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Why is it normal/OK to be obese in Ireland?.

Stonedpilot

A genuine question.

The amount of people that are gargantuan on this Island is so high I'm surprised the island doesn't sink. It's seen as like a disease by many. I remember living in a houseshare with Eastern European girls and they often commented at how absurdly fat they thought Irish women are.

It's bizarre to me that in other countries it's seen as a problem and thus people try and sort it but here the people whom are tremendously overweight are seen to have an ailment,disease, are poor unfortunates etc like its the same as leukemia or something.

I remember Katie Hopkins was on the Late Late Show making the point you can't be happy and fat (I don't know I don't care frankly) but they cut to a obese lady in the audience who had only just opened her mouth and the audience were in rapturous applause. No matter what she said they would have clapped.
Katie asked the question 'Why are you clapping?. Are you clapping because she is overweight is that it?.'

That kinda sums up the attitude here. Being fat, unhealthy and obese is something to be proud of and God forbid anyone point out it's lunacy to be the size of a manatee.
Strange. Now I will say I have all the respect in the World for people who do something about it work out, eat healthy, get involved in classes, long walks etc. Fair play to them and well done. But then there are other folk whom see it as a God given right to be obese and to be angry with everyone, and to take up a seat and a half everytime they sit on a plane,bus or train squishing whomever is unfortunately beside them.
Had a few incidents recently where I seen very overweight people be angry with total strangers.

I mean I attended a talk recently and the guy doing it was so overweight he got tired standing up and walking around the lecture room!.

As far as I'm aware no country is as tolerant to obesity as Ireland, no way does France,Italy,Spain etc see it as the norm here.

Odd.

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jimmycrackcorm

Stonedpilot wrote:

As far as I'm aware no country is as tolerant to obesity as Ireland, no way does France,Italy,Spain etc see it as the norm here.

Years ago I went to Disney in Florida and was amazed they had double wide entry doors to accommodate fat people.

flaneur

Bambi wrote: »

You're on about the cause of obesity.... It's eating too much

You can go off and find out why someone is eating too much but they're still going to have to address the whole stuffing their face issue

Yeah, but if you don't deal with the whys, short of stomach stapling, you're not going to get them to moderate their diet.

I do think though there's a lack of understanding about how much absolute junk is being consumed. People need to be much more aware of how bad for you some of the 'food' they're consuming is and how unbalanced their diets are.

If you don't tackle the psychology, the lack of information, the culture and also the big businesses that are pushing this garbage as food with exciting, attractive marketing campaigns, then othing changes.

Just saying : You're fat. Eat less. clearly doesn't work.

whoopsadoodles

sozbox

I was at a birthday party recently with people I haven’t seen in years.

Last time I saw them I would have been a bit overweight, now I’m quite muscular and slim.

All I got for the night were comments on how I lost too much weight blah blah blah

Yet not a single person went up to the people who had put on weight in the last few years and commented on that. Found it all very odd.

_Roz_

Bambi wrote: »

You're on about the cause of obesity.... It's eating too much

You can go off and find out why someone is eating too much but they're still going to have to address the whole stuffing their face issue

That's a spectacularly ignorant viewpoint.

I'm partially fat because I love food, and don't really care too much if I'm fat. Would I like to be thin? Sure. Is it worth eating tons of food I don't like? No.

I'm also partially fat because since childhood I have suffered from anxiety, now have that AND depression, and through years of isolated worrying, fear, and dread, comfort food offered a pleasant instant gratification, as well as the illusion of power (I have the power to give myself this nice thing, when the reality is you've no power at all over your habits). Food still does this for me. My father is also obese, and it runs in his family, so I wasn't raised with the best eating habits - I wasn't raised eating pasta, rice, fruit or fresh cooked veg. I was raised on waffles and chicken nuggets. I have tried pasta, rice, and fruit over the years. Hate it all, except apples and grapes, which I eat.

I have emotional and psychological dependencies on food. Those need to be addressed if I'm ever going to make the changes needed to lose all the weight for good. I'm never going to do it alone, I derive too much comfort from hiding from the world and eating food. People with attitudes like yours (which is many people I know, including my partner) will never support me in addressing those problems. So I go about my day eating my nice food, and warning anyone who tells me to put the fork down or go for a walk to eff off.

Sidenote: I do go for walks, with the dog, and hop on the exercise bike, and eat fresh fruit, and try to watch my calories when I have the willpower. But I need to lose more than those things are going to facilitate, and I need to address my dependency on junk food to strip back the badness from my overall diet, which otherwise would be fine. Given that I'm pretty okay with being fat, and a core belief that I can never actually lose the weight no matter what I do, I'm never going to take that step myself.

whoopsadoodles

flaneur wrote: »

I saw someone in the gym recently working away on a treadmill rehydrating with a BOTTLE OF COKE! and not even one of the 'personal sized' bottles .. a full 1.75l or whatever the smaller of the full size bottles is.

Out of interest....were they overweight?

Also.....did you see them start and finish?

I ask because cola would be a fairly standard energy replenisher on long runs. For people who can't take gels etc.

Not 1.75 litre mind. But possible they used it for more than just that run.

flaneur

My view of it is the single biggest cause is an increasingly screwed up food culture.
If you want to fix this problem, you have to address the food culture and how people think about and interact with food.

You also absolutely have to tackle the businesses that are just producing absolute junk and marketing it so well that it's being consumed in large quantities.

flaneur

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

Out of interest....were they overweight?

Also.....did you see them start and finish?

I ask because cola would be a fairly standard energy replenisher on long runs. For people who can't take gels etc.

Not 1.75 litre mind. But possible they used it for more than just that run.

No they were very overweight and struggling with joint pain on the treadmill.

osarusan

sozbox wrote: »

Yet not a single person went up to the people who had put on weight in the last few years and commented on that. Found it all very odd.

You found it odd that people didn't comment to others on how they'd become fat?

I would not find that odd at all. Fairly standard in our social norms, surely.

In the same way we would compliment somebody on how they still looked so young, but not on how old/grey/wrinkled somebody else had become.

whoopsadoodles

flaneur wrote: »

No they were very overweight and struggling with joint pain on the treadmill.

How do you know they were struggling with joint pain

uch

LirW wrote: »

You'd be surprised how many people aren't able to cook themselves a pot of feckin pasta.

You might also be surprised how many feckin people don't like pasta

tedpan

whoopsadoodles wrote:

How do you know they were struggling with joint pain

He was watching himself in the mirror

Knine

Feckoffcup wrote: »

Either you go to the gym or you're overweight. That's the way the majority of Irish women. It's rare to see someone who doesn't work out and have a flat tummy especially over 30.

I don't work out ever but I have a flat tummy and a size 10 & tall. Loads of my friends are the same. So it is not rare at all.

LadyMacBeth_

I'm fat. I'm not proud but I have recently decided that I am not going to let people like the OP shame me either. A couple of years ago I'd managed to lose five stone; and it was fcuking hard. It involved deprivation and misery. It was zero craic. I did it and I felt good, I still wasn't skinny, about a size 12-14 but it suited me. Then my health worsened and my marriage fell apart and my life went into the sh1tter. Piled most of the weight back on, binge eating, which wasn't something that was an issue before actually, not to this extent. I am well aware of my weight, I don't need to be reminded or shamed and not one fat person needs to be told that they are fat, they already know it. I got back with the missus and now I finally feel in a place to tackle the weight, even though my health is at its worst, I started dieting again a couple of weeks ago and I am determined. But it is not for people like you that I am doing this OP, or for people who'd like me to feel ashamed and hide away (which is what I have been doing up to recently), I'm doing this for myself. So I feel good. And you know what? I hear some men on boards fatty bashing away but the reality is that the male attention that I receive hasn't changed in the slightest, even though now I'd be anything from a size 14-18 in clothes. My missus is a size 14-16 and I think she looks fcuking amazing, and she is very healthy and active, she runs, she plays squash, she's strong and sexy and I'd be gutted if she lost a lot of weight because she has a cracking pair of tits and an arse and thighs to die for.

Cina

If it's ok to tell a smoker to their face "you shouldn't be smoking those, they'll kill you, it's a terrible habit", or an alcoholic "you shouldn't be drinking that, it'll kill you", then why isn't it acceptable to tell a morbidly obese person "you shouldn't be eating that, it'll kill you"?*

*that's right, because they're eating brocolli
https://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LMQJIXaFgN3OPhm/giphy.gif

rodneyTrotter.

Go out for lunch on any given day and see the size of the portions people are eating for lunch . It’s like how much can we get on that sandwich , wrap or carvery for our money .
Then you get crisps as a garnish and asked do you want soup with that also ? It’s ridiculous the amount of food on the plates .

Madam Oblong

I never realised obesity only affected Irish women! The men are all in great shape I take it?

Dyr

_Roz_ wrote: »

That's a spectacularly ignorant viewpoint.

I'm partially fat because I love food, and don't really care too much if I'm fat. Would I like to be thin? Sure. Is it worth eating tons of food I don't like? No.
.

It's fact so that's the opposite of ignorant.

You're fat because you eat too much. Nothing partial about it.

Why you eat too much is between you and the medical profession but you're fat because you eat too much

bodice ripper

It's ok big ladies, Bodice is here for you.

givyjoe

Stonedpilot wrote: »

Yep, we are far worse, in terms of median average head of population.

Like random 100 people in America and 100 Irish picked at random Irish will be far fatter.

B0llocks. I was staying in Long Island last week with my brother. The amount of mordibly obese people is absolutely astonishing. There were on fatness levels I didn't think were possible and have never seen here. We walked around Costco and honestly, out of every 10 people, id say maybe only 7 weren't seriously overweight.

The amount of seriously overweight folks is very, very noticeable. Not even remotely as bad walking around here in dublin. It also seems to have become extremely 'fashionable' to be going the gym here in Ireland, which can only do good. Crossfitting etc which is why there has been such a massive explosion in the openings of crossfit places, regular gyms etc.

Bigbagofcans

Bambi wrote: »

You're on about the cause of obesity.... It's eating too much

You can go off and find out why someone is eating too much but they're still going to have to address the whole stuffing their face issue

I was overweight once back in 2013 and it took me 2 years to conquer my whole binge-eating problem.

I was 15 pounds over my healthy BMI range and the number one issue was being so unhealthy and slugglish, no energy.

But secondly, the feeling of my thighs chafing together as I walked and the uncomfortable feeling of my overhanging belly was a daily upset.

I can only imagine the daily discomfort for very overweight people.

Don't Chute!

I've often thought about people that are very overweight and have been probably all their lives. I don't think these people actually know what it feels like to be fit and healthy. If all you know is being overweight and out of breath and having no energy then for you that IS normal. I used to be super skinny when I was younger and then started putting on weight until around 2013 when I started cycling and working out. While I'm not exactly skinny I have lost weight but I KNEW what it felt like to be skinny in the first place. A lot of people I think don't have that and therefore have no idea how it feels.

keeponhurling

Knine wrote: »

Feckoffcup wrote: »

Either you go to the gym or you're overweight. That's the way the majority of Irish women. It's rare to see someone who doesn't work out and have a flat tummy especially over 30.

I don't work out ever but I have a flat tummy and a size 10 & tall. Loads of my friends are the same. So it is not rare at all.

PM sent !

keeponhurling

Surely people now have more information and more options than ever, in terms of food.

People have more knowledge now about food than previous generations, when obesity was less widespread

pumpkin4life

Coffee Fulled Runner wrote: »

Not appearance but health. Needlessly costing the state millions in health care for obese related illnesses. Private insurance doesn't cover all the costs involved either, so a argument about private or public health care is pointless.

There's also the dating market cost as well.

Men in general don't find fat women attractive and while women are more forgiving of fat men, they don't find fat men attractive in general.

Could the obesity epidemic be one of the reasons of the decline in birth rates in the west?

.......

This post has been deleted.

seamus

Bambi wrote: »

It's fact so that's the opposite of ignorant.

You're fat because you eat too much. Nothing partial about it.

Why you eat too much is between you and the medical profession but you're fat because you eat too much

While you're right, you're also unhelpful.

Saying, "You're fat because you eat too much" is like telling a grieving mother, "He died because he hung himself".

You're factually correct, but you're not being at all helpful.

Now, I agree with the thrust of what you're trying to get at. You hear all sorts of long-winded explanations and excuses for being overweight, reasons why it's something that's outside of their control.

For a lot of people being fat is their one and only problem. But they've convinced themselves that once they fix problem X, then their weight will go away.

There was a recovering gambling addict talking on the radio last week who gave an insight into the mind of a compulsive gambler - "Once I make a big win, I can pay off my debts and other people's debts and then I can stop gambling because my problems will have gone away".
When really all of their problems were caused by gambling and the only way to make them go away is to stop gambling.

For a lot of overweight people, there are many parallels with this. They hate being fat but believe it's an offshoot of other issues. And once they can make those issues go away, they can tackle their weight.

When in reality if they could tackle their weight, they would realise how many of their personal problems would melt away with it.

I'm not saying that this is specifically the case for the other poster - there are many, many reasons why someone may still lean on food as a crutch. But you hear it a lot - especially those who've been overweight a long time - that they thought they overate because they were unhappy. They didn't realise that they were also unhappy specifically because they overate.

LirW

pumpkin4life wrote: »

There's also the dating market cost as well.

Men in general don't find fat women attractive and while women are more forgiving of fat men, they don't find fat men attractive in general.

Could the obesity epidemic be one of the reasons of the decline in birth rates in the west?

That's an interesting one, it's maybe not birth rates but definitely infertility that's connected to obesity and bad diet. Me as well as other people I know had to deal with an infertility clinic, me because I'm having a hormone disorder and they had specialists there.
There are plenty of couples that seek treatment and look really unhealthy, overweight is one of the things that's not uncommon to see in fertility clinics.
I've followed the story of a few women that tried getting pregnant for years, being massively overweight, one had her child shortly after my big one was born and she struggled a lot with weight afterwards. Mind you, this was an educated woman.
Another one tried 8 years but never came up with the idea of actively changing her lifestyle and was deeply upset when a doctor asked her to do so.

Anecdotal, I know but it can be a factor in men and women struggling with fertility issues.

Dyr

seamus wrote: »

While you're right, you're also unhelpful.

Saying, "You're fat because you eat too much" is like telling a grieving mother, "He died because he hung himself".

You're factually correct, but you're not being at all helpful.

.

Factually correct is the best kind of correct.

If there was a way to unhang someone you'd have an analogy.

Stonedpilot

Bambi wrote: »

In most cases the cause is putting too much food in your pie hole

Yep!