Former athlete tough-guys. Friendly faced funny guys. Even cheesy crooners & boy band swooners. All are examples of the new school of celebrity men who are loudly & proudly going on commercial diets. Journalist Dave McGinn chronicles this new phenomenon in the Toronto Globe this week, by cleverly observing the weight loss industry is encouraging dieting for "dudely" reasons. The sense of competition, the athlete restoring himself to glory...
But along comes Costanza (yes, George Costanza) to turn these typical notions around. Jenny Craig debuted their latest spokesperson last month, as actor Jason Alexander put it pretty plainly- it's all about appearance for him. The former Seinfeld star says he simply wants to look better. Most experts agree, this singular motive is generally the primary reason women cite for wanting to lose weight. Men however, generally try in earnest to drop a few after a health scare or warning from a doctor. According to McGinn's source at Weight Watchers, “women are more likely to start dieting in reaction to what they see in the mirror or what they see in a photograph. That isn’t it for men, for the most part. They’re more likely to put off dieting until it becomes a health issue.”
Skinny Scoopers are loving the phenomenon quite frankly, but we do wish the social shift was about motives too. Vanity is rarely reason enough to help a dieter go the distance. Permanent weight loss is far more likely to happen when desire and discipline are fueled by things more meaningful than the universal does mybutt look fat in these pants phobia.
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