Training fat slobs: a new phenomenon?

[Peter_k]

I know you don't like diet questions, but I'm not asking for specific advice, just trying to see if you can shed light on this since it comes up all the time.

There seem to be a lot of fat people asking about how they can do the program and lose weight/not gain any more fat. There are myriad different diets, methods of manipulating macronutrients, etc to accomplish this.

Was it always this complicated? I mean, I'm not one of those people who see the 1970s as a golden age of health and fitness, but I get the impression that most people who trained 30, 40 years ago worried much less about their diets and much more about their training.

I'd guess that when you were a young powerlifter, you probably weren't concerned with carb curfews, paleo foods and "cutting phases."

My feeling is that the main reason for this is people simply sit around on their asses a lot more today than they did back then. If you get virtually zero physical activity beyond 3-4 hours in the gym each week, you'll inevitably have problems staying lean. Does that seem right?

[Mark Rippetoe]

There have always been diet/supplement fads. The industry will see to it that this continues. Amino Acids tabs were the big deal back in the day. Bodybuilders (even those that think they're powerlifters) always worry more about these things than the non-physique-oriented guys. It's probably not any worse now than it was then.