I don’t see how that follows. It makes just as much sense to assume that their bodies are wired with a timer such that if they start eating too much, or continuing to eat after their metabolism slows down, or don’t get the exercise they used to get, when they hit middle age, they’re gonna get a middle age belly
Given your smilies I assume you realize the absurd illogic and irrationality of that post.
Still just in case - it is still true that a majority do not exercise to “high calorie burning” levels and half not three days a week. The glass is just as half empty as it is half full. And not every middle aged or older man who exercises regularly and even intensely will completely avoid the middle-aged paunch. The deck remains stacked against us.
The point remains that the severity of the paunch, of the muscle and strength loss, of even the testosterone loss, and even more importantly, of the serious negative health consequences, is bluntable if not always completely prevented, and that while many don’t do that, some of us do.
You can too.
Being too lazy to bother with a modest exercise investment is a choice, not a biologic imperative.
It is NOT a choice. Like being a certain weight. It’s an illusion of choice.
So, not granting that. Thanks.
Please elaborate.
He’s saying he’s got big stomach bones.
Ah, gotcha.
For example, if you’re talking about doing something that a very tiny % of people are doing, such as going from obese to healthy BMI permanently, or fending off a pot belly that seemingly afflicts everyone of age: The reason these things don’t happen is because people (minus a tiny %) are incapable of making them happen. They lack the ability.
Take an obese person who lost a tremendous am’t of weight: They do not have the ability to keep it off. They want to, but they will eat almost involuntarily. We can remove or segment off parts of people’s digestive systems – the most extreme attempt we can imagine to manage weight! – yet, about 98% just go right on back up to being obese. We’re at the point where we have food zombies.
Take an older person, whose body is changing, and the odds of that older person avoiding a pot belly or other things that come with aging are staggeringly low, but they can be fended off by a tiny % of people. And it’s that tiny % of people who are capable of an amazing thing that prompts us to declare that everyone is capable of it.
NO… if they were capable of it, it’d happen a lot more. Hey, that wide receiver pulled in 110 catches and 15 TD’s. Ergo, anyone else is just lazy! Oh, that kid ran the 100 meters in 10 flat. You can’t? You are unmotivated and lazy!
NO… things done by a very, very tiny % of people are amazing accomplishments, and the fact that someone can’t keep off 100 lbs or fight off a pot belly doesn’t make them lazy or unmotivated. It makes them incapable.
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I don’t think the correct word is incapable.
Most older men are capable of losing their pot belly. They just don’t want to do what it takes.
It’s like John Clay’s question about the “easiest way to get abs.” There is no easy way. Even the the most efficient way takes both diet and work.
Wow I’m glad I read this thread today, it actually inspired me to get off my ass. I’m not middle-aged or old, but a younger man. My Dad is about 55 and he has a huge gut, he drinks a lot of beer and eats a lot of red meat. I don’t want to be like that when I’m older, I ran today on the treadmill for 3.5 miles, but that’s the first time I’ve run since I got out of the Army 3 years ago.
I say they are incapable.
Someone in this thread is going to try to get in shape. If they fail, I will call them incapable. You will call them ______________________.
Example: Washboard abs. Most people are incapable of getting washboard abs.
Most people are incapable of generating the level of energy required to workout with the rigor required to do a lot of what we assign to being unmotivated, lazy, etc. When it comes to rare feats, people are not capable. It’s beyond choice.
Most people are also wired to eat in a way that makes them incapable of maintaining a rare, low body fat %
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Well, there’s physical toughness and metal toughness.
For something like staying lean, it’s the mental toughness that is the most important thing. It doesn’t require any particular athletic skill or strength to do it - it just requires discipline and sacrifice. Many (most?) men don’t have the will or desire to do that is necessary, but i still maintain they are capable of doing it (say, offer them the right sum of money, or the right babe).
Philster,
You are confused.
Making a fairly modest investment in regular exercise is a choice that everyone can choose, that a large number of people do choose, and a fairly modest investment will have a significant rate of return.
Will it always completely prevent or reverse a potbelly? No. Will it always blunt the severity of the potbelly and once again more importantly improve the odds of good health outcomes, allowing those who make even a modest exercise investment to live not only longer but more importantly, better? Of that there is no doubt.
This is not washboard abs. It is not achieving an absurdly low body fat percentage. It is not running a marathon, doing an ironman, deadlifting 400 pounds, or bodybuilding. It isn’t even be lean, heck it isn’t even not being fat.The biggest return on the exercise investment, including on preventing and reversing the potbelly, is with the move from inactivity to modest exercise, such as half an hour of only moderate level exercise three times a week, something that at least half of those up to 74 years old actually do.
That return is not eliminating obesity or complete reversal of a potbelly. You may still have a bit of a spare tire. But it is significant reduction of visceral abdominal fat, increased insulin sensitivity, reduced risk of high blood pressure, stronger bones, increased testosterone levels, reduced cancer risks, increased ability to do things, less risk of future dementia, less risk of future disability and of being a drain on your loved ones and on society, and, well you get the idea.
There are very few who are “incapable” of that level of exercise investment. We have at least two posters here who cannot walk and who blow past those levels. Those who choose not to are either being lazy, stupid, deluded, or ignorant, but they are making that choice.
Even when they have big belly bones.
Bolding mine:
Thus, they lack necessary components, rendering them incapable.
Look, if you lack the energy or you can’t handle the mild suffering required… then you LACK SOMETHING.
If you lack a necessary component, you are incapable. The brain is an organ. This isn’t an abstract desire that one can absorb via osmosis (like energy, tolerance to pain, managed/healthy hunger drive, lack cravings). You either have a good makeup or your don’t.
Like resisting food: The chemical components that drive hunger render people incapable of removing large amounts of fat and keeping it off.
The tired old trope that you just need to exercise and eat better needs to be retired, because people are incapable of doing that (minus exceptions).
We have much less choice than anyone here is ready to admit, but once you make that leap, you’ll be better to yourself and others.
Yeah, and this isn’t me defending me, as I am 49 with visible abs and have been training people since I was 19. I have a profile pic from when I was 45.
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Well, I guess it comes down to semantics.
I think incapable means that it’s impossible for someone to do something.
And, by that definition, I don’t think most men are incapable of getting rid of their pot belly.
But, if you mean that most men are unwilling to commit, well - that I agree with.
And they shouldn’t even try. In order to get washboard abs you have to starve yourself down to an incredible and unhealthy low body fat level. When I see washboard abs the first thought thought that pops into my head is “you have anorexia.” Washboard abs aren’t about exercise, they are about starvation. You starve anyone, they develop a six-pack.
Oh, blah, blah, blah.
Believe me, I’m not anorexic or starved.
are you pretending you have a six pack? I’ve met some body builders and they are seriously disturbed. Anorexia is mild in comparison. I like normal people-a bit of belly pudge, a happy approach to life that includes being lazy.
This was taken 5 minutes ago.
I’m still working on getting more ripped, but you get the idea.
BTW, I’ll be 56 next month.
Hey you want to go all GDish and play at “There is no such thing as Free Will.” have at it.
Meanwhile your logic is the same as saying that I am “incapable” of being a Christian because I don’t have the will or the desire to believe in Christ as My Savior, or that a murderer was “incapable” of not killing because (s)he did not have the will or desire to not kill.
Officer Krumpke, they just lack necessary components, rendering them incapable!
Oy.
I’ve rarely heard anything as silly here as someone claiming that most people are literally incapable of eating a nutritious diet and exercising moderately regularly. And I participate in Election threads!
Anyway Fotheringay-Phipps I think you notice the potbelly more on those who are not also as prominently overall obese. When the visceral abdominal fat protruding the belly stands out alone it is more noticeable. When it is buried under a large layers of subcutaneous fat all over it stands out less. But that person with less subcutaneous fat and more visceral abdominal fat is likely worse off healthwise.
Look, none of us are incapable of winning the Powerball lottery, but it is best to approach life that way (we are, essentially, not capable). We are talking in realistic terms here, so let’s set aside technicalities and be realistic.
I’ll wager that anyone you put before me is incapable of going from an obese BMI to a healthy/ideal BMI and sustain it for 7+ years. 99+ % will fail, never actually doing it over the course of their lifetime. I will then label all the failures as proving they were incapable. They died trying!
For men with potbellies, I will wager similarly, and say that men over 50 with a specific type of midsection cannot remove that potbelly/gut/whatever and keep it off for X years, and when the incredibly huge number of them don’t, then I will declare all failures as incapable.
Some 5’ 5" players have slam dunked basketballs, making it seemingly possible for many short people to slam dunk. In reality, 99% of people under 5’ 7" can’t dunk, as they are incapable of dunking.
Extreme physical and mental feats are – essentially – things that an overwhelming majority of people are incapable of doing.
I mean, if it makes you feel better being some lunatic fringe optimist who believes they can do anything, just because < 1% of the population can do it, then go ahead and believe that.
Free will: You have much less than you think you do when it comes to eating and health
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