Eat Like A Man Diet

I thought I would focus on something completely unrelated to the swine flu, but still on the topic of “pigs”.

There is a consensus that dieting is totally a female thing. Weight Watchers and the like are missing out on 50% of the population. How to get them? How about by telling them that they can diet in a “manly” way. Judging by the picture in the ad, this diet involves eating huge chunks of meat and a tiny bit of vegetables.

eat-liike-a-man

In fact, this ad may tap into the psyche of males that just want to lose a few pounds. Psychologically, meat is seen as masculine and, conversely, vegetables and meat substitutes like tofu are described as feminine or feminizing. A recent Hummer commercial played into those very sentiments. A man who is ‘caught’ buying tofu and vegetables gets sized up by the guy behind him. To make up for the embarrassment, he must purchase a testosterone inducing Hummer. The Hummer is the yang to his non-meat eating yin. So, like the Hummer ad implies, the Weight Watchers ad is assuring guys that this diet will not impinge on their maleness.

However, the mere fact that they are dieting may alter perceptions about their masculinity. Studies have shown that how much a guy eats is also a measuring point of masculinity levels. Though, perhaps it is not in the same way you may think.

One study, featured in Wansink’s Mindless Eating, gave participants a short paragraph about a couple going out on a movie date. In one version, the paragraph described the male as eating just a few handfuls of popcorn. The other, slightly varied version of the paragraph said the guy ate nearly the whole bucket of popcorn. After reading this description, participants were asked to give their impression of the man. The list of characteristics they judged him on included how masculine he was and how much they thought the guy could bench-press.bigpopcornpict

The fascinating result was that females taking the survey perceived no difference between the two versions of the date. On the hand, men described the guy who ate nearly all the popcorn as being much more masculine and as being able to bench-press significantly more weight. Men are apparently only impressing other men with their eating habits.

The lesson here is that guys can diet, but they can’t tell their guy friends about it. Thus, the Weight Watchers program may be judged successful not by how many pounds the guys lose, but by how discreet it is.

May 1, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Fun Food Facts, Science & Technology

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