Default lifelong calorie counting

I try to keep my weight down and use a calorie counter - Nutracheck to do it. I have eaten well at Christmas but now its back on the healthy eating and probably a dryish January.

I was overweight as a child and was called names at school. Aged 13 I decided to do something about it. I counted calories and wrote down everything I ate. It worked and I was quite slim.

Now I don't bother with that, just try to eat sensibly and walk often. I am around 9st 6 and have stayed mostly that weight for many years. Biscuits, cakes and crisps are rare treats not an everyday occurrence.

It's good to read that GNers seem to be atypical, but adults from 55-64 (ie born in the 1960s) have the highest BMI by age. All age groups over 25 have an average BMI above the threshold for being overweight.

www.statista.com/statistics/375886/adult-s-body-mass-index-by-gender-and-age-in-england/

Every New Year I’m always aware that I’m still on theneverendingdiet which I’ve been on since 1970. A friend of mine who’s a year or so younger often reminds me of when we both went on the brown rice diet. I have a much healthier relationship with food now but that has only happened in recent years.

growstuff

It's good to read that GNers seem to be atypical, but adults from 55-64 (ie born in the 1960s) have the highest BMI by age. All age groups over 25 have an average BMI above the threshold for being overweight.

www.statista.com/statistics/375886/adult-s-body-mass-index-by-gender-and-age-in-england/

If you look at the obesity prevalence tables underneath your source www.statista.com/statistics/334126/obesity-prevalence-by-gender-in-england-uk/
you'll see women's obesity shooting ahead after 2017, I wonder what is pushing that statistic?

I'm not surprised at those born in the 1960s having the highest BMI by age, they would be the cohort benefitting from the post war period which included free school milk and a significant increase in farming/food production (the Green Revolution) and food imports. From the 1970s, the growth in the number supermarkets was another push towards cheap and abundant food.

Hardly surprising that the energetic 16-24 cohort would not be overweight or the over 75 WWII cohort so it's the middle ground who have slowly increased in weight.

Having just read Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulken, I think the story of farming and food production, and the increasing use of cheap ingredients and mass market rollout of poor quality food, in the latter part of the 20th century makes an interesting background story to increasing obesity.

Notagranyet
It’s not just obesity although that is going to bring the NHS to its knees in years to come.
What is really frightening is the link that scientists have found between ultra processed foods and neurodivergent children.
This is not just children eating too much of the above but even worse: what pregnant women are eating which is affecting the brains of unborn children.

It is definitely ultra processed food that is causing obesity. It’s everywhere. Add to that a sedentary lifestyle and you will get fat.

Sorry, but I don't think it's as easy as blaming ultra-processed food. I don't believe there's a single factor causing the rise in obesity, although I've no doubt that the amount of ultra-processed food consumed is not good for general health.

This thread started off with a claim that older people (those born in the 1960s) automatically count calories, but as the facts show, those born in the 1960s have the highest BMIs, which would challenge the idea that they count calories. We don't know yet whether they will lose some of the excess weight as they age.

Growstuff please please read Ultra Processed People, it is mind blowing.

I'm not sure what other point you're trying to make? There are many ways of dieting, it hardly matters, surely, if some people think that they count calories, maybe they don't, maybe they do/did, it's hardly quantifiable anyway, it's a self selected bunch of people on a random social media site?

There must be other older women like me. I was slim and ate whatever I liked until menopause, when I gained a lot. Since my mid 60s my weight has slowly gone down without dieting and now in mid 70s I am just over 8 stone.
I was told recently when at a hospital appointment that it is better to be slightly overweight when older, rather than as slim as I am.

Notagranyet24

*Growstuff * please please read Ultra Processed People, it is mind blowing.

I'm not sure what other point you're trying to make? There are many ways of dieting, it hardly matters, surely, if some people think that they count calories, maybe they don't, maybe they do/did, it's hardly quantifiable anyway, it's a self selected bunch of people on a random social media site?

I've read it. The point I'm making is that I don't believe that ultra-processed food is the only cause of obesity.

Notagranyet24

*Growstuff * please please read Ultra Processed People, it is mind blowing.

I'm not sure what other point you're trying to make? There are many ways of dieting, it hardly matters, surely, if some people think that they count calories, maybe they don't, maybe they do/did, it's hardly quantifiable anyway, it's a self selected bunch of people on a random social media site?

I have never counted calories in my life, nor have I ever been overweight. I know that makes me sound insufferably smug, but the truth is that I don't know why my weight hardly ever changes and I have never even tried to control my weight. What I do know is that, despite being a healthy weight and eating mainly whole foods, I have been T2 diabetic for over 30 years. I don't count calories, but I do limit carbohydrates. I could tell you approximately how many carbohydrates I eat in a day, but not how many calories. My blood glucose level tends to yo-yo with infections and stress, although my weight is always within about a kilo of my ideal weight.

Franski (OP) I am still very aware of calories in foods. It goes back when a colleague and I both started calorie counting and achieved a significant weight loss (we wore uniforms which was significant!!) I now recognise fat and carb and fat content too. Bottom line now is that I wonder whether I eat enough.

Neurodivergence has been around since long before UPF foods.

I am neuro divergent so was my father and my gandmother(1885-1970). Long before UPFs

I'm not really sure what the purpose of this thread is. I've already pointed out that if it's the norm for people born in the 60s to count calories, it isn't reflected in their weight.

If it's a rant about ultra-processed foods, my feeling is that that criticising them is becoming a fad. Of course, it's not good that they play such a big part in so many people's diets, but they're not poison and they play an important part in ensuring that people have access to safe, affordable food. I don't agree that they're the only factor in the increase in obesity.

growstuff I think it is interesting view of people's relationship with food, that the OP thinks that her generation's eating patterns are overhung by a pre-occupation with how many calories they consume.

I think over the last 60 years our obsession with what we eat and the availability and affordability of food has ruined the natural relationship between people and food.

This link shows the relationship between income and proportion of income spent on food in different countries in the world. I suspect that it mirrors the presence of obesity in those countries. the less proportion of total income spent on food the fatter that country's population ourworldindata.org/grapher/food-expenditure-share-gdp and the more they neurose about what they eat.

This one of those 'first world problems' that really is just that, and not some silly virtue signallers sanctemonious sighing.

Does a thread have to have a purpose? Food is always of interest, otherwise we wouldn't have so many cafes and restaurants and takeaways. People like eating, eating with others is a form of socialising.
The point of Ultra Processed People is that there's food and there's food and once you get away from a generation or two who no longer know how to cook, once you are fed by food manufacturers who are thinking about profit not nutrition then health may suffer and our health service can no longer cope.
There is also an underlying issue of women's bodies and how women may feel about how they look or feel they should look but that's for another thread!

Regardless of what the point of this thread is, I avoid UPF and would advise others to do the same, mainly because it messes up the normal appetite control that we all have. Lots of information about this available from reputable research papers.

Ah well! I don't know what the focus of this thread is, so won't be contributing further.

I don't calorie count at all but I do think about what I'm eating, particularly when I'm eating out, staying away from rich sauces and too much carbohydrate. Typically I might have fairly simple meat or fish with little carbohydrate and extra vegetables or sometimes a salad.
I rarely drink alcohol now, except on special occasions, though this is partly because my body doesn't deal with it so well as I've got over and I get headaches.
If everybody else is ordering a pudding I might have a small sorbet or icecream.

Sorry, should have said "...as I'vve got older...", don't seem to be able to edit text.

If you go out.for.a nice mesly I'd say choose what you want, and if you're worried about going over your limit, eat less before and after. There's more to food than calories. Or go low carb, or do some intermittent fasting. Maybe eat your meat s d veg first then the potatoes. But enjoy that meal with your friends, maybe have something non alcoholic to drink or just a small one.
A calorie from a bread roll is not really the same as a calorie from cabbage or chicken in how your body deals with it, carbs like potatoes, rice, are broken down by your body into glucose, which your body has to process with insulin, too much I sulin in the body can cause weight gain.
A. Calorie from roast beef or

I’m exactly the same as you Franksi. I have always “watched” what I eat. Don’t feel I can ever take my foot off the brake. I wished I could but fear I would be the size I of a house!!

I am another lady who has always watched what I eat. I dont count calories as such but I am very careful. I honestly dont think I could casually eat a cake or several biscuits without feeling very guilty. The only time I was free and easy about food was my student days when I put on a stone and a half.

How worrisome it must be for some of you and how unhappy it must be to deprive yourselves once in awhile of foods you really really enjoy.

I'm overweight and according to the literature fall into the obese category.
I'm 80 years old, am fairly active... two exercise classes and a line dancing class every week.... AND I eat what I want/when I want.

I think that I'm fortunate to have gotten to the age I am, and I'm not going to extend my life being miserable.

**Enjoy your life while you can!!!