Personally I think the problem extends to our way of thinking. Most people are fixated on weight as a measurement of success or failure. You can see this everywhere - on the TV, in the news, books, magazines, etc - they all talk about weight and how to lose it. On TV shows, a person's weight is the determination of success or failure - like the "Biggest Loser" show or that show "Celeb Fitness" where every week they step on a scale and if they gain weight they are shamed and made to feel like a failure - but when they lose weight they are praised even though they don't discuss how the weight was lost (whether it was good or bad). I found it funny that Dustin Diamond made a mockery of that show. In many ways I applaud him because he knows that weight is a ridiculous concept to base health on - he even took weight lost pills to show how easy it is to lose weight. And even more so they tried to shame him when he said he was happy with his current weight of 200 some pounds and felt any less would make him a skinny guy. They told him he was going to die early if he didn't lose weight. I find it funny and the other members argued with him about the whole deal. They missed the one thing that Dustin was trying to point out - being happy about yourself is more important than weight alone. I even remember another member of the show was eating only chicken and some random veggie (which provides less than 300 calories). They told him not to do that, which is good, but yet they didn't give him any warnings or penalize him for "cheating" and when the next week came and he didn't lose any weight they didn't do anything and he went right back to eating chicken and some veggie. Clearly the show is flawed and it’s a pity people actually buy into this and all the other junk out there.
I feel that people who come on this forum tries to focus more on weight loss and less on health and fitness. I feel people tend to fixate too much on weight as the sole determination of how healthy they are. I feel things like the BMI, the ideal weight chart, and all that stuff are nothing more than tools for obese people to gain false hope that they will fall into the norm.
I think when we as a society realize that weight is not the main goal of fitness and health, then the obesity problem will go down. I can’t tell you how many times someone comes up to me and asks me how I lost weight – I get everything from “Did you starve yourself?” to “Do you drink all that water so you won’t feel hunger?” But yet I probably eat like a pig and despite all this, I see people trying to eat salad only to drinking slim fast. I find it even more ironic that obesity became a problem right around the time the bathroom scale came about.
I feel that people who come on this forum tries to focus more on weight loss and less on health and fitness. I feel people tend to fixate too much on weight as the sole determination of how healthy they are. I feel things like the BMI, the ideal weight chart, and all that stuff are nothing more than tools for obese people to gain false hope that they will fall into the norm.
I think when we as a society realize that weight is not the main goal of fitness and health, then the obesity problem will go down. I can’t tell you how many times someone comes up to me and asks me how I lost weight – I get everything from “Did you starve yourself?” to “Do you drink all that water so you won’t feel hunger?” But yet I probably eat like a pig and despite all this, I see people trying to eat salad only to drinking slim fast. I find it even more ironic that obesity became a problem right around the time the bathroom scale came about.
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