Why do people think....?

Sorry for the rant, but just venting some pet peeves...





Why are people so obsessed with Calorie counting ESPECIALLY when most don't even know what Calories are?!





Why do people think that Cardio exercise is the best way to burn fat when most of it greatly off sets kinetic against potential energy? Do people not know its better to weight train and build muslce that "burns fat" at rest?





Why are people so concerned with BMI's? Do they not know this was invented by insurance companies for the purpose to NOT insure people? It is designed to exclude most people and will make most muscular people "obese"?





Why do people want to have the benefits of a personal trainer but grumble about paying for "advice"? It took me 4 years of university to build my knowledge and its my job... yet they'll pay a doctor also for knowledge and advice....





Thanks for listening.

Why do people think....?
I completely agree with you.


According to BMI-some professional athletes are considered obese-and they certainly are not.


About the personal trainer-I am one-and people at the gym love to ask me for free advice-but when I mention to them about being a client-they try to talk me down in my prices.What really aggravates me is when I am working out and they stop me to ask me about THEIR workout.


I understand about giving someone a free session to make sure that our personalities mesh,but a lot of people want to bring all of their friends to a comp session and then spend 2 hours with no intention of wanting to pay for further sessions.


With that being said-i really do love what I do-and I find it very gratifying to be able to help clients lose weight and do things that they never thought they could.
Reply:wow I didnt know all that!
Reply:First of all, calorie counting isn't all that bad. It keeps you in check. Sure, I LOVE Aussie Cheese fries from Outback, but I don't love the 3,000 calorie tag. Granted, that's if you eat the whole thing, but still.





Cardio helps burn fat and calories. Just weight training won't do the trick. It helps build muscle and all that, but usually there is still some fat left. Plus, older people or people with various physical limits can't weight train, but they can do low impact cardio that will burn calories and fat and build muscle. (i.e. Water Aerobics) Plus, cardio keeps your heart working out at a continuous pace for a certain amount of time. Just weight training often gets your heart rate up, then slows it down, and so on so forth.





BMI's aren't neccessarily a bad thing either. Some people want to know what percentage of fat is on their body as a means to see how far they've allowed themselves to go. At least I do. It keeps me in check of what I'm eating.
Reply:I agree with most everything you said except for the comment about cardio....studies have shown that doing cardio will not only burn some calories while you are doing it but will keep your metabolism elevated for sometime afterwards, how long after depends on the intensity of the cardio, but it can be several hours of elevated metabolic rate. How often do you seen an overweight sprinter, marathon runner, triathlete, cyclist, etc....most of them never spend a day in their lives in the gym with weights. Cardio is a part of a complete exercise program.
Reply:You make a good points. And what are calories anyway?
Reply:The calorie counting people out there are doing it because they think they need to to. They do not know that the quality of food is more important than quantity. Fot those who need to burn calories, cardio is better because they want to get inshape fast and there muscles are not in shape yet. if they were constantly working their muscles they would not have to worry, would they? Fat is burned both ways, remove the fat first, (no firming the fat, yuk!) then work the muscles to stay in shape for the rest of your life. At rest you body should be burnning calories also. but of course they want to sit and burn without doing anything. that is why we are a sedentary society. no one want to insure anyone who is not healthy, do they? Because they want to take care of themselves, but think that someone else has all of the answers and that they have to pay some to tell them those answers. They could just read a book like you and I did, couldn't they?
Reply:Doctors also use the BMI scale. It assumes an average lean body mass based on height. Insurance companies give you a physical... they only give you an estimate based on your BMI. If you have your physical, they use your body fat percentage.





People are obsessed because we live in a weight obsessed society. From birth we hear about calorie counting and ideal weight and trans fats, low carb, etc.





And people throughout history have always wanted to get something for nothing. Maybe we can't afford to pay someone $60 an hour, and why - when someone on Yahoo! Answers will tell us for free.





And most of us don't "pay" a doctor for that same advice - we have health insurance and we are paying that anyway - so we may as well make our doctors work for that money we're paying. So we will ask them rather than pay for an additional person to tell us the same stuff our doctor could tell us.





I understand your frustration with the BMI scale though... I think it's f-ed up that Arnold Schwarzenegger is considered "Morbidly Obese", and we still use it as a standard to determine our health. Body fat percentage really should be the number that determines it... and it should be the standard for doctors and insurance companies.





Oh yeah, and most people in fact do NOT know that resistance training is essential in weight loss. Some gyms even enforce that belief. The truth is - both are essential to be healthy. If you only lift weights and never do cardio... you may have a higher metabolism, but your heart will not be getting the exercise it needs... and cardio does still make your body burn calories at a higher rate for the duration of your workout, and for 3 hours following.
Reply:A mix of cardio and strength training is important, not one or the other. As for paying a trainer, where I live, many trainers charage a ridiculous amount of money. I agree, we should all get paid for what we do, but in reasonable terms. A doctor goes to school for a LOT longer, has a much more stressful job, is on call all the time and goes through a more intesnse program, and has to learn a lot more than the average person. Charging 150 bucks a session for a trainer, which is about an hour, is absoloutley ridiculous to me. I have a degree too, and nobody pays me 75 bucks an hour.





As for the rest of your points, many people are so concerened about how they look they'll do ANYTHING to lose weight, even if it's unsafe or counter-productive. The media has done a very good job of presenting innaccruate or skewed information, and unfortunatley many people don't know better.





Rather than rant and complain about the lack of knowledge people have, try to increase the knowledge instead so that we can all be educated.
Reply:The main reason is because there is so much ambiguous information about the best way to train and build up one's body out there (esp. online) from so many different, supposedly credible sources, that people tend to stick to whatever makes the most sense to them. Also, personal trainers are very important however, with all these miracle "did it themselves" stories on informercials, people believe they can too. But hey, I greatly admire your ambition toward fitness...keep up the good work!