We've all heard it. Hell, we've been bombarded by it.
YOU HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE WEIGHT!
I'm no dietitian. I only took one "nutrition" class in college. And I certainly don't qualify as a weight loss guru. But I cannot be the only one in America that recognizes the hypocrisy of telling a bunch of fat people that they need to do the very thing that made them fat in the first place in order to drop a few pounds!?!
You see in my mind, if you have a problem with the drink, you step away from the bottle. I've yet to see a twelve step program that advocates drinking to stop being an alcoholic. Ever heard "you have to smoke to stop smoking?" Other than the wife-beater-t-shirt-wearing dad who sat his kid down with a carton of Pal Mals after catching him behind the double wide sucking on a cig, the answer is no. So why is it socially acceptable - much less encouraged - to tell fat people they have to eat to lose weight?
Now I have to admit I understand the science behind the thought. Sure, we have to turn our bodies into fat burning, metabolism churning machines - and feeding yourself small meals six times a day will help do that. But have you ever actually tried to do this? And by "you" I mean fat people. Well I did, and it damn near killed me. I was so ravenous after 48 hours I found myself gnawing on the stuffing of my pillow at night. The "small, sensible meals" served only to piss me off and make my stomach even angrier that I was toying with it. After about two weeks, I'd lost three pounds. Three frickin' pounds? I can think about losing weight for two weeks and lose more than three pounds.
So that said, I'm fairly convinced this little gem was dreamed up and spread into the mainstream lexicon of the American weight loss machine by - yep, you guessed it - skinny people.
