Wow, this discussion went downhill pretty fast.
Cross-posting part of my response to a recent, similar discussion on a training forum:
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I started thinking about this the other day coming home from class. A guy who couldn't have been much younger than me just randomly started asking me about exercise and diet. He asked how much I weighed, I told him "250, but I'm trying to lose fat right now." "Wow, I'm 240!"
The problem was: His 240 looked waaaayyy different than my 250. He had skinny arms, a double-chin, and a huge flabby torso. He asked me how to get started, and I asked what his diet was like - typical college-student fare. Fast food when he could get it between classes, sodas, and sugary energy drinks. Just total shit. I told him that the first place he needed to start was to clean up his diet, drink more water, and start doing little things - walk more, do stairs, little things here and there. He acted like I had just McGuyvered the cure for cancer together with a paper clip, a piece of gum, and a stray wisp of dog fur. I told him to keep me updated if he catches me around.
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RE: Contempt for fat people - I don't necessarily have contempt for fat people, but I do feel sorry for them at times, being an ex-fatty myself and not having all the answers.
Like someone else said during that discussion(slightly paraphrasing), "No one loses patience faster with a fatty than a former fatty. I get angry with the excuses, because I used to make the same excuses to myself. Getting on track with good nutrition and exercise takes effort, and I don't feel particularly special for doing so. Once I started to see some results, I wanted to keep going."
The flaws in some of the responses here DO seem to come from contempt for the obese, and knee-jerk responses to those who dare to suggest that obesity is a problem. While I do my best to eat well and stay in shape, I do so because I like it. It’s fun.
Ditto for those who like to eat bad food and really don’t care about exercise – and it’s not my place to tell them how they should live. I love going hog-wild on cheat days (especially yesterday), where I eat like shit and have a few beers, because it’s a vacation from the norm and shocks me out of diet plateaus. I don’t think that chronically eating like shit and not caring for exercise is healthy, and there are a lot of misconceptions out there on both sides of the aisle, but I can’t go around re-educating or correcting everyone on what they’re doing.
Sure, I think obesity is not a good thing and it’s becoming a problem, and yeah, we could do a lot to fix it, but the only way I’m going to help is if someone asks me for help like the guy on the bus did. However, if you ask me for help and either don’t listen or tell me that I’m wrong, I’m going to get pissed off. I’m also not going to put myself in the camp of the anti-fatty brigade, but I will put an extremity or a digit in their camp by saying that I have a general dislike of weakness, which does fuel the occasional bit of disillusionment with people.
I’m not going to be surprised when tons of people join the gym in January and are gone by March. I’m not going to be surprised when my co-workers constantly compliment my dietary habits and my daily lunch breaks to the gym. But I’ll be more than happy to not pass judgment on people for a physical trait, and I’ll be more than happy to offer advice and reinforcement if they ever need it.
Last week, a co-worker thanked me, as him seeing me suit up every day for the gym inspired him to start walking more. I congratulated him and offered my help if he ever had any questions, and both of us walked away feeling better. That’s what makes this shit worth it. Not to be condescending, not to feed the ego, but to better myself and hopefully bring in a few others along the way.
