100 out of 100 people will say the statue on the left looks better

The fact is most if not all humans find excess bodyfat repulsive, and or disgusting. I’m not referring to these words in the pop culture definition, but I’m referring to them with regards to their dictionary meaning.

Whether the fat is on YOUR body or someone else, you will most likely have some sort of aversion response to it. You’ll eventually hate yourself for the extra fat if it’s on you, or you’ll start to find ways to avoid, discriminate against and steer clear of fat people.

I think there are a number of reasonable and plausible reasons why we have this kind of response to fat, and it’s quite a taboo to talk about it (which is total BS) The first step to fixing any problem is talking openly and frankly about it so here goes…

Why we find fat disgusting and repulsive:

1. It’s a signal of death (or the opposite of health): In other words as you watch some one gain excessive amounts of weight you can easily make the argument that you are literally watching them commit and slow suicide.

2. It’s a signal of unfairness (and ultimately your death because of the fat person): In other words the fat person next to you will consume more than their fair share of food and will literally be taking the food out of your mouth and putting into theirs. In other words, while they are overeating themselves to death, they are starving you to death!

3. It’s a sign of a lack of control (of ones emotions, body, and life in general): This may lead others not to trust a fat person…hence the reason there is a weight bias when employers are interviewing for jobs. All things being equal, if you are hiring a new person at your company, would you pick the fat candidate or the candidate who is in shape (if their credentials were equal)

People who put on increasing amounts of weight had to get the food from somewhere. Since food is scare that means there is less of it to go around for you if the fatties are eating up more than they need. (of course this is exactly what is happening globally, but that is a much more complicated issue)

So they are stockpiling food on their bodies in the form of fat which they don’t need, and leaving you with less food.  From an evolutionary stand point it doesn’t seem fair that one person would eat more than their fair share of food while others are left with less.

Of course I’m not suggesting that a fat person actually takes food right off of your plate. Indeed there is more than enough to go around (at least in modern industrialized countries) but I think this is where our repulsion and disgust response to body fat is rooted…it’s unfair, and its unhealthy.

Ironically having more doesn’t do them any good, it actually makes them worse off.

So that is my theory. I’ve yet to talk to anyone who actually likes the look of excess fat, and considering the intense desire people have for weight loss it’s not a far stretch to suggest the desire for it is deep rooted in our primal emotional responses like disgust and repulsion.

So, there you go, I’ve put it on the table…what do you think?

John

It seemed that most of his issues with weight loss had to do with things like the social atmosphere at work, going out for lunch with his co-workers, eating dinner with his family and other people who are not interested in trying to lose weight, passing by his favorite coffee shop in the morning and stopping in for a coffee and a muffin. Social events on the weekend and going out for dinner and a few drinks.

Sounds pretty standard to me. These seem like the same issues most people would have with weight loss. They sure are the same hurdles I’ve had to overcome to ever cut down my body fat so I can certainly relate.

But when we started to talk about muscle building the story seemed to change direction.

When it came to muscle building he was doing everything he could to try and build up muscle. He was hitting the gym faithfully 3-4 times per week, lifting heavy weights, doing the ‘big lifts’, taking a post workout shake, eating plenty of protein, even timing his protein, shakes and creatine doses etc…

But none of this fancy stuff seemed to matter and did very little for helping him build muscle faster.

And then I realized there is a huge misconception with fat loss vs muscle building.

Fat loss (or fat gain) is largely controlled and influenced by your environment.

Building Muscle (or not) is largely controlled by your genetics.

Following a well designed weight training program is about all you can do for building muscle. The gains come slow, and are determined by your genetics and your age. There really is nothing else that can influence muscle gaining (besides steroids).

Arnold and the boys knew that the workout was king for muscle building

On the other hand fat gain or fat loss is hugely impacted by your surroundings, who you eat with on a day to day basis, the eating and food culture in your country, your city, your place of work, and especially your family and house.

I think many of us recognize how much our environment can influence our ability to gain or lose fat, and assume it also has the same ability to influence our ability to gain muscle. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

If you’ve ever tried to lose a significant amount of fat you’ll know exactly what I am talking about. The workout or your genetics plays an insignificant role in weight loss compared to your ability to avoid going to that coffee shop for the muffin, or out with your buddies for wings and beer, or have a second helping of food at dinner, or go out for lunch with your co workers etc.

To sum it up, successful weight loss seems to be a matter of controlling and overcoming the influences of your environment.

Building muscle successfully without gaining fat is a matter of accepting the limited control you have over this process and accepting that hard work in the gym is all you need to do, and have the patience to let the gains come over time.

John

P.S. I have found Eat Stop Eat to be the easiest way to lose body fat and get control over the food environment that I live in.