Men 'happy with beer bellies'

[The Lone Liberal]

Men are quite content to have beer bellies, and do not worry about how much they weigh, a survey suggests.

Women do know what they should be eating - but continue to drink too much alcohol and eat too much junk food.

But they do eat more fruit and vegetables than men, and are less likely to eat red meat and fatty foods.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3047807.stm


What is the female comment on this story?

Of course the male validation of this theory is welcome also. LOL

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Well, I rarely eat junk food, LOL.

What does that tell you about me????

[Droopy]

2. I'm a guy and I worry about my weight

So much so that I've been on a diet and I've lost 30 pounds so far. I was mainly concerned about the way I looked rather than the health aspect, but that was a part of it too.

[Cat Atomic]

12. Congratulations!

I've done the same recently, and I'm also a guy (though I only lost 20lbs). I'm back to my highschool weight.

[newyawker99]

14. Congrats Cat Atomic!! 300 posts

:toast:

[Cat Atomic]

19. w00 and h00 :)

Sweet.

[Deja Q]

3. Well, I must be a closet woman then...

Well, I eat more veggies than men, but never much any fruit... So, in my case, I am what I don't eat! :D

My junk food intake is virtually nil and I rarely drink alcohol.

Heck, I'm so food conscious I'll buy ground soy protein over ground turkey because it's infinitely healthier despite costing more than twice as much.

I just don't exercise. If men exercised, this probably wouldn't be as much of a problem.

[bahrbearian]

4. Turn on your profiles if you want an anwser.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. As one of my Uncles used to say...

It is a poor workman who does not build a shed over his most important tool.

[democracyindanger]

10. LOL

One of my friends puts it:

"A tool of this size needs a shed of appropriate magnitude."

[StClone]

6. I have a fat phobia

This may sound weird but I am paranoid that I will be trapped in a life or death situation with an overweigh person. I am able to escape but for all my efforts I will not be able to save the large peson that could not pull themselves either up some ladder or through a small escape hole and they will perish before my eyes.

[Ivory_Tower]

7. We are?

Then why the hell am I always stressing out over the 25 pounds I need to lose? Not that women flocked to me when I was younger and (sort of) slimmer, but I think the increased waistline does NOT make me more attractive.

Not to mention the concern over having a heart attack if I try to get back into a (somewhat) vigorous exercise regimen.

Interesting that the third-from-last line says: "But the truth is that men really do care, and they do listen to healthy-eating messages." So maybe I'm not alone.

[Snow]

27. Dood! You have the heart attack/heart disease from

not exercising! Get out and do it. Just find something you like, otherwise it's too easy too find excuses.

[Ivory_Tower]

28. That's why I find excuses...

It's easy. :)

I know, I know. I just have to figure out what sort of exercise I can do that I find interesting. I've tried jogging and it bores me to death. I've always loved playing Frisbee Ultimate but I'm too old to keep up with the sprinting 20-somethings anymore. I've thought about raquetball, but I really suck at it, and it's hard to find a partner who will tolerate my level of suckiness.

I might have to break down and join a gym...

[Snow]

31. Go for something really out there,

and change from time to time. When I was mid-40's, I took up horse riding - and not just plodding down a trail, but dressage. You think the horse does all the work? HA! My daughter does fencing and climbing rock walls - usually in our gym, but sometimes out in the mountains. I don't ride horses much anymore, but I'm close enough to work to use my bicycle for transportation so I do. And I lift weights 3x a week, 'cuz if I don't I start having shoulder problems - tendinitis and so forth. I don't like weight lifting much, but I have to do it so I do. I picked up a martial art in the Peace Corps ages ago, and still practice it from time to time, especially if there's a friendly gym that does my style. Also, when I was a kid I taught swimming for the Red Cross - mostly lifesaving, but also advanced beginner swimming and advanced swimming. And my wife has to haul me along for her exercise, which isn't much, frankly - once weekly walks in the mountains near where we live. We don't live in the wilderness, by the way - we live in Los Angeles - but there's plenty here of choices. Used to live in Minneapolis, and that was a great place for exercising, too. During the winter, they remake the golf courses into cross-country ski courses - you could even rent skis at the zoo, and ski around the zoo.

I'm no super-jock, iron man or marathoner, and I keep going at this stuff but changing things around, not doing the standard stuff - haven't you always wanted to learn how t use a sword, for example? - and just keeping something going so that I get useed to being active to the point that I feel crappy when I loaf off. I guess that's how to go about it - or at least it works for me. I had a friend when we lived in Seattle who was 51 years older than I, and still very active. He died a coupla years ago, age 105, and was active up till a year or so before his death. He was the first park naturalist for Mt Rainier, and made his last climb to the peak of Rainier at age 87. A good role model.

[Ivory_Tower]

37. Interesting advice, thanks.

I'll have to consider that approach. I've always liked mixing things up from time to time, learning new things. I should apply that to exercise as well. Good idea.

[Nikia]

8. It is an unfair double standard

It is suppose to be important to women that they are thin. It is important to men after all that they are thin. It is important that female musicians and actresses are thin. Men can be twenty pounds overweight before he even thinks that perhaps it would be good not to gain anymore weight. That is because other men do not give them a hard time, women do not give them a hard time, and if he is a celebrity, he will probably still get sexy acting roles and sell cds and be adored by fans. I don't know why this is except sexism. It makes me angry when I overhear an overweight male make fun of a normal weight woman for being fat. I was angry when I was a healthy weight and an overweight man at work stole my candy bars and said that a woman like me should not want to eat something with so much fat and sugar because women are suppose to watch their figures.

[The Lone Liberal]

9. This opens the debate for me.

Which is sexier a body like Celine Dion or someone with a body such as Sophia Loren?

I would weigh in (pun intended) with a preference of Sophia. Something about the "just escaped from Auschwitz" look that is downright unappealing to me.

More important it looks totally unhealthy. That should be the standard what is health and it can't be healthy to be skin and bones. A rubensque tendency is a better look.

Nothing better looking than a "Gibson Girl."

As for the men, when we can't see our belt buckles it might be time to think about cutting back on the eats. Besides to much gut obstructs vision and leads to having wet shoes. LOL

[BiggJawn]

11. I don't drink beer anymore, still have a "beer gut"..

And I freakin' HATE it!

I look like some moronic small-town cop...

thus, I ride.....

[KT2000]

13. The secret is out!!

As someone who sewed costumes for men and women - I always preferred sewing for the men - they always thought they looked good and loved the costume.

The women were much much harder to please.

[newyawker99]

15. Congrats KT2000!! 300 posts

:toast:

[KT2000]

24. Thanks Newyawker99!! n/t

[GOPisEvil]

16. I don't know about that.

I'm a guy, and I hate my belly. Of course, it's a lot smaller than it used to be, but still bigger than it should be.

If I wasn't concerned, I wouldn't be doing crunches, and I HATE crunches.

[bleedingheart]

17. Ask those men how they feel about their partners bodies

that is what will be more telling....

Personally I am okay with my big hips... nothing wrong with a curvy body....

[WoodrowFan]

36. real women have curves

that's what I tell my wife.....

[ZenLefty]

18. Dead wrong!

We're happy with our Buddha Bellies!! :D



EDIT: Better buddha belly.

[scarlet_owl]

20. I have learned to live with it.

I have days where I wish I wasn't eighty pounds heavier than I was five years ago, but mostly I have accepted my new body. I try to eat well, and mostly I succeed. Sometimes I have a little junk food, but I think we all do that. I can't drink alcohol anymore because I'm trying to get pregnant, but I didn't drink much before anyway. I think I'm fat, because I don't do any extra exercising other than my volunteering. I can't run because I have bad knees and every other exercise I have tried just hurts my joints too badly. Swimming is great, but I can't find anyone to go with me and the policy at the pool is "don't swim alone". Wow, that was kind of long, wasn't it?

[HuckleB]

21. Well, I wouldn't be happy with a beer belly.

But that's just me.

[tjdee]

22. Men think they're hot, women think they're pigs.

Men, overall, have a better self image of themselves. A few months ago I saw a study confirming what I've always thought. This is fairly obvious. They think their beer belly isn't that serious, and they can find some woman, somewhere, to love them for it.

Women, no way. They agonize about what they're eating, what they look like when they eat it, whether their boyfriend will want someone who balloons up, etc.

[radwriter0555]

23. well THIS woman doesn't want a man with a beer belly...

why would I want some flaccid flabby skin all flopping around on me somewhere?

Ew.

[Dirk39]

25. Drink lots of beer, eat whatever I like, smoke, don't have a...

beer belly. O you puritans. I don't think, you can influence this a lot. The energy women have wasted to become thin would be more than enough for about a world war or two and a worldrevolution.
My favourite food is salad, but I can even eat 180 gramm chips in 5 minutes.
About 150 years ago, we were simply fat or ugly or beautifull or thin. Now we are free. It's our responsibility. If you're fat or ugly or whatever, it's your fault: you eat the wrong things, you drink the wrong things, you don't do enough exercises. Everybody can be everything. Just work. Fucking american puritanism. Madonna did a lot to emphasize this.
You need at least a heart attack and dialysis to become beautifull...and then you're the leader of California

Smoking in Germany, no Leader, no Diet, no Sports, no Lifestyle-fashism,
Dirk

[Terran]

26. And then there are us chubby-chasers...

I know there are plenty of men out there who 'appreciate' big women, and I'm one of those gay guys that prefers a man with some substantial meat on his bones. A beer belly, to me, is flat out sexy (especially a hairy one), as long as it's not drooping. So take heart Jawn, I'm sure you wouldn't look like a moronic small-town cop to me!

Dirk :evilgrin:

[Hubert Flottz]

29. I'm The Rodney Dangerfield Type Of Guy!

I don't get no respect, no respect at all!(especially in the mornings) When Rodney gets an exercise show on TV I'll start exercising too!

[Fatima]

30. I don't like my hubby's beer belly

but I don't nag him about it since it's useless. But it is a turnoff. He looks like a stuffed sausage, and I worry about his health, as his father had diabetes and heart disease.

I lift weights. I don't have gargantuan muscles, but I am strong. I find that weights combined with a bit of light cardio do it for me. I need to pare down the bodyfat a bit. Ramadan is coming soon...

[Snow]

35. Heh! Ironic, isn't it, that people gain weight during Ramadan...

[mykpart]

32. Don't call it a beer belly;

it's a happy tummy! :)

[VOX]

33. A "beer belly" can be dangerous. Seriously...

Extra weight in a man's belly often produces high triglycerices, which in turn drive up the "bad" cholesterol, etc.

Numerous studies support that a low waist-to-hips ratio in men is a fairly accurate way to predict serious heart disease.

The good news: You can do something about it, but you have to get out there and sweat. Also lipid-reducing drugs (lipitor, etc.) are probably a good thing for overweight men.

My nickle's worth. Sorry to preach!

[Muesli]

34. Sweat?

I've always been told that when you've got one of those "hard" beer bellies (when the fat has formed around your intestines instead of in your skin), there isn't much you can do about it.

Luckily I'm not there yet. I look great :-) , probably because I eat lots of muesli.

-edit- some spelling errors

[amazona]

38. it's disrespectful to let yourself go

If you care about the good opinion of your partner, and if you can actually control your weight (not all men can), then it is disrespectful to your partner to let oneself develop an after all unattractive beer belly. As a woman, I find nothing erotic or masculine about fat on a male body. Sorry. You did ask. I feel sorry for men who can't control their beer bellies but feeling sorry for someone is not the same as having even the tiniest amount of sexual interest in them. The pregnant look is only attractive on a pregnant woman.



the man who did this study is just kidding himself, in my humble opinion

[geniph]

39. What we're looking for

and what's looking for us:

http://www.afunworld.com/img61.htm

(old, old joke)