However, I work out 3-4 times a week doing cardio and weight training. Therefore, I don’t gain weight and I don’t lose it either. I’m a healthy size six. I came to this happy medium after years of eating 3,000-4,000 calories a day in my late teens and twenties and remaining slim. Yes, it was a wonderful thing, but my metabolism finally slowed down. I couldn’t see myself dieting so I started my regular visits to the gym and let myself eat what I want (yes I know eventually this, too may end). Because of the weight training I often get hungry–very hungry.
So what’s my problem, you ask? I am sick to death of everyone giving me eating advice or commenting, “You’re going to eat all of that?” when I sit down to lunch or dinner. It’s rude. You might think it’s ok to say this to me since I’m slim, but it is still rude. When we order food for lunch at work, they always say, make sure to get BBJ extra since she eats so much. Ha ha. And the people who say this kind of thing are usually on their latest diet which will fail in a week or are currently going to the gym this week but will drop it next week. Howwould these folks like it if I said, “Damn you eat a lot”?
And this is not a once a month type of occurence. It happens about twice a week. This morning it was, “You’re eating * cake* for breakfast?” Yes, yes I am. Why the fuck should you care? Stop it!
The guys I train with all eat a lot–we have to get a table for eight when five of us go out to eat, there’s so much food on the table.
My suggestion: Invite these people along the next time you train, have them do as much of your workout as they can, and see how much they eat later on…
At the last place I worked, my co-workers were always on some special fad diet, switching from Atkins to Weight Watchers to whatever else on an almost weekly basis. And they all felt the need to lecture me about each breadstick/slice of pizza/Big Mac/pretzel/anything else I put in my mouth.
Listen, I can eat pretty much anything I want (in moderation, of course). And if someone shoves their Weight Watcher point-counter in my face one more time, I’m going to shove it someplace else. Grr.
Slender person who is physically active, but eats very little here (unless there’s a Cadbury’s consignment hoving into view) – I have comments constantly about how little I eat, how I’m going to blow away in the wind, how I must have an eating disorder, etc.
Obviously, I am still alive, and live on a rather vigorous schedule. I do eat small portions, and I do have to be careful, because it is hard for me to put on weight – and sometimes I will eat quite a lot of junk food if I get a craving, like for Walker’s ready-salted or something – usually when I’m by myself so I don’t have to listen to someone ask me, why I’m eating an entire box of choco biskies instead of something good for me.
I get jokes about my ‘anorexia’ all the time, and I just smile. A friend at the bookstore yesterday pointed out to me a book about this Victorian girl who apparently consumed nothing but a few teaspoons of tea and a banana over 6 months, then nothing for the next 12 years (or so it was claimed.)
Fine; I suppose like me, she gets by on photosynthesis.
Totally. I eat a lot of carbs. Partly because I work out a lot, partly because I’m a veg and when I’m at a restaurant, a carby appetizer is often my only option.
So don’t give me crap about eating carbs (or call me something stupid like “starchitarian”, all my much heavier friends think that’s really funny) when we’re at Denny’s and I, the 135 pounder, am having ONE biscuit and some hashbrowns, and you, who are two inches shorter and over 70 pounds heavier, are having the Denny’s Grand Slam which includes the aformentioned biscuit and hashbrowns as well as bacon, sausage, and a gazillion eggs…
If they say, “Damn you eat a lot,” then you reply, “and yet you are the one that’s fat. Ain’t that amazing?”
I bet it would take only one time for them NEVER comment on your diet again.
I hear you. Its even worse when they say things like “I wish I could eat like that” as if it were some random blessing from the angels rather than the earned benefit of physical work. Usually, (and especially when I am at fast food places I get this after I order (the bike helemet should be a hint). They then proceed to order the same if not more food than I got (which was a fair amount), so I guess they really did want to eat like that.
I really have to bite my tongue when they order just as much for their kid.
What I hate is when they say, “Oh, you’re so lucky you’re trim, blah blah blah…”
No, I’m not fucking lucky. I work my ass off and don’t eat everything in sight. Luck may play a small role in that I have ok genetics, but the rest is my effort.
BBJ, they’re probably jealous. Make sure to mention how much you work out next time one of them comments.
I recall years ago John Newcombe was being interviewed and he told a story about driving to a tournament with the Gulliksons (Tim and Tom). They stopped at a hamburger place and one of them ate 17 cheeseburgers for lunch. These guys were professional athletes but where do you fit 17 cheeseburgers?
I also recall seeing a show about former ironman competitor Guy Leach. They showed how much food he ate each day and I could not figure how he got it in. For breakfast he ate half a box of cereal with milk, half a gallon of fruit juice, bread, fruit and other stuff. They showed a table full of food that would have fed me for a week. The differnce was that he trained for several hours every day.
It probably is jealousy. I would love to be thin and be able to eat a lot, so I can understand the envy. I’d hope to never make a rude comment, but do understand that if someone says, “I wish I could eat like that,” that they don’t mean to be rude. Now, “You’re going to eat all that!?” is rude no matter how you look at it.
And sorry guys, but to a point, you are lucky. Not that you don’t work your ass off and watch what you eat, but your metabolism works well with the diet and exercise regimen you’ve worked out. But I work out, too. I’ve done so for 8 years, six hours a week, and yet I’m overweight. When I started lifting weights a few years ago, my appetite increased. Instead of losing fat and gaining muscle, I gained both. It’s more frustrating than you can imagine.
Meh. People who comment on what other people eat and/or other people’s size whether big or small, are assholes, plain and simple.
Veggies that harangue people about eating meat are assholes. Carnivores that harangue veggies about not eating meat are assholes. Big people that bug little people are assholes. Little people that bug big people are assholes.
Personally, I’m sort of smallish. I also work out every day, and eat what can only be described as “diet food.” (Hey - I happen to like salads, cottage cheese, eggwhites, etc.) Constantly hearing about “Why are you on a diet? Yer to skinny anyway. Are you annorexic? Why don’t you eat a steak?” Get’s old, really, really fast.
I’m not on a diet. I just happen to like salad. So shut the fuck up. Cheers.
I’m just going to repeat this. In some ways, yes, it is a “gift from the angels” (not that your workout has nothing to do with it - but it isn’t everything, you lucked out when it comes to metabolism.) There are many people who work out just as long and just as hard, if not harder and longer, and also watch what they eat who don’t end up with the same “reward” that you got. I don’t comment on other people’s food - that’s rude - but yes, I am jealous.
I was just having this conversation with my brother the other day. He’s in excellent shape, and people at his new job have commented on it a few times.
“Why do you work out? You’re in great shape! You don’t need to!”
“If I didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be in great shape! Duh!”
That drives me nuts when people comment on what I eat! Your OP reminds me of my Atkins friends looking enviously at the piece of bread in my hand, sighing wistfully, then coming out with, “I don’t know how you can eat that. Do you even know how many carbs are in that?” Um, yeah. You’re the one on Atkins. I’m not. So, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass how many carbs are in this. One of the reasons I work out so much is so I don’t have to worry about that. By the way, how’s your steak smothered with cheese?
And when I was training for a marathon last year it was even worse because I was eating everything that wasn’t nailed down. Then, on the way back from the marathon, one of my friends who was in the car and hadn’t run with us had the audacity to tell me that I shouldn’t be eating too many carbs and fat - after I had just run 26.2 miles! We stopped at McDonald’s because she had eaten all my post-race energy bars for breakfast, and I had just burned almost 3,000 calories, so, yeah, I was a little hungry. While McDonald’s isn’t the highest quality fuel, I needed food, and she told me “not to go too crazy - maybe you should just get a salad.”
amarinth I felt lucky when I could eat everything I wanted to and didn’t gain weight. Now, I have to work at it–I’ve worked really hard to put on muscle as it does burn fat and now I work at keeping my muscle mass. Yes, I’m still blessed that my 6 hours a week work for now, but I do accept it won’t always. Till then I’m gonna eat the chicken fried steak, mashed taters, cream gravy, cord bread and a cookie.
But as to the people who comment, they all know I work out religiously. But I think we all agree, it’s just plain rude to make snarky comments about how much I eat.
To tell you the truth since this has started happening I’ve become a more decent human being about overweight people. I don’t silently comment in my head about what overweight people are eating as a) it’s none of my business and b) I don’t know what they normally eat or are trying to do to lose weight or if they are happy with their weight. But I can just hear the coworker’s pleas to God to make me overweight–after all it’s only fair (from one dear coworker).
