"Four out of five men confess to being unhappy about their body, suggests an online survey by the University of the West of England."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16430142
A motivation for getting on a bike then?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Body image: Men 'most unhappy about beer bellies'
(23 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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A motivation for getting on a bike then?
Alas, it hasn't got rid of mine. :-(
My legs are perfectly toned and hard as steel, though.It's partly my age, it is more difficult to get rid of a belly once you're over 40, trust me. When I was 20 something I was as thin as a rake. Sit ups, stomach crunches and press ups will have to become part of my routine I think if I want to banish this accursed thing...
Posted 13 years ago # -
I know all about that. I force myself to pilates sessions. I have to resist cake if I haven't justified it (e.g. a 50 miler). It's a hard life.
Posted 13 years ago # -
But I am slimmer than I would have been without all the cycling.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Getting rid of a beer belly - thought you just gave up beer?
Beer or cake, mmm.
Posted 13 years ago # -
What is it they say again? Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.
Posted 13 years ago # -
But I am slimmer than I would have been without all the cycling.
Oh I dread to think what size I'd be otherwise. I'm already one of the 68% of Scots who are overweight (moderately in my case); Don't want to be one of the 27% who are obese!
Blobs on bikes, unite and fight the flab!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Unfortunately you can't choose from which part of the body you withdraw fat from for use as energy, unless perhaps you restrict blood flow to particular areas before exercising heavily. There's also all that nice internal-organ-padding-fat which can be utilised for lipolytic metabolism in addition to the subcutaneous stores.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The involvement of Central YMCA (a fitness centre and charity) was a sign and when I got to the part where one in five men were on a high protein diet and one in three were taking protein supplements it all became worryingly wrong. They should call it a survey of preening bodybuilders.
But anyone can fill in the survey. There's no sampling or control or anything. You just head along here.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Good catch, Insto. I thought the protein shake figure sounded off, but it didn't occur to me to check if it was a survey among the population, or among the male users of gyms with no squat racks.
The part that struck me was where 35% said they'd trade a year of their life for the physique they wanted. I know a chap who's traded both his kidneys for the physique he wanted.
Crow - a lovely pair of thighs like yours doubtless weighs a fair bit, and you hardly need any muscle mass to be considered overweight by BMI so if you're just going by that measure, then...well, stop it.
Tense and then have a wee prod of your abdominal muscles; if the muscles are slack, which is very unlikely on a cyclist who ever goes fast or up a hill, then toning them up will give a firmer base and nicer looking waistline.
If as I suspect there's steel lurking under the belly then you can't make the overlying fat look any better, so for the reasons wingpig gave, directly working the abs is almost useless. I personally don't rate anything but no-belt deadlifts and squats for abdominal work.
Pressups are okay but I recommend dips and chins instead, assuming you'd like some more upper body mass and don't fancy joining a good spit'n'sawdust gym.
Posted 13 years ago # -
nah its my big toes i dont like , my beer belly is lovely, it just goes to show my zen like attidude to life..........hic !
Posted 13 years ago # -
Really its my little feet I don't like, if they were longer I'd be able to see them and be happy :D
Posted 13 years ago # -
If I didn't cycle I would be a house
Posted 13 years ago # -
@steveo
"back on the road again ! "Posted 13 years ago # -
I also noticed that 1/4 of the respondents were gay, a little above the national average (10% I last heard).
Now I know its a little stereotypical but in my experience gay guys tend to care more about their appearance than straight guys. Just checking with a gender-studies PHD friend to see if this is actually the case tho..
I am body conscious to a certain degree and Im not really particularly fat or weak. I recon I got it from my mother.
As for beer bellies, I stopped drinking and trained hard for 3 months last year, did it make an ounce of difference to the belly? Did it hell :)
Posted 13 years ago # -
Perhaps gay men lie less about caring about their appearance?
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Uberuce, rotfl, fair one!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Very insightful answers....
Thank you chaps for making me laugh, best I have had for ages!! Love it.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Liz, mars and venus are not so very far apart really ;-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
Hugely body conscious here, for what it's worth.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Recently moved house, medical at new doctor, as part of conversation I slip in the "I cycle 100 miles a week" line. He replied, without a word of a lie, "you must eat a lot".
I too, am among the have very toned legs/bottom, and massive belly minority!Posted 13 years ago # -
@Uberuce aye, bodybuilding is the accepted outlet for male vanity.
Posted 13 years ago # -
My wordy friend got back to me:
yes and no, yes there is a correlation, BUT correlation is not causation, it only speaks for a certian part of the queer contingency, and is more linked to the subculture of Camp which decends from (and carries certain politics from) the ideals of the Flaneur of victorian times, and the image of 'The Dandy'. The correlation of gay -men- caring more about appearance is predicated upon two things: firstly the overarching patriarchal culture within which sexuality is grounded primarily upon sexual attractiveness FOR men (or other men) means that standard of attractiveness are still fundamentally based upon (once you really get down to it below all the other dynamics and discourses of culture) upon certain cultural beliefs (not necessarily true, but by their being there and there continuation MAKE themselves true by repetition) means that the pressure to be attractive to men requires certain types of effort, and so this filters through to certain types of men who want to be desired by other men. Secondly, the discourse surrounding male queerness ebing associated with femininity (which is based primarily upon a binary and contingent structure of sex/gender and while is not related by anything that is stable i.e. biology - which isnt stable anyway but is seen as being so) means that in the process of 'becoming', i.e. finding a place within queer culture, aspects of what would be considered traditionally female realms such as appearance-concern become taken on (its much more complicated than that). its also to do with class structures as well, in the 17-19th centuries, only upper class amles had the 'privilege' of being able to assume their gay identity and access gay subcultures, however hidden. at least these are the only ones we know about, becuase they were the only ones that were documented - being the white, male, upper class hegemony (as always - thats the only well documented history we get) This was a part of culture where being extravagent and a bit bizarre was tolerated and encouraged, since they had the means to do so, so many of those ideals have passed down as exemplars of male gay expression.
basically, it's cultural, social, class based and historical
nothing to do with the genetic of 'being gay'
(although genes are very much socially controlled anyway)
well - gene EXPRESSION is - i.e. which genes become activated and which ones you have that lie dormant - is all to do with your social and environmental contextAll clear now?
Posted 13 years ago #
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