My parents are medical doctors — my dad is a family practitioner and my mom is a rehabilitation specialist. For as long as I can remember, their friends and patients turned to them for nutrition and exercise advice (which I’ll often refer to as just “fitness” for brevity’s sake). “Eat less, move more,” they would prescribe for weight loss, which made up the bulk (no pun intended) of their fitness requests. I grew up in a small community, so I would often see their patients greeting them on the street, each time just as rotund as the last time I saw them. I was also a bit of a chubby kid myself, which I attributed to physical laziness, rather than my diet. After all, I’d always assumed my family ate healthily; we consumed plenty of whole grains, fruit, and vegetables — just like the ones prominently displayed on the food pyramid that I vividly remembered hanging on the walls of the doctor’s office.
A few years later, in my own attempt to lose weight, I discovered the world of “Internet fitness” which was then still in its infancy. In 2003, it was impossible to find online fitness communities that did not involve an unnecessary array of shirtless men and supplement popups. Needless to say, a geek like myself found this world to be a strangely fascinating but intimidating place. It was the first time I saw people successful in their fitness endeavors. The strangest part was that, within these walls, people blatantly ignored most doctors’ fitness recommendations. Those with the most success actually ridiculed FDA requirements and turned a deaf ear to medical professionals.
Huh? How could one ignore the fitness advice of doctors only to achieve better results? It wasn’t until years later that I understood the answer.
Read more: http://greatist.com/health/obesity-and-fitness-are-revolutionized-reddit-not-doctors
A few years later, in my own attempt to lose weight, I discovered the world of “Internet fitness” which was then still in its infancy. In 2003, it was impossible to find online fitness communities that did not involve an unnecessary array of shirtless men and supplement popups. Needless to say, a geek like myself found this world to be a strangely fascinating but intimidating place. It was the first time I saw people successful in their fitness endeavors. The strangest part was that, within these walls, people blatantly ignored most doctors’ fitness recommendations. Those with the most success actually ridiculed FDA requirements and turned a deaf ear to medical professionals.
Huh? How could one ignore the fitness advice of doctors only to achieve better results? It wasn’t until years later that I understood the answer.
Read more: http://greatist.com/health/obesity-and-fitness-are-revolutionized-reddit-not-doctors