Years ago, my brother gifted me a subscription to Men’s Health. It’s an okay magazine. But I used to joke every issue was the same. Celebrity Exercise Routine! Six-pack abs! Recipes for omelettes and smoothies! Mixture of gruff medical advice, ugly fashion and fitness-product placement recommendations… These days I just read it occasionally. I did so today.
A recent issue polls a few thousand male readers about their weight, attitudes towards Ozempic and other related concerns.
It says about 57% of these men would like to lose weight and 20% are actively dieting (the magazine readership will differ from the national population). That roughly 1/3 of men are happy with their body versus 1/3 meh and 1/3 unhappy. That interventions like Ozempic are generally well received, etc.
The thing that got my attention though was about 60% of men felt the “body positivity” movement which has changed advertising and some marketing “has bypassed men entirely” essentially only applying to women. I don’t think I have seen this discussed elsewhere. Do Dopers think this is true? I’m unsure.
Another statistic which surprised me was that 17% of GenZ men supposedly have an eating disorder, which seems high.
The poll also discussed how about 40% of these men feel the word “fat” is offensive, and are offended even when medical professionals use this word or address weight issues. I certainly have experience with people considering this a very sensitive issue.
When I was 12 or 13, for a week or so I felt a little shame about being a bit pudgy. Then I decided I don’t really care. Then I grew up, literal up. I don’t see fat as offensive but will avoid it on request. Have the privilege of not knowing anyone with a serious disorder like anorexia. Plenty of people eat too much junk food though, not sure if you consider chronic munchies an eating disorder these days. I don’t think people should be ashamed of their bodies unless they are fat/thin enough for it to be a health problem.
For a couple months the family did a Keto diet, this was when I was a young adult. I was always against the idea. Weight loss was the ostensible goal. It sucked, I don’t think anyone lost any weight. I’ve always liked good food and thought diets are stupid.
One time I ate a salad. I didn’t like it, always prefer soup.
I will say I’ve lost like ten pounds since I started cooking all my meals. This happened both times I started cooking all my meals. It’s not because of any active weight loss effort, I tend to clear my plate and I just don’t cook such large portions when I’m cooking for myself.
Sometimes I feel a little bad for my little sister. Seems like she got the short end of the stick, literally and metaphorically. I understand there is sometimes stigma for girls who work out. That seems wrong and a double standard. I do tease my (male) roommate however for his ‘magic workout tonic’ and ‘protein shake’ quackery.
I’m fat, I have been for far too long. Over 20 years now.
I’m offended by those that take offense to it and can’t believe the 40% number.
Most of us know we’re eating more than we should while not exercising enough. It is an easy pattern to fall into and hard to get out of. Those with gladular problems are a tiny percentage.
We need a ground up approach to weight issues in USA at very least and it isn’t about the word fat. Our food industry is a big part of the problem, but something has gone fundamentally wrong in our society that so many of us have ended up fat.
Given the number of overgrown man-babies who will only eat chicken “nuggies” and pizza, and given that ARFID is a form of eating disorder, and that ARFID has way higher prevalence in males than females, it doesn’t seem that high, if you consider that’s only one possible eating disorder that disproportionately affects men. Muscle dysmorphia is another big one that, while not currently classified as an eating disorder itself, has a very strong correlation with them (and probably should be reclassified)
Not sure I’m understanding this correctly, you’ve eaten a salad once, ever, or you only once ate a salad as part of doing Keto?
After having ballooned to nearly fifty pounds over where I’m currently at, maybe…I don’t know, twenty years ago in grad school, I’m now at a point in middle age where my blood pressure needs active control…at this point, by me. Namely, by stopping being such a fatass, is what my doctor said (in more professional language).
Despite working a job with a demanding physical component, at which component I excel, quit smoking…I’m just a fat load and that needs to stop. It would take an exceptionally stupid, ignorant, and irresponsible person to deny that the buck stops at one’s belt buckle. Just stop it.
I don’t blame the fast food or the frozen food aisle people one bit…choose to be a fat load, a drain on society’s medical resources, and destroy oneself in the process. No, it’s not “tough love,” it’s an extremely simple decision one can make for oneself.
No, it’s not easy, but it’s not the challenge of the century either.
I’ve long been surprised at the number of guys I’ve known who are CONSIDERABLY overweight - from beer bellies to potato on toothpicks to behemoths. As a guy who is generally considered on the slim side (6’3" 205# - I could lose a few, but I’ve been steady bewteen 200-210# for a decade or 2 and am not putting forth the required effort to get under 200#) I’ve wondered at how these guys manage to do physically demanding activities. Or even tie their shoes. Most of the fat guys I know don’t give any sign of wanting to lose weight - with the couple of exceptions of guys who developed diabetes or other serious health issues.
I can readily think of a grand total of one guy who had been pudgy, but who changed his diet/lifestyle such that he is now extremely fit, almost appears too thin to my eyes. (Coincidentally, that guy is an MD.) A very small number of guys I know kinda whine about wanting to lose weight, but every weekend you’ll find them in their recliner watching the game while swilling beer and gorging on chips.
So, no, I do not associate w/ a lot of Men’s Health type guys. But the overweight guys I know don’t seem too concerned about their weight.
I can’t speak for Madison Ave advertising but I remember the whole “Dad Bod” trend from a few years back, specifically claiming that a little pudge could be attractive. Granted, that’s a lot different from people celebrating Lizzo’s body confidence.
Look at actions stars in the 70s. Compare them to today. Modern actors who play tough men are muscled up (usually through the help of performance enhancing drugs, like testosterone) in ways never considered before.
As an example, Men’s Health recently did a cover story on Alan Ritchson, who plays Reacher. Not only is he very muscular (and talks in the article about benching 350 pounds), but he acknowledges taking testosterone as part of his training.
So the pressure on the average guy to look really big and muscular has grown dramatically over the decades.
This. I’ve been overweight most of adult life. Not obese, but I needed to lose 30-40 pounds to get anywhere near a healthy BMI. My lifelong strategy was to simply ignore it and never weigh myself, since that was depressing. I ate whatever I wanted, and rarely exercised, except when I walked my dog every day.
Last year I decided it was time to make at change. I didn’t want to end up with diabetes or metabolic syndrome and started doing some research. I had never been on a diet in my life, so this was a new experience. My goal was to lose 15 pounds, if that was even possible, and my doctor encouraged me to try it. I decided a keto diet, plus intermittent fasting, plus lots of exercise was the best way to get into shape and drop some pounds. Three and a half months later I was down 40 pounds and looked like a different person. My doctor was thrilled. I wore a CGM for a month so I could see how different foods impacted my blood glucose. Transitioning to maintenance was a huge challenge for me because I lost too much, too fast, according to my nutritionist. It took me a month to stabilize my weight. I am now at a stable healthy weight and I am no longer on a keto diet. I am on a whole food, plant based diet supplemented by meat, chicken and seafood, and I feel and look better than I have in 40 years.
I really didn’t care what other people thought. I decided for myself that I needed to lose weight and then learned as much as I could about how to go about it in a healthy way. There are countless YouTube videos to guide someone through the process I went through, and it’s all free. One that was particularly helpful was called Nourished by Science - Evidence-Based Nutrition For Chronic Disease Prevention.
When you are ready to make a change you can do it once you figure out what you need to do and how you are going to do it. It won’t be easy, but I think it’s worth it in the end if you want to have a long and healthy life.
Hmm, I think I may have misunderstood “body positivity”. My point still stands, though: men are under increasing pressure to look like they belong in a magazine, since male actors have elevated the look of a strong and virile male.
I didn’t use the phrase “forced to”, but it undoubtedly has an effect on males’ perceptions about their bodies.
There was a time when somebody could watch Charles Bronson or Clint Eastwood kick ass on screen, and nobody thought about whether they had abs.
Now a days, any action star worth his salt will get in top shape for a movie where they play the hero.
And so the guys watching get the implicit messaging that to be masculine is to have bulging muscles. And that ends up trickling down into how men perceive themselves.
The real irony here is that when those men look their toughest they’re actually at their weakest. When you see a shirtless Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine, he had to dehydrate and starve himself to make those muscles pop like that.
…but I’m not so sure that this is the correct conclusion.
It might, instead, mean that there’s a bigger gap between what guys think of as “fit” or “in great shape” and what guys think of as “average.” If being fit and in great shape means looking like today’s action stars, muscular with zero body fat and six-pack abs, there’ll be pressure on some guys to look that way. But I also think there will be plenty of other guys—guys who think of themselves as average—who will see fitness as an unobtainable ideal and won’t even try.
I think that may apply to some men, but not a majority of the people I know. If someone chooses to feel bad about how they look that’s not society’s fault. I think muscle-bound men (or women) look freakish, and fit and trim is what I find attractive. YMMV.
Just one point of data, but I don’t feel fat because of some millionaire star working with a dietician and a personal trainer. I feel fat as I’m carrying far too much wait and every time I start to get it under control, something happens that sends me spiraling the wrong way again.
I was down to a reasonable weight 4 years ago, still fat, but not terribly fat and I got a hernia that required surgery. I stink at controlling my eating. So once I lost the exercise component for nearly 3 months, it all went south again. I was then holding and even beginning to lose weight again and screwed up my foot and ankle. etc. Developed some arthritis in my knees and needed 2 shots and physical therapy for that and since then my exercise levels have been crap.
Right now with my sugar levels borderline, I’m trying to reduce my intake but still not exercising enough.
If you have seen the Barbie movie, you will see Barbies in all sorts of shapes and sizes. However, there were no fat Kens. I’m not sure if or how that relates to the overall theme of the movie, but it was something that I noticed.
I told my kids as they were growing up not to worry about their weight, but to focus on what they want to do - as long as their body supports the activities they want to do in life, how much they weigh doesnt matter. Both of them were sucessful athletes in high school, but now as young adults they are much less active. My daughter prefers to sit around on her free time and watch videos on her phone, and her body has responded. My son has ceased gym workouts and has some pudge to show for it.
My approach for myself is the same - as long as my body allows me to do what I enjoy, then I wont worry about my weight. I get a fair amount of exercise every day, and I try to control intake by cooking myself healthy meals when possible. At my age now, I am invisible anyway, so feel no pressure to emulate movie stars.
Eventually, medical issues will start to rear - for me it was a few rounds of gout and gradually rising cholesterol levels that make me more mindful of what I am putting in my mouth.
I’ve known more than one woman who maintains that the food industry is largely responsible for their difficulty eating well and maintaining their desired weight. Personally, I always find that position challenging, as I feel no one other than I have the ultimate decision as to what goes into my grocery cart, and what I shove down my gullet.
Of course, I’m apparently different than many in that, when I decided I wanted to stop smoking and drinking alcohol, I just stopped. No, it wasn’t easy, but no one else was sticking cigs in my mouth or pouring booze down my throat. I’m also different than many in that I view food primarily as fuel, and would be happy to eat relatively tasty nutritious people-chow - like rice and beans, or fresh veggies - for every meal.
I’ll also offer up the anecdata that generally the men whom you least want to see with their shirts off are the first to shed them!
