What do you think kept woman from the 20s to 60s fit?

I'm seeing twilight zone right now and the women are so fit and beautiful, for example Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. I know Marilyn isn't considered skinny, but she was a size 6, she was thin.And I doubt that back then they did some sort of soup diet, or any type of thing like that.

Diet pills, cigarettes, lots of salad and the classic "stop eating so much." Portions were A LOT smaller then, enough to allow everyone dessert every night. They probably walked a whole lot more, too, watched a lot less TV, and weren't on the computer as much as we are today.

Calorie counting and exercise.

They smoked a lot and picked at their food.

I don't know about Marilyn, but I've read a biography that Audrey Hepburn, while not officially diagnosed, possibly had an eating disorder (borderline anorexia).  It was very well known that when she did eat, she ate very little.

Also keep in mind that, like today, the women seen in movies and in television are not necessarily representative of women in the average population.  Granted, women in general back then may have been healthier, but I believe that's probably due to not as much sedentary leisure activities (video games, internet, etc.), marketing not pushing ideas like "supersizing", and very few, if any, restaurants pushing deep fried everything or plates of pasta the size of a house.

Original Post by santonacci:

Also keep in mind that, like today, the women seen in movies and in television are not necessarily representative of women in the average population.  Granted, women in general back then may have been healthier, but I believe that's probably due to not as much sedentary leisure activities (video games, internet, etc.), marketing not pushing ideas like "supersizing", and very few, if any, restaurants pushing deep fried everything or plates of pasta the size of a house.

 Agreed!

My mum grew up in the forties & fifties, is now 71 years old and has always been very slim and petite... a little Hepburn-like.  What kept/keeps her slim...   Growing up in post-war Britain, she didn't have the option of overeating because it wasn't there!  She's never been on a diet or done exercise but she's always working around the house or in the garden.  She'd rather walk or take the bus than drive.  She never uses convenience food and wouldn't dream of touching the rubbish in places like MacDonalds...  She weighs herself regularly and just cuts back a bit if the scales go up too much.

The women of the 50's and 60's were slim & beautiful but they weren't 'fit' as we think of now.  If you look at old movies  - early James Bond, or some of the Elvis movies for example - the actresses in their bikinis were skinny but they were also quite soft-looking with feminine bodies that jiggled wonderfully.  No rippling biceps or scary pneumatic breast-enhancements! &nbs p; Jane Fonda really started the aerobics thing in the 80's and now everyone on the screen looks rather muscly and sinewy.

I grew up in the 1950s and I can tell you the women were not fit at all.  People in general didn't get as fat because portions were so much smaller.  Having a coke meant one of those 8 oz hourglass shaped bottles, never more than that.  I never saw pizza until I was 18 (and I'm from an Italian family.)  The only burgers or hotdogs we ate were maybe twice during the summer at a picnic. There was no eating between meals.   

 Everybody smoked and drank.  Butter and bacon fat were the fats used most often.  Everything was made of white flour.  You could only get fresh vegetables in season.  Life expectancy was about 65.

As for the movie stars - Audrey Hepburn was sickly skinny.  Marylyn Monroe was addicted to drugs and drank.  That's not fit.  If you get the opportunity, watch movies of old Miss America pagents.  You will see more cellulite and flabby thighs than anything else.  They had no muscle tone.  In fact, you never saw a truely fit woman until Jane Fonda came along.   

Personally, I was always thin until I got older and my bad eating habits caught up with me.

Sorry to burst your nostalgic bubble, but you weren't there.

Original Post by gi-jane:

My mum grew up in the forties & fifties, is now 71 years old and has always been very slim and petite... a little Hepburn-like.  What kept/keeps her slim...   Growing up in post-war Britain, she didn't have the option of overeating because it wasn't there!  She's never been on a diet or done exercise but she's always working around the house or in the garden.  She'd rather walk or take the bus than drive.  She never uses convenience food and wouldn't dream of touching the rubbish in places like MacDonalds...  She weighs herself regularly and just cuts back a bit if the scales go up too much.

The women of the 50's and 60's were slim & beautiful but they weren't 'fit' as we think of now.  If you look at old movies  - early James Bond, or some of the Elvis movies for example - the actresses in their bikinis were skinny but they were also quite soft-looking with feminine bodies that jiggled wonderfully.  No rippling biceps or scary pneumatic breast-enhancements! &nbs p; Jane Fonda really started the aerobics thing in the 80's and now everyone on the screen looks rather muscly and sinewy.

I loved your post -- "soft looking with feminine bodies that jiggled" although very true, made me laugh.  Makes me wonder what the "ideal body" will look like during the next trend.  We're moving away from the anorexic look but where are we going and how hard will we try to reach that "ideal" despite our own best interests.  Not every woman (or man, for that matter) is engineered to look the same.  Our genetics and lifestyle dictate what shape we are and we can only control the latter. 

I remember reading in a magazine once that 'this year's must have look for hair is the dead straight bob'... and being a person with willfully curly hair I realised at that stage that I never have had and never will have fashionable body-parts.  It was a marvellously liberating moment!

So whatever the next trend is in looks I shall perform my usual opt-out and instead concentrate on being a simply fabulous individual...

My grandmother says its because they cleaned house, cooked their own meals and ran after their children all day.  But I agree that the 'fabulous' women you see on t.v. may have managed their weight inappropriately... Lindsay Lohan is not the first, I am sure. 

^^ Agreed.  Scrubbing and washing things by hand is hard work, and people had a lot more kids to run after back in the days of no/ineffective birth control.

Cigarettes, coffee and drugs has always been an effective celebrity diet, unfortunately....

Marilyn was a size 14 to 16 also, which would be a size 12 now. Apparently she fluctuated a lot... I'm a loser I looked it up ;) But no matter what size she was, she was still gorgeous. I think mainly because of her confidence!

i was just looking at some pictures of marilyn monroe and there was a shot of her in her bikini with a big old jellyroll hanging over in her belly.  could you imagine a sex symbol nowadays having a big jelly roll?  she was so soft and feminine looking.  its a shame that nowadays she'd probably be in the "10 worst beach body" issue of some crap tabloid magazine.

heres a link to the pic:

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/02/ bikini_0306_narrowweb__300x387,0.jpg

Maybe seeing some actual photos of real people, not movie stars, will get across to you that the women in those days were just ordinary people

Three Women  The one in the middle is my paternal grandmother at age 55.  She had 8 children and until most of them were grown she washed her clothes on a rock in a creek.  She is flanked by two daughters in law.  The one on the left was about 35 in this picture and the one on the right was about 25.

1958 Family Group These are all my father's sisters and nieces, with a few other family members.

Some were pretty, some not, some thin, some fat.

My cousin is like that when she sits, but she has a flat stomach.

Original Post by jessicasbc:

i was just looking at some pictures of marilyn monroe and there was a shot of her in her bikini with a big old jellyroll hanging over in her belly.  could you imagine a sex symbol nowadays having a big jelly roll?  she was so soft and feminine looking.  its a shame that nowadays she'd probably be in the "10 worst beach body" issue of some crap tabloid magazine.

heres a link to the pic:

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/02/ bikini_0306_narrowweb__300x387,0.jpg

but your cousin isnt a celebrity. marilyn monroe was like, the ultimate sex symbol.  its pretty cool that people were allowed to be halfway normal back then, unlike the way the celebrity "role models" are now.

Original Post by santonacci:

I don't know about Marilyn, but I've read a biography that Audrey Hepburn, while not officially diagnosed, possibly had an eating disorder (borderline anorexia).  It was very well known that when she did eat, she ate very little.

Also keep in mind that, like today, the women seen in movies and in television are not necessarily representative of women in the average population.  Granted, women in general back then may have been healthier, but I believe that's probably due to not as much sedentary leisure activities (video games, internet, etc.), marketing not pushing ideas like "supersizing", and very few, if any, restaurants pushing deep fried everything or plates of pasta the size of a house.

 Hmm.. I've read a handful of Audrey Hepburn biographies and I've never come across this. What I have heard, though, is that the starvation she endured during the war had a tremendous effect on her metabolism [I'm assuming she was hypermetabolic, which is what happens sometimes to recovering/recovered anorexics].

Less fast food, and they didn't have sedentary lifestyles. Huge amounts of food are eaten today. Compare a 1950's dinner to one of 2009. We eat far more than we have to and don't move around as much as we should.

whoever you are, gi-jane, you are indeed truly fabulous!  your personality jumps through the page, & I love your audacity, and your positive and may I say much healthier than most, view of women's softer bodies as "jiggling marvelously"---how cool is that?  Too bad someone decided we should all be hardbodies now....Oh well...hopefully the bond-girl of the 50s will be our next "role-model"  'till then, guess we'll have to be our own!