I found Chris Shugart’s blog highly entertaining to read. It’s tough love, and meant for fat people to stop feeling sorry for themselves, and take some more intelligent action, at least how I saw it.
I have to wonder though how much at fault these people really are.
I myself believe I have been blessed with greater than average genetics. I have always done very well at sports. I’m a classic mesomorph, never been over 10% bodyfat, and I gain muscle very easily. Granted, eating well and exercising have always been top priorities in my life, but not everyone is as inquisitive or responds to exercise as well as I do, which I think has been a huge reinforcer for me.
My point is, most people I talk to have no clue what a sensible diet is. With so much misinformation being spread with the scammiest diets usually being the best marketed, I find it hard to blame people for eating the way they do sometimes.
Most people are lost in a sea of confusion. People are told to eat high carb, low carb, vegetarian, soy, National food guides etc… the permutations are endless, and they are all marketed by “experts”. I think it’s a little unreasonable for the average person to have the analytical skills and time to delve through all the information to find out what works best. Especially with so many other people with special interests spending billions of dollars in marketing to persuade them to think otherwise. It makes you wonder how well intelligent nutrition and exercise is marketed?
When people ask me about my diet, they are usually shocked to hear what I eat. It goes against so many things they’ve been told that they usually can’t accept it. They assume I workout 40 hours a week when in reality it’s around 3.
What I’m getting at here is maybe we shouldn’t be so self rightious. People don’t live in a bubble. There’s many influences coming from many different directions. Instead of assigning blame on obese people, perhaps we should point our fingers elsewhere. To the huge corporations with huge marketing budgets, to the scammy infomercials and 6 page ad special reports promising miracles to the ignorant masses.
Or maybe we should just concentrate on finding better ways to market reliable and valid ways to reduce bodyfat.