Youtube Videos

Options
I'm not sure what section this belongs in. But it's something I am curious about.

The other day I was on youtube and I typed in "food addiction" and up came several suggestions but one of them showed a morbidly obese lady. I clicked on it, thinking it might be like 600 lb life or someone asking for help, or something that made sense.

Instead, it was a woman, probably close to 500 lb, eating large quantities of fast food and seemingly doing it with the support of the audience. Anyone who warned her about her health was accused of "fat shaming" and bigotry!

Granted, some of the people were quite cruel. But some really were concerned for her. Unfortunately more were continuing to encourage her to slowly kill herself.

Has anyone seen these? If so, do you think it's worth the time to encourage her to get help? Maybe join MFP?

Replies

  • MamaKL5
    MamaKL5 Posts: 69 Member
    Options
    I don't think someone posting those videos wants help.
  • dauchsmom
    dauchsmom Posts: 75 Member
    Options
    MissKJ5 wrote: »
    I don't think someone posting those videos wants help.

    It does seem that way. Or maybe its a cry for help.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    Options
    I was just watching an episode of My 600lb. life that went into this. It's a feeder/feedee behavior. For some, they get sexual gratification from watching others eating huge amounts of food, or from being the person eating and getting bigger. For the person in the episode, though, they were doing it because they felt like it was the only way they could support their children (an injury had basically stopped them from being able to work where they previously had worked). So, I think that there should be empathy for people like that and that just because they're doing it, doesn't necessarily mean they are not troubled by it and don't want help. However, just like most people on here, they have to make that decision themselves and reaching out doesn't necessarily help.
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
    Options
    I recently "discovered" Amberlynn Reid and Foodie Beauty on YouTube. Amberlynn is slowly gaining weight, due to binge eating disorder. Foodie Beauty has that too, but her weight is relatively stable.

    Neither are happy with their situations. The comments can be toxic, but there are what could be termed mockery videos where people cut videos from them and repost making fun of them.

    Amberlynn has a reasonable income from her YouTube channel, her videos get huge view counts.
  • dauchsmom
    dauchsmom Posts: 75 Member
    Options
    I was just watching an episode of My 600lb. life that went into this. It's a feeder/feedee behavior. For some, they get sexual gratification from watching others eating huge amounts of food, or from being the person eating and getting bigger. For the person in the episode, though, they were doing it because they felt like it was the only way they could support their children (an injury had basically stopped them from being able to work where they previously had worked). So, I think that there should be empathy for people like that and that just because they're doing it, doesn't necessarily mean they are not troubled by it and don't want help. However, just like most people on here, they have to make that decision themselves and reaching out doesn't necessarily help.

    Thank you for your insight. I've felt for some time that there are lots of people making videos who are seeking attention and, usually, they do it in a non-destructive way. But this seemed like destructive behavior.
  • dauchsmom
    dauchsmom Posts: 75 Member
    Options
    hixa30 wrote: »
    I recently "discovered" Amberlynn Reid and Foodie Beauty on YouTube. Amberlynn is slowly gaining weight, due to binge eating disorder. Foodie Beauty has that too, but her weight is relatively stable.

    Neither are happy with their situations. The comments can be toxic, but there are what could be termed mockery videos where people cut videos from them and repost making fun of them.

    Amberlynn has a reasonable income from her YouTube channel, her videos get huge view counts.

    I went and looked and while its nice that Amberlyn has some kind of income from it, it's a little like paying a drug addict to OD online, isn't it?
  • kbmnurse1
    kbmnurse1 Posts: 316 Member
    Options
    I would not waste my time.
  • dauchsmom
    dauchsmom Posts: 75 Member
    Options
    kbmnurse1 wrote: »
    I would not waste my time.

    You're probably right. I am concerned though. I wonder why people are encouraging others to be overweight when we know its unhealthy. Then again, "My Big Fat Fabulous Life" anyone?
  • bayliemart
    bayliemart Posts: 2 Member
    Options
    I watch videos making fun of her and it helped me go from 150 to 128, so her posts are helpful to some lol
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    Options
    May be a waste of time, but, perhaps it could inspire someone to seek out help on MFP, and worth the effort.

    My question is, how do people even get to 600 pounds? How many calories does it take? Wouldn’t you have to be constantly eating? I watched a couple seasons of My 600 Pound Life, and many of the people were totally bedridden, and at the very best having difficulty walking. It’s very sad to me.
  • dauchsmom
    dauchsmom Posts: 75 Member
    Options
    May be a waste of time, but, perhaps it could inspire someone to seek out help on MFP, and worth the effort.

    My question is, how do people even get to 600 pounds? How many calories does it take? Wouldn’t you have to be constantly eating? I watched a couple of seasons of My 600 Pound Life, and many of the people were totally bedridden, and at the very best having difficulty walking. It’s very sad to me.

    It takes a combination of factors. From what I can tell, uncontrolled appetite, especially for fried, processed and quick foods. This goes hand in hand with a lack of any reasonable activity.

    Some people end up bedridden while others are still ambulatory, albeit, limitedly.

    Dr. Now mentioned the caloric intake of one of the patients as being around 5,000 calories a day.

  • FattyWrites
    FattyWrites Posts: 12 Member
    Options
    hixa30 wrote: »
    I recently "discovered" Amberlynn Reid and Foodie Beauty on YouTube. Amberlynn is slowly gaining weight, due to binge eating disorder. Foodie Beauty has that too, but her weight is relatively stable.

    Neither are happy with their situations. The comments can be toxic, but there are what could be termed mockery videos where people cut videos from them and repost making fun of them.

    Amberlynn has a reasonable income from her YouTube channel, her videos get huge view counts.

    I recently also accidentally "discovered" Amberlyns channel the other day, because of another weightloss channel I am subbed to [obesetobeast if your interested]. Some beef had clearly gone on between them. So naturally the curiosity in me made wanted to see who and what Amberlynn is all about.

    Honestly, I feel sorry for her, I see a young woman who is dying to lose weight but is struggling. I see myself in her.
    Food. Everything is about food and live revolved around it. Celebrating? Lets eat. Feeling sad? Lets Binge. I also see myself in her in the sense that she has some clear MH issues, anxiety, depressions etc, and is no doubt stuck in the same vicious cycle as myself. Upset? Eat? You ate so your upset. Your upset so you eat. It's a vicious cycle to be stuck ing.

    I also think the amount of crap she receives from people is so unfair, I don't think I could deal with it, and there are also plenty of people on youtube riding on the back of her "fame" doing reaction videos to Amberlynn's videos. Trying to gain their 5 minutes or some stupid subs on the back of basically bullying another being. It's one of the reasons I won't do a YouTube Channel. Fear.

    She's clearly stuck in some kind of a rut/cycle and needs help. I really don't think it helps that she does get an income from youtube, as its conditioning and reinforcing her behaviours. I know that she is a member of MRP already, and hope that if she does read my part in this discussion, its not coming from a hater, but a well wisher who really hopes she can succeed in her journey, mainly because it's also a journey I am on.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    Options
    I think Amberlynn and Chantal both suffer from "don't talk about something before you do it" syndrome. As in, they talk about all their big plans, get the serotonin high from talking about it, and then don't follow through. They're stuck between a rock and a hard place because it would be better for them to stop talking about all their weight-loss plans on youtube, but they get income from those, so they keep doing it, but then keep reverting back to old habits because the short-term high from talking about it has already run out. People get mad because they never follow through, but then, if they did follow through, would people keep watching? And I know for Amberlynn at least, that's her only source of income. It's a complex situation that I feel is somewhat unique to them and probably why people are so fascinated by it.

    I think it was this thread that enlightened me to their presence on youtube, and man, I went down the rabbit hole for a bit there.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
    Options
    Thought this was going to be a much different thread lol. There are a lot of strange things out there. But there are some great YouTube channels that talk about weight loss and I find them sorta motivating, like ObeseToBeast, ZachAttacksFat, etc.
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
    Options
    The thing about Amberlynn is, and I am envious about her, is that she has an enthusiasm about new things which I don't. She's always excited about the next thing. I imagine what she'd be like if she were 1/4 of her weight. I also think that her partner enables her, driving her to get takeaways. Sure, she could get it delivered, but that adds to the cost.

    The videos of her eating and talking - I just cannot watch them. She's eating a day's food, highly processed in 20 minutes.
  • FattyWrites
    FattyWrites Posts: 12 Member
    Options
    hixa30 wrote: »
    I also think that her partner enables her, driving her to get takeaways. Sure, she could get it delivered, but that adds to the cost.

    I also hold this opinion that her partner is an enabler, and like you said there is still delivery but she is making it more accessible for ALR to access junk/drive-thrus.