I was out for a walk with a friend the other day and we passed by someone, and my friend made this comment:
“How can that person be so overweight? How can they let themselves get so unhealthy? How can they not look after themselves”.
The funny thing was that my friend is underweight, doesn’t have enough muscle, doesn’t have enough strength, doesn’t eat enough and – to my mind – is in a more unhealthy place than the person they were pointing at.
Usually a person carrying extra weight actually has more strength, more muscle, and more bone density than your average ‘slim’ person.
Yes at this point they have a greater likelihood of heart disease and various illnesses
that go along with carrying weight, but the thing is if they make a change now and get rid of the excess, they’re going to be in a place where they’ve got more muscle and more strength than an underweight person.
This means they’ll have all the benefits of the reduced body fat along with the advantage of not having to work on building as much muscle as an underweight person would.
Building muscle is a lot harder and takes a lot longer than reducing body fat.
Ironically, some people who are perceived as slim can actually have high percentage of body fat, very little muscle mass or strength or bone density, and a higher likelihood of injury or sickness.
Maybe this is something to think about when considering people who might be overweight.
If you yourself feel like you’re in that situation you might actually be in a better place than you think – and potentially in a better position than an underweight individual who has never had any drive to make a change because they don’t have a visual indicator that anything was wrong.
One to think about…
Chat soon,