Associate
- Joined
- 20 Dec 2007
- Posts
- 1,319
- Location
- Nottingham
I eat 4000 cals a day. Does that make me a man or am i still a woman because i know i eat 4000 cals a day?
Attitude of the public to bodybuilders
- Thread starter ethan
- Start date
I eat 4000 cals a day. Does that make me a man or am i still a woman because i know i eat 4000 cals a day?
Much more important to most peoples progress, most people seem to confuse bbers with the stacked up chicken legged little chavs that swagger around on a night out thinking their the dogs bits.
Thats massively different to someone who is truely into their training and nutrition
Im glad you said something along thoes lines. I care about what i eat, while i dont know my calorie count i make sure i eat the right food.
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Jan 2006
- Posts
- 4,692
You're doing it wrong!!111
Bear in mind that this is all my opinion (Just want to make sure people realise that I am not talking like it should be gospel), But why do you care how many calories you eat? Its fine to be healthy and take care, but counting calories and "oh no, 2g of fat, i better get the light blah instead.." just makes me laugh its so ridiculous. If you have a varied diet and you arent eating Mcdonalds washed down with 10 pints every night with a kebab for after and weigh 20 stone and are 6ft, you should be fine.
People i know never judge someone in a positive light for being hench and massive; they would look at you and go "wow your life must be pretty damn dull to spend that long obsessing over yourself", not to mention the narcissistic side. I dont know anyone that would go "oh wow, you can do 50 reps of 40kg dbells, man you are a god and i am so in awe".
I suspect there is some psychological factor that brings bodybuilders together; either a low sense of worth, low self image/self esteem or sense of inadequecy, its the only thing i can think of.
Its great you want to make yourself better, but you need to be multi-faceted in doing so (not saying you are not but all that time checking diet, weights etc cant leave a lot of time).
Associate
- Joined
- 20 Dec 2007
- Posts
- 1,319
- Location
- Nottingham
I've never had any negitive feedback due to my size (although at 16 stone and 6 foot i don't believe i'm overly big for my height). But saying that I didn't put Bodybuilding as one of my hobbies on my work CV.
As for time, i only train 3 days a week, for 45-60 minutes at a time. On top of that i play football once a week for 1 hour, and cycle to work once a week. That really is not a lot of time to devote in my opinion, and certainly not classed as obsessing over ones self. It's definitely better that sitting in front of the TV/computer, as may on this forum probably do and say they don't have the time to go to the gym at all.
Nutrition is a big part of it but a little planning means that it doesn't really add anytime to my day at all.
Oh and just so you know, dietary fat does not make you fat. And the lighter option food are generally worse for you than the full fat versions.
No I do appreciate that: I think my "jibe" for want of a better term was at the stereotype rather than the people on here - Hence the gross exaggerations 
I do commend people for having a solid diet, but again - calorie counting and general "faffing" with avoiding things, eating grilled chicken and all that nonsense only just rubs me up the wrong way as a bloke. I guess its some deep-seated Misogyny (i joke).
I do commend people for having a solid diet, but again - calorie counting and general "faffing" with avoiding things, eating grilled chicken and all that nonsense only just rubs me up the wrong way as a bloke. I guess its some deep-seated Misogyny
(i joke).
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 5 Jun 2003
- Posts
- 91,819
- Location
- Falling...
There are 2 types.
1) Those that want attention and build the "look at me" physique and attitude and want to be noticed and praised and have their ego massaged.
2) Those that do it for themselves for their own development of strength and size, set their own targets, goals and aspirations.
They are mutually exclusive in my experience.
1) Those that want attention and build the "look at me" physique and attitude and want to be noticed and praised and have their ego massaged.
2) Those that do it for themselves for their own development of strength and size, set their own targets, goals and aspirations.
They are mutually exclusive in my experience.
Because somebody wishes to excell in a particular sport/hobby/interest does not necesarily mean that they have low self esteem or a low self worth. I don't deny that this might be the case for some however you will find people get massive satisfaction from setting and achieving goals. Which is probaly the more likely reason for the majority. It just so happens to be a sport/hobby that people often think is vein and that people only take part in to inflate their egos.
Il happily step up and admit I got into the gym due to crap self esteem, whats wrong with that?
I'm pushing and improving myself because it makes me feel better, I'm not bullying or belittling other people to make me feel better about myself, I'm not damaging my body with drugs to do it.
I don't see why people feel the need to say that people who like to push themselves in the gym do it because of low feelings of self worth or esteem like its a negative thing, their going out there doing something about it and not hurting anyone else in the process.
If anything it pushes you into not only a physically stronger but mentally stronger person because you know at the end of the day its yourself your pushing against.
You go in there you train your arse off because you know that PB is within reach and your not taking no for an answer, you know that if you dont make it youve only got yourself to blame and thats a crap feeling.
The world is full of too many people who like to pass on blame or just generally float through life without ever pushing themselves.
I know this post is a bit of a muddled brain dump but I felt I had to get it out there.
I'm pushing and improving myself because it makes me feel better, I'm not bullying or belittling other people to make me feel better about myself, I'm not damaging my body with drugs to do it.
I don't see why people feel the need to say that people who like to push themselves in the gym do it because of low feelings of self worth or esteem like its a negative thing, their going out there doing something about it and not hurting anyone else in the process.
If anything it pushes you into not only a physically stronger but mentally stronger person because you know at the end of the day its yourself your pushing against.
You go in there you train your arse off because you know that PB is within reach and your not taking no for an answer, you know that if you dont make it youve only got yourself to blame and thats a crap feeling.
The world is full of too many people who like to pass on blame or just generally float through life without ever pushing themselves.
I know this post is a bit of a muddled brain dump but I felt I had to get it out there.
spoon me tom that was very moving.
Agree, although I'd say theres a bit in between those two - who go for the attention and look at me physique but aren't stuck up about it.
The way I see it is everyone wants to stand out one way or another, whether your bb'ing for strength (you want to stand out against other weight lifters) or your bb'ing for physique (to stand out against others, i.e; public and fellow bb'ers). Theres also the case where you become motivated out of doing so.
a lot of the general public underestimate the knowledge, time, dedication that goes into bb'ing (physique or for strength) and assume people just inject themselves with drugs, and grow overnight and have no intelligence, when in actual fact a lot are intelligent and extremley dedicated to their hobby - much like people here are dedicated to overclocking, gaming etc.
You find the people that put down other people are just jealous of them, if your out with your mates and you look better due to physique infront of girls you've got a right to feel good about yourself, its your hobby and you've been/are dedicated to it. People stating omg that bodybuilding is ridiculous, why dont people eat normal etc etc - well say that to the people who dedicate themselves to studying and therefore progress further than those that do not, its all the same thing and boils down to jealousy at the end of the day.
Completley agree with this post;
I don't consider myself a bodybuilder at all. I'm a weight lifter, but I don't do it for the aesthetics of it - sure I post pics, but that's often just to gauge progress and also to help motivate myself and others of what is possible with good nutrition and effort.
I don't wear tight t-shirts or try and show off my physique, in fact I hate that. In the gym 99% of time I wear long trousers and a sweatshirt. Outdoors, I don't wear flattering clothes, but then again I'm not into fashion at all.
I don't particularly like looking at myself in the mirror anyway so I don't do it for that. I do it because I like being strong, I like being fit (I do fitness training as well), I like being able to lift and manipulate my bodyweight without any effort, and it's been genuinely helpful being powerful for playing rugby, helping friends move flats, and general day to day living is helped.
I don't know what reactions I get from other people in the street as I don't notice, I don't think I look big, in fact I think I look distinctively average. I don't really get fuss from people, but at the same time I don't look for fuss either.
Ultimately, some people like to be big, some don't, some women like big guys, some don't... there's no rule. I think in general if you're a healthy individual you stand more of a chance (that along with the possibility of a handsome face!) - but it's also down to confidence and how you carry yourself. For a lot of people lifting weights and going to the gym helps boost confidence - that in itself has a greater effect on your own perception of life and yourself, as well as others, and how others perceive you.
I don't get drunkards or bouncers giving me looks or nods of "respect" or what have you. It doesn't bother me as I'm not doing it for the approval of others. I know that with my bare hands I can lift close to 600kg in different types of lift, and for me that's pretty cool. Then again to others, having an overclocked pc, and squeezing the best out of their system is equally cool - nowt wrong with that at all. Both require dedication and knowledge as well as time and practice and effort.
I guess what I'm driving at, is, people who know **** all about bodybuilding don't understand why you'd do it. Likewise people that know **** all about computers don't understand why you'd spend your time doing what you do to them. Ultimately it's a bit of ignorance as well as a preconceived erroneous ideas and stereotypes of such people.
Last edited:
Depends what they are wearing as to what I think of them.
If they are strutting round with the guns out thinking they are amazing I tend to think "what a door handle" and I laugh a little inside, especially if they have no neck.
Dressed like your average person, I think nothing of it.
If they are strutting round with the guns out thinking they are amazing I tend to think "what a door handle" and I laugh a little inside, especially if they have no neck.
Dressed like your average person, I think nothing of it.
The bodybuilders nod is just a recognition for the hard work you have put in from sports personalities, trainers and other individuals involved in the same or similar pursuits. In reality the nod you get from doormen etc is probably a coy attempt to keep on the good side of you or an attempt to be pleasant nothing more. The idiots intent on causing trouble are generally the one's lacking in self esteem. You will, of course get idiot bodybuilders but chances are that they were idiots before they started bodybuilding: the two are not necessarily one and the same. Not everybodybuilder can be labelled vain simply for looking in the mirror on a continual basis as there are probably millions of non sport participating individuals doing this on a continual basis also. I think the point to stress is with every bodybuilder, powerlifter and weightlifter their story is different and in no way can you tar everybody with the same brush: especially with some of the things that have been mentioned in this thread.
Last edited:
That they clearly love themselves and spend a lot of the time looking in the mirror and walk around in vests in winter to show everyone their muscles even though we don't care.If you want to work out and look good fine but don't act like a poser.
Couple of stereotypes that probably fit in with a lot of peoples views.
Couple of stereotypes that probably fit in with a lot of peoples views.
That ticked me off when i held a lot of muscle during my college years, i had basically just started training and i was taking Maximuscle Cyclone and Promax Amino Acids and because you're a beginner, you seem to be able to develop muscle and lose fat quicker than usual, but with the supplements it was a lot quicker than usual, and after about 6-8 weeks, i got labelled for using steroids because of it.
I'm no longer a big guy however, i decided i felt more comfortable getting a ripped physique rather than bulk and now i'm training towards that goal and to mantain it.