Photo by Phillip Goldsberry on Unsplash

A great many folks rolled off their couches and waddled to their computers to bark at Fifty Cent because he got big.

Some of those who came to his defense said that he got bigger because he's getting older.

This year's Super Bowl Halftime Show sure gave a lot of ridiculous people plenty to discuss. Rapper Fifty Cent shows up bigger. Twitter went stupid, which is typical, but this time I call bullshit.

I'm not even going to address the stupidity and utter rudeness of commenting on anyone's body, because that's so obvious, but people are idiots. That said, let's talk about the much more important underlying issue here.

From The New York Post:

The rapper has been mercilessly blasted with fiery fat jokes and body-shaming bombs since Sunday, when he rocked the Super Bowl halftime show with an upside-down performance of “In da Club” — the iconic hanging stunt he debuted in the 2003 video for the smash hit.

Despite the 46-year-old’s ability to effortlessly execute the physical feat for fans almost two decades later, cyber critics and wannabe comedians were focused on Fiddy’s apparent weight gain.

50 cent got fat now he a dollar,” tweeted a heckler. “50 Cent out here looking like a FAT BAT,” penned another jeerer, alongside a screenshot of the “Wanksta” rhymer suspended in the air. (author bolded)

Twitter and social media are such fine places for people to show their idiocy. Thanks for giving me a bully pulpit, people. Let's talk.

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He got fat cuz he old.

Oh, for Chrissakes.

On my way home from the coast yesterday at the end of my Hump Day when I got a call from a good friend who suggested this story. She is 59, I'm 69. We've both been bigger, I've been obese. I was obese at 32.

Not exactly "older." Just bigger.

The big change in my life was when I stood in front of a full-length mirror, stared at my enlarged self, and intoned the monumentally stupid line:

Well, women over thirty just get fat.

Within seconds after hearing that in my head, my journey to dumping 85 pounds forever began. That was 35 years ago. Funny. As I have approached 70, less than a year away, I am not getting steadily fatter, as the comments above would indicate.

Idiot ideas about aging are everywhere, and this is a classic. While Fifty Cent has those folks who are trying to defend his reputation, that's great, however they're using a specious argument.

Age does NOT automatically mean:

-Weak

-Fat

-Stooped over

-Infirm

-Incompetent

-Incontinent

-Dementia-addled

I could go on. In fact, research indicates that plenty of Westerners, most especially Americans, in their twenties and thirties are already sporting many if not all of the above symptoms. So clearly age ain't all that.

Age is part of how our bodies change but there is no research whatsoever anywhere on this green earth that validates the belief that when we age we automatically put on weight as part of the normal aging process.

NONE. Because it's bullswocky.

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At the other end of the spectrum, millions of Baby Boomers are out running marathons, endurance races, competing in dance contests, hiking mountains and much more.

So kindly, WTF people.

What does change as we age is where we put our attention.

Let's discuss what you are choosing to do with your time, life and body at any age.

If you care more about money, you may sit and work a lot more. And while you sit your body weakens, and you lose muscle, called sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss. It speeds up the less you move, and it starts right after you peak in your twenties. That's not age, per se, that's neglect.

If you care more about your taste buds and your appetite than you do your overall health, you will eat more, and often load your body with ultra-processed foods which not only age but also sicken your body FAST. The more you eat crap, the fewer fundamental building blocks your body has to rebuild the cells which are dying every day. That's not age, that's neglect.

Photo by Filipe Fero / Unsplash

The less you care about movement, the less your lungs work, and if you insult them further with smoking (ALL smoking), the your VO2 drops. The less efficient your cardiovascular system, the less efficient your body, so that your heart and lungs can't deliver oxygen and nutrients to all your cells. That ages you, and you don't move well, heal fast or much else. That's not age,  that's abuse.

The more you care about booze, drugs, substances to get high, distracted and addled the more damage you do to your liver, brain, lungs, you name it. That's not age, that's abuse.

All those lifestyle choices lead to disease, infirmity and rapid deterioration. You can be effing OLD at twenty-five, and frankly, I see a lot of Old People Walking, folks barely thirty years old. They are obese, infirm, diseased, some of them in scooters, coughing and far worse.

Weight gain has nothing to do with age, per se.

However, society would have you believe it, and the economic machine that manipulates our ideas would also have you believe that because age is a disease (REALLY NOW) and because you are a victim of (OH FOR CHRISSAKES) then either you can stem the onslaught of your expanding ass with expensive products or that you can just give up, sigh, you can't help it,  you're getting old.

Again, OH FOR CHRISSAKES.

The tempest in a teapot that is all about Fifty Cent has nothing to do with Fifty Cent himself, but is useful to point out our idiocy about ageism. While the body does indeed change and morph, the issue of weight is not strictly age-related. What can and does happen is that as we age, some fat may move around a bit, but that is highly dependent upon our body type and our activity levels.

In researching age-related weight gain, I find far too many articles which are written as though there is a terrible inevitability that as you age, you fatten.

NO.

NO.

NO.

You will read and hear that message when someone has something to sell you.

Getting heavy as we age has everything to do with choice: what we choose to do with our time, and where we choose to place our attention.

Here are the facts:

You and I WILL die.

You and I WILL deteriorate over time. This skin suit is designed to do just that.

The quality of the journey to death is up to us. How long we hang onto our health, our vibrant energy, joie de vivre and ability to move with power and grace are the results of choices.

About 70% of how we age is in our hands. The rest, genetics (about 7%), chance, sheer bad luck and good or poor choices and habits determine the rest.  As I like to say, them's are good odds. I'll take 70% any day.

Besides, I'm living that 70%. I dumped 85 lbs 35 years ago. Retooled my eating and exercise habits in one weekend (YES it was hard as hell) and since then, but for quarantine, the results speak for themselves. At 69 I am slim, strong, cut up, energetic and annoyingly positive about life. I am neither that lucky - my family has major fat genes on Dad's side- nor do I have a fast metabolism. That has also been thoroughly debunked.

To that:

What We Think We Know About Metabolism May be Wrong: New York Times

From the article:

Central to their findings was that metabolism differs for all people across four distinct stages of life.

  • There’s infancy, up until age 1, when calorie burning is at its peak, accelerating until it is 50 percent above the adult rate.
  • Then, from age 1 to about age 20, metabolism gradually slows by about 3 percent a year.
  • From age 20 to 60, it holds steady.
  • And, after age 60, it declines by about 0.7 percent a year.

and:

Dr. Klein said that although people gain on average more than a pound and a half a year during adulthood, they can no longer attribute it to slowing metabolisms. (author bolded)

Fifty Cent is only 46.

Not even close, folks.

And, the truth also is that while the above article speaks to what happens after we turn sixty, in those folks who exercise regularly and a lot, and who eat truly healthy real food, the concomitant organ problems or failures are far, FAR less likely.

So it's still less of an age issue than it is where we choose to put our attention and how we take care of our bodies as we age.

The friend who suggested the article has recently shifted from running marathons to cycling. I am looking at adding rucking to my workouts. Please see:

What Is Rucking & What Are The Health Benefits?
Perfect for those hoping to get fitter as well as individuals looking for greater challenge, rucking is a versatile outdoor activity that pretty much anyone can do regardless of their fitness level. All you need is good footwear, a rucksack, and something heavy to put in it...

She and I are both considerably older than Fifty Cent. Somehow, while we may have a few quarantine pounds we don't want, those are from too much sitting and perhaps a little too much snacking.

Not age.

If you want to believe the bull that your body packs on the pounds strictly because you are getting older, have at it. For my part, because I live it, the shape I am in, my muscles, lungs, heart and all the organs that this skin suit holds are in superb shape even after all the abuses of my youth. There are only three primary reasons for that: regular hard exercise every single day, eating real food and not too much of it and reducing my stress levels.

Those keep me young. They work for us all.