Q: My friends are always starting a new diet or fitness fad but never seem to lose weight. Why do they keep doing this to themselves?
A: Those who sell fads are fishing in a receptive pond where the same middle-class fish will bite a hundred times.
Another peculiarity that I cannot adequately explain is that otherwise-rational people, with the capacity to solve complex problems, often leaders in their fields and experts in dark arts such as science, accounting, mathematics and economics, are the first to fall hook, line and sinker for these gimmicks.
A question not published because the answer was ridiculously short, came from a postdoctoral scientist working for a multinational: “Which mass builder will help me lose fat?” The author has personally recently interacted with an MBA candidate who proudly drinks bulletproof coffee every morning. We met at a coffee shop where he indulged in the most glorious sponge cake.
Friends and family, who asked questions a decade ago about how to lose fat and build lean, useful muscle (and received the answers — in writing, nogal), have gone on with their lives, gained weight, lost weight, joined CrossFit, left CrossFit, tried personal training, indulged in a bit of boxing, have taken up running, switched to Banting then intermittent fasting, have developed ITB problems and moved to Bikram yoga, have had children, tried the cabbage diet, been promoted to executive committee positions, and still, still, at every reunion ask: “So, what should I do to lose fat and gain muscle?” They’re so desperate you could sell them anything.
Don’t misinterpret this answer: if it weren’t for fish desperate to be caught The Water Cooler wouldn’t exist. Neither would all those hippie places that charge quadruple the price for eggs because the chickens are happy. Why do we simply refuse to see the obvious? Why do we want there to be a secret recipe? Why do we instinctively believe that if we start eating like an impala we’ll become as lean and agile, and presumably as healthy, as an impala? Who’d want to be an impala?
A few years ago, researches published findings in the Journal of Health Psychology that found that people who had a high need for cognition, in other words, enjoyed challenging their brains and living an analytical and contemplative life (basically, a Business Day reader), were more likely to be less active or even sedentary than those who didn’t have a high need for cognition and get bored quickly.
At the time it led to a few clickbait headlines like one in Southern Living, a US lifestyle publication: “Smart people may be slightly lazier, according to science”. The researchers, however, were careful not to confuse a need for cognition and stimulation with actual intelligence. Were they talking about Twitter? Southern Living went on to clarify: “While the lazier among us may want to crow that this is proof of higher intelligence, that’s not quite what the study shows.”
However, that clarification may, wittingly or unwittingly, hold a clue about humans and our love of fads: laziness. People pay personal trainers so that the trainers can change their bodies not quite grasping that they still have to do what the trainer says. Your friends are probably lazy, and who can blame them in this day and age?
Everything else in life has been made easier: Checkers Sixty60, Mr D and Takealot mean we don’t actually need to leave the house to shop. We can download apps instead of paying professionals for services in almost any industry. If everything we want comes easy, why can’t a good, healthy body?
Remember the Shake Weight and Thighmaster? A clever branding exercise that captures the zeitgeist can turn any household object or pantry ingredient into a wellness or fitness craze.
People will continue to fall for nonsense because the alternative requires hard work, discipline, dedication and resilience — which does not have to mean the opposite of fun. We live in an age of convenience and entitlement — unfortunately, your body and wellness is earned. The rest is either a fad or dangerous.
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