New Year Resolutions: Half-time assessment and goal revision.
Motivation
I’ve always struggled with physical fitness and weight. Other people who exercised as much as I did, or ate as much as I did (e.g. my siblings) could, with, as much as or less effort, lose more weight and/or remain faster or stronger than I was. This is true even though I’m the tallest in the family (so, as a matter of physics I should be stronger and faster). I am also, unfortunately, a stress-eater. I tend to eat more when I am hungry. Also, I like to eat just about anything which is cheesy, oily or deep fried, or some combination of those. I also have an incredible sweet tooth. Like lots of non-thin people, I make weight loss goals which are never kept.
This year, things have a little more urgency than normal. I will be getting married this November and a traditional South-Indian Brahmin wedding ceremony requires the groom to be shirtless for the bulk of it. At the beginning of this year I was 100 kg (220 lbs), which put me at a BMI of about 27. People do say that BMI is not necessarily a good indicator of how fat you are. After all, people with broad frames and lots of muscle, but who are not fat may be technically overweight even if they are very fit. However, this just makes it worse for me. I have a relatively narrow frame for someone of my height, and given my difficulty in building muscle, all that excess weight is just fat. Also, I was struggling to fit into waist 38 pants. If I were to at least look decent on my wedding day, I realised that I needed to lose weight and fast. So, instead of the 5 or 10 kg (11 or 22 lbs) that I usually aim for and never progress towards, I decided to go for 15 kg (33 lbs). That is, by Halloween, I have to reach 85 kg (187 lbs). Right now, I’m nearing the half-way point of my deadline and I have decided to take stock of my situation and revise my goals if necessary.
Results
So, as of this morning I have lost 11 kg (24 lbs) over these past 5 months and am now, roughly, 89 kg (196 lbs). This means that I am more than 2/3 of my way to my goal. This means that if I can maintain my rate of weight loss, I can lose another 11 kg to hit 78 kg (171 lbs) and hope to be something I haven’t been in 9 years: slim. Now, this new target is not necessarily too unrealistic. When I finished basic military training, I was 72 kg (158 lbs). I put some meat on my bones over the next two years to be 75 kg (165 lbs). As an Asian, I need to keep a BMI of below 22 in order to not minimise the risk of mortality from excess weight.
How I did it:
I absolutely detest exercising. I used to be so unfit that a 2 km (1.25 miles) uninterrupted jog in the morning sun would have me breathless, not to mention a headache for the rest of the day. So, I took the easy way out. I would jog the easier distances and walk the tougher (uphill) stretches. Slowly, as I got used to this level of exercise, I started jogging in some areas in which I would have previously walked. For instance, if I would normally stop after a particular downhill stretch, I would use that momentum to carry me on just a bit further. At no point did I push myself too hard. I also, at some point, started adding another 1 km stretch that was mostly downhill to my route. Eventually I became able to comfortably jog 3 km. At about this time, I was about 97 kg (213 lbs), but my weight was not decreasing any further. Also, the daily jogging and my weight was taking a toll on my knees (which weren’t in particularly good shape either). So, I decided to take up swimming. When I first started swimming, it was horrible. The swimming itself was fun*. But aftermath… I could barely move the next day. Once I got used to swimming and jogging on alternate days, I increased the distance I jogged to 4 km (2.5 miles). I had also very quickly increased the distance I swam to 10 or more laps (alternating between the crawl and the breaststroke). By the beginning of April, I had just hit about 95 kg (209 lbs). A week in India (the food is awesome and its difficult to avoid over eating) put me back at 96 kg. Within a week of returning, I hit 94 kg and hovered below it for the next two weeks. I then hit 93 kg a month ago. At about that time, I also increased my jogging distance to 5 km (about 3 miles). I managed to lose another 1 kg in the first week of May, when into the second week, I caught a bug that had been going around. So, I was down with the flu for about a week and lost 2kg (mostly muscle) on net during my short convalescence. I resumed exercise last week and just this morning, increased my jogging distance to 5.5 km. The hardest part about exercising, for me, is not the level of activity per se. I don’t attempt anything that would be that difficult for my given fitness level. It is persisting in exercising even though I hit a stretch where my weight seems static.
Of course, exercise by itself is insufficient. The hardest part about losing weight is cutting down on how much I eat. I haven’t had a grilled cheese sandwich in ages. My lunch now consists of the Vege-Delite wrap from Subway. It is not substantial. Of course, I did not go jump straight into this from 2 slices of pizza, a day. I started with the vege-patty 6-inch sub (which is just like the vege-delite sub except that it contains a vegetable patty as well. Then I moved to the flatbread. I cut carbs further by changing that to a wrap. Finally, I removed the patty altogether. I allow myself one treat a week. When I take my fiancée out for lunch, we eat something delicious and unhealthy. Of course I don’t keep to my diet as strictly as I would like. I often fall off the wagon. Guilt, and the extra sugars give me the motivation and energy to run faster or further the next day. It is a daily slog. Each day that I don’t give in is a small victory. To paraphrase Bruce Banner, I am always hungry. This constant gnawing hunger is something I must get used to. In some sense, I have been getting used to it. But I still struggle with the temptation to gorge myself on snacks. The key is to make it a habit, to get used to taking only a small portion of rice for dinner. Gradually, I find myself being able to live with a mere lessening of the hunger pangs instead of going on for complete satiety let alone full-ness. A future, where I am permanently hungry seems frightening and hellish. But as long as I take it one day at a time, it seems as if I just might be able to manage it.
Navel Gazing!
1. I feel less ashamed of and repulsed by my body now than I did 5 months ago. When I become skinny again, I will be confident that I can appear shirtless on my wedding day and not be judged.
2. I have exchanged one sin (sloth) for another (vanity). I might have become just a bit more narcissistic. I find that I check myself out on any passing reflective surface. This is related to 1. Since pride is the opposite of shame, as one feels less ashamed about something she feels more proud about it. Vanity, seems to be a species of pride and narcissism is derivative or at least strongly akin to it.
3. Make that two sins. I have also become more judgmental of people who claim to be unable to lose weight. As someone who previously thought that weight-loss was an idle fantasy for someone like me, I have come to realise that the only reason I did not lose weight previously was that I did not try hard enough. I believe that lots of other people who think that they are incapable of losing weight are also mistaken about that. They are just unwilling to put in the effort, especially to suffer the hunger pangs. Of course there are people who have work commitments, who don’t live a life of leisure and thus don’t have the time to exercise. But it feels good to judge other people. And its a sin that I can indulge in the privacy of my own mind. It also harms no-one, so long as such judgment is kept to the boundaries of my head.
4. On reflection, I have more sympathy for the transgendered. I imagine that they must reject their mis-gendered bodies in a way similar to how I reject my fat body. However transitioning from one gender to another is much harder than transitioning from fat to thin. I have begun to appreciate and respect the effort and risks trans people undertake so that they can look in the mirror and see a body that they can accept.
5. However, as mentioned in 3, I have become less sympathetic to fat activists. I have always been sympathetic to the notion that shame and revulsion is an appropriate response to one’s own fatness. This was tempered by my belief that being fat was nigh unavoidable for many, perhaps even most fat people. My own success (so far) in my battle against my fat has led me to revise my estimate of how many people, about whom such a claim is true, downwards.
6. Compared to the much more physically active among you, my level of activity must seem pathetic by comparison. Compared to the average person, perhaps its not much. But compared to where I started from its a huge improvement
7. No Pain No Gain, even if true, is the worst** advice to give to someone who is drastically unfit and unsure if he wants to embark on an exercise program. The advice I think is more useful is to tell people to exercise at a level that they are comfortable with. I think it is more important to get people into the habit of exercising than worrying about the particular efficacy of any given exercise session. That’s also one of the reasons why those 10 minute exercise videos are just demotivating: The video shows you a high intensity work out that you could do only if you were somewhere much nearer to physical perfection than you currently are. Those videos are for people who are already mostly fit and want to lose 1-2kg they have picked up over a busy month. Expecting someone of my fitness level or for that matter, where I was in January to do those exercises seems ludicrous.
So, how are your own weight loss goals going?***
*Incidentally, it is not too difficult to pick up swimming on your own. Just be sure to stay in the shallow end of the pool until you are confident of your technique.
**Ok, maybe not the worst, but its pretty bad.
***Yeah, I’m rubbing it in (a bit). Pride is not a nice emotion in others, but a lot of fun in one’s own self.
(Photo courtesy of and posted with permission from: Rene)
Congrats on the weight loss. You certainly touch on many hot button issues around weight loss. Most people can lose weight if they want although keeping it off is the real challenge. The lack of success people seem to have with keeping the weight they lost off is staggering but points to people trying quick fixes and temporary adjustments instead of long term/permanent life style changes.
It isn’t wrong to be proud of your success. I wouldn’t really call that vanity or harmful. If you aren’t giving yourself pats on the back and getting positive feelings from your effort you wouldn’t keep doing it. Rewards, life feeling or looking good, are what you need to keep going. I’m happy when i pass people in running or xc ski races and i track my times. I’m still a middle of the pack racer but that doesn’t mean i don’t want to do a little better. Wherever I’m at I’m still doing something which is better than nothing. Same for you, so keep up the work.Report
I like “no pain, no gain”… but then I’m a walker, not a runner. For me, that’s six hours, and feeling it more the next day than the day of.Report
Great post.
For the majority of people, initial changes in body composition are going to take place through diet rather exercise for the simple reason that it’s a lot easier to create a calorie deficit through reduction in food. Most untrained people aren’t going to burn off remotely enough calories to generate weight loss on their own. This doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t exercise, but rather they’re making a mistake relying on it especially if there aren’t significant changes to the diet.
Here’s a little free advice:
The hardest part about losing weight is cutting down on how much I eat.
The biggest challenge there is making sure you’re eating enough, and if you’re constantly hungry, you may not be eating enough. Make sure that you are and that protein is a substantial part of your diet if you can. Protein is not only satiating but it’s also muscle sparing. Ideally, you want to strive for fat loss not weight loss. There is a difference and a big one.
Going down your list:
1. Good for you.
2. Being awesome is not a sin. Take it from an expert.
3. I’m not judgmental about people that want to lose weight but can’t. I know it’s because many of them don’t want to make the changes necessary. I’m fine with that. To each his or her own. If you want to judge people in your own mind, again, I couldn’t care less. That’s not a major sticking point with me.
4. I suppose that’s one way of thinking about it. I never thought of it that way before.
5. I have no sympathy for fat activists because I’ve seen too many of them throw out the “real women have curves. dogs go for bones” meme. When fat activism becomes an attempt to throw legitimacy on skinny shaming, all I see is people subject to body shaming throwing it back at other people. It’s horseshit.
Since the whole body acceptance/fat activism/love your body movement has done so well to advance the cause for women, men can now get in on the action with this “Dadbod” crap I keep reading about it (although the double standard is horrific).
6. I already know I’m crazy so I don’t bother to judge people by their output. That something is better than nothing is good enough for me.
7. Let me push back here:
I think it is more important to get people into the habit of exercising than worrying about the particular efficacy of any given exercise session.
Well, in theory this is good, but if the exercise your’e doing isn’t yielding results and your pursuing a goal through exercise, then the efficacy matters very much. Also, I’d argue that you’d need to do both because if you can’t demonstrate that people can get results, good luck having them stick to exercise. Anyway…
Those videos are for people who are already mostly fit and want to lose 1-2kg they have picked up over a busy month. Expecting someone of my fitness level or for that matter, where I was in January to do those exercises seems ludicrous.
Really? I beg to differ.
You’ve been working on a little steady state cardio and improved. That’s awesome, but as you said, you saw your weight loss plateau while still running. That’s expected. Your body has adapted to the running and can do less work to achieve the same distances so it’s going to be less and less effective in that sense.
If you think watching a video of Shaun T doing Insanity and thinking it’s ludicrous because you can’t execute it the same way, then you’re looking at it the wrong way. You can’t look at it as being told to do X exercise for 30 seconds and only being able to do it for 3 seconds on a given day. Bad bad bad bad bad.
You need to look at that 30 second exercise that you can only do for 3 seconds today and know that in 30 to 60 days (or however long the program is), that 3 seconds may become 15 seconds or 20 seconds. Those improvements do happen in those kinds of programs and it’s the improvements that will lead to the drastic changes in body composition seen in people that get into things like Insanity or CrossFit. This applies even more to untrained or lightly trained individuals.
While you may not be able to produce the same output during a high intensity workout, you can still do them and just do the best you can.
In fact, I’d argue that programs like ones that you think you can’t do are the kinds of programs that you not only can do but will also get you to your goal. Given that some of them will also involve strength-based exercises, you’ll pack on a little muscle in the process.
Don’t sell yourself short here. It won’t be easy but it’s not “No Pain No Gain” by a longshot. You can control that factor anyway.Report
In addition to what @dave said regarding protein (to say nothing of his many other good points), the value of dietary fiber — particularly the naturally occurring kinds — cannot be overstated. Avoid things that advertise they are in high in fiber because they are usually heavily processed and include all sorts of nasty things that they can legally call fiber but which is not what your body is looking for (cough*cough wood bits cough*cough). Green leafy vegetables, whole grains, and high fiber fruits should be key parts of your diet. They are satiating and give you the sorts of carbs your body can effectively use for energy without all the downsides of highly processed carbs.Report
@kazzy
Quest bars have some kind of man made fiber in them. I have no idea where that stuff comes from but a Smores Quest Bar microwaved for 15 seconds is like eating smores.
Now I’m hungry…Report
Heh… odds are that bar is healthier for you than a s’more so if you need that sort of fix, it is a good option. The problem is when people reach for the “high fiber” “granola” bar that is chock full of cellulose and chocolate chips and sugar and highly processed grains and think they’re eating healthy. Instead they should be reaching for an apple, some almonds, and a piece of cheese… even though none of those items can scream from the shelves how healthy they are and two of the three contain (*gasp*!) fat.Report
some indigestible fiber is necessary (it’s good for the colon).
I recommend popcorn.
(I do not recommend anything labeled “whole wheat” … it’s a vile product. If you must have healthy bread, eat some made with graham flour)Report
@kazzy ,
I try to limit my fat intake to about 20% of calories max, especially on training days. I love cheeses and nuts, but my propensity to overeat them is enormous. That’s why I don’t keep peanut butter in the house.
People with a less active lifestyle should be over that amount by far but my protein intake is very high and I prefer taking in lots of carbs to fuel training. Most of the time that comes in the form of steel cut oatmeal or sweet potatoes. Post workout, I’ll mix a dextrose powder in with my post workout supplement. That’s the best time for high glycemic carbs. If I don’t have the dextrose powder, any candy made from dextrose will do (Pixy Stix, bottle caps, smarties, haribo gummy bears).
Yeah, I’d take my Quest bars over high fiber granola bars, if only for the 20 grams of protein from a quality protein source – whey protein isolate.Report
@dave
I’m similar with regards to limiting fat intake. My point is that many people still have an internalized mindset that fat = evil and will often choose less healthier options as a result.
For a while, at my school, we were giving the kids “Light and Fit” yogurts for snack. This meant they were both low/non-fat AND loaded with artificial sweeteners. I pointed out that A) young children need healthy fats in their diet, B) artificial sweeteners have all sorts of downsides including recent research that ‘diet’ products lead to greater overall caloric intake, and C) recent research indicates full fat dairy products correlate with lower weight gain. I suggested full fat yogurts that rely on fruit or other mix-ins (e.g., honey) for their primary source of sweetness. So now we have Go-Gurts. Go figure.Report
@kazzy
I’m similar with regards to limiting fat intake. My point is that many people still have an internalized mindset that fat = evil and will often choose less healthier options as a result.
Agreed. Since companies need to produce processed foods with flavor, sugars tend to get added. We know how well that’s worked out.Report
And since the rich folks have gone on a terrible crusade against salt!
*eyeroll* Trader Joe’s is many things, but so much of their stuff needs more salt!Report
One of the things that I found, when I tried to lose weight, was that I needed to change how I thought about food and exercise to the point where I needed to impose some personality changes.
The new personality, I found, was more unpleasant than the chubby one.Report
@jaybird
Denying one’s self is rarely effective or sustainable long term. So if you are never or so rarely eating foods you enjoy — or are subjecting yourself to misery inducing exercise sessions — you probably aren’t going to get very far. And even if you do, you’ll be miserable. That is why I think portion control is one of the best changes a person can make as it still allows them to eat many of the foods they enjoy without sacrificing health and fitness goals.
Having a moderately sized cheeseburger on a whole grain roll with a handful of fries and a small side salad is a fine lunch once or twice a week. The problem emerges when folks eat double quarter pounders every day. Or try to go from double quarter pounders to grilled chicken wrapped in a lettuce leaf.Report
There are a lot of people out there who are overweight as a response to trauma, for example, and attempts to fix the overweight without fixing the underlying trauma will result in a lot of weird stuff bubbling up.
The problem with seeing being overweight as a problem is the misunderstanding/failure to apprehend that it can very easily be the manifestation of a solution.Report
@jaybird
Telling a person whose body is unable to produce the appropriate levels of leptin to eat less and get on a treadmill will not go over very well.Report
I’d be really interested in a “smart layman” level discussion of how leptin and ghrelin work, and what the state of the research is on leptin resistence and/or leptin deficiency. Not just for self-interest in some assistance with losing weight, although I’ll candidly admit that’s a part of it.Report
I’m holding out hope there is something to this:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-help-make-us-fat-and-thin/
It’d be interesting if another side-effect of antibiotic overuse (antibiotics are often indiscriminate in killing off bacteria, which is why some of ’em give you the runs) is the obesity epidemic.Report
Correlation, causation, yadda yadda, but I bet rising antibiotic use and obesity track pretty nicely in US history.Report
It seems unlikely to me, but that’s just a gut reaction.Report
Wow, it was 2011. Seems like it was way more recent.Report
I think I have discovered the secret identity of “Guy Posting In The Wrong Thread”.Report
Third base!Report
If I go through the Bodybuilding.com articles, I may be able find a couple about leptin. I’m not sure about ghrelin.
The whole concept of carbohydrate re-feeds is based on boosting leptin levels, which can drop a lot in people in a high caloric deficit.Report
@burt-likko
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark60.htm
Does this work?Report
I see a lot of things on the internet about losing weight quickly and I just don’t think its healthy. Sure it might work in the short-term but it isn’t any good for your body and you end up binge eating…believe me I’ve been there and done that. The most important thing for people with limited amounts of time or people who need motivation is to either hire a coach (which is pricey) or follow some kind of program. I’m just getting started with yoga for the first time and just an hour or two a week, and I am seeing results. I found a review of a program on http://www.healthandbodyzone.com/ and it definitely beats paying for a coach or personal trainer. Having something to follow is motivating for me and makes it much easier.Report
A review that constitutes a sales pitch into the means to purchase it. It kind of reminds me of the way companies try to sell overpriced underdosed supplements.
We’ve been spammed!!!Report
Isn’t deleting the offending comment the traditional thing to do?Report
@brandon-berg
I’m surprised it wasn’t deleted already. I usually don’t delete comments. My form of traditionalism is selectively beating up liberal commenters while leaving libertarian miscreants like yourself alone. 😉Report
I like that you didn’t jump whole hog into an unrealistic diet-and-exercise regime that would have proven unsustainable. A key piece of advice I give people who are looking to make a big change is to focus on either diet OR exercise to start. If you go from eating 2500 calories a day with no exercise to 1500 calories a day with even moderate exercise, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Skim a few calories off, add a little exercise, and go from there. It is about making a lifestyle change, not a crash course.
Anyway, kudos to you for the success thus far and keep on rockin’!Report
It also harms no-one, so long as such judgment is kept to the boundaries of my head.
So… posting it in public on the internet is harmful or not harmful, do you think? (I think it’s harmful, but like, mosquito harmful, not rampaging elephant harmful or anything.)
I exercise every day, often twice a day – I have to or I become bedridden with pain – but the types of illnesses I have make it almost impossible to keep weight off, unless I were to say, quit my job and devote myself solely to my health. (One of many reasons for this is that my doctor has strictly warned me off of strenuous/intense exercise as counterproductive for said illnesses, so exercising “enough” to get back to my preferred weight range would take up most of my day, and most of my energy for the day.) You might try telling your inner judgmental self that you have no idea of the life situation of the people it is judging, and see if that changes your perspective. Or, you know, actually keep it in your own head.
That said, I know from experience how very satisfying a significant weight loss can be. Congratulations, and good luck with your wedding ceremony!Report
How much you weigh is none of my business, but I do want to correct a misconception you seem to have here: While exercise is beneficial for many reasons, you do not need high intensity exercise, or any exercise at all, to lose weight. Fat gain is always caused by consuming more calories than you expend; conversely, losing fat is purely a matter of consuming fewer calories than you expend.
If you really want to lose weight, you can do so at any activity level by eating fewer calories.Report
Not really. if you eat less than what you need, and don’t exercise, your body tends to conclude ‘must be starving’ and make rather unpleasant changes. While you still will lose weight, it’s not as good an idea as getting some exercise.Report
Yeah, the ratio I’ve heard, Maribou, is that weight loss is 5% genetics, 15% activity level and 80% consumption. That’s a bleak prognosis from my pov where I’m much happier exercising more than I am trying to monitor what I eat round the clock. Goddamn biology.Report
I’m not sure that genetics is entirely separable from the other two. The brain also being genetic and the brain affecting exercise and consumption. Unless you’re referring specifically to genetic metabolism, though metabolism is influenced by consumption over time.Report
Genetics play into it all Will, but in addition to that people have a general genetic default body fat percentage that, given an ordinary unrestricted but not copious diet, they will default to. You go below that and it gets slightly harder to lose weight, you go over it and it’s slightly easier.. so that’s the 5% I’m referring to. Some people are genetically predisposed to be thinner damn their eyes.Report
And, as a weight loss strategy, even round-the-clock monitoring beats consumption.Report
Dunno. I’ve tried sitting at a monitor around the clock, and it didn’t help at all. I hear consumption is very effective, though.Report
It is, especially if you cough loudly enough to make it conspicuous.Report
@north
What I’ve learned from monitoring my eating is that I can wing it pretty well when I don’t feel like tracking each meal (which I really don’t do anyway).
Then again, I can keep my food intake very simple. I can eat bland chicken breast with a little salt and pepper every day and not think anything of it. Then again, I’m the anti-foodie. 😉Report
Yeah and I am a frickin foodie.. you have it made.. you would be just as happy with a cuppa bland soylent if it was nutritionally sufficient. -I- would drink the cuppa, then eat the box and after a day or two of such a diet probably the waiter too (so long as I could have him medium rare with a sprig of parsley and a nice wine reduction).Report
@north
you would be just as happy with a cuppa bland soylent if it was nutritionally sufficient.
Between 85% and 90% of the time this is true, but cake is like kryptonite. They’ve been known to disappear around here. 😉Report
Even the non-foodiest non-foodies I know have something of some sort that is their dietary Archilles heel. Often something non-foody gross like box macaroni and cheese or MacDonalds. Bleaugh.Report
@north
I never did get rid of my sweet tooth. I just moderate it somewhat.
That said, I found a protein powder in a smores flavor that tastes just like smores. It’s insanely good and only has 8 grams of carbs. It’s a bit high for what I want in a protein powder but I’ll take it for the flavor!!!Report
North,
Try a 16 hour walk each day, with a 20lb pack. That’ll put your calories burned at about 3000 or more, easy, if you walk fast.
Makes a great vacation too!
(the problem with walking is it takes oodles of time to really get the calories burned).Report
@maribou
Knowing your situation, I don’t judge you specifically. I just judge everyone else who is in a similar enough position to me that they can lose weight, but who, like me, didn’t because we were too lazy/unmotivated to change our ways.Report
Is this the wrong place to bitch about how annoying “I’m slightly larger than I want to be, see how awesome I am for losing 20 lbs” stories are to people who really struggle with weight?
Try losing 75 lbs and still being obese. And getting no credit for it. And trying to keep it off. Day after day, year after year. Plateauing for months at a time.
Nobody fat-shames like the slightly overweight.Report
@nopublic
Feel free to bitch, but I may push back if I find something that I disagree with.
Try losing 75 lbs and still being obese. And getting no credit for it. And trying to keep it off. Day after day, year after year. Plateauing for months at a time.
One reason why I never judge a person by the way he or she looks is that I have no idea what that person’s situation is. I’ve never had the kind of weight issue where I’ve dropped that kind of weight and still been obese. All I can possibly do is learn from the experiences of others. I’ve read Tony Posnaski’s blog for a couple of years now.
Personally, my concern is less with people that want to share their experiences and be proud of their accomplishments and more with people that think it’s perfectly acceptable to publicly shame people on some bullshit basis of “raising awareness”.
This guy’s a complete piece of shit:
http://www.kmov.com/story/28999430/trainer-not-apologizing-for-body-shaming-woman-at-busch-stadiumReport
You may not realize this, Dave, but people who are obese need to be consciously reminded of it, or else they will forget. And if you show anything other than contempt, they may get the idea that it’s okay because society is so generous with the obese and generally too polite to say anything mean.
As always, it’s very important for self-appointed individuals to “tell it like it is”…Report
Well, for me, I did require lots of prompting and cajoling and shaming in order to eventually build enough motivation to start doing something about it.Report
@murali
My losing weight was suggested to me on a few occasions, but I was never shamed. That said, I think you may be more the exception than the rule. I’ve read a few weight loss bloggers and the shaming they received did nothing for them but make them feel even worse about themselves.Report
@will-truman
As always, it’s very important for self-appointed individuals to “tell it like it is”…
This is one reason why I avoid a lot of fitness-related pages and the fitness hashtags/groups via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I’ve seen too much of it. It’s not just offensive but it’s hypocritical in cases where these super lean people that are obviously in deep caloric deficits eating at borderline disorder levels are telling other people what’s healthy and what’s not.
Things start to get a little messy when messages intended for other audiences are seen by people likely to get offended by them (see: Maria Kang’s “What’s Your Excuse”).Report
@nopublic
Dude, its awesome that you lost 75lbs. And it completely sucks that you don’t get credit for it.Report
Nobody fat-shames like the slightly overweight.
Dude, that’s the culture we live in, here in the Great Ole USA. Everybody’s feelin good just so long as they can look down on someone else. Take pride in the fact that you’re losing weight for internal reasons. Not so you can look down on folks who aren’t.Report
Or this: lose weight so you can look down on the folks who look down on folks for not losing enough weight!Report