WTF Du Jour

[plumtreeblossom]

Today's WTF comes from the pamphlet inside my box of slimming tea. It includes a "balanced eating plan" and suggested meals. Here is a sample of Dinner:

Roast beef............3 oz.
Mashed potato.........1/2 cup
Green Beans...........1 cup
Cauliflower...........1/2 cup
Green salad/oil&vin...unlimited
Roll..................1
Angel food cake.......1 slice
Fresh berries.........1/2 cup
Slimming tea..........1 cup

Now, I have carefully envisioned all of this food in the above portions plated in front of me, and there is no possible way I could finish all of that in one sitting. I don't even eat that much on Thanksgiving. Maybe if I removed the roll, one of the vegetables, and either the cake or the berries, maybe I could clean my plate. The breakfasts and lunches are similarly generous and similarly vague about some of the portion sizes. But it claims that a whole day's menu only adds up to 1200 calories. I know for good and damn certain that isn't correct. I'm forced to conclude that this eating plan is designed for those accustomed to hoovering an entire large Pizza Hut Meat Lover's and a half-gallon of ice cream in one meal.

But the WTFery goes on. The pamphlet includes a height/weight chart. At 5'3" and medium frame, wearing shoes and clothing, my target weight range should be (wait for it...) 110-122.

Huuuuh?!? In what alternate universe would I look attractive at 110? Clothed and shod, no less? I haven't stepped on a home scale wearing clothes or shoes since ever, because doing so would be patently retarded. I weigh 143 in my spankity pink nakedness, and I just want to get back to 130 and shrink my manly belly. I haven't weighed 110 since age 14, and barring catastrophic illness, I'm quite certain I never will again.

So, thought I, this being Asian slimming tea, perhaps that chart is made for a less broad Asian body type. I could see 110 working for a small-framed Japanese woman of my height. The box sports a trim Asian model and an Asian-influenced font. I read the bottom of the box. Manufactured in Tempe, AZ.

But on the upside, it's delicious and raspberry-y!

Wait, not quite done. Unlimited green salad with oil/vinegar dressing? UNLIMITED? So I can has bathtub or SUV or airplane hangar filled wif salad and EAT IT ALL GONE?!

I don't think that would help my pants fit any better.

Comments

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

I hate those "what you should weigh" things. I usually recommend that folks go on-line and keep trying all the "what should you weigh" sites until they find one that thy like.

Frankly, percentage body fat is a much better indicator of health, and appearance. i weigh about the same as you do, and while I'd kind of like to be below 140, I'm not all that concerned about it. I was concerned in January when my %BF shot up above 30%. I did lose some weight since then, but more importantly, I built muscle, so my body composition is a lot better.. My size 6 clothes fit me comfortably, I can bike 3 or 4 hours without getting winded, and if I exercise hard enough to get my HR above 200 (I do high intensity interval training), it's down to 120 in less than a minute.

Frankly, the meal doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. I'd probably skip either the mash or the angel cake, and I'd be damned sure that roll was whole grain. And I'd limit the amount of oil to about 1 TBS, but beyond that, it seems fine. 3 oz is a hell of a lot less meat than most people eat at a sitting; most restaurants give you at least 4 times that much in a single serving. And the only fat there is the oil (hopefully olive) - though I think many folks would balk at a roll and/or veggies with no butter.

I've never tried any of those slimming thingies. My mom was bulimic when I was growing up (and she's anorectic now), so I'm pretty wary about any type of diet supplement. Though I do have a protein shake on days when I do weight training - it doesn't replace a meal though, it gets added in.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I'm the fattest feather-weight person I know. I weigh about the same as you but I'm a size 12. I don't know how my body maximizes its surface area like it does. Maybe I'm a puffer fish.

I should look into getting one of those fat percentage "scales." I once used one and 34% of me was fat, and I was quite a bit slimmer than I am now.

I wish everyone got liposuction so I wouldn't be embarassed of daydreaming about it.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

It's very hard to get a good estimate of your fat percentage. The scales tend to be pretty inaccurate (they can be off by as much as ten percentage points, so you could get a reading of 34% if you were 24% or if you were 44%). OTOH, they tend to be internally consistent - so if you had one & weighed yourself on it once a month, you could tell if your BF was going up or down.

Its sort of like scales. There are two scale in my gym & when I weigh 148 on one of them, I'm about 143 on the other. Interestingly, when I was over 150, they gave identical readings. They were the kind with the slidy thingies that can go in a 100 lb slot or a 150 slot. I think one of them had a mismatch - because there was a period of over a month where if I slid the thingie into the 150 slot, and had the other slider at 0, it said I was less than that - but if I slid the thingie into the 100 slot & had the other slider at 50, it said I was more than that. It was very disconcerting. It was like Schrodinger's obesity or something.

I generally get my BF measured by one of the trainers at the gym using calipers. Somewhat more accurate than the scale, but still pretty variable. But if you have the same person do it each time, you can notice a trend.