Saturday 4 April 2009

WLS v. WLD

This reminds me of this.

Both Star Jones and Fern Brittan got caught in a similar trap when asked about the cause of their respective- and significant- weight loss, both answered to the effect that they had eaten less and exercised. The fuss surrounding them both is one of ‘dishonesty’ as they did not reveal their respective gastric surgeries as the source of this.

Both women had their reasons for being secretive Fern Britton was worried about encouraging others to get the operation done because of her example. It seems she knew the risks and didn’t want anyone coming to harm through following her example. This at least is a commendable sentiment, better than those who recommend this as a good thing to do as if it’s all good.

Star Jones having been known as a fat woman who accepted herself as she was, it seems she had a change of heart in the few years preceding her op and felt that her actions made her previous stance statements look dishonest. How ironic.

Both were responding to health scares and that affected their decisions. Is the accusation of dishonesty itself any less dishonest, if you believe diets are viable? Why should you care if you are convinced they work how weight is lost? If it's via an operation, big deal, you still have the ‘successful’ diet and exercise to fall back on.

It’s as if people feel they are owed inspirational weight loss stories, even though something should either work or it should not. No-one needs to be 'inspired' to take a painkiller for their headache because they can count on its effectiveness.

This is ridiculous on so many levels. If the answer is always eat less and do more, why do people always ask what people did when they lost weight? Strictly speaking what these women were saying wasn’t untrue.

Set up by calorie manipulation as the only way to lose weight, which is illusory in terms of effectiveness. So to achieve this by any means organs are cut and turned into a calorie restriction corset to stymie the body’s inevitable response to deprivation.

It’s an awful tribute to the design of the body which can rarely be surmounted by will. It’s absurd because slim people are slim without any real effort and yet due to the idea that fatness is an immoral bill run up on credit which must be worked off, people feel they should succeed at something they are unlikely to. And feel guilty about that and that spreads to the shame of having weight loss surgery.

It’s like a crazy nightmare where Jack Nicholson as the Joker is in charge. Some say the operation ought to be private, but that helps to maintain an unrealistic idea of the viability of diets.

Truth is people want to keep believing, which cuts to the nub of the issue. Those who wish to believe are disappointed and angry when they see a dramatic story which buoys up their hopes and efforts, only to find out that wasn’t the way it happened. If people wish to buy into the delusion that they are likely to lose a lot of weight, they only have themselves to blame in the end.

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