Honest truths, maybe a bit harsh (this is a tad long)

Firstly pardon my grammar, I'm terrible at spelling and such.

I'm not your mother, I'm not here to coddle you. So I'm going to give you your medicine straight. Take it or don't, that's up to you, but know that this is the honest truth as I see it. If you don't like it, tough, this is how it is in my humble opinion.

1) MFP is about fitness and health, this is NOT a weight loss site. One of the main benefits about becoming healthy and learning how to eat right is moving towards a healthy weight. Weight loss on MFP is incidental, and should NOT be the main focus on here. I know it usually is, but that's not what I envision MFP as.

2) No matter how much you wish, no matter how hard you want it, you can't become healthy with gimmicks (notice I said become healthy and not lose weight). What's a gimmick? ANYTHING, yes anything that allows you to lose weight that isn't part of a normal, healthy eating and exercise schedule. Examples are pills, diets that go to the extreme, fasts, surgery, hormone injections...etc. They're all gimmicks designed to somehow trick, deprive, or alter the body temporarily. Why don't these work in the long run for the vast majority? Because they don't teach long term sucess, they don't change your lifestyle and habits, and they require less effort than hard work than healthy choices. Look, I'm not putting people down who try this, I understand that some can become desparate and look for other ways to acheive their goals, but the only true way I've seen to become healthy is to eat right and exercise. Everything else is a smoke show, and like all smoke shows, eventually the smoke clears and you end up the same as you were before. And please, know this, if you don't like this point of view, I don't care, I've seen enough, read enough, and know enough people who've done all these "tricks", I've looked at the research, these things just don't work, sorry folks, fool yourself all you want, but until you come to the truth, you'll continue your rollercoaster ride.

3) Stop making excuses. I see it on here constantly and it's just weakness. Sorry for being blunt, but it is. Toughen up a little will you? If you're tired, figure out why, do a little reading, check your food and see if you're lacking something, see if you're getting enough sleep...etc. If you're not losing weight like you thought you should, examine your food schedule, weight loss is all about your diet, if you eat less than you are ACTUALLY burning in a day, then you WILL lose weight. But please note the word ACTUAL. There are places called Metabolic labs, they will test your TDEE and tell you what you actually burn in a day for calories, if you don't trust MFP's assumptions, then get tested, it's that simple. Don't just sit and whine on the boards all day about how you're not losing weight, figure out WHY you aren't.

4) Results take time. You can't expect anything significant in the course of 2 or 3 weeks. That's just not how the body works. Habbits take months to form, significant weight loss takes months to happen, strength increases take months, and plateaus don't happen in 2 weeks. Sorry folks that's just the way it goes, being impatient and changing your routine every two weeks will not help you lose weight faster, it will just delay things.

5) The U.S. government is not the evil empire. There aren't secret groups of people in black suits and sun glasses huddled together in an underground facility planning out ways to make us more obese. Nobody's against us becoming healthier. What the government is, is ignorant and a little naieve. We have governing bodies for quasi government organizations that have no experience in the matter in which they preside. That includes the FDA and the Health department. That said, they rely on the opinions of "experts". Most of these experts are also somewhat political and tend to tell people what they want to hear, and what makes the most sense politically and financially. Generally the concept of political expedience doesn't harm good sense health practices (maybe not the BEST health practices, but acceptable none-the-less). that means that while yes, the health organizations that govern food in the U.S. make mistakes, they are generally honest mistakes, so keep your eye out, don't blindly trust the government, but don't immediately mistake them for Some demon that is out to make you fat. There's no board of directors in Nabisco foods scheming up ways to keep us fat, McDonalds isn't sitting in their corporate offices rubbing their hands together and laughing maniaclly, trust me, they're just trying to make the best food they can for the cheapest money without getting sued. That may not be all that healthy as far as we're concerned, but it's why we have freedom of choice! They disclose what the contents of their food are, you have a choice to eat it or not. Can't we just stop there and call it a game?

5) Stop worrying so much what you look like when you work out! Geez, this one kills me. why do people care so much what everyone in the gym looks like? You're there for a reason, perform your stuff, enjoy it, and really, stop worrying about whether that guy next to you thinks you look silly. He doesn't have to go home and look at your body in the mirror, I'm sure he has his own insecurities. Look I know that many people on here have self-esteem issues, that's fine, but the only way to get over them is to get out there, let your fat parts jiggle, and work HARD! I've done it, all of us who've gone from fat to fit have done it in one way or another, it never gets easier to look at yourself in the mirror, that's the truth, I STILL look in the mirror and immediately pick out the gazillion parts of my body that I think aren't pretty. You're not special because you have jiggly parts, you're special because of what is in your brain, and your heart. So stop feeling sorry for yourself, go put on the gym clothes, and get busy embarrasing yourself infront of countless anonymous folks! It's fun if you let it be, heck, I make a fool of myself daily at the gym. At this point I enjoy the looks on people's faces when I'm sweating all over myself and making horrid (I imagine) faces, and breathing heavy. If you can't laugh at yourself, then you need to lighten up. Smile, smiles focus people on your face, if nothing else, that'll keep them from looking at your flab (I really HOPE that's true at least).

Maybe some would call it a rant. It's really not, I like helping people, and I truely belive this will help someone. I'm sure somewhere in my brain there's a tiny bit of narcisism that wants to be recognized for this, so what? Who doesn't like that? But mostly, I just want people to see what's what!

And lastly, if I struck a nerve here, and hit on something that is close to home for you. Before you get all crazy defensive and start attacking me, take a step back, recognize that I'm not attacking any one person or group, and maybe do a little re-evaluation of your situation. If you're getting super defensive, maybe there's a reason. It's never a good idea to lash out from an emotional place, before you get all fatal attraction crazy on me, maybe analyze your situation and see if maybe there's some truth to my remarks, you might be surprised at what you find.

regards all,
-Banks