It was the first day of the new year. My friend posted a picture on Facebook of herself on New Year's Eve. She was wearing a tight dress and looked absolutely stunning. Next to her photo she wrote: "Happy New Year! Resolution: lose weight". I wrote to her that she looked fine and didn't need to lose weight at all, but she didn't believe me. I wished her good luck with her weight reduction plan.
Today it's the first Sunday of the year. Like I do on most Sundays, I went to the gym. It was very hectic out there. There was barely enough room to place my bicycle next to the gym and inside I had to wait until I could start my workout, because all treadmills were taken. In the strength zone however I could freely use all machines: here it was not more crowded than on any other Sunday. It goes without saying that this busy first Sunday of January was caused by all those girls who made a new years' resolutions to lose weight. The new girls that I saw didn't look fat at all though. Some might have been a bit chubby, but no-one was fat.
I started wondering: where does this focus on losing weight and being skinny come from? Is it because these girls want to be sexy? Then we must ask ourselves the following question: do guys really prefer a girl with a flat stomach over a girl with some "lovehandles"? The answer to that question is usually negative. Guys don't care so much about the weight of their girl. And it may be a personal preference, but I would actually prefer a girl to have a few extra pounds. Moreover, it would be a big turnoff for me if a girl would be on a diet all the time. (Unless she orders a regular meal in a restaurant anyway, only eats half of it and then gives the rest of her meal to me. I would like that.)
A second reason why girls want to lose weight could be that they want to look pretty compared to other girls. In that case, this situation can easily be translated into an example of the so called Prisoner's Dilemma.
Let's think of a fictional world where there are just two girls who have to decide to either lose weight or stay the same. Assuming that it's uncomfortable to lose weight and that girls feel even more uncomfortable if they are feeling less pretty than the other girl, you can translate the choices both girls have in the following table:
Today it's the first Sunday of the year. Like I do on most Sundays, I went to the gym. It was very hectic out there. There was barely enough room to place my bicycle next to the gym and inside I had to wait until I could start my workout, because all treadmills were taken. In the strength zone however I could freely use all machines: here it was not more crowded than on any other Sunday. It goes without saying that this busy first Sunday of January was caused by all those girls who made a new years' resolutions to lose weight. The new girls that I saw didn't look fat at all though. Some might have been a bit chubby, but no-one was fat.
I started wondering: where does this focus on losing weight and being skinny come from? Is it because these girls want to be sexy? Then we must ask ourselves the following question: do guys really prefer a girl with a flat stomach over a girl with some "lovehandles"? The answer to that question is usually negative. Guys don't care so much about the weight of their girl. And it may be a personal preference, but I would actually prefer a girl to have a few extra pounds. Moreover, it would be a big turnoff for me if a girl would be on a diet all the time. (Unless she orders a regular meal in a restaurant anyway, only eats half of it and then gives the rest of her meal to me. I would like that.)
A second reason why girls want to lose weight could be that they want to look pretty compared to other girls. In that case, this situation can easily be translated into an example of the so called Prisoner's Dilemma.
Let's think of a fictional world where there are just two girls who have to decide to either lose weight or stay the same. Assuming that it's uncomfortable to lose weight and that girls feel even more uncomfortable if they are feeling less pretty than the other girl, you can translate the choices both girls have in the following table:
| B loses weight | B doesn't lose weight | |
| A loses weight | Both girls are feeling equally pretty; both girls are feeling uncomfortable | A feels pretty, B doesn't feel pretty and is very uncomfortable |
| A doesn't lose weight | B feels pretty, A doesn't feel pretty and is very uncomfortable | Both girls are feeling equally pretty; both girls are feeling comfortable |
As you can see, the optimal situation here for A and B together is the situation where both girls don't lose weight. They are both feeling equally pretty and are both feeling comfortable. However, if you are girl A and you can't trust the other girl to also not lose weight, you might want to lose weight as well, because otherwise you can end up in a situation where you feel both unpretty and very uncomfortable.
Girl B will think the same way and we will end up in a situation where both girls decide to lose weight, feel equally pretty as they did before and are feeling uncomfortable. The only way they can get to the "optimal" outcome where both girls are feeling comfortable, is if they can both make an agreement to not lose weight. If you translate the message of this example to the real world, it would mean that all girls should sign an agreement that they will not try to lose weight. And that's exactly what I want to achieve with this blog post.
So hereby I kindly ask all girls and women in this world to make an agreement to not lose weight this year.
Thank you.
Coincidentally this would also allow me to do my workout in peace, without having to wait for all those girls on the treadmill. That's not at all important to me though, I wrote this blog post mostly because I care so much about the well-being of girls in this world.
Because after all, I'm such a kind and caring person, who is not sneaky and manipulative at all.
I think we lose weight,because we want to fit on that red dress we always wanted.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAlso it is possible you are sick of seeing fat girls and wrote this post to make them start on a died (opposite psychology) sneaky Lauren!
Maybe you should have written to the girl that she looked stunning and not fine :D but that kind of post are usually to seek attention and to have comments like you wrote... and don't worry, I think in few weeks there will be less girls occupying your favourite places in the gym.
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