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Post by moonraker on Aug 26, 2019 17:50:58 GMT
Various BMI tests over the years have suggested that I am technically obese (just), something that my friends snort at with derision.
I was in Bournemouth yesterday: too hot, too crowded, a great deal of flesh on display that would have been better covered up. A noticeable number of people certainly were obese. (And a small minority, some in their later years, appeared oblivious to the warnings of increasing risks of skin cancer.)
A month ago I showed a friend who lives in Southend some archive film of the resort in 1959. She remarked that no-one was fat - postwar austerity and diets were still having their effects.
In her mid-forties, she herself has a figure that girls half her age would envy. (BTW, she was on the beach yesterday leading a yoga class and probably causing interest among nearby males.)
Conversely, eight years ago I knew a stunning Slovak, then aged 30, who turned heads in the street. She's been living in Portugal for six years ago and Facebook photos showed that three years ago she was still very glamorous. She briefly returned to London early this year, de-glamourised to the point of being ordinary and carrying a lot of extra weight, to the dismay of several friends who had once acknowledged her former WoW factor.
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Post by propman on Aug 26, 2019 20:00:45 GMT
I can't remember the source (and therefore whether reliable), but I remember reading or watching about experiments that purported to demonstrate that a significant proportion of the population only feels that they have eaten sufficient when they have axtually eaten too much. These people strongly correlate with the obese. Similarly there was a BBC documentary where they had a significant number of people who had never had a weight problem and required them to eat to signoificant excess for an extended period. Not surprisingly they all put significant weight on, but all had lost it within 8 weeks after they resumed their normal lives.
now I agree that it is possible for anyone to maintain a healthy weight. But doing so requires significantly more effort for some than others. So not exactly a disease (in the vast majority of cases), but I wouldn't say it is exactly a "choice" either, except perhaps that for some it might be a deliberate choice not to have to obsess about food.
As for the change, cheap unhealthy food has increased in availability. Also the instant meal culture has left a generation ignorant of cooking. I would guarantee that far less chips and cakes would be eatten if all had to be cooked from scratch!
JMHO
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