Extreme Weightloss (show)
auntstephie321
Posts: 3,586 Member
I can't even describe enough how much this show is irritating me right now.
Does anyone else watch this?
It's completely sensationalized and nauseates me to see what they are doing to these people. (i realize they are compensated in some form and have agreed to this nonsense)
First off turning someones living room into a gym is completely impractical for almost all families.
Second having a woman go out to eat and exclaim that she can't have any enjoyable foods going out to dinner only serves to make weight loss seem like an impossibility to anyone who wants to enjoy going out to dinner with her husband.
Third, this husband orders an appetizer to eat in front of his wife while she just sits there with her sad glass of water and looks all broken down while he drips cheese covered chips all over the place. Who the hell does that especially to their wife.
And this spy cam bs with her sitting there drinking coffee instead of doing cardio which concerns the trainer so much he needs to immediately jump on a plane to confront her and stop her from sabotaging herself. Uh she lost 77 lbs in 3 months!
No wonder so many people feel like they're failing or not trying hard enough or not suffering enough, when they don't lose a lb for 3 weeks.
According to this getting healthy sucks and you must force yourself to live a sucky life that sucks if you want to be successfully.
Ya know' if I didn't know what I know about heath and weight loss I wouldn't want to make myself suffer through what they are portraying, it looks impossible it looks like torture.
And no you don't lose 20 lbs every month and sometimes you gain even when you're doing everything right. And even if you slip up losing 20 lbs in 3 months is a huge accomplishment and should not be treated as a failing.
Weightloss doesn't need to be a horrendous painful defeating task that seems impossible. You don't need a personal trainer living with you for 3 months. You dont have to exercise 4 hours a day. And you can absolutely eat enjoyable foods when eating out.
But yeah I know that stuff doesn't make for good t.v.
Sorry I had to rant
Does anyone else watch this?
It's completely sensationalized and nauseates me to see what they are doing to these people. (i realize they are compensated in some form and have agreed to this nonsense)
First off turning someones living room into a gym is completely impractical for almost all families.
Second having a woman go out to eat and exclaim that she can't have any enjoyable foods going out to dinner only serves to make weight loss seem like an impossibility to anyone who wants to enjoy going out to dinner with her husband.
Third, this husband orders an appetizer to eat in front of his wife while she just sits there with her sad glass of water and looks all broken down while he drips cheese covered chips all over the place. Who the hell does that especially to their wife.
And this spy cam bs with her sitting there drinking coffee instead of doing cardio which concerns the trainer so much he needs to immediately jump on a plane to confront her and stop her from sabotaging herself. Uh she lost 77 lbs in 3 months!
No wonder so many people feel like they're failing or not trying hard enough or not suffering enough, when they don't lose a lb for 3 weeks.
According to this getting healthy sucks and you must force yourself to live a sucky life that sucks if you want to be successfully.
Ya know' if I didn't know what I know about heath and weight loss I wouldn't want to make myself suffer through what they are portraying, it looks impossible it looks like torture.
And no you don't lose 20 lbs every month and sometimes you gain even when you're doing everything right. And even if you slip up losing 20 lbs in 3 months is a huge accomplishment and should not be treated as a failing.
Weightloss doesn't need to be a horrendous painful defeating task that seems impossible. You don't need a personal trainer living with you for 3 months. You dont have to exercise 4 hours a day. And you can absolutely eat enjoyable foods when eating out.
But yeah I know that stuff doesn't make for good t.v.
Sorry I had to rant
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Replies
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Another good reason NOT to watch TV ... it stresses you out and interferes with weight loss ...
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Excellent rant! I always worry what shows like this do to the collective health psyche of our communities, esp. to teens. I feel the same about photoshopping on magazine covers!0
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Yeah, well... here is how someone explained it to me: we as a society view weight gain as a result of sloth and gluttony. Sloth and gluttony are deadly sins, and the sinner must 'suffer' to atone for them. This is why easy, effortless, hunger-less weight loss is so hard to believe in for people, and also why shows like this are popular - they provide a moral spectacle of redemption through suffering. Since I vehemently disbelieve that obesity is caused by any kind of a personal sin, these shows repulse me to the extreme. It's almost an equivalent of making a show about recovering from a horrible sickness with wrong medicine and doctors constantly yelling at you for not recovering fast enough. Blerg. If they actually made a show about legitimately fixing people's lifestyles in a dignified and compassionate way, it wouldn't've been so bad, but it also wouldn't have made for good TV. Sorry for my own mini-rant here.0
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I agree with you @Lillith32
And I think they are supposed to be a "lesson" to people who aren't overweight or only a little bit to get it or keep it together to prevent the level of suffering they are showcasing.
I hate that mentality0 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »And I think they are supposed to be a "lesson" to people who aren't overweight or only a little bit to get it or keep it together to prevent the level of suffering they are showcasing.
I think people who are not as severely obese look at it and think, oh, I'm good, because I'm not as fat as that guy/gal. I think people enjoy watching train wrecks because it makes their own lives seem better.
edit: You know what, I'm sorry. It's a very negative view of the world. People watch those shows for information and inspiration as well. I just hope that the folks watching weight loss shows get inspired to make positive changes to their lives, not hammered with how hard and awful weight loss is. I know what it's like to feel fat and grotesque and hopeless and that you'll never lose weight and that everything wrong in your world is due to your weight, and I just wish I could tell people it's not like that, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. And the tunnel is filled with bacon.0 -
Yeah, well... here is how someone explained it to me: we as a society view weight gain as a result of sloth and gluttony. Sloth and gluttony are deadly sins, and the sinner must 'suffer' to atone for them. This is why easy, effortless, hunger-less weight loss is so hard to believe in for people, and also why shows like this are popular - they provide a moral spectacle of redemption through suffering. Since I vehemently disbelieve that obesity is caused by any kind of a personal sin, these shows repulse me to the extreme. It's almost an equivalent of making a show about recovering from a horrible sickness with wrong medicine and doctors constantly yelling at you for not recovering fast enough. Blerg. If they actually made a show about legitimately fixing people's lifestyles in a dignified and compassionate way, it wouldn't've been so bad, but it also wouldn't have made for good TV. Sorry for my own mini-rant here.
yes that's how it appears and it's completely disgusting!
I'd love to watch something that's actually there to help people. some shows disguise their true motives better than others. This one was completely over the top and really pissed me off last night. I didn't even finish watching it. The ultimate goal was for her to lose a set amount of weight and if she did she won the prize of skin removal surgery.
so now what happens to these people after the cameras leave and there are no more prizes to win for losing weight and working out 4 hours a day. I can only imagine them gaining the weight back and feeling even more like a failure because now everyone has watched them go through this whole year of insane diet and exercise only to gain it back and feel even worse about themselves. maybe the won't gain it back, but I've lost weight slowly and surely more than once and gained it back each time. so the odds are good that they didn't really learn a long term sustainable plan for their health in the future.
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I find many of those shows irritating in that they push their clients faster and harder (often until they're puking) because they "aren't trying hard enough".
CICO isn't always the answer. There can be medical issues, hormonal issues, etc that influence the speed of weight loss. Some folks actually DO have trouble losing weight, and progress more slowly. And if you don't? Well, I have a hard time believing that 20-30lb of weight loss in a month is healthy for a long period of time.0 -
I could never watch this kind of show. A few ads or moments caught when zapping were more than enough.
Not only do I agree with @Lillith32 that this is the result of a collective mindset that these people somehow deserve to suffer, that they are responsible for their health problems, that they should never had let themselves go, etc, etc, but that basically what they go through is a redemption through suffering. And that that makes it acceptable and even morally good.
It disgusts me. I feel physically ill and very uncomfortable at the way they treat people and how they show no respect for their struggles or the courage it takes to be there. On the contrary, they look for the grotesque, they prefer to show their fails than their victories.
There was once an image I caught, of a woman doing some kind of mud run. She was clearly exhausted, clad in a t-shirt and shorts too small for her size and that didn't cover her adequately, she kept falling, had mud all over her, and they kept filming her in the most unflattering angles possible. I saw maybe less than a minute, it shocked me so deeply I never forgot that image. I saw myself in her. It didn't inspire me, I knew I would never make myself go through anything remotely like that. If it had any effect it would be to confirm my idea that being fat was something I had to accept, because the alternative was that.
"Reality TV" reminds me of the Roman circus or the medieval court jester. There are people that somehow are less, they don't deserve the full dignity of a human being, they exist to entertain others, to make others feel superior. It disgusts me more than I can put into words.0 -
KetoGirl83 wrote: »"Reality TV" reminds me of the Roman circus or the medieval court jester. There are people that somehow are less, they don't deserve the full dignity of a human being, they exist to entertain others, to make others feel superior. It disgusts me more than I can put into words.
You put that in words so well. That is how I've always felt but could never describe. Thanks.0 -
^^^^^Yes!! Yes!!!! These shows make me want to cry, especially the way women are treated being forced to stand there in bras and spandex.
I watched that My Diet is Better show, but they did the same thing to the women and it made me so sad.0 -
PaleoInScotland wrote: »^^^^^Yes!! Yes!!!! These shows make me want to cry, especially the way women are treated being forced to stand there in bras and spandex.
I watched that My Diet is Better show, but they did the same thing to the women and it made me so sad.
Oh, I was going to watch that, I was curious because of the Wild Diet and the thread about the show. Now, I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll fast forward everything else. Or skip it altogether. Why can't these shows have the people wear adequate clothes?0 -
All of these shows simply exacerbate the public notion that fat folks are gross, lazy, slovenly, and there to be ridiculed and vilified. If a network chose a specific race of people and treated them the way they treat obese people, the entire country would be in an uproar. The only way to stop them is not to watch. Obesity is the last acceptable form of discrimination and we need to stand up for ourselves and demand better treatment. Today. Right NOW.0
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Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »And I think they are supposed to be a "lesson" to people who aren't overweight or only a little bit to get it or keep it together to prevent the level of suffering they are showcasing.
I think people who are not as severely obese look at it and think, oh, I'm good, because I'm not as fat as that guy/gal. I think people enjoy watching train wrecks because it makes their own lives seem better.
edit: You know what, I'm sorry. It's a very negative view of the world. People watch those shows for information and inspiration as well. I just hope that the folks watching weight loss shows get inspired to make positive changes to their lives, not hammered with how hard and awful weight loss is. I know what it's like to feel fat and grotesque and hopeless and that you'll never lose weight and that everything wrong in your world is due to your weight, and I just wish I could tell people it's not like that, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. And the tunnel is filled with bacon.
Yes, the tunnel is filled with bacon!0 -
MimiOfTheLusciousLawn wrote: »All of these shows simply exacerbate the public notion that fat folks are gross, lazy, slovenly, and there to be ridiculed and vilified. If a network chose a specific race of people and treated them the way they treat obese people, the entire country would be in an uproar. The only way to stop them is not to watch. Obesity is the last acceptable form of discrimination and we need to stand up for ourselves and demand better treatment. Today. Right NOW.
Sadly true. But the shows could be a good influence too, if they changed the way they treat people. From the thread about the "My diet is better than yours" show, it looks like they were going in the right direction, at least putting some information out and having the trainers responsible for the results of their advice instead of blaming the contestants.
Because obesity is a disease and one that is reaching epidemic proportions. And the answer is not the "big is beautiful" crowd with their condescending "acceptance" of ever bigger sizes as "normal". Being obese can not be a motive to discriminate and humiliate someone but we here know, better than most, that an obese person is not healthy. They need help, most of all they need information to help them take care of their own health. And, by "they" I mean I, us and everyone, starting with children.
I spent half of my life being overweight and the other half being obese. I also spent most of that time eating "healthy food" and following the accepted wisdom on nutrition. If not for the access to information that the web allows, I would now be on my way to being blind or having a limb amputated. Information and support is 90% of what most people need. And they're more likely to find it in places like this forum than from their doctors. That is the true tragedy.0 -
"...why shows like this are popular - they provide a moral spectacle of redemption through suffering. Since I vehemently disbelieve that obesity is caused by any kind of a personal sin, these shows repulse me to the extreme."
Yes! Americans are suckers for the personal sin/redemption narrative. The problem is not personal moral failing but big corporate food companies that maximize profits by pushing cheap carbs and sweeteners (made into an infinity of prepared foods).
One thing I really like about this WoE is that it encourages you to get simple with quality base ingredients (meats, dairy, veggies) and then really increase your proficiency with spices. We are loving spice combos like jerk seasonings, moroccan spice mix, etc.
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KetoGirl83 wrote: »And the answer is not the "big is beautiful" crowd with their condescending "acceptance" of ever bigger sizes as "normal". Being obese can not be a motive to discriminate and humiliate someone but we here know, better than most, that an obese person is not healthy. They need help, most of all they need information to help them take care of their own health. And, by "they" I mean I, us and everyone, starting with children.
I have about as many problems with the whole HAES movement and "#effyourbeautystandards" as with the fat loss shows. It's one thing not to ridicule obesity or put down people suffering from it, it's another thing to glorify, promote and normalize it. Obesity is a symptom of illness, we should treat it as such.
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It does seem to be one extreme or the other doesn't it?
I'm glad the low carb life seems to growing. There's lots of bad info out there of course and big business will surely stick their hand out like the Atkins food company has with its packaged fake food version of how to eat this way. But even that will be a step up from the current selection of all packed food diets.
Baby steps I guess0 -
KetoGirl83 wrote: »And the answer is not the "big is beautiful" crowd with their condescending "acceptance" of ever bigger sizes as "normal". Being obese can not be a motive to discriminate and humiliate someone but we here know, better than most, that an obese person is not healthy. They need help, most of all they need information to help them take care of their own health. And, by "they" I mean I, us and everyone, starting with children.
I have about as many problems with the whole HAES movement and "#effyourbeautystandards" as with the fat loss shows. It's one thing not to ridicule obesity or put down people suffering from it, it's another thing to glorify, promote and normalize it. Obesity is a symptom of illness, we should treat it as such.
Yes, because there's nothing as fetching as someone who has gone blind or lost a leg to diabetes.0 -
A friend of mine was on this show- it changed her life and she couldn't be happier. It was quite some time ago now and she's still doing well. Because of her loss she was finally able to have a baby!
On the other hand, I have a STRONG dislike for shows like this. I agree with all you say about painting a picture of losing weight being awful and impossible...and it's also scary in ways with the speed of loss and all.
Talk about being conflicted! I see the good and bad...0
This discussion has been closed.