It’s okay to want to lose weight.
I began my writing career in 2010 as a fitness columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and back then that statement wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows except for a “Well, duh.” Nowadays, however, it can be seen as controversial. And with good reason. Because the weight loss industry is corrupt as fuck.
That’s why I got into it in the first place, because it was corrupt as fuck. I wanted to offer an alternative to the corruption.
I watched my mother try and fail with every fad diet and weight loss gimmick there was. When I was 25 and made the decision to lose weight and get in shape, I had a solid idea of what NOT to do because of how that corrupt industry victimized her. I figured I would just begin exercising and eat better. And via eating better, I would restrict my calories and lose weight.
And that’s what happened. Eat less, move more. Simple, right?
No, not fucking right.
Back in 2016 I wrote a piece titled “Eat Less, Move More Is Bullshit”. An organization that hands out such accolades named it their #1 Fat Loss Article of the Year. It’s not a denial of calories in vs. calories out, or a denial that adding physical activity and improving one’s diet in order to lower calorie intake is a path to weight loss. Rather, it is calling out a bullshit soundbite that makes weight loss seem like a simple math equation.
Technically, it IS simple math. Realistically, it’s anything but. The gist of the piece is that “eat less, move more” ignores the myriad complex lifestyle issues that allow an individual to consume fewer calories, as well the similarly complex lifestyle issues that permit them to burn more calories in a day via additional movement.
A little over two years ago I switched to writing about history because it was time for a career change, but for a decade I was one of the better known and respected fitness writers around, because I endeavored to not be full of shit. One thing I refused to do was sell out. I often joked that if I wanted to be rich, I could package up my neighbor’s dog shit into gelatin capsules and sell it on the internet as an all-natural appetite suppressant.
I’m about to do some selling, but not selling out. It’s affiliate marketing time.
Balance365 Life is the ONLY company I ever do affiliate links for, because I’m good friends with and implicitly trust the two women running it, Annie and Jennifer. For the past few years, I’ve sold their program several times when they’re having a sale. I make money doing so, but I wouldn’t sell it if it was bullshit. One way you can tell it’s not bullshit is that every time I promote it on Facebook lots of women who I steered toward the program chime in about how awesome, even life-changing, the program is.
They are having a Black Friday sale for just the next few days, starting now. It’s good shit. Learn more about it at my affiliate link: https://jamesfell--balance365.thrivecart.com/fat-loss-foundations-course-jf/
Little & Large? I never thought of them as an international duo. To Brits of 50+ they are very familiar faces but I didn’t think their comedy went global.
But given that the heavier one chose to call himself Eddie Large, I’m fairly sure he didn’t have body image problems.
Thanks for sending me down the Eddie Large rabbit hole, ya bastard. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/apr/02/eddie-large-big-man-british-tv-comedy-little-and-large