How do you feel...

When you see numerous tv shows, competitions, boot camps, documentaries, news items, magazine articles, research blah blah blah etc on weight loss, but barely a smidgen on weight loss maintenance?

Replies

hookandy

The biggest loser type shows are nothing like my weight loss journey. So if there was a stay the same show I am sure it would not be like maintance in the real world.

amusedmonkey

I feel neutral. I do feel bad for people when they're affected negatively by them, though. These are sources of entertainment and should be treated as such. A show's or a magazine's goal is to skillfully craft entertainment to make money. Information is not their main focus. Skillful entertainment needs certain criteria. It needs to be relatable, exciting, polarizing, or emotionally charged, among other things. Given that humans tend to have this "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it" mentality, maintenance is not relatable to enough people. Not to mention it's basically doing the same things over and over without any of the exciting big reveals and shocking numbers you can have with weight loss.

As for research, there are studies on maintenance. There tends to be more short term weight loss studies than any other type because of funding and time restraints. Getting published is really important for researchers.

nighthawk584

I don't watch those pathetic shows. Almost every last one of those contestants gain it all back. They lose the weight by starving for the TV producers....people that buy into these programs are in for a rude awakening.

cmriverside

threewins wrote: »

When you see numerous tv shows, competitions, boot camps, documentaries, news items, magazine articles, research blah blah blah etc on weight loss, but barely a smidgen on weight loss maintenance?

Most TV actors are a healthy weight. That would seem to be its own Reality Show on how to do it.

We all know what to do. Eat less and move more and maintain by using some sort of measuring system like a body weight scale, a tape measure, a mirror or a size of clothing.

It's not rocket surgery.

riffraff2112

People flock to extremes. Maintenance would be perceived as being boring. I don't see too many follow up episodes that catch up with people years later...like an Oprah, where are they now episode. Probably for a reason.

Katmary71

I agree that the extremes are what we're seeing in most cases, look at the magazines to lose 10lbs in a week at the grocery store. I've been decluttering the house and came across old Oxygen magazines which has some weight loss articles but mostly strength training and eating for exercise. It's a refreshing change of pace to flip through those.

psychod787

I only watch about 8hrs of T.V. a week and do not "waste" my time on such garbage.....

seltzermint555

It used to bug me, but I really don't care anymore. Even though I only watch 2 TV programs regularly and do not have the TV on very often, I still see this stuff constantly online, in stores, magazines/newspapers everywhere I go. It seems impossible to avoid. I think the diet/weight loss industry is a huge & somewhat corrupt one just like so many others, and I try to avoid it. I feel like doing my own thing - and using this website to lose a huge chunk and maintain my loss - has served me well, for years so far...

I DO get a little annoyed though when it's friends and acquaintances going on and on about their efforts and failures. I have so many friends running the gamut from trying to lose 100+ to those last 10 vanity pounds and doing lots of fad diets and subscribing to new & "exciting" weight loss products and ideas. It gets a little annoying. I care a lot less now, years into my own maintenance, but when I first lost a lot with calorie counting it was upsetting to me to hear the raves about how magical super-overpriced weight loss shakes/coffee were going to change someone's life only to watch them lose and gain the same 10 lb over and over.

Edited to add: I also fully admit I feel a tiny bit smug, when I went from 300 lb to 160-170 lb and now I'm beginning Year #7 of being in my lowest range. It is very nice when I hear the occasional "you've really kept it off, wow".

SummerSkier

The money is in attracting folks to weight loss schemes. There are some books on maintaining but it’s not as glamorous so not tv show material. It doesn’t bother me particularly although it would be nice to have more support attached to maintaining

AnnPT77

There are plenty of shows and other information sources about weight maintenance. We just don't think of them as being about weight maintenance. We think of them as being about cooking, nutrition, exercise, fitness, gardening, and topics like that.

People who've always been a healthy weight are part of the same species as those of us who have lost weight and are trying to stay at a healthy weight, and we all do it pretty much the same range of ways: Implicitly or explicitly, we manage the balance of our eating and activity, over time. I can't imagine why someone would want to narrow their audience potential by targeting only the subset who used to be overweight.

Yes, weight loss is more trumpeted, for reasons others have mentioned, mostly profit potential. Also, if the weight maintenance topic were made the centerpiece of a TV show or movie, for the viewer that would be pretty much like watching paint dry. No drama.

(One of the things that makes maintenance difficult to do is that it's boring, and lasts forever.)

NovusDies

threewins wrote: »

When you see numerous tv shows, competitions, boot camps, documentaries, news items, magazine articles, research blah blah blah etc on weight loss, but barely a smidgen on weight loss maintenance?

A good deal of the time many of the things you mentioned are slanted in a way that is detrimental to the weight loss process. Should I want more coverage of maintenance to potentially drop the success rate even lower?

katsheare

AnnPT77 wrote: »

There are plenty of shows and other information sources about weight maintenance. We just don't think of them as being about weight maintenance. We think of them as being about cooking, nutrition, exercise, fitness, gardening, and topics like that.

People who've always been a healthy weight are part of the same species as those of us who have lost weight and are trying to stay at a healthy weight, and we all do it pretty much the same range of ways: Implicitly or explicitly, we manage the balance of our eating and activity, over time. I can't imagine why someone would want to narrow their audience potential by targeting only the subset who used to be overweight.

Yes, weight loss is more trumpeted, for reasons others have mentioned, mostly profit potential. Also, if the weight maintenance topic were made the centerpiece of a TV show or movie, for the viewer that would be pretty much like watching paint dry. No drama.

(One of the things that makes maintenance difficult to do is that it's boring, and lasts forever.)

Given the recent interest in 'slow TV' (at least in the UK) it may be a perfect foil the the over-amped, steady cam hyper-dramatised little bits of those sorts of shows I've observed in past years.

I do sometimes feel like yelling at the radio (or whatever medium the entertainment is on) 'You're missing a HUGE part of the process!!!', but I frequently feel like yelling at the radio (at least when politicians are on BBC Radio 4...)

Interestingly, thinking through the programming on CBeebies (which my son still loves watching), there are a couple food/cooking shows and a couple health shows, but mostly what you see are characters who move a lot. You will see eating, not always the best food, but you see a lot more activity. Generally showing a balanced lifestyle rather than a specifically healthy one.