system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Portraying fit/attractive actors as characters that eat junk food all the time and never work out is irresponsible and damaging.

I really started to take diet and exercise seriously and found that to reach certain target body types, it's massively more challenging than I expected. I partly put this down to TV constantly portraying these young, attractive, fit, successful people as eating junk food all the time and never working out. I don't consider myself a particularly naive or impressionable person so I don't consciously form my views on this from TV but over time it happens subconsciously.

It happens with most characters in TV, sitcoms especially but lets take Joey from Friends as an example. He's eating pizza constantly, he eats an entire turkey, the meal for 6 for 1 etc. He's seen to be working out once I think, immediately hurts himself and says 'why did I have to start lifting weights again?' - indicating this isn't something he normally does. Despite this he's a good looking guy and in good shape.

By contrast I'm a similar age and height/build and only after a solid year of working hard in the gym 3 times a week and eating right am I starting to look like that. (Starting point was just 20-30lb overweight). By the standards set on TV and adverts for 6 week abs etc., even after considering that those standards aren't reasonable and adjusting my targets accordingly, I was still disappointed with such a minor change. I think TV in general wildly misrepresents what lifestyle you need to lead to achieve a certain body type.

I understand why they do it for TV. If someone is attractive, they are immediately more likeable. If they also like junk food and lying around on the couch, they are more relatable - making them more likeable again. I'd just like to see more shows address this, I think it's harmful for people's body image and very demotivating when they see what they perceive to be slow progress.

Maybe I'm in the minority though, I've never heard anyone express this view before, I'm open to changing my mind. What do you guys think?

EDIT: Thought of another good example after posting. Look at Jake and Terry from Brooklyn Nine Nine. Jake looks in pretty good shape but is portrayed as a guy that eats junk and never works out, in reality I'm guessing Andy Samberg is pretty careful about what he eats and probably goes for a run regularly. Terry is portrayed as a guy that just eats right and exercises whilst working a job and having a wife and kids. In reality his body type is only possible if he uses steroids and spends probably 3-4 hours a day working out - virtually impossible alongside a full time job, wife and kids.

EDIT2: Maybe I didn't make myself clear because a lot of people seem to have misunderstood. I'm not asking for TV shows to show these people working out or eating healthily. I just don't want them to actively portray that they regularly to do the opposite like the Jake and Joey examples.
gpt
This isn't a problem with tv, it's a problem with human biases. 

Consider two friends that you eat lunch with every day at work/school (you know back when that would happen...). One is fit, and eats whatever looks good from the cafeteria. The other is trying to get fit, and eats a small, undressed salad every day. From your perspective, it would seem that the  salad eater should at least be trending to being more fit, while the other trending to being less fit. But you don't have sufficient information to make that assumption. We actually have no clue whether each friend consumes more calories per day than they burn, we only know how many calories they chose to consume at lunchtime.

TV is like just seeing someone during lunch. No tv show gives you 24 hour-a-day access to a character's behavior. Not even 24. Taking the behavior you see in the tv show and assuming that extends to how that character acts 24/7 is to make the same fallacy as assuming your trying-to-be-fit friend has a healthier lifestyle than your fit friend.