Ian Column 1

least resistance’. Weight loss is a business and the only thing marketers are interested in is your cash, so promises of incredible looking physiques for little or no effort on your part are going to meet very little resistance. Even though this promise is an obvious lie, the desperate fatties find themselves falling for it. It’s amazing to witness otherwise intelligent people being conned by the most ridiculous product advertising claims... Even those people who know exactly how weight loss works still find themselves handing over the readies for the next fad diet, miracle supplements or washboard abs machine, because the real way to lose weight is too slow, too time consuming and just damn hard work - not to mention that it requires a complete life style change. Something ninety percent of fat people will never ever be able to do.

Recognizing that you are being conned is not difficult at all - the hardest part is accepting the truth, because when you are fat, the truth is just far too depressing. If someone told you that you could build the house of your dreams from scratch by only working on it for six minutes a day, you would know, without any doubt, that they were full of cr*p. But when the same claim is made about body transformation millions of people accept the possibility and that is all the advertisers need you to do, ‘accept the possibility’. Marketers use fitness models and bodybuilders who have made fitness their career and are paid to shake a piece of plastic around while the voiceover asks you to believe they look that way because of ‘their’ product. Why is it you NEVER see Olympic athletes or professional sports men/women endorsing these infomercial products? You would think that if you could get in the best shape of your life by using the ‘shake weight’ for only six minutes a day, the top Boxers who get paid millions to enter the ring at the contracted weight would forsake the early morning, grueling road work, heavy bag and strict dieting in favour of the ‘easy way’. No, the people who endorse weight loss solutions are, more often than not, celebrity has-beens who are short of cash and have packed on a few pounds - either that or they are struggling fitness professionals who have sold out in favour of making a quick buck. Recognizing you are being conned is simple - if the words ‘easy’ and ‘fast’ are associated with any weight loss product you are not looking to get ripped, you are getting ripped off.

IAN McCRANOR NEXT MONTH: YOU will never lose weight!

120 / martial arts illustrated

This month Ian McCranor counsels caution whenoffered a quick-fix solution to your weight problems.

THE STOP BEING FAT CLUB

martial arts illustrated / 121 Getting ripped requires good old fashioned hard work

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Walk past any newspaper stand and you will see at least one magazine displaying the ‘perfect’ body with the accompanying

headline, ‘Get ripped in ten weeks’ or something along those lines. Even in a world that has many people professing body acceptance, magazines that sell what appears to be the body transformation solution fly off the shelves. So what is the truth? Can anyone really look like the skinny, fit and beautiful magazine cover models? If you have ever watched the popular TV show The Biggest Loser you will have witnessed some ridiculously obese people make some truly incredible transformations. The problem for most people however, is that getting ripped first requires you to avoid being ripped off - and this is harder than it sounds for many reasons. The first problem with losing weight is that the majority of fat people decided they need to lose weight due to what they just saw in the mirror or the fact that their clothes just don’t fit any more. Rarely are health issues a guiding factor - even though being fat is a ticking time bomb.

The decision to lose weight most often comes with a degree of urgency - once the realization of “I’m a fat git” hits home again, the need to rectify the problem becomes a priority. Weight loss is, without a doubt, a series of false starts. I don’t recall a single person I have worked with who hasn’t achieved their goal without either stalling

or quitting many times, and every time they begin again, it’s always a matter of

urgency.It is this ‘urgency’ that the weight

loss industry totally taps straight into - in the same way as the

motorway service stations understands that they are

the only cuppa around for the next thirty

miles. You are going to be paying an

arm and a leg for that nice cup of Rosie Lee.

Speak to any businessman or marketing expert and you will hear them use the term the ‘path of