Are your friends making you fat?

ninerbuff wrote: »

On the flip side, I also had some friends (we're just acquaintances now) who became food snobs. Every time I would eat something "bad", they would lecture you on why you shouldn't be eating it. I invited them to a family party once so they could check out our cultural foods. They asked what was being served. After I told them, they requested if they could pack their own and just bring it with them. Lol, I told them, it's probably better they don't come because my relative would take it as an insult if you didn't eat the food they made. I don't go out with them anywhere now. Just see them in the gym.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

My mother and her brother and sister are all food snobs. My mother is less obnoxious about it, but my aunt and uncle will never miss an opportunity to lecture. My uncle was displeased once I got a smart phone and was able to push back in real time.

I'm vaguely remembering something funny about stone-ground whole wheat. And not just any wheat, or any mill stone. Surprise, surprise, his information came from the seller

I have plenty of food preferences myself, but I don't proselytize.

Overall.. it is rude and boring to use food and drink as a topic of conversation when out with others. . That goes for trying to get a person on a diet to eat more. Or, a dieter blabbing on and on about their diet and what they can't eat ..turning attention on themselves.. And then there is the person anouncing they are not drinking while attending a drinking only event.

The best strategy is not annoncing a diet to anyone.. and do your thing.. order smart.. sip on a drink without announcing how much your abstaining.. and not draw attention ..because you can't control how other people react, and it can become a problem.
and also.. you can simply decline to attend an event where there are no options.

I definitely have a few friends who I "social eat" with in ways that made me fatter. The good news is they never pressured me, it was always my choice but what made me fat was the feasting attitude that was infectious in the group setting. I never said no to an appetizer for the table, and watching them order an extra side made me want to do it too, sort of a "power of suggestion" thing, which again was completely my fault. And one particular friend would sort of sell me when he was cooking, in that "I'm having two, do you want one or two?" Or if we partied he made amazing hangover omelets, and it was the same thing "four eggs or six?" I would go for the bigger number just because it felt good and it became part of the dynamic. I also have one friend where our thing is to go to very unhealthy restaurants, the places where you can't sit down for under 1500 calories. You have to get the fried mozzarella sticks when you go there, right? It's just part of the experience. Or the garlic bread at that other place. Let's get double.

It's not a peer pressure thing, I'd call it social enabling. Fortunately for me there's no weird dynamics, my friends see what I'm doing and respect it, and it doesn't bother them either. Sorry to hear some of you have lost social activity over this kind of thing.