Why are we so fat?

Greystones by any chance? Or similar? I'm the same, everyone is active, running, walking, swimming, just the walk over to the beach is a few thousand steps, I see almost no overweight people, a friend always comments when she visits. It's literally a different world.

if you plug in the numbers into the BRI, it looks like a 30 year old, 5 foot 9 male, regardless of his weight, needs a 31 inch or lower waist to be deemed to be in the healthy range. That is a way below average waist and seems unrealistic. I say this as someone who is naturally skinny with a slim waist and "six pack" who has been lifting weights for over 20 years and has had a waist size in the 28.5-32 inch range.

If professional athletes or Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime can't achieve a small enough waist to pass the roundness test, what hope does the average person have - even people who by normal standards are fit and healthy e.g. someone who eats well, does regular park runs, is in the gym regularly but doesn't take it to extremes.

We know that BMI is flawed as it doesn't take account of body composition. This BRI seems to be attempting to take account of body composition - and doing a flawed job. No data vs bad data?

People bashing BMI always mention rugby players and guys who lift. Those guys are doing crazy stuff to put on and maintain muscle. A lot of them are doing permanent damage to their organs which will come back to bite them in later life. Yes, they are not obese but they are damaging their bodies.

Assuming that the statistics are correct and generated in a consistent manner in different countries (a big assumption), the reason why many of us are fat is going to be multifactorial.

As a people, we lack discipline, rigour and confidence. This can be seen in various aspects of our lives from how we manage our personal finances to the politicians we elect. We're conformist and don't like to be seen to be nerdy or "try hards". "Too cool for school" and being proud of being ignorant doesn't end once school finishes.

How does this affect how fat we are, well many of us will have experienced sneers and snarky comments when eating well and exercising. Thankfully it is changing due to a shift from pub culture to fitness culture -but it's still an issue.

People in other countries also lack discipline and rigour but may have some factor to counteract that e.g. hotter weather which affects the food grown and consumed (Mediterranean diet etc.) and also means people are not wearing coats and jumpers for much of the year so can't hide their fat.

Spice bags and pints.

Yes of course, pants size is affected by vanity sizing etc.

This would reinforce my point that a 31 inch waist is small for a 5 foot 9 man as I bet that many athletes and men who exercise and eat healthily wear 32 inch jeans which means their actual waist is higher than that. They would definitely fail the BRI test.

On the other hand, if their waist was as low as 20 inches, as per that calculator, they'd pass. A 20 inch waist on a grown man is concentration camp/eating disorder/dead level.

Two of my brothers are big into cooking - one of them is a trained chef - and the other is a very, very good non-professional.

I (their sister) can knock out a pretty good feed myself, but nothing out of the ordinary - I can make you a good steak, tender roast beef, roast chicken, a decent lasagne or my mother's beef stew - and if I may brag a little, I have perfected the roast potato (imo!).

But my brothers are far more talented in the kitchen than I. They're knocking out all kinds of dishes from other cultures and all cooked by taste.

Needless to say, I love going to either of theirs for dinner :)

The message about healthy eating and a more active lifestyle is well known but people are just eating and drinking more, and larger portions have become the norm.

I needed a birthday card recently and stopped at a convenience store near a school, middle class area. Big mistake. It was lunchtime, mid-week and I was surprised to see an employee directing customers through an 'entrance' barrier in the front. The shop was packed inside, a long line of secondary students buying chicken fillet rolls and drinks for lunch, another employee moving the queue along, five or six staff on the deli counter, staff on tills trying to keep up - it was mayhem, but apparently it's like that every day during school-terms.

By the time I left with the card, the queue was down the road. I didn't see any adults or staff from local businesses on the queue, just dozens more kids. Imo, a CF roll with butter, mayo, 3/4 fillings plus a fizzy drink is a lot of food for a mid-day meal if kids are then eating dinner later on.

I'd say that shop owner is delighted though !!

It's primarily diet. There are so many food like substances for sale in our supermarkets, nefariously marketed, that are difficult for many of us to resist. Foods laden with sugar, salt and saturated fat. There is a British doctor that I have been following on Instragram, Dr. Tim Spector. He did a lot of research during the pandemic on the link between obesity and adverse outcomes from COVID infection. Basically the crux of it is that in the developed world we eat too much sugar and not enough fibre. Take for example orange juice, I've given it up. Why, because in a standard 200ml glass of it you are ingesting the sugar of approx. 8 oranges with almost none of the fibre. His basic advice is to eat high fibre, high protein and high fat foods. Why, because they are satiating. Most of the processed food that we eat is not very satiating, low in fibre and protein and loaded with sugar. Hence the epidemic of diabetes in the developing world. I travel to the US a few times per year with work, and although things aren't great in Ireland, the US is a basket case. What passes for meat over there is frightening and fresh food options are either non-existent or expensive.

There's an old mantra 'if it hasn't been picked, grown or killed, don't eat it'.

Drink too is an issue for weight gain. Basically you're just drinking pints of sugary water. Plus when hungover, we all want to eat crap food, myself included. I do drink, but well aware of it's effect on the waistline. I'm not a heavy drinker.

FYI I'm a 34 yr old male, 5' 11", just shy of 12st. Have a sedentary office job. Diet is 90% of it, I notice myself that the 32" waist pants for work can get tight if I don't mind the diet. It's everything when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight. I exercise for fitness and hopefully to preserve my mobility into my later years, nothing to do with weight.

It's simple in theory, but it takes discipline in practice. Nothing wrong with an occasional treat but 80-90% of the time you need to eat well. That's why we have an obesity problem in this country, we have a discipline problem when it comes to our food choices.