There was a time when getting around was much more of a chore than it is now. Before the automobile, hell, even before the wheel, getting anywhere meant walking and exerting much more energy. These days, getting around is much easier. Most people have a car, and there are many other options now, including airplanes, bicycles, trains and many other things that make transportation easier.
There was also a time, not too long ago, when losing weight only had one practical solution. Proper diet and excersize. And that's still the encouraged and "better" method today. I think we can all agree that dieting and excersizing regularly is not fun. Most of the foods we enjoy isn't healthy. Fat, carbohydrates (including sugar) and sodium are the things that make food taste good, and all 3 are things you ought to avoid eating a lot of. Excersizing is tiring and most people have jobs and lives to live, and don't have the time or energy or willpower to excersize like they should.
However, fairly recently, we have developed an easier way. You can simply have liposuction and get the fat physically removed from you, and skip the difficulties of diet and excersize. Even those who aren't really overweight get liposuction to get parts of their body leaner.
For those really overweight, they can get a gastric bypass which will make them lose weight rapidly, and keep it off.
But most agree that these two procedures aren't the way to go about losing weight. It's considered the easy way out. It's like cheating. You should have to diet and excersize.
Yet if that's true, wouldn't we have to say that technological advances like the automobile or even the bicycles are like cheating your way out of walking?
So at what point do you decide what is making things too easy? Is gastric bypass and liposuction a bad idea? Is driving a car wrong? Is it a bad idea to utilize the technological advances that were developed to make our lives more simple?
Carbohydrates are our primary source of energy, go suck off Atkins.
The reason procedures like liposuction are generally viewed as cheating is because weight loss is about self-improvement. It's not just about burning fat but also changing your attitude towards things and becoming healthier in mind aswell as body. Surgery leaves that part out, so your mind is cheated of some valuable lessons. The real cheating is happening to you, not to people who actually work to lose weight.
Transport is just transport. We didn't invent walking so we could better ourselves, we invented it because it's better than pulling ourselves along the ground with our tongues. Coming up with a better way to move around isn't cheating.
You can't make things too easy. Everything should be so easy that I shoudn't even have to think or move. Electric monks will even believe for me. That is the future as I hope it to be.
None of it is wrong, just looked down upon. Personally if I was fat I'd earn my skinny body back. And you can't equate that to driving. Driving is far more efficient to do things you have to do, such as work, whereas it's rare that someone has to lose weight.
Yes, Carbohydrates may be the primary source of energy for humans, but it wasn't until a few thousand years ago that grains were being processed and ground, and the way we use carbs is somewhat rediculous. Most people take in way more carbohydrates than they'll actually need, which is why the excersize is important.
The idea that liposuction could replace exercise and dieting is complete insanity- not only is this expensive and dangerous, you would have to have the sugery over and over again to keep your weight down. If a patient hasn't already tried a dieting and exercise regieme, no doctor would preform the operation in the first place!
You might as well ask if steriods could replace weight training (this is a valid comparison in more ways than one). Nobody with any knowledge of the side effects of steroids would say yes.
I don't think you can really compare transportation with weight loss. Cars are clean and pure, and driving is more than a chore - it is your duty as a driver to enjoy your vehicle to the greatest extent. Make each hydrocarbon count by smoking your tires at every intersection!
Liposuction, from what I understand, is incredibly painful, so I wouldn't call it an easy out. And, while I agree that unhealthy foods are often unhealthy, you can find some healthy choices that are still delicious (I'm a picky eater, so believe me, it's possible). Furthermore, you only need to do 20-30 minutes of exercise a day to get into better shape. Instead of watching a 30 minute programme, go ride your bike for that amount of time.
People who cheat with their health are only getting rid of the appearance of unhealthyness - you have to exercise to get stronger, healthier, and happier about yourself. In essence, their only cheating themselves, not reality.
I eat healthy foods. I've been eating them for about a year. At most, I've lost 5-15 lbs. With my genetics(?), I'm most likely to stay at the weight I am now for the rest of my life, staying in between the 5 and 15. I'd actually have to work to look thinner, seeing as how I've never been thin before. Some people are lucky and can eat all the junk they want and not gain an ounce. I figure if I'm eating healthier, I should be losing more weight. If I work out, I'll get muscle and I don't want it. I want to be one of those petite girls without any strength, like most girls my height. Muscle on me would just be ridiculous. I don't think liposuction is a bad idea at all, but I'd suggest it be done to someone who has already altered their unhealthy lifestyle and not much else works.
Oh, and if you ask people, I think you'll quickly find life is incredibly difficult for a lot of them. Cars and the like only save time, not necessarily make anything easier. And even then it might not save you time these days. As for liposuction, well, most people can't afford it. And when you finally do save up money you still have to exercise and show you can keep the weight off on your own. So you're not really avoiding anything, you're just taking a short cut. You'll still have to eat health afterwards and exercise regularly.
As for other technologies, they all do make their individual tasks easier... but overall it doesn't actually make life or work easier. Especially when it comes to jobs. Take emails for examples: they save times and make getting messages around easier, but the average business man will have 200+ emails a day. This supposedly takes upwards of three hours to completely answer and read all of them. This isn't even taking into account when technology fails and practically shuts down a business.