A city of obese gym junkies

Southmouth said :

The key to a lifetime of healthy weight is to find a physical activity that you like enough to do regularly, motivated by your enjoyment of the activity (not by the weight loss it might provide). Gyms are for people who like gyms and duck mouth selfies. Refined sugar must be avoided like the plague and nutural fats in food is not necessarily bad.

Gyms are for people who like gyms? Wow, profound! I’ve never taken a duck mouth selfie though.

The key to a lifetime of healthy weight is to find a physical activity that you like enough to do regularly, motivated by your enjoyment of the activity (not by the weight loss it might provide). Gyms are for people who like gyms and duck mouth selfies. Refined sugar must be avoided like the plague and nutural fats in food is not necessarily bad.

Alexandra Craig said :

Evilomlap said :

I think the problem is not 24 hour gyms it’s the overriding ‘quick fix’ mentality peddled by a lot of these dime-a-dozen ‘personal trainers’. This notion that you can ‘lose weight for summer’ by starting an exercise program in October is ridiculous. I wouldn’t trust most of these ‘personal trainers’ as far as I could throw them, which thanks to 5 years of consistent, slow and steady weight training and diet, would be reasonably far.

Well, technically you can lose weight for summer by starting in October, but it will probably only be a couple of kilos at most. And that’s how they get you. They’re not lying but they’re giving the perception that a complete body transformation can be done in a short amount of time. They’re using people’s lack of education and knowledge of health and general nutrition to their benefit. Not saying that what they’re doing is right, hence the need for greater education on these issues.

Of course you can lose a lot of weight and transform your body quickly if you’re dedicated. Coming back from broken arms I lost 14kg in September/October 2014 while toning up considerably. All in the diet, the boot camp I joined, and going to my 24 hour gym consistently. Even with Xmas indulging I still haven’t put weight back on.

If I can do it with ridiculous amount of muscle wastage from literally not using my arms and surgery, any regular unfit person can do it. All it requires is motivation, dedication, education and no excuses.

Tooks said :

Perhaps the quarter of obese Canberrans are the ones not going to the gym.

That’s what I was thinking. I go to the gym regularly – I like to do BodyAttack and the class is always packed. No obese people there! I can’t say I’ve noticed anyone I’d call obese at my gym at all.

I would like to point out that health research indicates that it is better to be overweight and fit, rather than thin and fit. Yes statistically if you are overweight/obese you are likely to have worse health outcomes, however if take into account fitness levels it is better to be overweight and fit rather than thin and fit.

So overweight people who are fit doesn’t sound too bad to me…

In regards to weight, my understanding is that most of your weight is determined by what you eat rather than exercise.

Evilomlap said :

I think the problem is not 24 hour gyms it’s the overriding ‘quick fix’ mentality peddled by a lot of these dime-a-dozen ‘personal trainers’. This notion that you can ‘lose weight for summer’ by starting an exercise program in October is ridiculous. I wouldn’t trust most of these ‘personal trainers’ as far as I could throw them, which thanks to 5 years of consistent, slow and steady weight training and diet, would be reasonably far.

Well, technically you can lose weight for summer by starting in October, but it will probably only be a couple of kilos at most. And that’s how they get you. They’re not lying but they’re giving the perception that a complete body transformation can be done in a short amount of time. They’re using people’s lack of education and knowledge of health and general nutrition to their benefit. Not saying that what they’re doing is right, hence the need for greater education on these issues.

Alexandra Craig said :

John Moulis said :

Sometimes you need a 24 hour gym for an emergency workout. Last Sunday I went to a place called Brodburger for lunch and ordered the Deluxe burger. When it came out I was horrified. It was almost 8 inches thick, had two beef patties, a fried egg, bacon, melted cheese and mayonnaise. The Americans call that a heart attack burger. I couldn’t send it back, I had to eat it. As soon as I arrived home I packed my gym bag, went to the gym and did an emergency one hour on the treadmill. I think I managed to minimise the damage as much as possible. I shudder to think what would have happened if I went to that place for dinner and wasn’t a member of a 24 hour gym.

You didn’t *have* to eat it. You could have just eaten half. Your hour on the treadmill probably didn’t help much, if at all. I don’t know your age or medical stats obviously, but an hour of me smashing myself at the gym, really really smashing myself, only burns around 600 calories which is slightly more than a Big Mac. And my guess is, a Big Mac has much less kilojoules than what a Brodburger Deluxe does. If an hour in the gym was enough to burn off a big huge burger like that, we’d have one every day.

Okay, here come the braggers. Good for you if you can resist eating a delicious burger that you have already ordered after waiting 1.5 hours for when hungry. It depends on whether or not you agree with my statements based on a single piece of evidence that I decide to adhere to.

I think the problem is not 24 hour gyms it’s the overriding ‘quick fix’ mentality peddled by a lot of these dime-a-dozen ‘personal trainers’. This notion that you can ‘lose weight for summer’ by starting an exercise program in October is ridiculous. I wouldn’t trust most of these ‘personal trainers’ as far as I could throw them, which thanks to 5 years of consistent, slow and steady weight training and diet, would be reasonably far.

John Moulis said :

Sometimes you need a 24 hour gym for an emergency workout. Last Sunday I went to a place called Brodburger for lunch and ordered the Deluxe burger. When it came out I was horrified. It was almost 8 inches thick, had two beef patties, a fried egg, bacon, melted cheese and mayonnaise. The Americans call that a heart attack burger. I couldn’t send it back, I had to eat it. As soon as I arrived home I packed my gym bag, went to the gym and did an emergency one hour on the treadmill. I think I managed to minimise the damage as much as possible. I shudder to think what would have happened if I went to that place for dinner and wasn’t a member of a 24 hour gym.

LOL this is awesome. Do people not understand humour anymore?

What you eat is just as important as the exercise. You can work out like crazy, if you then go eat large double quarter pounder meal with bacon, and an extra burger, you’re never going to lose weight.

Also while there are less people in the gyms overnight, there are definitely people. Students head in when they get a chance, shift workers, hospitality workers, and those who just aim to head in when the gym is quiet. Plus just because it’s a 24 hour gym doesn’t mean you HAVE to go there outside of core hours.

When I am exercising with strict goals, I’ll go to the gym at any hour, better than making excuses as to not having enough time. I’ve had plenty a Friday night walking home through civic from the gym while everyone else is getting drunk and eating crap. If I’m not doing anything else at 11pm, why shouldn’t I go to the gym?

Also, no matter how many calories you burn in a day – that’s not a reason to eat crappy food. People would feel much better and healthier if they just ate well rather than eating terribly but justifying it by doing exercise. As I quoted in the article, unless you’re a marathon runner you will be able to out-eat any exercise program, no matter how intense it is.

Genie said :

Alexandra Craig said :

John Moulis said :

Sometimes you need a 24 hour gym for an emergency workout. Last Sunday I went to a place called Brodburger for lunch and ordered the Deluxe burger. When it came out I was horrified. It was almost 8 inches thick, had two beef patties, a fried egg, bacon, melted cheese and mayonnaise. The Americans call that a heart attack burger. I couldn’t send it back, I had to eat it. As soon as I arrived home I packed my gym bag, went to the gym and did an emergency one hour on the treadmill. I think I managed to minimise the damage as much as possible. I shudder to think what would have happened if I went to that place for dinner and wasn’t a member of a 24 hour gym.

You didn’t *have* to eat it. You could have just eaten half. Your hour on the treadmill probably didn’t help much, if at all. I don’t know your age or medical stats obviously, but an hour of me smashing myself at the gym, really really smashing myself, only burns around 600 calories which is slightly more than a Big Mac. And my guess is, a Big Mac has much less kilojoules than what a Brodburger Deluxe does. If an hour in the gym was enough to burn off a big huge burger like that, we’d have one every day.

Absolutely smashing yourself and only 600 calories in an hour…. O_o

I can do that in 30 mins.

Okay, here come the braggers. Good for you if you can burn 600 calories in less than half an hour but a lot of people can’t. It depends on age, weight, fitness level, height etc. I was talking to my PT about this the other day – she is short and lean, she burns much less than I do in an hour.

If everyone could burn 600 calories in 30 minutes or less we wouldn’t have an obesity problem because people would effectively burn off most of their consumed calories each day.

Alexandra Craig said :

John Moulis said :

Sometimes you need a 24 hour gym for an emergency workout. Last Sunday I went to a place called Brodburger for lunch and ordered the Deluxe burger. When it came out I was horrified. It was almost 8 inches thick, had two beef patties, a fried egg, bacon, melted cheese and mayonnaise. The Americans call that a heart attack burger. I couldn’t send it back, I had to eat it. As soon as I arrived home I packed my gym bag, went to the gym and did an emergency one hour on the treadmill. I think I managed to minimise the damage as much as possible. I shudder to think what would have happened if I went to that place for dinner and wasn’t a member of a 24 hour gym.

You didn’t *have* to eat it. You could have just eaten half. Your hour on the treadmill probably didn’t help much, if at all. I don’t know your age or medical stats obviously, but an hour of me smashing myself at the gym, really really smashing myself, only burns around 600 calories which is slightly more than a Big Mac. And my guess is, a Big Mac has much less kilojoules than what a Brodburger Deluxe does. If an hour in the gym was enough to burn off a big huge burger like that, we’d have one every day.

Absolutely smashing yourself and only 600 calories in an hour…. O_o

I can do that in 30 mins.

Alexandra Craig said :

John Moulis said :

Sometimes you need a 24 hour gym for an emergency workout. Last Sunday I went to a place called Brodburger for lunch and ordered the Deluxe burger. When it came out I was horrified. It was almost 8 inches thick, had two beef patties, a fried egg, bacon, melted cheese and mayonnaise. The Americans call that a heart attack burger. I couldn’t send it back, I had to eat it. As soon as I arrived home I packed my gym bag, went to the gym and did an emergency one hour on the treadmill. I think I managed to minimise the damage as much as possible. I shudder to think what would have happened if I went to that place for dinner and wasn’t a member of a 24 hour gym.

You didn’t *have* to eat it. You could have just eaten half. Your hour on the treadmill probably didn’t help much, if at all. I don’t know your age or medical stats obviously, but an hour of me smashing myself at the gym, really really smashing myself, only burns around 600 calories which is slightly more than a Big Mac. And my guess is, a Big Mac has much less kilojoules than what a Brodburger Deluxe does. If an hour in the gym was enough to burn off a big huge burger like that, we’d have one every day.

Sounds like you need to put on more lean muscle mass, and get aerobically fitter.

I can burn 600 calories in 26 minutes of really smashin myself on the eliptical at the gym.

A burger a day for me!

John Moulis said :

Sometimes you need a 24 hour gym for an emergency workout. Last Sunday I went to a place called Brodburger for lunch and ordered the Deluxe burger. When it came out I was horrified. It was almost 8 inches thick, had two beef patties, a fried egg, bacon, melted cheese and mayonnaise. The Americans call that a heart attack burger. I couldn’t send it back, I had to eat it. As soon as I arrived home I packed my gym bag, went to the gym and did an emergency one hour on the treadmill. I think I managed to minimise the damage as much as possible. I shudder to think what would have happened if I went to that place for dinner and wasn’t a member of a 24 hour gym.

You didn’t *have* to eat it. You could have just eaten half. Your hour on the treadmill probably didn’t help much, if at all. I don’t know your age or medical stats obviously, but an hour of me smashing myself at the gym, really really smashing myself, only burns around 600 calories which is slightly more than a Big Mac. And my guess is, a Big Mac has much less kilojoules than what a Brodburger Deluxe does. If an hour in the gym was enough to burn off a big huge burger like that, we’d have one every day.

Sometimes you need a 24 hour gym for an emergency workout. Last Sunday I went to a place called Brodburger for lunch and ordered the Deluxe burger. When it came out I was horrified. It was almost 8 inches thick, had two beef patties, a fried egg, bacon, melted cheese and mayonnaise. The Americans call that a heart attack burger. I couldn’t send it back, I had to eat it. As soon as I arrived home I packed my gym bag, went to the gym and did an emergency one hour on the treadmill. I think I managed to minimise the damage as much as possible. I shudder to think what would have happened if I went to that place for dinner and wasn’t a member of a 24 hour gym.

I think a lot of people, perhaps the majority, know what is “healthy” food, but they dont decide to eat it for a number of reasons. Lack of immediate negative consequences is of of those things.

Try and convince your average 20 year old, slightly overwieght, that they need to cut down on saturated fats and sugar because they “might” develop health issues in later life. Its nto exactly compelling argument. Its a bit like superannuation. We should all sort it out early, but why should we, when there is so much time to fix it up down the track….or so we say till its a bit late.

crackerpants said :

Alexandra, you’re the journalist so I won’t tell you how to do your job. But if you go beyond casual observation and visit online forums, facebook pages etc (and I think I’ve seen you on the Canberra Mums page) you’ll get some insight into just how complex this issue is.

As someone with a sound upbringing, good genes and a couple of biology degrees, I always assumed people knew what they should consume to be healthy, and as someone in favour of preventive health measures, I used to shake my head in wonder as well. But after seeking some “support” in losing pregnancy weight post-3 babies, I’ve found that a lot of people really have no clue when it comes to nutrition and exercise. It’s not even willful, it’s just never crossed their radar during their lives. I’ve been amazed at some of the profoundly ignorant questions people ask about food, but then I realised I was taking my privilege – my upbringing and education – for granted. So some people who are trying to make a change are really pushing uphill – they’re starting from a base of nothing. So I agree that more education is needed, but implementing that in any meaningful way is extraordinarily difficult. Just look at the debate around junk food advertising and taxes, which tends to peak and trough on a regular basis.

As for gym membership, I’m sure there are correlations there, but I tend not to associate exercise with going to the gym. Gym-going is, to me, a small part of the dedicated exercise people participate in. It belongs to my carefree 20s when I had the time and lack of home responsibilities to allow me to go. You will find groups apart from shift-workers who value after-hours exercise options. I don’t go to the gym, but as someone who has to get 3 kids to bed before fitting exercise in, evenings post-8pm, lunchbreaks and maybe weekends are my opportunities. I also think gym membership can be counter-productive. “Going to the gym” generally involves getting there, changing, staying an hour to make it worthwhile etc etc. For busy mums who may get frequent but short windows to exercise, other options are much better, and harder to dismiss for lack of time.

Haha – I’m not a journalist… just a contributor 🙂 Not sure if I should be flattered or insulted! Haha!

I agree re how complex this issue is. It’s incredibly difficult to implement changes of any kind to our education system, especially ones about nutrition when people are so set in their ways and as you said, are starting from the base of nothing and working their way up.

Rollersk8r said :

I generally agree that people have no idea about healthy food. The queues at Boost Juice and Subway prove this every day. Banana bread is a classic that people often consider to be healthy. Take a look at the nutritional information provided by McDonalds – their banana bread is right up there with the burgers for kilojoules.

Yes! So true! Boost Juice is the worst. It’s not even fruit. It’s juices and nectars and syrups, mixed with yoghurt and ice. I make my own smoothies that consist of frozen fruit, water, and sometimes chia seeds. Way better than the crap peddled as ‘health’ food by Boost.

Same with Subway. I occasionally get Subway for lunch but order a wrap, with plain chicken (none of this coated schnitzel business), no cheese, and a heap of salad. Meanwhile you’ve got people ordering a 6 foot sub with cheese coated bread, cheese on the inside and fatty meats like salami, plus a whole heap of sauce on top, but because it’s got salad in it, that makes it healthy apparently. Um, no.

I don’t think it’s any secret that gyms aim to sign up a heap of members who never show up after the first week. Although, I’m still astonished my local Club Lime manages to cover the rent. There’d be less than 8 regular weekday morning users – out of thousands of potential users in the immediate surrounding suburbs.

However, I also believe Canberra’s stats on obesity, exercise levels, sporting participation, cycling trips per capita etc etc are the best in the country, aren’t they??

I generally agree that people have no idea about healthy food. The queues at Boost Juice and Subway prove this every day. Banana bread is a classic that people often consider to be healthy. Take a look at the nutritional information provided by McDonalds – their banana bread is right up there with the burgers for kilojoules.

Alexandra, you’re the journalist so I won’t tell you how to do your job. But if you go beyond casual observation and visit online forums, facebook pages etc (and I think I’ve seen you on the Canberra Mums page) you’ll get some insight into just how complex this issue is.

As someone with a sound upbringing, good genes and a couple of biology degrees, I always assumed people knew what they should consume to be healthy, and as someone in favour of preventive health measures, I used to shake my head in wonder as well. But after seeking some “support” in losing pregnancy weight post-3 babies, I’ve found that a lot of people really have no clue when it comes to nutrition and exercise. It’s not even willful, it’s just never crossed their radar during their lives. I’ve been amazed at some of the profoundly ignorant questions people ask about food, but then I realised I was taking my privilege – my upbringing and education – for granted. So some people who are trying to make a change are really pushing uphill – they’re starting from a base of nothing. So I agree that more education is needed, but implementing that in any meaningful way is extraordinarily difficult. Just look at the debate around junk food advertising and taxes, which tends to peak and trough on a regular basis.

As for gym membership, I’m sure there are correlations there, but I tend not to associate exercise with going to the gym. Gym-going is, to me, a small part of the dedicated exercise people participate in. It belongs to my carefree 20s when I had the time and lack of home responsibilities to allow me to go. You will find groups apart from shift-workers who value after-hours exercise options. I don’t go to the gym, but as someone who has to get 3 kids to bed before fitting exercise in, evenings post-8pm, lunchbreaks and maybe weekends are my opportunities. I also think gym membership can be counter-productive. “Going to the gym” generally involves getting there, changing, staying an hour to make it worthwhile etc etc. For busy mums who may get frequent but short windows to exercise, other options are much better, and harder to dismiss for lack of time.

You make some good points, Alexandra.

Weight loss and maintaining a stable weight are mostly the result of diet – what you eat, and how much of it you eat. I see a lot of people exercise and then ruin it by eating poorly. Bad food choices, and poor portion control will undo hours worth of hard work in the gym.

I’m always fascinated that so many people don’t seem to know the basics of nutrition. It seems that they’d rather follow a fad they saw on Instagram than spend the few minutes necessary to educate themselves about why that dietary fad will or won’t work, and how it affects the body. “Tea-toxing” is a prime example. The claim is that if you consume nothing but a certain kind of tea for x number of days, you’ll lose weight and be slimmer. Well, of course you will. But it’s nothing to do with the tea. It’s because you starved yourself for 3 days. You’d get the same result with water and it’s basically free. “I’m not eating carbs” is another example. I’ve heard this from a lot of people. When I ask them why, the response is usually “they’re bad for you”. Actually carbohydrates aren’t “bad” for you. You need them to survive. But most people don’t bother to understand the difference between simple and complex carbohydrate chains, what they do for the body, or where they come from. A little bit of education goes a long way and in the days where you can Google an answer within moments from your smart phone, there really is no excuse for people not educating themselves. I can only assume it’s due to laziness and/or complacency that so many people lack the education necessary to make good choices.

I’m also a firm believer that sugar is a huge problem in modern diets. We aren’t designed to consume the quantities of sugar that most of us do, so it’s not surprising that so many of us are obese, overweight, struggling with diabetes, etc. A trip through the supermarket paying attention to the ingredients on labels is quite an eye opener. Of the groceries I buy every week, more than half would contain added sugar if I didn’t intentionally choose the brands that do not add sugar to their products. Even things like tuna or tinned tomatoes, products that have have no reason to include sugar as an ingredient, often do.

Felix the Cat said :

Regarding the gym, you don’t need a gym to exercise. Plenty of places to go for a bike ride or a walk or a jog.

This is true. Walking and running are said to be the best forms of exercise. I definitely burn the most calories when I’m running. It’s also easy to do more of a ‘gym’ workout from home too. For the days I get home late or want to exercise when my gym is closed, I use a yoga mat, a kettlebell, abdominal wheel, and also have a set of boxing gloves and pads, so I can train at home. Burpees are also super effective and they can be done anywhere, anytime! 🙂

Perhaps the quarter of obese Canberrans are the ones not going to the gym.

24 hour gyms are great. It used to drive me spare the crappo opening hours of gynms, what with all the public holidays, weird weekend hours and late morning starts.

You might like to know that exercise still has significant health benefits even if weight loss does not occur. So its not all bad dude 🙂

Agree that more education about food and it’s nutrition and calorie content.

Regarding the gym, you don’t need a gym to exercise. Plenty of places to go for a bike ride or a walk or a jog.