>>3815097In older societies (medieval and pre-medieval), the nobility tended to be fatter because they had much greater access to food. As land-owners, they could just tax peasants for enough food to always be well-fed, while peasant farmers were subject to their crop yields and could only eat what was left over after they paid their dues and sold what they could to acquire essential resources they can't produce themselves.
Fatness and paleness was associated with the upper class, because nobles didn't work and thus weren't exposed to as much sunlight, as well as luxury skills like music or reading/writing. Tanned skin and being physically fit was associated with the working class because they spent a lot of time outside and got a lot of exercise labouring to subsist.
Ironically, things are reversed in modernity because the working class now labours indoors and affordable food tends to be excessively high in calories and poor in nutritional value, while the wealthy have the luxury of tanning, eating expensive superfoods and exercising regularly because their wealth accumulates passively.
