I had a breakfast meeting this morning and was sitting beside a chatty fellow who I had never met before. He is on the heavy side and at one point turns to me in a discussion about biking and says, "You wouldn't know it not being heavy and all but it's hard to start exercising when your bigger like me."

I was surprised into silence and didn't say anything.

For those of you who are formally overweight, do you tell people when they make comments like that? In some ways it might encourage them to see that it is possible to lose. I wonder if I should carry a 'before' photo around with me to show people when they imply I could never understand ...

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It's been my experience that even if you had shown him a picture he would have come up with another excuse. Unfortunately showing other people that it is possible is not enough to get them motivated. I have had several friends come to me for advice over the years but when it came down to actually doing anything it was too hard. It does get frustrating so I've just learned to smile and nod and not invest as much time coming up with menus and training plans.

I think he was just making conversation.....but I do
think it would give some hope if he knew you had
lost weight. Speaking from my own "trials" of weight
loss, it gives me hope to meet someone who actually
"won" the battle!

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Countdown Clocks

I don't think ALL people would just come up with an excuse and refuse to be motivated. This might have been the one time it clicked with the guy and he decided to do something about it. I say if you are ever in a situation like that again to go for it and tell him.

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

No not all people, but when someone starts with "I can't do it because of this.." it's usually someone who will give you more excuses when you point out that you've done it and tell them how you've done it. Now if someone starts a conversation with "I'd like to do X but I'm not sure how to do it or if I can keep up my motivation" that person is someone that will listen and at least try. I'm not saying that you shouldn't tell people your weightloss success, just don't be surprised to hear more "I can't".

I'm sorry if I come of negetive, I don't mean too. I do try to encourage everyone and I LOVE showing people how to exercise, how to do it correctly and motivate them. However after a while (it took me 5 years) it just gets too frustrating and you learn to save your time and advice for someone who really is going to try. I can't begin to tell you the number of times I've done meal plans, training plans and have rearanged my schedule for someone and then get excuse after excuse.

I understand what you are saying. It's kind of like my overweight friend who goes to Weight Watchers and tells me as she's eating enough daily points in one meal that she doesn't know why she can't lose...

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton