It is no coincidence as excuse making has become more and more acceptable; the waist lines of Americans have spiraled out of control. These days, a simple excuse is considered “just as good” as achieving success. It seems that no one is responsible for the results of their actions, or in these cases their inactions! The excuses for gaining weight, and not exercising, or eating right, have grown in proportion to our bellies and thighs. Here is a brief primer of the excuses I hear, and my attempt to debunk them.
“I do not have enough time”
The premise here is that everyone is so much busier than they were in years past that it is simply impossible work out and eat right. They believe that anyone that does accomplish this must have more casual time on their hands.
My Answer: It is always funny how many of these folks seem to know every plot twist on the latest night time series, or have a 59 th level character on World of Warcraft
“I have the Fat Gene i.e. Genetics”
Apparently some people are destined to be fat no matter what they do in life because of there Genetics.
My Answer: These people just have fat “Jeans”, this notion is somewhat true, but giving it credit just allows people to give up. Yes, some people are more predisposed toward gaining weight. This does not however mean it is impossible for these people not to be fit. It most certainly does not mean that your genetics force you to eat Fried Chicken at every meal.
“Poor people get fatter”
Lately there have been a plethora of studies finding a correspondence between low income and obesity. The conclusion from these “studies” is that poor people are forced to eat poor quality food because of their income, and this makes them fat.
My Answer: This is ridiculous. By the way according to USA Today the Rich get fat too . I believe this is the only time in history where we find that the poor people of a country became overweight! This excuse doesn’t merit a lot of time arguing against. The one correspondence anyone can find between Obesity and Poverty is the “L” word, Lazy. A serious examination of census data indicates that the so called "poor" are neither poor or undernurished .
“My medication makes me fat”
My Answer: Put this in the “Yes it is true but it is no excuse for a “Little Debbie Snack Cake diet” category
“My husband/wife makes me fat with all his nagging”
I hear this one but I can not put the logic together on how this supposedly works.
My Answer: Lose weight and the nagging will stop…simple.
“Stress Makes Me Fat”
From what I understand, some folks believe that people living today experience far more stress than any humans at any time in history, some how this leads to fat appearing on their bodies. Yes, I know all about the cortisol snake oil salesman, wrapping themselves in real science to sell some herbal crap along with another lame excuse bodybuilding.com has a very scientific article that covers the subject without selling you something .
My Answer: Get over yourself, I can not imagine someone sitting behind a desk all day experiencing as much stress as an early human who was required to kill a fur covered elephant with a pointed stick, or a colonial pioneer fighting off wild animals and pissed off evicted natives.
"Diets Don't Work"
Since most diets end in failure, and most dieters gain all of their weight back diets are a waste of time.
My Answer: Nice try FATSO, but most cigarette smokers, and herion addicts revert too, should we just let them die from their vice too? Because most dieters lack will power to make life changing behavior modifications does not mean that we should just resign ourselves to failure.
While I have NO qualifications to judge diets, health conditions, and human biology, common sense shoots this one down. Since all the so called experts seem to be hawking there own particular excercise routine, diet, or book, I find most of them suspect. Simple physics dictates that someone CAN NOT output more calories than he or she takes in and has the same mass! An army of "diet experts" can not get around this simple thermodynamic physics equation.
People are not perpetual motion machines. Stress or not, at some point you body will have to lose weight if you continue to use more calories than you take in!
This all leads to a final question. How many pounds of excess weight is an excuse good for? It appears that if someone has a good excuse, they are then free to no longer exercise and quite serious dieting. Does a malfunctioning thyroid mean you are good for an extra 200 pounds, or is the sky the limit? Does stress allow you to gain more weight than high blood pressure medication? What if you have both? When it comes to weight, anyone can find an excuse not to exercise, or diet, and get big.
With the exception of a few super fast metabolism types, we all can get our “get fat" ticket punched. The main difference between those who get obese and those who stay fit is that the "fit" do not let an excuse stop them. They overcome their weight issues DESPITE obstacles. If you are letting excuses dictate your weight ask yourself. Am I so weak I let my (medication, or lack of time, or stress level) beat me? If your answer is "yes" then you still have made a choice.
Do not worry this is not the end of this list. I’m going to add more as they come to mind this is a long list. If you have an excuse that you hear from your spouse make sure you post it to the discussion group below. make sure you post it to the discussion group below.
Chris wrote this for the oldmyfatspouse.com
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