Your Mum Probably Was Skinnier Than You At Your Age

Your mum is probably the only person in the world who can tell you that you could lose some weight without being labelled the world’s worst person. Okay, your mum and your doctor. But even still, when she gives you that look of “Is that what you’re having for dinner?” as you sit down with two cheese toasties, the mother-daughter relationship can prove trying. Especially when she goes on about how when she grew up fondues were all the rage but she never went over a size 8 and managed to pay her own way through university, etc.

Well. now you have a response. First, there’s such a thing as INFLATION. And secondly, it has been scientifically proven that is was easier to stay slight in the 1970’s then it is nowadays. A recently published study looked into the dietary and exercise regimes of people over a forty-year period and found that a 25-year-old person today would struggle to maintain the same weight as a’similar-aged person thirty years ago’doing the same amount of exercise and eating the same diet.

While they can’t conclusively prove why, scientists are speculating it mostly likely comes down to three factors: environment, antibiotics and other prescription drugs and a change to the bacteria in your gut. The increased use of pesticides and other chemicals in food as well as growth hormones in our meats and vegetables could alter our hormonal and bacterial process and contribute to weight gain. Adding to this is the popularisation of prescription drugs, many of whose side effects include weight gain, in the last few decades.

So that explains the fresher’s stone you never lost. Okay, so?no it doesn’t… While we’re not suggesting to use this information as a crutch – we were joking about the above, our mums are actually very nice people, swear – it is important to remind yourself that comparing your figure to those around you or those in the past is not useful. Every person metabolises differently and as long as you feel happy and healthy, that’s all that matters.

The Atlantic