Do you give advice to those who are struggling?

smantha32

AnnPT77 wrote: »

If someone asks me how I lost weight, I tell them ("calorie counting with an app"). If they ask more questions, I answer them.

Only this. No one really wants advice.

They want to hear that you did something magic, and when you start talking about diet and exercise their eyes glaze over.

I'm also no expert.

Plus if they decide they DO want to follow your example, they sometimes invite themselves into your workout. (Let's be workout buddies!)
Which they then do about 3 times before they start finding excuses.

CSARdiver

It requires a level of intimacy to be effective.

I don't volunteer information unless asked or already in a conversation. There's an art to it though and you have to venture forward slowly, especially when challenging "known" information.

I bookmark information to debunk many of these myths, such as slow/fast metabolism, what is causing obesity in the population, etc.

It takes a long time though as you essentially have a person being deprogrammed and challenging a lot of wrong information that media promotes as fact.

Lietchi

Nobody has 'picked my brain' about weight loss (yet).

However, I am getting increasingly frustrated with my mother's complaints about her weight and her ideas about weight loss and exercise. Remarks like "I don't enjoy cooking anymore, food just makes me fat", as if going to restaurants more often is going to help her to lose weight. Or her 'self sacrifice' when refusing dessert and eating smaller portions of dinner, but then drinking half a bottle of red wine and eating junk food snacks in front of the television. Or the fact that she calls my home gym my 'torture room'.

I grew up believing I had a 'cursed metabolism' like my mom and only this year did I realize how untrue this was. I've lost almost 20lbs so far and I have no idea whether my parents have noticed, but I'm dreading the day they actually mention it, especially my mom. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to hear my views on weight loss, so I hope she never asks.

csplatt

NOT UNLESS THEY ASK! If someone asks me my advice, I give it. Otherwise, my mouth is shut.