This is going to be one hell of a controversial article, but, I guess it couldn’t be any other way when addressing this very real issue.
I’ve seen many people in recent years wondering why, and asking why there are so many fat people these days. Just what happened to make just about everyone overweight? I don’t believe at all in the ‘blame McDonalds’ thing. Hey, I love McDonalds, but if I ate 10 burgers a day like some people, I’d not be sitting here typing this, and you’d not be looking to me for advice, so, I’ll bite the low-calorie bullet, say screw criticism, and delve into this article.
People and society are to blame…
Simply put: People are to blame for lack of willpower, lack of esteem, and lack of criticism.
Is this harsh? Very! But true. Being fat shouldn’t be accepted as a normal, healthy way of life or a normal thing – not by the person whose body it is, and not by society. (Hey, did you expect any less from a guy who runs a fitness website?)
Before getting into the actual physical analysis of what happens to the body when a ton of food is consumed – which I will get to – I’d like first raise the several societal issues at play here:
- Never before have we had such an abundance of food available at such cheap prices that everyday people of regular wealth and of extremely weak willpower could become super-obese. Never. That’s one reason.
- In today’s wet-blanket culture of ‘blame anyone but ourselves’ we are taught to accept people as they are, and taught we will be accepted for how we are – almost to the point now where no matter the situation you could almost say: “Hey, I’m an asshole who just robbed your grandmas’ house” and you’ll have an abundance of absolute dooshbag liberals defend or make excuses for this scumbags appalling behaviour. You understand my point here?
- Now for the third reason. I’m going to point the finger at women here in particular (sorry ladies, but it has to be said) is that there simply isn’t the pressure these days on women to look slim. (Yes, I know what you’re thinking… “What are you talking about? there’s more pressure than ever!, yadda, yadda!” but, you are completely wrong, and I’ll explain why below.)
True, we have TV, magazines, etc. All of these things tend to show slim women and maybe put them on a pedestal. But, in all honesty, they deserve that pedestal because the chances are; they eat right, and make efforts at the gym to keep themselves in shape. Why? Because they want to look good and it makes them feel good to look that way. A woman with a gorgeous, slim body should always be celebrated, not picked apart by bitter obese women as being ‘unhealthily slim’ as some kind of self-justification for it being ok that you piled on another 3lbs that week. You’re wrong!
Listen… I’m betting not a single obese woman in recent decades has ever had any lack of male interest because she was terribly out of shape. That’s just the facts, plain and simple. These days, it’s the norm when you see even a good looking, slim guy with a rather obese woman. Nobody bats an eyelid. So, don’t tell me there’s more pressure than ever to be slim. There’s no incentive to be slim for women when they can have almost any guy they want, and still be overweight. Non at all.
For instance, which holds the most social power: the things you see every day on the streets – real people, real situations, and real life – or the fact that you just read in a magazine that Nicole Kidman is size 6 for her latest film, so you feel you have to be?
You know the answer – don’t lie.
Once the magazine is closed, you go outside and it’s back to reality, where you fit in, back to where your friends are, and the things you see are what are accepted. If there was that much pressure to be slim, ladies, you’d be slim.
Back years ago, men demanded more of women – this is a simple fact. Guys these days have willingly accepted that women are generally, mostly fat, and have adjusted their expectations accordingly. Even if women of 300lb are normal in 10 years time, nothing will change to the guy… ‘Hey, that’s just how women are now’.
The difference from back then to now is, women now know they can be as overweight and unfit as they please and society should ‘celebrate’ her ‘realistic’ overweight body like overeating is healthy and perfectly acceptable. Well, I and countless others who work hard to keep ourselves in shape are here to tell you it’s not. Reality check.
Now for the food bit…
Ok, now for the actual reasons of why food makes us fat. It really has very little to do with anything in the food. That’s just another tool used by the angry obese who love to point the finger at anyone but themselves. It’s simply a case of overeating. Now, I hear you saying: ‘but I eat less than I did 10 years ago, and I’m still overweight, something is wrong, and it’s either an illness or the food is different’ and yes, you may well be right, but let me explain something…
Chances are, the average person in any walk of life does far less physical activity than they did 10 years ago. Therefore, more food is stored as fat, and less is burned off. So, technically, I could be eating less than I did 10 years ago, and still be fatter, simply because I maybe did running or played squash 4 times a week back then, or whatever.
Add to that the fact that your body now runs slower than it did years ago, it therefore needs less food by default anyway.
So overeating doesn’t mean you are eating more food, it simply means your body does not require the amount of food you are eating, and if you wish to lose fat you need to either raise you activity level, or eat less – or both.