American women getting bigger .

I speak as one who has had reasonable success with losing weight. There is NOTHING I do not eat but, as is often said here, the quantities are minescule as compared to my norm of about two years ago. I think because nothing is taboo to me I don't feel any pain or challenge of prohibition. Nor do I ever feel deprived of any whims. I indulge them. It has been a slow but sure procedure but the results are good in that I feel better all round. My whole attitude to food has changed but that was so gradual I didn't really notice. Interestingly, I was smiling to myself with a degree of confused bemusement at a meeting I attended last week. On offer beside the tea/coffee was the most lip smacking array of patisserie imaginable. Now the 'old' me would have been rather greedy there but the disinterested one sat down with a coffee and wondered at the fact I had no desire whatsoever. Can't explain it but I am living proof that slowly but surely can and does work. Sorry at the length of this but I just want to seriously encourage those of you out there who have tried every diet going. Eat less slowly but surely over the years and it will change your norm and, hopefully, your life. Good luck.

But we are talking about obesity Monica .
I believe busts and hips are increasing too. A size 16 dress 40 years ago would have counted as “Outsize”(as in Evans Outsizes) , it is now the average dress size in the U.K.
M&S even admitted they “resized” their sizing some years ago (apologies for the tautology) so that a size 14 today would have been a size 16.
The increase in waist size is also an indicator of more stored body fat and a serious health concern.
www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/849.aspx?CategoryID=51

Despite numerous healthy eating and lifestyle programmes etc maybe some people just don’t care how big they are ?? Obesity in school kids is very worrying, and again they cover health and nutrition in schools, but still junk food is eaten all the time. Portion sizes in the USA, as others have said, it is scary that someone could eat that much. I was also shocked on cruise ships how high the food was piled up on some plates. I have always had to work at not putting weight on and I just feel so uncomfortable when I do, so it keeps me totally focussed ....

I remember going to Florida in the 90s and being staggered by the size of people now it’s seems the norm both here and there. When you think of your mother and the home cooked meat and two veg dinners sometimes with a pudding it was very healthy compared with microwaved meals and all you can eat buffets of today.....

Bigger waists, do not necessarily mean overweight. The female shape has become more boyish over the last two generations, more up and down and less curvy. So bust and hips are similar but waists are larger.

Dare I also suggest (ducks behind sofa) but the word is fat.
“Bigger” implies improved height and bone structure , both of which are excellent results of better nutrition.
But sadly, what we are talking about here is obesity.

We soon got wise to US portion sizes. We used to have one meal/dessert between us and share it. (Not to be stingy - we found it difficult to move otherwise!)

My SIL - who has a very healthy appetite - could not eat the helpings he was given when he was in the US.

I have to say that when I see programmes from the US I am always struck by how obesity seems to be becoming almost the norm over there.

My DGC sometimes watch YouTube videos of children making marble runs or slime and they are mostly from the US, and the children are huge.

The sad thing is the UK are going the same way. With supersize menus in pubs, ease of transport and many other things we become Americanised daily.

And I should add OP not just in the US ?

www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-cooper-ma-mft-cch-ceds/sugar-addiction_b_2058308.html

Plus trans fats and corn syrup.
Years and years ago coming from a traditional Scottish upbringing I was staggered by the size of helpings in the US especially when eating out.
Food manufacturers must also bear much of the responsibility by creating the sugar addiction which has swept the US and the UK.

Portion size?