Fight obesity like tobacco

[oldjerry]

Good point,I was thinking in terms of how normal people view expense claims,rather than the way MPs do (You know, outright theft,followed by a depressive illness brought on by being found out!)

[merlin]

Nice to see you back on form then OJ.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Interesting article that's being floated in the media this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20509577

The implications are that 80% of childhood obesity can be predicted from the parents' lifestyle and the birth weight of the child. It also states that genetics are a factor in only 10% of obesity cases.

[merlin]

I read the link.
Do you know, it gives me the right raging hump when tax payers money is spent by the trolley load on projects like this. This is not rocket science.

You put it in your mouth and if you don't burn it off you get fat.

Its on the flaming packaging, read it: This whacking great bar of chocolate contains x much fat and x much sugar. 2000 calories.

Perhaps it should tell you exactly how many hours of exercise you need to do to get rid of it.

These people making up this twaddle really are taking the piddle, or are they just clever enough to out whit the funding department?

I can see it now, I am going to do it, I am going to make an application to the government to study the effects of consuming more calories than you burn off. It will just be a couple of million, and since I don't want people to have to wait years for the answer, I shall give it right after I receive the cheque.

Thanks for that, the answer is: You will get fat.

See, I am wasted, I can do more:

Here is a freebee: All parents that over feed their children will end up with fat children.

No really, there is no end to my wisdom.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I take your point, but you can't really tackle problems like this until you not only know what shape it is but also that you can demonstrate that shape to other people pretty unequivocally. The cost of this study will have been peanuts compared to the cost of treating obesity related illnesses, so if it can improve early addressing of the problem it may well save money.

Of course, we'd need to commission another study to test that

[merlin]

Not a bad idea, and while you are there commission another inquiry as to why there is only one monopoly’s commission.

[Flo]

If all your mates are weighty then you will consider weighty to be the norm. If you go shopping and there are plenty of overweight people around you will be quite happy being one of the crowd.

I mean - you don't want to stand out for being different do you?

Wonderful thing peer pressure.

[Millymollymandy]

I haven't read this thread but this seems as good a place as any. I've just been to England and have been shopping in M&S for my usual long jeans. Now we all know that sizes (at least, sizes for bottom halves) have been reduced over the years in the UK to make large people think they are thin. I was a size 12 when I was 15 and still was when I left the UK 17 years ago, but now I am a size 10 in M&S and size 10 in Debenhams falls off me.

I found only 6 pairs of jeans in my size (10, long) in 3 different M&Ss in England!!! I am actually a real size 14 nowadays.

Also when I was younger sizes went from 10 to 16 in regular shops. Now in M&S they go from 8 to about 22.

I fear that in 10-20 years time my size will no longer exist (as I will probably be that elusive American size 0 which will be a 4 in the UK).

[GeorgeSalt]

I have to say, as a man I find it boggling that any sizing system based on a single number could ever be comprehensive. Men's trousers alone have two different measurements required*, and we wouldn't use either of them for a shirt or jacket. In theory sizing is done to BS 3666:1982, but that leaves a lot of wiggle room for styling. And I was always lead to believe that in UK sizing, size 16 was a healthy average size for a woman of average height - although it now seems to be regarded as a plus size.

Ok.. you could count "long" as a second measurement, but you find mens trousers in more combinations that that.

[MKG]

Time for the re-introduction of the toga, I think. One size fits all.

A bit cool in winter, but a good toga party or two would soon heat things up.

Mike

[boboff]

I wouldn't agree that 16 is seen as a plus size!

I find mens sizing very easy and consistent in the UK as it states the waist and leg length in inches, I know what fits me, and if I buy clothes with the right numbers on I get them home and wear them, easy.

My wife struggles with length, as she is nearly 6ft, but it is true you have to, as a woman, buy the right cut of clothes for your size, I am a bit of a Gock on the side, and do a good job of picking out clothes for both wife and daughter, again though it's not about the number on the label, if something is "tight" looking you get a bigger size, if something is "flowing" you get a smaller one.

Jeans? Who knows! you have about 12 different cuts of Jeans in Primark alone! Then Length, then size, these permutations mean they do not have enough stock to carry your size! Madness I tells ya!

[oldfella]

Ah' the joy's of growing old, just put it on tuck in the odd bit's, and to hell with what you look like.

[Skippy]

I agree that womens sizes are baffling to me as well as a man. My wife has put on a little since our daughter was born but wears some clothes sized as 12 and some as 16 , it all depends on the retailer she finds. Then she still has some simply labelled as petite.
Before I married I once had a girlfriend who was a bit on the larger size and one day she dragged me around god knows how many clothes shops only to ask "that" question.
"does this skirt make me look fat ?"
I being throughly peed off by this time simply replied
"no it's all the kebabs you stuff in your face that makes you look fat"
Let's just say there was no exercise that night to reduce any plumpness.


Pete

[Millymollymandy]

Bloody hell, when I was a real size 12, size 16 was enormous. Size 16 is now a real size 20. That's hardly healthy for an average height woman. I am 5' 9" and if I was size 16 (old which is now 20) I would be in the hugely obese range.

[niknik]

when i first came here, (10 yrs or so) I couldn´t get clothes to fit. ( 5´8ish) -trousers half mast, shirts not long enough to cover the navel......
now, trousers are 2 inches too long ( at least) and shirs/tops,- which i prefer long_ are ok

sizes---- well thats another thing entirely----------- anything from 12 upwards, according to labels, but I have 12´s and 18´s whgich held up against each other are identical!

shoe sizes ----- well same thing at least now i get some choice in 7s, which was difficult before

the human race has kept growing over the millenia, so sizes have to change, but things like rationing (wwII), poverty ( spanish civil war)
cheap products ( full of fat & sugar ) all have parts to play.