lorihhi, on Calorie Count (May 19 2008)
"Is it just me, or do the diet ads on TV completely irritate you? I'm thinking specifically of the NutriSystem ads. I could go on that plan for the rest of my life and I'd never look like Jillian Barbarie (not sure about spelling) - the girl with the football. That is, unless I had a personal trainer who worked with me for hours each day. I am sure she does have a trainer, but they don't tell you that on the ads, at least not in the big print.
"While I know that you and I can lose weight and get in shape - there are so many great stories on this website...."
From the comments on that post, I'd guess that lorihhi knows that it isn't just her (I'm guessing: how many of my half of humanity are named "Lori?!") by now.
Now that the Halloween-New Year's holiday marathon is over, I've been noticing a whole lot of diet ads on television: But I haven't done a serious study to see if they're actually more common now.
What you don't see on the 'side effects include death' ads is this easy-to-say, hard-to-do idea: eating less and moving around more will, after a while, result in weight loss. If you're overweight to begin with. Assuming that you don't add more muscle than you lose fat.
Just a Little Ranting About BMI and Good Sense
For those who may have been off-planet for the last few decades, BMI stands for Body Mass Index: a comparison of height to weight that identified Arnold Schwarzenegger as "obese" when he played Conan the Barbarian.I'm obese (really): and my wife would love it if I was obese the way the current governor of California was, then.
The problem I have with the BMI is that the only member of my family who isn't "obese" or at least "overweight" is the bean pole of the lot. Our ancestors are from northwestern Europe - and tend toward short stature, wide shoulders, thick chests and short limbs. It's a great design for cold weather, but obviously wasn't the 'normal' that BMI is based on.
Didn't those people ever notice that folks whose ancestors come from equatorial Africa, Scandinavia, and east Asia don't all look alike?
Oh, well. I suppose they meant well.
Before/After Photos in Diet Ads - It Could be Worse
Remember Twiggy? I do. She became world-famous as a teenage model, apparently right after a growth spurt. After a few years she grew up, added the pounds that an adult woman does if she's healthy, and turned from an attractive teenage girl into an attractive young woman.No problems there.
Unhappily, Twiggy was hyped so much, and cultural conditions were such (my opinion), that a whole lot of women who weren't born with the long, lanky body we associate with models - and who were not gawky teens - tried to starve themselves down to an approximation of Twiggy.
Back in the "good old days" (I don't ever want to go back), the "after" photos in diet ads sometimes looked like someone who hadn't quite survived Auschwitz.
Yike.
These days, the 'after' photos hint that the person isn't at the verge of death by starvation. Which is quite an improvement.
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