Lose Weight or Change Shape

Your Best Size and Shape has a Specific Weight

When someone says they want to lose weight what they’re really saying is that they want to change the look and shape of their body.

Weight loss itself isn’t much of a goal without a specific look that you think it’s going to produce.

In reality everyone that wants to lose weight is really after a specific look.

This simple thought experiment will prove my point.

Imagine an alternate world where weight didn’t add up to size…

In this world imagine someone who is 100lbs overweight, pretty big gut, big butt and big legs, flabby arms and just big all over.

Now imagine they lost 100lbs but their body stayed the same size but simply weighed less. In this imaginary world somehow dieting made you lighter without making you smaller. So your body could weigh 100lbs less but stay the same shape and size?

In this world do you think anyone would be concerned with weight loss? Ever? Not likely.

What they would really want is a way to change the size and shape of their body.

This thought experiment is to show you that ‘weight loss’ isn’t the goal, but rather changing the shape and size of the body is.

It just so happens that in the real world weight and size and shape are all connected, and we all have a specific weight range where we will look our best.

John

Posted by johnbarban in Fat Loss, Weight Loss

Tags: body proportions, bodyfat, changing shape, losing weight, Weight Loss |6 Comments

6 Responses to “Lose Weight or Change Shape”

mrlanda Says:
August 16th, 2010 at 9:29 am
That reminds me when people say they want to lose 10lbs, and after losing them, they aren’t really happy of how they look like; they never say they want to keep losing weight until they get the look they want because they had a hard time dietting down.
usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
August 16th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Totally agree with both of you, John and mrlanda.

And I hear that alllll the time, mrlanda lol!

Even I do it:

“Hmm, I’ll just lose another 5 pounds.”

5 pounds later…

“Argh, I still don’t have a six-pack! Maybe another 5 pounds will do it.”
jasetagle Says:
August 16th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
I never understood where people get these numbers for how much weight they want to lose, either.

I only know because I’ve seen what I look like at different weights.
Xein Says:
August 17th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Yeah I have realized this as well.. We all want to change how we look but that’s really tough to quantify for people, especially if they don’t have knowledge of body ratios or measure different parts of their body. Weight is a nice concrete thing we can measure, unfortunately it doesn’t always mean much
Shaun S Says:
August 22nd, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Currently my goal is numerical, only because I have no idea what my body will look like at that point. I also have a target of 100 pounds lost, I guess because of the round number factor.
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