What do you say when you are confronted about your weight/transformation?


do you smile and sorta joke it off, or do you start to lecture them about macronutrients and cardio and all that stuff?? i mean, people ask me, and there is no way im gonna bust out a lecture right then and there on the spot..


here is a story from my cooking class at school:

ok, so today we had cooking, we were making Lasanga and some salad made of joguhrt, cucumbers, mustard (just a bit) and eggs. it had about 200 grams of joghurt so thats about 250 cals (it wasnt fatfree or lowfat) and the 2 eggs (75 cals a piece) make it 400 cals.. plus the cucumber which i didnt count as calories because.. well it was 1/2 of a damn cucumber :p

so we cooked/prepared/baked it all. then all the kids in my group pull a face while looking at the salad and said its nasty (it was actually quite good) and so while they are all eating the fatty lasanga i load up on the sald :drool: . i had skipped lunch in preparation for foods class :rolleyes: ) and so i was hungry and i ended up eating almost all of the salad. Then the teacher comes up and sees how im chowing down after everyone is finished and she asks me

hey lewin (thats my real name :o ), how can you eat so much, and still be loosing so much weight?

i answer: Well, heh, i dunno, it just happens i guess

(right now the whole class it looking at me)

Teacher says: You must have lost about 20 kilos by now! or how much exactly have you lost?

(right now im so pissed for some reason, i mean, am i aloud to be mad? because she is putting me on the spot.. on a subject that noone is really confortable on.. at leat not at my age.. ive been made fun of a lot when seen doing cardio in the evenings, but since it gets dark here around 10:30 pm, i got no choice but to do it while its still light out)

Now i just say: well it could be, but i dunno...~~~~

and she says somehting else and w/e its over..

but HOW DARE SHE ACUSE ME OF EATING TOO MUCH, JEEEEBUS CHR!ST.. she knows damn well that to loose as much weight as i did, you gotta watch your diet, and she obviously doesnt know what is healthy and what is not.. she has absolutely NO CLUE... and she acuses me of eating too much.. ARG..

do i have a right to be agrevated? (pissed off is a hard term, because i never get PISSED OFF, just a little agitated, im a calm kind of person) ..



p.s. I am new at this school, ive been there since new years, and i moved from Florida USA, to southern Germany :d_frown: leaving behind all of my freinds, but thats another story..

also, Germans have a messed up vision of America. they think that i was so fat in America because i ate burgers every day.. and now in germany, the food is just healthier and so im loosing weight naturally..

in the gym here in germany, to which i go, there are maybe 2 body builders who are really buff, the rest are just regular joes trying to look a lil better (like most of us :lol: ) . In America, the Gym was packed with body builders and football type players who were all buff and ripped.. Germans dont seem to have the slightest clue as to fitness of any kind, all men over the age of 40 here are either alcoholics or vegan vegetarians.. :whistle:

but thats all off topic..


What do you say when you are asked about your weightloss or weightgain (muscle) or overall fitness transformation..?

I haven't gone through the exact same thing, but there are times I get mad when people say something. I think it is fine when people say things like "man, you are looking so good! you have lost a lot of weight." I just say thanks, and smile. But there are other people, and I have heard it from about 2 or 3 of them at work that say things that get to me. I work at an elementary school, so naturally there are more women than men. At lunch, someone will say something like "wow, you have lost weight." Then, another teacher never fails to come back with "it is so easy for guys to lose weight, it's not fair." This really gets to me, because i have worked my butt off for the past few months to lose this weight. If that teacher would look at the chicken and salad I am eating, then look down at the hamburger, fries, and cake she is eating, then she might have a clue why her butt is so fat, and I am losing weight.
I feel your pain! :mad:

I feel your pain...

I think the best method of attack is to simply realize that most people out there just assume that eating a whole lot less = weight loss. They don't realize that diet changes coupled with a weight training regimen is what makes the difference. And they also do not realize that the higher our activity level, the higher our food intake.

I HATE being put on the spot and I have several times. The 'too skinny' comments and crap like that. The skinny comments only come from the people who are grossly overweight. It seems that everyone wants to know how to do it yet nobody is willing to take action on it. I'm criticized highly for what I eat and it drives me nuts. The only way that I can get folks to either shut the hell up or understand is by telling them that I think of my body as a high performance sports car so I will not load up on 87 Octane Fuel. Surprisingly they seem to understand that.... sometimes.....

All we can do is grin and bear it the best we can.

I definately do not start lecturing on the importance of eating a certain way. It just causes me too much frustration because there are so many individuals just stuck in their own ways.

i like that "87 octane fuel" comment

since i go shopping regularily, sometimes my freinds come with my and they wonder why i buy like 10 bucks worth of salmon.. and thats what ill say.. but it isnt really my freinds who i worry about, because they have accepted me when i was fat.. so they will except me now when im less-fat.

and you hit the nail on the head: the fattest people will always give me the too skinny lecture, but i wont let it bother me as much..

i usually have a cheat day every 2 weeks.. on a monday (thats cooking class day) and when i eat.. sometimes people will tell me,

"dude your gonna become fat again if you eat that much"
and i usually dont know what to say.. just try to slap a grin on my face with all the food in my mouth :D

we could probably go on-and-on lol, and please do, im interested to hear what you guys say when you are confronted..

After years of hearing "Gaining a little weight there aren't you?", the skinny comments don't bother me at all. In fact, I enjoy them. It's getting hot now and I went to a church gathering on Wednesday night wearing a tank top. That was really the first time my friends noticed that I'm not just skin and bones, there's actually some muscle there! One of them actually asked (semi seriously) if I was on steroids! lol.. You have to understand that after dropping all the fat off my chest, I now measure a measly 36.5 inches! Steroids? Don't make me laugh so hard!

I don't get the least bit upset with anyone. They're my friends and they all mean well. After all, I'm doing this for myself and not for them. I have learned that no one really wants to know how I've done it. Once they learn that I haven't found a magic bullet, they don't want to hear any more. Diet and exercise really isn't very popular with the masses.

i do hate how people comment on things in my diet when they dont know EVERYTHING i do(like assuming because every meal i have doesnt have healthy fats, or carbs in it, im somehow malnurished) then when i try to tell them about my diet/routene, they dont care, that gets very very annoying

i like that "87 octane fuel" comment

since i go shopping regularily, sometimes my freinds come with my and they wonder why i buy like 10 bucks worth of salmon.. and thats what ill say.. but it isnt really my freinds who i worry about, because they have accepted me when i was fat.. so they will except me now when im less-fat.

I think that it's easier man with people who know you rather well. They see you and don't assume that you are anarexic or some crap. I've been accused of that before also. LOL... The funny thing about that comment is that I eat twice as much as most of them do; I just do not choose to have syrup covered doughnuts, a snickers bar followed by a Pepsi chaser for breakfast.


and you hit the nail on the head: the fattest people will always give me the too skinny lecture, but i wont let it bother me as much..

Easier said than done bro. I think that a lot of people are just jealous because in the back of their minds, they want the same thing for them but have yet to hit the threshold point to truly do something about it. So making you feel bad or stupid is a nice way out.

i usually have a cheat day every 2 weeks.. on a monday (thats cooking class day) and when i eat.. sometimes people will tell me,

"dude your gonna become fat again if you eat that much"
and i usually dont know what to say.. just try to slap a grin on my face with all the food in my mouth :D

LOL I get the exact same thing on my cheat days because I go all out. This last Saturday I had IHOP for breakfast, Red Robin for lunch followed with a French Silk Blizzard, then normalized as the day progressed. But it was damn good and it keeps me sane!

Oh and BTW it must be nice to legally be able to have a beer at 16 :tucool: !! I had to sneak it back then!

I've not had so many experiences... Except, of course, the one time in my Spanish class when everyone brought in food, and I had grabbed a bagel and muffin to sneak away into my next class. The teacher sees me, and starts telling me I'm too skinny and how I must eat more, so she shoves some strawberries at me, along with some bagel "energy" bars (225 or 250 calories, I can't remember the breakdown) and about 30 ounces of orange juice. I fed about half the people in that next class, too.

Now, since I've began working this summer, lots of people have asked me why I eat so little. My lunch ends up being two slices of wheat bread, probably two tablespoons of peanut butter (sigh... JIF p-butter), and I snack on almonds for the eight hours of work.

I've even been accused of being, gasp, a health nut. I replied, "Well, I've cut out a lot of refined sugar, except home made cookies and chocolate (Mmmm... Chocolate.... :drool: ), and I stopped drinking soda." She said -See? That's healthy.

I have, actually, started eating a bit more. I don't eat breakfast at 6:30 and lunch at 4 with dinner at 7 anymore (I used to ignore the hunger pangs, and work through them). And all I wonder now is whether the changes are so very life-changing. I can't say that I was any better off then as I am now. There really hasn't been much in the way of increased exercise (but there is, at least, some. Which is better than before). Heck. Know what? I've rambled and I don't need to say anymore. Maybe I'll talk someplace else.

Jeff.

Yes people always do that, when the majority of people see others atempting to better themselves they will almost always try and shoot them down in fear they might succeed. All you have to do is stick to it.

It was funny you mention how others percieve your on a health diet because i went to my dentist to have my teeth cleaned and as he was looking he said "my god you have a really clean mouth" and I said that I have been avoiding sugary things for two months now and he said that that explained it. So besides just getting healthier giving up sugar has allowed me to maintain healthy teeth.

I use those people as motivation.
When I get this (happened two days ago as a friend saw me writing down my dinner on my caloric budget sheet...) "If a couple flys flew in your mouth would you write those down too? I bet they have hella protein...:::insert laughter here::" I just laughed and didn't say anything, but to me while they were making fun of me, I used that as motivation to continue to write down everything and become even more meticulous. Ever wonder what would happen if they wrote down what they ate? First off, they have no discipline to do so...and in addition to that, it might scare them...if I was eating 4-5thousand kcals of crap I think it'd make me feel bad to have to write it all down. Anyways man, see what those people who tell you you're "too skinny" (or people like your classmates in cooking class think) when they're overweight and their girlfriend looks like Frau from Austin Powers and your g/f looks like Heidi Klum! :p haha But on the real, the benefits to being healthy are endless...anytime you think about quitting work 2 times harder...and for goodness sake don't let the German cooking class folk get you down ;)

I've had similar experiences. I hate it when people discourage by saying things like "live a little", "what's the point to restricting yourself so much". These people obviously don't understand the concept of sacrificing to get what you want. So many people are stuck on the pleasure principle.

hmm, in the cooking class, we only cook once a week, and today we were doing some reading on nutrition.. and.. well we had to fill in some answer sheets.. and basically what these sheets were teaching us, is that you have to eliminate fat from your diet to make sure you wont get a heart attack or a stroke.

it says 20-60 grams of fat per day is the max you should eat.. but it didnt tell us anything about healthy fats or what foods contain them. as we went over the answers, i was getting steamed up with the total crap they were telling us. We were told that vegetarians are always skinny because they dont eat any/many fats.. also it said that you should eat bread and rice as much as you want as long as you cut the fat..
the only thing missing was that it was gonna tell use to drink all the milk we want..

i think it would be too big of a subject to cover all of the GI carbs factors and stuff, because we only have cooking class 2 days a week..

im not going to argue with the teacher on this.. they are arguments i can win, but not worth the extra effort..


p.s. this cooking teacher is also my english teacher (i live in germany) and she is not a native speaker, and she will argue with me over how to say certain things.. lol.. i dont want to argue, i hate arguements, because thy dont accomplish much.. at least not with people i know..

Ex: she says "Class, What means "forgive"?"
it is supposed to go "what does "forgive" mean?"

but its not important enough that i will make a scene..

(this was all completely off topic.. but w/e)

I've had similar experiences. I hate it when people discourage by saying things like "live a little", "what's the point to restricting yourself so much". These people obviously don't understand the concept of sacrificing to get what you want. So many people are stuck on the pleasure principle.

The simple fact is that people are so accustomed to spoiling themselves with decadence that they no longer have a frame of reference for what is actually required to maintain a healthy body.

When confronted about my transformation, it really depends on who's asking. Normally I am short and to the point. Someone who's genuinely interested in what I have to say about reshaping my body will most certainly receive a better answer to any question they ask. I've been confronted by people who'd rather tear down my efforts than support them... those people receive very curt answers if any answer at all.

I feel no need to justify myself to anyone for any reason. A while back, I read an article that Emma posted (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=2928) from Testosterone Magazine... it states my attitude about those on the outside looking in.

As a female with an EXTREMELY fast metabolism, I tend to eat more than most girls my age and still maintain my weight (even though right now I want to lose a couple pounds and maybe gain more muscle). Anyway, THE MOST ANNYOING thing that always seems to happen with people around me, especially during a meal, is that they say things like, "you know you can have seconds" or "Holly!! Are you running a marathon or something?" I get these comments because I eat a lot and I guess it doesn't really fit with my body size, if you know what I mean.

I get SO angry at these comments that the only thing I can do is to grit my teeth and smile, at the same time wondering why the heck people don't have a clue! First of all, I workout practically everyday, and secondly, why is it anyone's business anyway?!!? :mad:

My own friends constantly bug me about not eating enough or about how I don't need to lose weight because I'm already skinny...I don't know, it just gets extremely frustrating at times and the only thing I can do is to ignore these comments and continue to track my food intake and to track my workout progress. I don't really think there's a WAY out of comments like these...I just tell myself that people are jealous and that sets my mood right! :tucool: