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Monday, July 27, 2015

"Your dad bod is killing you -- here's how to fix it"

The NY Post ran the above article this morning. It's not particularly insightful or original; it merely advocates a standard course of diet and exercise. But the one interesting -- in fact, striking -- thing about the article is that it features the very first set of realistic before-and-after pictures I've ever seen.

A multitude of exercise programs promise miraculous results, with before and after pictures to match. But the before picture is always taken with straight on lighting, and the guy often seems to be sticking his stomach out on purpose while wearing a sad sack expression.

The after shot is inevitably with him holding in his stomach, at a flattering angle, with side or overhead lighting, and with a shaved chest. In some cases, the guy has obviously gone on steroids, which accounts for the "miraculous" nature of his transformation.

Anyway, kudos to the Post for running this realistic article, even if -- or rather because -- none of the after pictures are exactly inspirational.

6 comments:

Steven said...

I wonder fi they got the idea from this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/mens-health/11760816/How-to-avoid-a-Middle-Age-Man-Spread.html

You get half your tv shows from us so why not your articles :-D

After the mail online originally posted those fat pictures of Ben Cohen, the Huffington Post weighed in and accused the mail of fat shaming. As you might expect.

How about these ones:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/weight-loss-success-stories/

The guys in the NY post article weren't doing weights, right?

John Craig said...

Steven --
C'mon, giving credit to one TV show for having come up with the idea of weight loss as a positive thing is a little like giving credit to a makeover show for originating the idea that women should be more beautiful. both ideas are as old as humankind….

Those weight loss success stories are impressive. But a lot of them show what I was talking about in the post: better lighting and a more confident expression and a flexed stomach in the after shots.

Not sure what those NY Post trainers were having their people do, I jus skimmed that part, was mostly struck by the honesty of the photographs.

Steven said...

John, I probably do say some stupid things but if its so blatantly stupid that you have to start the sentence with 'c'mon', there's a decent chance you just misinterpreted what I said. ;-)

I meant they based the article on a British article a few days earlier. The format was 'here's a celebrity who is putting on weight and here's how to avoid putting weight on as you get older'. On second thoughts, they couldn't have copied it if they had to put the guys through training...so yeah, still pretty stupid but not as stupid as you thought.

John Craig said...

Steven --
Actually, usually "c'mon" indicates that I'm sort of joking, or respondingto a joke, as I assume you were when you said that we get half our TV shows from you.

I suppose it could have been based on that other article, but the examples they used were local, as I recall, so the article had been "in the making" for some time.

Steven said...

Yeah that's why I realised it wasn't copied.

Okay, lost in translation.

I guess I was exaggerating but you have based a lot of shows on British originals: e.g. American idol, x factor, the office, the weakest link, who wants to be a millionaire, kitchen nightmares, the Krypton factor, and a lot of others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_television_series_based_on_British_television_series

Its happened the other way around quite a lot as well but with many American shows, we just watch the original. We don't remake your sitcoms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_television_series_based_on_American_television_series

John Craig said...

Steven --
Wow, that is a lot of shows. And a lot more traveling west than east.