Were people thinner in the 60s & 70s or did the fashions of the time make it seem like they were?

[Anonymous]

Of course they were thinner, I thought everyone knew that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of it was smoking and pills. I know in my grandma's generation there was lots of pill popping to keep the weight off.

Pill popping was an upper class phenomenon. There wasn't a McDonalds on every corner. A lot of it was that people didn't eat the crap they eat today.

[Anonymous]

Did they walk a lot? Or drive?

Were gyms a big thing?

[Anonymous]

Most people only ate 1 meal a day back then

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they walk a lot? Or drive?

Were gyms a big thing?

I think people just ate far less than they do now. Smaller meals and no snacking.

[Anonymous]

My mom still eats 3 (Semi healthy...kinda carb heavy meals) a day and THATS it. No snacks, no drinks, no before bed yogurt, no mid morning protein bar, no handful of pretzels while making dinner etc etc. And thats how I was raised. The fact that my kid got a bag of goldfish and a box of apple juice after a 60 minute soccer practice yesterday is why we are bigger now. I didn't eat in-between lunch and dinner and I was to stay outside and run around the neighborhood all day just like everyone else had to too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they walk a lot? Or drive?

Were gyms a big thing?

There wasn't more walking -- at least not in the suburbs. There were no gyms in the 60s-70s; the only people who had any kind of formal gyms to work out in were high school/college athletes. I don't know that grown adults did much in the way of exercise -- though there's always some who walk or run; women started to do the various exercise shows that were popping up on TV.

People just ate less. 3 meals a day and that's it. And the meal was enough to serve one -- not enough to serve 3-4 people like the meals you get now. There wasn't the culture of snacking all day long. I work in an office and I STILL don't understand why my coworkers who work sitting down 8 hrs a day need snacks of hummus or string cheese or almonds bc protein is SOOOO important. It's like a pipeline of snacks and thus a pipeline of calories which does not replace the 3 meals but rather supplements them (too much) now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they walk a lot? Or drive?

Were gyms a big thing?

There wasn't more walking -- at least not in the suburbs. There were no gyms in the 60s-70s; the only people who had any kind of formal gyms to work out in were high school/college athletes. I don't know that grown adults did much in the way of exercise -- though there's always some who walk or run; women started to do the various exercise shows that were popping up on TV.

People just ate less. 3 meals a day and that's it. And the meal was enough to serve one -- not enough to serve 3-4 people like the meals you get now. There wasn't the culture of snacking all day long. I work in an office and I STILL don't understand why my coworkers who work sitting down 8 hrs a day need snacks of hummus or string cheese or almonds bc protein is SOOOO important. It's like a pipeline of snacks and thus a pipeline of calories which does not replace the 3 meals but rather supplements them (too much) now.

The reason people snack all day while sitting down for 8 hours at work is because they're sitting down 8 hours a day at work. Boredom, drudgery, boredom.

[Anonymous]

The exercise craze started in the 80s. (Google Olivia Newton-John, "Let's Get Physical"). Well, there was also Richard Simmons and a runner... Oh, who was that guy who made jogging a huge fad? Anyway, gyms were for athletes and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Regular people going to gyms started early 90s. People ate less, and less processed food (despite Spam being popular). And they did smoke more.

[Anonymous]

There was much more cocaine.

[Anonymous]

The ignorance on this thread is just STAGGERING.

The truth is that portion sizes were NORMAL back then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they walk a lot? Or drive?

Were gyms a big thing?

People didn't eat in restaurants as much, no drive thrus, and the shelves in grocery stores didn't contain so much garbage food processed with sugar or high fructose corn syrup etc.

There were only three tv channels with PBS in major cities. No video games, smart phones or computers for people to sit on their ass and do nothing but stare into a screen. Not many had air conditioning so going outside in the evenings was actually cooler. Hence you actually talked to and got to know your neighbors. People went to parks, lakes and the seashore. Many jobs required a certain amount of manual labor. Push mowers not riding mowers.

Basically, we didn't eat as much, the food was more healthy and we were more active.

Do people live longer now than they did then? Yep. Say thank you to the health insurance industry for providing funds that has promoted research with a way to pay for it. Which btw, is now one of the reasons why insurance is ridiculous. Vicious circle that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ignorance on this thread is just STAGGERING.

The truth is that portion sizes were NORMAL back then.

A lot of truth to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they walk a lot? Or drive?

Were gyms a big thing?

There wasn't more walking -- at least not in the suburbs. There were no gyms in the 60s-70s; the only people who had any kind of formal gyms to work out in were high school/college athletes. I don't know that grown adults did much in the way of exercise -- though there's always some who walk or run; women started to do the various exercise shows that were popping up on TV.

People just ate less. 3 meals a day and that's it. And the meal was enough to serve one -- not enough to serve 3-4 people like the meals you get now. There wasn't the culture of snacking all day long. I work in an office and I STILL don't understand why my coworkers who work sitting down 8 hrs a day need snacks of hummus or string cheese or almonds bc protein is SOOOO important. It's like a pipeline of snacks and thus a pipeline of calories which does not replace the 3 meals but rather supplements them (too much) now.

I grew up in the 70's and their were definitely gyms and racquetball. Maybe where I grew up was not the norm, but they existed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people only ate 1 meal a day back then