Weight Reduction Through Diet (1951)

Back in my late teens, I got into shape for the first time in my life. That all began when a co-worker gave me a stack of fitness magazines to thumb through during our slow work shift. There was something so enticing about those glossy magazine pages and I began buying them on a regular basis at the store before subscribing to them for years.

Men’s Health was always my favorite, since it didn’t lean too far into the world of bodybuilding, like the others, but after spending several years reading Men’s Health, I began to notice a couple of things.

1. All those fancy eye-catching statements like “Lose Your Gut” or “Increase Your Libido” were recycled often. At times, they used the exact same layout on a different magazine cover.
2. Due to science, advertising, or just needing to fill the page, the content inside shifted dramatically. One issue it said to not eat almonds for good health, the next issue said to eat a handful. One issue would say to avoid gym equipment, the next issue said that your best gains came from equipment.

This sort of back and forth was frustrating. Instead of offering sound advice, it seemed that the magazine was more interested in just throwing whatever they could to keep folks reading, which is pretty much the way fitness influencers/publications still operate. Even as much as I love The Daily Pump, it’s irritating to see contradictory studies being shared or one day you read you should work out twice a week to retain your memory, then the next day you need to work out four times to increase the neurons in your brain. It’s a fire hose of studies and information, and it’s nearly impossible to keep up with everything.

I mention all of this because the other day I watched this video from 1951 on YouTube titled Weight Reduction Through Diet.

This video was interesting because it contained all the proven, common-sense weight loss advice that should be followed. Despite being seventy-four years old, this content is not only relevant, but arguably better than most of what is available online. It boils down to the basics: eat less calories, eat more protein, eat and diversify your meals with vegetables, and be active. The video even opens with discussing how people were becoming sedentary because of all the new machines doing the work for them. Sound familiar?

The video begins with scrolling text:

The dangers to health resulting from overweight have been shown convincingly by life insurance records. Life expectancy decreases as the amount of overweight increases. Excessive calorie intake is the cause of overweight. Consumption of calories in excess of body needs, is the single most extensive nutritional problem affecting public health in this country. People should be informed that overweight is preventable. They should given nutritional information which will help them to maintain ideal weight throughout life.

That’s pretty damn spot on.

The video even suggests that weight loss can be a slow journey, and you should aim for a loss of one and a half to two pounds per week.

The one piece of “meh” advice is to drink milk with every meal. It’s not surprising that this was mentioned since the video was created by the National Dairy Council with the cooperation with Michigan State College. But they even suggested drinking skim milk when you need to cut calories, so that was helpful.

I think sometimes we can get blinded by all the fancy gadgets, outfits, apps, gizmos, pieces of equipment, and programs, and forget that weight loss doesn’t have to be that complicated. It really does come down to calories in vs calories out and sometimes a fifteen-minute video from 74 years ago has better advice than most of what you’ll find on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube.