Telling People About Oxygen
We all did at least a little bit of basic math in our school days, eh? Even if we were in an underfunded school system, even if math was a tough subject for us?
Do some simple math with me. Imagine a person who needs to lose 200 pounds.
Imagine that 2 pounds a week is a reasonable amount of weight for them to lose, especially in the early phases. (That’s actually a somewhat aggressive number, but we’re doing hypothetical math today, not describing a real person).
How long will it take them to lose the first 100 pounds? 50 weeks, yes?
Nearly a year.
How many pounds will they have left to lose? 100, yes?
So they will have nearly a year of weight loss experience, and nearly a year to go.
Now riddle me this: who in their right mind would tell a person who had put in a year of doing whatever worked for them, dieting or exercise or both, that they “need to lose some weight,” in a tone of voice that implies this is new information they’ve never heard before and we are somehow coming down off the mountain like Moses to reveal some amazing truth.
And yet people do this all the time. Sadly, you can even get it from medical professionals.
Pardon me while I call bullshit. Not ‘losing weight is necessarily bullshit’, but bullshit on the idea that we can wade into someone’s life, look at their weight TODAY, and not have to know anything else about what’s going on.
It’s a bit like recommending “OMG, like: you should really breathe oxygen. Science proves that it’s useful. I’m pretty sure you’ve never been told about the importance of your lungs. Aren’t I amazing for giving you this unsolicited advice that takes no account of whether or not you’re already breathing? I don’t have to ask, I just have to be my awesome self and run around telling everyone about this. Please thank me as elaborately as possible.”
Um.
Right now, several of my clients have weight that they want to lose. Not just ‘someone told them they had to’: by their own choice.
Yet one of my clients recently shared a story with me: after changing doctors and going through the process of proving to the doctor that he was already working out regularly, thank you very much … the doctor later revealed, “Since you established that you’re already working on things, every time I refer you to a specialist for other medical issues, the first thing I do is call them up and explain: you don’t need a lecture about your weight, you’re working on it, I have the evidence, they can stop wasting your time and their own.”
Guess what? There were still specialists who REFUSED THE DOCTOR’S ADVICE AND THE CLIENT’S OWN TESTIMONY and proceeded to indulge in lectures about information the client already had, sometimes recommending exercise programs and diets LESS INTENSE than the client was already doing.
If you want examples of how ludicrous some of the dialogue around weight is in our society right now, please read the above several times and convince yourself that Something Ain’t Right.
And if you go around recommending oxygen as if you’re revealing Holy Writ, please hold your own breath for a while. Fifty weeks ought to do it.
Or, you know: use your oxygen supply to ask a few questions first.
© 2021 Grampa Fitness
Disclaimer: Ideas expressed in this blog post should not be construed as official advice on how to safely perform fitness activities. Always consult with your doctor and other medical professionals as necessary, before engaging in exercise.