At some point, all of us need some straight-talking to drag us out of the excuse-filled pity parties that we occasionally get into when we’re losing weight. Welcome to real-talk central, population – you. The worst thing about weight-loss excuses is that it assumes that everyone else is living some magically easy existence where the stars align and things are simply perfect for them. It’s just not true. Read every single Amazing Loser story and you’ll see that all of them have some factor that wasn’t in their favour. Did they let it stop them?
Did. They. B*lls.
So, if you’ve found yourself explaining away the reasons that the scales aren’t being kind to you, read through the top three excuses and give us ten press-ups for every one you’ve heard yourself uttering.
Genetics
“I’m big-boned, everyone in my family is! You can’t fight your genes!”
Ok, let’s be clear, genetics clearly does play a role in the size that you are. People with two obese parents are 80% more likely to be obese themselves and researchers have shown that there are over 400 different genes playing a role in weight gain. The really tricky thing is that science shows that the role that genetics plays varies greatly from person-to-person, from 25% to 80% for a predisposition to be overweight.
So, what’s the conclusion – are we going to just nail our family tree to the door and accept that we’re always going to be fat? Of course not! Genetics plays a reasonable part in height and height plays a reasonable part in success in basketball. Does that mean that the 5’9” kings give up and never step foot on the court? Does the name Muggsy Bogues mean nothing to you?!
If you’re looking at the family photos and noticing that most of them were taken with a wide-angle lens, this just means that the odds may be stacked against you, but that you’re going to work harder and smarter to achieve your goals. Let’s go!
Work
“I travel a lot for work and am always in hotels, so it’s harder to lose weight.”
You may have realised already that the key word for most of these excuses is harder. Circumstance X, Y or Z means that you are not on a level playing-field and things are harder for you. Remember: hard does not equal impossible. Yes, of course it’s hard to find healthy options when you’re eating from vending machines and service stations, hard but not impossible. It may mean that you have to get more organised to take a flask of soup in the car, or study the menus to spot the one healthy option – but that’s what you’ve got to do if you want to achieve your goal. We’ve got advice on how to eat well at the garage station forecourt, and a beginners guide to food prep, you could even get down and dirty with The Body Coach as he stinks up a Birmingham hotel room…
Don’t want to lose weight
“I’m happy the way I am.”
Great! That’s genuinely wonderful. We’re not into body shaming here at MAN v FAT, our mission is to support those men who WANT to lose weight, not to insist that everyone needs to feel the same. Of course, we will always point you towards the statistics so that you can get a complete picture of the risks that increase with higher weight and we’ll probably commiserate about the things that suck about being fat, but if you’ve read those and you’re still happy then go, be free!
The only thing we’d ask is that you add us to your bookmarks and get back in touch if ever you decide that you would like to lose weight or get healthier. We’ll be here and we’ll be excited to do whatever we can to help you have the sort of body that enables you to live the life you want. Deal?
What’s your go-to excuse for why you’re struggling with your weight? Let us know and we’ll tell you why it’s nonsense (in a nice, motivating way of course).
