Why are we so fat?

Poor eating habits and eating ultra processed foods and the huge consumption of sugary drinks IMO are the main problems.

Its amazing that after a once in 100 year pandemic and all the focus on health. I’ve never seen so many fat adults and kids since then its crazy and getting worse by the day.

What about more people working in offices these days, more sitting behind a desk and snacking on junk etc.

Diet and sitting on our holes mainly.

The weather is just an excuse for laziness and more hole-sitting.

I don't know anyone who is obese on a solely healthy diet. It reminds me of an obese girl at work who claims it's down to her metabolism, and says she eats salad for lunch everyday. Yes, she eats salads a lot but stuffs her face with buns and sweets at her desk for the rest of the day. Metabolism my eye.

Can we blame the Brits or the church?

You more or less answered the question . I grew up in the country where to get to shops / villages meant a walk or cycle. Plus we grew our vegetables and picked mushrooms from the fields , fruit from the hedges and orchards . We had sandwiches for school lunches and never went to fast food joints during school . The ability of people to source their own food has completely disappeared . Even in the 80’s and 90’s people from villages would forage about the land and lake . Why do that when you can ring just eat to deliver a load of processed crap to your door.

All the people talking about exercise are wrong, sure a mars bar has more calories then youd lose running 4km

People need to learn anything sweet is bad, just cut out sweets, treats, sauce, and drinks and before long everything will taste better

I eat too much.

BMI as others have mentioned isn't a great measure. There's a move towards the BRI (Body Roundess Index) as a better alternative measure of chonkiness. Try the calculator here

As an example, my BMI is 27.5 but, my BRI is 4.92. BRI is being used in my Endocrinologist clinic as a more reliable measure of body & metabolism.

On the topic of the "Why" we as a nation are getting fatter. While the famine itself was a 170yrs ago, Ireland's age of plenty didn't really begin until the 1990's. Until then the volume of processed foods and snacks, let alone excess calories was miniscule. One of my own abiding memories of my childhood, is having enough but never extra.

A few interesting studies on the genetics of populations descended from famine survivors points to increased risks of metabolic issues such as increased adipose and body fat along with hyperglycaemia and other adaptations to "store" fat and calories in at least 2 succeeding generations.

By that measure, we are hitting our post lean times peak. Couple that with the usual suspects of cars, poor public transport and sedentariness? We are IMHO at the peak of the 2 generation post shortage blow out. Health and fitness are becoming more focused upon than ever. But, the advent of skinny jabs and the medicalisation of treating obesity via GLP1s and similar rather than diet & exercise come with risk too.

The weather’s not shite. It’s just weather. Jaysus. People are awful soft.