Britain: 'the fat man of Europe'

[TheEditor]

The story of Britain's obesity crisis, including latest statistics, causes and health risks on the NHS Choices website

Link:

nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/...

[Hidden]

Hi Steve,

I just want to comment that I think that sometimes we give too much attention to the problem of being overweight at a national or societal level. And, yes, for sure we are a 'fat nation'.

But that nation is made up of fat individuals and it's at the individual level that the most effective interventions are made. Basically, people perceiving and acknowledging what is wrong with their current eating and exercise/activity regimes and people daring to put in the commitment, time, effort and perseverence to take control of their 'extra' weight through taking control of their eating and exercise/activity. It's not easy to re-train yourself how to eat and to run in the face of eating as you've known it for many years. Old habits can "die hard" as they say.

And, ironically, it's at the individual level that the benefit is most felt. Having lost over 4 stone, I'm now rarely out of breath, I'm slimmer, I'm fitter, I move around so much more easilly. My knees / hips, etc have to bear a lot less weight, and on and on and on.

And, actually, I just plain look a lot better for it too.

So, yes the general overall national perspective is important, but let's always remember that undertaking a weight loss programme is a very personal journey undertaken by a person for his/her own personal reasons and for really quite personal benefits.

Good luck to everyone with their weight loss efforts.

[albionjen]

You're preaching to the converted on here I hope that everyone who has signed up to this forum is already well aware of the risks of being overweight and how prevalent it is in the UK! It's obvious when I go on holiday to France or Italy how we in the UK have a much higher proportion of overweight people. Myself included in the past.

One thing did strike a cord with me:

"Most people who become obese put on weight gradually between the ages of 20 and 40, but there is some suggestion that the path is set in early childhood."

Like this suggests, most of my weight gain was after age 20, I probably but on about 15kg between the ages of 20 and 30 (end of 2012). So it was a gradual gain but it added up to my BMI being well into the obese range. I was a overweight kid from about the age of 8 onwards as well so for me the path to overweight was set early on. Hopefully I've now changed track and won't be going back to being overweight again!

There is a quote at the end that sums up what I hope we collectively could do to help people:

“People don’t choose to be obese,” says Professor Jebb. “It just happens for a number of reasons. We should stop blaming people for being fat and instead support them in controlling their weight.”

I think it would have helped me if I had some more support earlier on when my weight starting going up high enough to cause me health risks (my BMI was 35 at my heaviest). I was in hospital for an operation twice over the last few years and have been to the GP a couple of times as well, but no-one tried to talk to me about whether I should lose weight or offered me any support in how to get started. It might have been hard to hear, but in the end realising the problems I might be causing for myself in the future is what made me motivated to make a change. And I had to figure out for myself how to lose weight in a healthy sustainable way.

[Penel]

The NHS page cites research articles "which challenge the idea that obesity is simply the result of eating too much and doing too little", and yet at the end of the NHS page we are told that "to lose weight you need to eat less and move more". So which one is it?

The research is long but well worth reading. The availability of cheap processed food has fuelled the obesity crisis. I recommend reading "Salt, Sugar, Fat" by Michael Moss, who describes how food manufacturers have deliberately produced addictive food and drink, and take no responsibility for the fact that it is unhealthy and fattening.

[Hidden]

Hi Penel,

O.K. food manufacturers make fatty, sweet, creamy, high-calorie foods and then do high-powered marketing to persuade people that they just HAVE to eat/drink these things because they are just the very height of fashion, dahrling, just oh-so-trendy, the very latest thing, or whatever.

But, you and I can either fall for that nonsense, or turn away from it.

Yes, it is only far, far too easy for many of us - my 'old' self included - to eat sweetened, fatted up, creamy, calorie-rich, high carbohydrate stodge covered in gravies, oils, sauces, etc., etc., washed down with a nice glass of calorific wine or creamy high fat latte, and to avoid eating nutrition-rich fruit, veg, fish and all the other things that many people's diets are sadly lacking.

(I often think that even if everyone just stopped eating fried food and just found other ways to cook the same foods without encasing them in oil / fat, it would be a significant step forward for many people).

But the British food manufacturing and retail industries are not in the business of ensuring people are well educated about what their food contains, nor does it exist to train its customers to eat sensibly. If anything it exists mainly to train them to buy more of their products - even if those products are nutritionally rubbish.

Similarly with most of the food programmes on the TV or the cook books in the shops. In the main, they promote an indulgent rather than nutritious or healthy relationship with food. Also, culturally, we often trivialise the wrong sorts of food with platitudes and jokes, the luxuriously calorie-laden chocolate cake being "just to die for", or some other treat being justified with "it's only a little one", or "I'll start the diet tomorrow". We often joke about excessive eating or drinking, or even generally endorse an 'eat till you drop' attitude with products such as "all you can eat" buffets.

Eating can be emotionally and psychologically linked up for many people with comfort, approval, self-worth and all manner of other ideas and notions.

And all those ideas and habits become increasingly entrenched in people - indeed they become the 'norm' because that's what people's life experiences are repeatedly telling them.

Unless, of course, you personally choose either to refuse to buy into that nonsense, or to change your habits if you already have got into all of that.

And most people's problems with excess weight - for sure, there are exceptions to do with certain medical issues - will be because they have personally bought into that nonsense and now struggle to varying degrees with breaking those habits.

And that's probably why I keep coming back to the thought that a weight loss journey is such a personal thing.

I takes that - "this is down to ME - I'm the one that HAS to change this" sort of personal commitment.