Lose Like a Man?

That is a big, beautiful man….

So last year I stumbled across a story on the Crossfit website about Charles Barkley doing Crossfit. I was pretty motivated by his progress, and by how hard he was pushing himself to reclaim his fitness. There was a man willing to do the hard work to get himself back on track. Inspiring.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw this commercial recently for Weight Watchers, where he attributes his success to their system. Now, I have to admit, it’s funny, but it also kind of pissed me off. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re doing Weight Watchers and it’s working for you, GOOD. Go for it. I would hope also though that you would be studying up on balanced nutrition, and concentrate on getting the proper balance of protein, fat, and carbs…..but I digress.

What got me about this commercial was confirmed when I was his comments as a commentator early this year, in which he called Weight Watchers a “scam”. Now, he didn’t literally mean the system didn’t work and was corrupted; what he meant was that they paid him a ton of money to do their system and make their commercials. No mention of his workouts, no mention of anything other than that he can still eat “pizza and steak”. Greeeeeaaat, that’s JUST what most guys need to hear- “just count your points and eat crap!”.

For me, that’s not “LOSE LIKE A MAN”. That’s “LOSE SOME WEIGHT AND DIE YOUNG OF A HEART ATTACK.”  Counting calories will help you lose some weight, but long-term you need to change more of what you’re eating- protein, fat, and good carbs (check out robbwolf.com, or marksdailyapple.com for info on manly paleo eating).

THEN, YOU NEED TO MOVE YOUR ARSE!

Move it fast, hard, and often. Crossfit is great for that. So is running, lifting, cycling, swimming, walking, crawling, WHATEVER you have to do to get moving from where you are to where you want to be. There’s no magic pill, program, or system that will lose the weight for you all by itself….diet AND exercise is the only way to get fit. Charles got that, but promptly told the world that counting calories alone did it. Not cool man, not cool.