# How Come The Edwardians Didn't all Weigh 400 Pounds? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 15, 2004, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447 "2004-10-15T20:16:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/21 "2004-10-16T15:13:37Z")
> [@PaulFitzroy](#): > > You’d want to eat whenever you were hungry, and if you were too thin, you’d want to force yourself to eat even when you’re not hungry (but never junk food and crap.) This will shock your body into growth, and combined with a careful weightlifting routine it’s the best way for someone who’s too skinny to gain a lot of muscle. > > The curse of the wrestler is that he needs a tremendous amount of energy to wrestle, but needs to stay under his weight class. Therefore you get a lot of guys who develop metabolism problems as high school wrestlers that stay with them for the rest of their lives. If you eat what you want to, you’ll bust your weight class. If you don’t eat, you’ll be tired (and this is as much of a problem in practice as it is in meets: practice is far more brutal than a meet, and tired wrestlers half-ass through practice not concentrating on their moves.) > > Nothing pissed me off more than being made to run sprint after sprint because the coach was angry that people were half-assing their moves (of course they are, they’re tired and they don’t get enough to eat.) But you get used to it and eventually stop questioning it. > > And then if you want to eat a lot of food, you’ll have no choice but to lose the weight as fast as you can, with many unsafe practices like diuretics and plastic suits (which sometimes kill people.) Well, during my research, the average male at the turn of the century weighed around 150 pounds and Gotch and Hackenschmidt, the two preeminent wrestlers of their day weighed less than 200 lbs. for their 1908 match. Hack was considered to be the world’s strongest man and routinely set weightlifting records. Around the turn of the century there was also a fairly extant “physical culture” movement, esp. among the new middle class, so exercise (and wrestling, at least until 1911) was fairly common even among middle class people. Back to the '50s: did the suburbanization and newfound prosperity (along with the fact that suddenly everyone owned a car) start the trend towards fatter people? Birdseye (?) selling their TV dinners? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/22 "2004-10-16T16:18:35Z")
> [@tygerbryght](#): > > > [@Wesley Clark](#): > > > > Plus we are not doing blue collar work anymore, saving anywhere from 700-1000 calories a day. > > Oh, I’d say it’s considerably more than that. I read somewhere (respectable) that just prior to the famine of 1847, an average Irish farm labourer ate 10 lbs - 10 lbs! - of potatoes a day. That’s 3,200 calories right there, according to [this](http://www.calorie-counter.net/potato-calories.htm). Not much obesity in rural Ireland at that time! ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/23 "2004-10-16T16:53:03Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > Birdseye (?) selling their TV dinners? You’re thinking of [Swanson](http://www.swansonmeals.com/company/index.html). Birds Eye makes frozen veggies. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/24 "2004-10-16T16:54:35Z")
This is a complete WAG, but I wonder if less-sanitary food storgae and preparation techniques contributed. Back when the answer to food that was starting to turn was to “cut the bad bit off” and eat the rest, and left overs were simply covered up and left out until the next day, surely people had pretty common bouts of mild food posioning. Add that to an increased prevalence of intestinal parasites, and it seems like, in general, people would have been less efficient at digesting what they did eat. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/25 "2004-10-16T17:04:54Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I read somewhere (respectable) that just prior to the famine of 1847, an average Irish farm labourer ate 10 lbs - 10 lbs! - of potatoes a day. That’s 3,200 calories right there, according to [this](http://www.calorie-counter.net/potato-calories.htm). Not much obesity in rural Ireland at that time! I remember a history channel documentary on the Lewis and Clark expidition saying each member was allocated up to 10 lbs of meat a day. Assuming an average of 150 calories per 4 ounce serving (who knows where the meat came from but 150 calories per 4 ounces is a good guess) that is 6000 calories a day for people who weighed about 150 lbs. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/26 "2004-10-17T01:01:35Z")
Anecdotal, but–I can remember the '50s, and you simply didn’t see anything like the number of chubbies you see now, let alone the greatly obese. Informal sampling from Santa Cruz and the Bay Area. Second informal sampling: look at photos from decades before the '50s. Unless you are looking at the middle-aged & above, middle-class and above, they are leaner than they are now. I agree with the snack issue; sodas and random snacks get consumed at a great rate now, and they rarely ate anything between meals then. Also there was more walking then, plus riding or driving a horse takes more energy than using a car. Not to mention the parts where you feed the horse, water the horse, saddle or harness the horse, unsaddle it, brush it down, and shovel the manure (not shown in Westerns, none of it). Actually, though, those who could afford a horse usually paid someone to do most of that for them. And women’s work was a lot harder; there used to be a cliche “muscles like an Irish washerwoman”. PS, [this](http://www.mamashealth.com/book/omyth.asp) reference above and doesn’t give numbers for those overweight in the '50s, so it’s hard to tell how good an argument there is. I’d like to see the case for “we aren’t much fatter”, to see if there is a surprise lurking. ---
**Author:** ![RevCo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@RevCo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RevCo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/27 "2004-10-17T02:55:54Z")
I always thought, and this is opinion, not factual, but the “fat” epidemic is simply that everything is based on the Baby Boomers getting older. They were skinnier in the 80’s because of the Flashdance/Jane Fonda Workout/Sweating to the Oldies Vol 1,2, and 4, etc. Now “everyone” is overweight because the largest portion of our (America’s) population is just plain getting old and tired. They’ll probably be suing denture manufacturers next for the “coincidental” increase in weight, lack of energy, and decreased sex drive that accompanies wearing dentures. You never know… ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/28 "2004-10-17T05:50:53Z")
> [@MaryEFoo](#): > > PS, [this](http://www.mamashealth.com/book/omyth.asp) reference above and doesn’t give numbers for those overweight in the '50s, so it’s hard to tell how good an argument there is. > > I’d like to see the case for “we aren’t much fatter”, to see if there is a surprise lurking. I think the website may have been wrong. This article on adult obesity from 1948 to 1968 [says](http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:oJ5DVCG5TmYJ:www.epi.bris.ac.uk/staff/gdaveysmith/pdf/P360%2520Trends%2520in%2520body.pdf+overweight+in+the+1950s&hl=en) The mean (range) of BMI was 21.4 (13.8–36.2) kg/m2inmen and 21.2 (11.8–35.1) kg/m2in women; 469 men (5.8%)and 186 women (6.8%) were overweight and 30 men (0.4%)and eight women (0.3%) were obese (BMI Z30 kg/m) ---
**Author:** ![RevCo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@RevCo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RevCo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/29 "2004-10-17T06:25:36Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > I think the website may have been wrong. This article on adult obesity from 1948 to 1968 > > [says](http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:oJ5DVCG5TmYJ:www.epi.bris.ac.uk/staff/gdaveysmith/pdf/P360%2520Trends%2520in%2520body.pdf+overweight+in+the+1950s&hl=en) > > The mean (range) of BMI was 21.4 (13.8–36.2) kg/m2inmen and 21.2 (11.8–35.1) kg/m2in women; 469 men (5.8%)and 186 women (6.8%) were overweight and 30 men (0.4%)and eight women (0.3%) were obese (BMI Z30 kg/m) Now, once more, in English, Mr. Indiana. ---
**Author:** ![RevCo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@RevCo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RevCo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/30 "2004-10-17T06:28:17Z")
Hope my previous post didn’t come accross as being a knob (I just reread it after I posted) - I just was interested here and I don’t know what that means - those numbers and whatnot - I am guessing BMI is Body Mass Index or something, but the rest just… eludes me 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/31 "2004-10-17T10:59:01Z")
Are there any statistics on how much people weighed in the decade of 1900-1910? What were clothing sizes like then? I still have to think that if you regularly ate 8-course dinners, you would get pretty heavy! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/32 "2004-10-17T13:04:14Z")
Those eight-course meals were not what people regularly ate then. Those were banquets and only for special occasions. Furthermore, most people never had those sorts of meals. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/33 "2004-10-17T14:34:23Z")
Most people didn’t get enough to eat. I seem to recall that WWII was the turning point, where people in Western counties finally began to regularly get enough to eat and quality of food became the main nutritional challenge. **MaryEFoo** , **grienspace** , I’d assume that most people in the 1950s were thin because they grew up during the Great Depression and didn’t develop the fat cells that would allow them to be overweight as adults. Of course, this was also before television and multi car families, so people were more active. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447/34 "2004-10-17T21:32:08Z")
A few years ago, I went to an event called “Last Dinner on the _Titanic_”, where they recreated an eleven\* course meal from one of _Titanic_’s first class menus. From memory, we had: We started out with white wine First: Shrimp Al’ Amiral Second: Cream of Barley Soup (probably the most delicious thing on the menu!) Third: Poached Salmon in Mousseline Sauce Fourth: Lemon sorbet Here we switched to red wine Fifth: Asparagus salad in Champagne vinegrette Sixth: Filet Mignons Lili with baked new potatos and vegetable mousse farci Seventh: Chocolate painted eclairs. Now, you’re probably thinking-damn, they must have had to roll yinz out the door. Not really. See, each course was very served in petite proportions. Not at all our “super-size-all-you-can-eat” meals that we’re used to. Also-dinner started at 7, and didn’t end until after 11. Between each course, there was dancing, people going around, mingling, etc. So, it was stretched out over the course of four hours. As a result, when I finished my eclair (that’s when I started to think, eeeehhh…I’m done!), I simply felt sated, not overstuffed. Then I went with some friends to the hotel bar and had drinks (I just had ginger ale). So basically, it worked because you had -smaller portions -more time to digest your food in between each course. Dinner lasted several hours. \*It worked out to seven different courses, but the two different types of wine were counted as their own courses, if that makes sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-edwardians-didnt-all-weigh-400-pounds/269447.md?page=1)