computers' comment; obviously made by someone who sits in a big, soft chair, dictating to an overworked (underweight) secretary whilst (probably) he dips fats fingers into a bowl of cashew nuts balanced on his 64" waist .... :-P

Sue, if you've only gained one stone then you've done extremely well. I need to lose several and I'm in good health.

Thanks to everyone who has posted. I have read the comments and will probably post a few more thoughts tomorrow but am going to bed right now, so I'll bid you all good night and sweet dreams :-)

I notice when I am working, I walk a lot and don't put on weight and eat quite a bit of food. Probably about 3000 calories a day!

When I am on holiday (like this week), I eat far less yet feel much less healthier and hardly have any exercise. And retirement worries me because I don't have much discipline to go out and take exercise. And only alternative is to eat less and less calories. And food is rather nice.

It must be horrible to be immobile, Sue. Even if you didn't have so much pain. I was hoping that next Wednesday would be start of new life for you. You don't sound huge to me at all, so it sounds like doctors would not criticise. And perhaps they wil be able to give you enough mobility to do some gentle exercises later this year.

Channel 5 now


50 shocking facts about diet and exercise

This is a subject close to my heart. Since I lost a lot of my mobility 5 years ago I have gained one stone, therefore bmi at 28.

So how do I get weight off? Exercise is not possible, I eat reasonably sensibly but a couple of my meds do promote weight gain
:-(

My doctors haven't mentioned it yet but I can see the subject being raised by the hospital.

Catch 22.

Clothing sizes have increased in line with national averages plus some shops do flatter to deceive. I couldn't pick up any size and know it would fit I have to try everything on. There appears to be a huge difference, 16 too small 18 too big. Of course you then buy an 18 and grow INTO it, well I do :-(

Sue

Tomorow I will start my diet and eat just a banana
Impossible - that's why I call my diet "manana"

M&S have done well with sizing. A Size 18 is retailed as Size 12.

Works in reverse with men's sizes. I have to buy Size 18 shoes if I go to Marks :-( :-(

I have just checked a few "ideal weight" sites on google and my ideal weight on these vary from 8st. 6lbs to 11st. 7lbs! At 8st 6lbs I'd look like a skeleton - I'm 5' 8" for goodness sake. I normally weigh around 10st 10lbs and my doctor seems happy, so I'm happy. Mind you I would like to rearrange myself so I had less bulk on the waist and tum and a bit more on the arms.

And don't start me on sizing! I have sizes 12, 14 and 16 in my wardrobe and they all seem to fit.

Off now to enjoy my sausage and chips - I'll diet tomorrow.

I am over 6 feet tall and I look quite good at 16 stone, emaciated at 14 stone. Whereas OH feels really fat at 9 stone (she is 5'5"). My ideal weight is something daft like 13stone 7lbs and I would look like Gandhi (at least in the face)

I have thought for years that a food diary, a routine, regular exercise are what matters. Feeling ok about yourself. Taking action when you can't do things anymore like touch your toes, or see your toes even.

Many years ago, I followed Weight Watchers (by mail as I am a man and a coward). I thought it was brilliant, and I also found an RAF fitness plan that suited well at time. It is finding things like that that suit you personally, and enjoying a bit of any food that you really like - but not too much and not too often. And skimmed milk and sweeteners in coffee and tea makes a big difference - and you can have an extra biscuit as a reward :-D

In my late teens early twenties, I was always a size twelve, 34b bust. I could pick up pretty much any item of clothing in a size twelve and it would fit.

I worked in a large department store and a size twelve was 34 bust , 24 waist ,36 hips. and a fourteen 36 bust, 26 waist, 38 hips.

I was also a trained Corsetiere and could pretty much fit bras and girdles by sight without measuring by going by the customers dress size. I think in nearly ten years I only had one or two customers that I didn't have a bra big enough to fit and in those days the largest we sold was 44dd. No such thing as e or f or even double J.

My daughter recently bought a size eight dress, 34 bust 28 waist 36 hips. pretty much the same as the old size twelve but with a bigger waist.

My Mum was a fourteen to sixteen and much smaller than I am at the "same " size .

In the school I work at we have a few chubby children none I would call obese, but of those most of them are from African and Asian origins. M

Oh, dear, I've just realised that my reply to you Ann looks as if either I think you may look pregnant or people have asked you, that wasn't my intention. I was just thinking of someone who was assumed to be pregnant by someone she vaguely knew and was asked when she was due. Really bad grammar on my part :-S

You're probably right wrt the food diary :-) Maybe I should start writing one.

That is why people who keep a food diary tend to lose weight I think Cat.

Ann, I put weight on on my stomach too. Nobody as yet has actually asked if I'm pregnant though, maybe they're too scared :-D

I wonder if every kept a food diary for a month what it would reveal with regards to what and how much they eat/drink/exercise. The problem with that though would be if you're anything like me I'd not eat 'normally' because I wouldn't want to have to list it :-S

One of my downfalls..probably THE downfall is that I drink way too much...coffee that is, with milk and sugar, so my food intake is not huge but my liquid intake is....the times I lose weight are when I'm on holiday and not near the constant siren call of the kettle, or when stress levels are low ( they were once upon a time ) and I don't drink as much for 'comfort'.

I think it was yesterday or the day before that it was in the paper that clothes sizing has definitely changed and what was a size 16 is now a size 14. I wear a mixture, mainly size 16 but some 14s, with me it is tummy and waist, and I did put on weight on my bust when on HRT and can never seem to lose it. Just under 5 ft 3 and weigh 11 stone 1 so just about obese probably. (Agree Rose, a horrible word). I don't eat huge amounts and eat mostly the right foods, watch fat intake because of cholestrol etc, no sugar added to anything. But we do have a couple of G&Ts of an evening, and the occasional glass of red wine. And although I walk to the local shops most days weather permitting I probably don't have enough exercise.

Another thing in the paper, it said a good thing would be for people who work at computers to stand to do it. they suggested adapting work stations to make it so that people had to stand. Surely that would cause other problems? :-S

When I was a child I was always 'encouraged' to clear my plate. Nowadays I find it very difficult not to finish what is on my plate even if I've started feeling full before it's empty. With the size of portions that some places serve I think this must contribute towards eating too much. Yes, it's my responsibility to stop eating but when you've been trained throughout childhood to eat everything it's not an easy habit to break. However, it is something I'm working on.

It does make me wonder though just how many people do eat bigger portions than they should. How many people know enough about nutrition to make informed decisions about what they eat? How many read the labels when buying food or have the mindset that x is low fat so I can eat more of it than the full fat version when in reality the fat has been replaced by sugar so more empty calories.

How many of us snack between meals and not necessarily eating fruit. There's also the fact that it doesn't matter what you eat if you do eat too much you will put on weight, so you can eat healthily but still put weight on.

I did not stand a chance in the genetics of being prone to putting on weight.

My mum and her father were big and my paternal grandfather was also a large man. But my downfall is not how much I eat but what I eat. For a large person I am quite a fussy eater (do not like white food - deep problems which I will not go into here). I love fruit and veg, but my big downfall is chocolate and plain crisps. I do not constantly sit around eating all day, in fact chocolate covered crisps would suit me!!!

Until I had the fall (about 3 years ago now) I was extremely mobile, but in my ignorance because I had no bruising, cuts or bleeding I thought I was alright. A lot of pain which eased somewhat after a few days, and the following week went out with OH for the day and by the time we got back to the car (I drive) I struggled to get back into the car. And after a 2 hour drive I did not think I would get back to the house from the car. But again thought it was not a problem and that it would go away. Now I know better.

I have just been refused DLA/Mobility Allowance for the 2nd time, and the lying sods even had the cheek to say they had contacted my doctor when it is on file at the surgery I have sever mobility problems, boy is my doctor going to be 'peed off' when I see him next week. He was not happy when they rejected my first application, he will be fuming this time....

I had some of my mum's clothes from the 40s and 50s that I sold on ebay, measuring them to judge size was interesting as they were much smaller than I imagined they would be from the sizing, especially in the waist.

I'm obese, it's a hateful word because it carries implications of laziness, and gluttony lol. And I am aware that it's almost certainly shortening my life ( it's certainly not doing my knees any good!) ..my father died aged 43, but he was not really overweight, his brothers certainly weren't and they died relatively young (70s/80s)

But there again there are lots of people who are thin have a low BMI and who are not healthy. I look back at my mum's life, she didn't drink, smoke, she did weight bearing excercise ( dancing and walking) had been very slim as a young woman, ate well but not to excess all her life...and still developed osteoporosis and Parkinsons and died what I consider to be 'prematurely'.

I do think there is a correlation between the lifestyle most of us live now and overweight... partly due to changes in diet, the pace of life, changes in working practice...no one sat at a computer to work back in the day, men did the manual work that is now done by machine...housewives did more manual housework, now done by the hoovers, the dishwasher, washing machine etc.

That said I have some old photo's of my grandmother on dad's side... ( 1940 ish) short and busty, and gt grandmothers on the other side ( 1900 ish) ... tall and busty lol.

Interesting thoughts from both of you, thank you :-)

As I said in my op this subject has come up on other forums so I was interested to see what the opinions of people on here were.

PP you have brought up something that I haven't seen on other's, ie the migrant population, which is something to think about.

Looking at the time, I myself will have to leave soon but please all post your thoughts/opinions. I'll be back later to read them.