- Joined
- Aug 20, 2008
- Messages
- 86
As I was watching yet another commercial for a weight loss product, more and more disgust came over me. The newest gastric band surgery certainly seems to get a lot of commercial air time as well. Every time I see this stuff, it just bugs me.
As bodybuilders, many of us have learned how to manipulate our bodies to produce the look we want with hard work and dedication to diet. The recent thread on this board about someone's coworkers telling him he was not enjoying life by not stuffing a bunch of lard down his throat made me think about this as well. I have altered my body and bodyfat percentage many different times in many different ways over the years. I have also had many overweight friends and acquaintances try every new diet pill, and some even getting surgery in order to lose weight.
What REALLY gets to me is hearing this "it's not your fault" BS. Now, I KNOW that there are a few individuals out there with some sort of metabolic disorder that affects the amount of weight they carry. (My own girlfriend has a REAL condition. No matter what type of food or how little she eats, she cannot lose any weight. She has had a few serious health problems over the years that caused this though.) However, cutting into the body to surgically make the stomach smaller does not seem to address this issue, does it? The result of this is causing a physical change that someone does not have the mental strength to do for themselves.
Artifically creating a more "full feeling" by having a smaller stomach doesn't address a real metabolic condition, does it? It seems to me that people who actually benefit from this are indeed the ones who ARE actually at fault for being "overweight". They are the ones who cannot control their eating for a MENTAL reason. They do not have the discipline that us dedicated individuals do.
Can YOU push through hunger if you know it is getting you the body you want? Now, that said, as many of us know, hunger is not necessary to have a good body, even when dieting to lose fat. A few years ago, I was dating an overweight woman who eventually asked if she could go to the gym with me and have me help her adjust her diet to lose weight. I put her on a low carb diet and she mentioned that she had never eaten so much before in her life! She lost 65 pounds in 7 months. However, it took dedication and mentally choosing better choices.
I love some of the advertising that talks about "tried everything and nothing works?". Yeah, I know plenty of these people who have a garage full of the "latest" workout gadget and stacks of bottles of the newest "miracle diet drug or supplement". They try "everything" that promises a quick fix. Everything, that is, except using some mental strength and resolve to make smart dietary changes that they stick with.
I have seen so many Discovery Health shows where the doctors say that weight loss is really simple- eat less and exercise more. But, golly, I guess that just make too much sense. I then see a program about an obese patient right after his stomach surgery having his wife sneak bags of potato chips and boxes of cupcakes into his hospital room so he can stretch his stomach back out!
OK, this rant has a point, I think. Alcohol and cigarettes are legal and widely used, and widely accepted. SURGERY to cut a person's stomach into a smaller one to control their BEHAVIOR is legal and perfectly acceptable. However, the intelligent use of muscle building drugs by DISCIPLINED people who know and study how to control their body is EVIL, ILLEGAL, IMMORAL and CHEATING!!!!
Sorry, forgot to take my crazy pills today so I am not thinking like the rest of the herd today....
As bodybuilders, many of us have learned how to manipulate our bodies to produce the look we want with hard work and dedication to diet. The recent thread on this board about someone's coworkers telling him he was not enjoying life by not stuffing a bunch of lard down his throat made me think about this as well. I have altered my body and bodyfat percentage many different times in many different ways over the years. I have also had many overweight friends and acquaintances try every new diet pill, and some even getting surgery in order to lose weight.
What REALLY gets to me is hearing this "it's not your fault" BS. Now, I KNOW that there are a few individuals out there with some sort of metabolic disorder that affects the amount of weight they carry. (My own girlfriend has a REAL condition. No matter what type of food or how little she eats, she cannot lose any weight. She has had a few serious health problems over the years that caused this though.) However, cutting into the body to surgically make the stomach smaller does not seem to address this issue, does it? The result of this is causing a physical change that someone does not have the mental strength to do for themselves.
Artifically creating a more "full feeling" by having a smaller stomach doesn't address a real metabolic condition, does it? It seems to me that people who actually benefit from this are indeed the ones who ARE actually at fault for being "overweight". They are the ones who cannot control their eating for a MENTAL reason. They do not have the discipline that us dedicated individuals do.
Can YOU push through hunger if you know it is getting you the body you want? Now, that said, as many of us know, hunger is not necessary to have a good body, even when dieting to lose fat. A few years ago, I was dating an overweight woman who eventually asked if she could go to the gym with me and have me help her adjust her diet to lose weight. I put her on a low carb diet and she mentioned that she had never eaten so much before in her life! She lost 65 pounds in 7 months. However, it took dedication and mentally choosing better choices.
I love some of the advertising that talks about "tried everything and nothing works?". Yeah, I know plenty of these people who have a garage full of the "latest" workout gadget and stacks of bottles of the newest "miracle diet drug or supplement". They try "everything" that promises a quick fix. Everything, that is, except using some mental strength and resolve to make smart dietary changes that they stick with.
I have seen so many Discovery Health shows where the doctors say that weight loss is really simple- eat less and exercise more. But, golly, I guess that just make too much sense. I then see a program about an obese patient right after his stomach surgery having his wife sneak bags of potato chips and boxes of cupcakes into his hospital room so he can stretch his stomach back out!
OK, this rant has a point, I think. Alcohol and cigarettes are legal and widely used, and widely accepted. SURGERY to cut a person's stomach into a smaller one to control their BEHAVIOR is legal and perfectly acceptable. However, the intelligent use of muscle building drugs by DISCIPLINED people who know and study how to control their body is EVIL, ILLEGAL, IMMORAL and CHEATING!!!!
Sorry, forgot to take my crazy pills today so I am not thinking like the rest of the herd today....