Secret Eaters (Weds C4 8pm)
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kyle4jem
Posts: 1,400 Member
Has anyone else watched Secret Eaters tonight, Wed. on Channel 4 at 8pm?
The premise of the show, hosted by Anna Richardson, is each week they look at the eating habits of people who are overweight and piling on the lbs despite their insistence that they are not over-eating. They have their subjects keep food diaries for a week, then they put cameras in their houses and have private investigators follow the subjects day and night for 5 days and then afterwards they have a big reveal and show them just what they've been eating.
No surprise then to find that when they thought they were only eating 2000 Calories, they were actually chowing down on 3000+.
They then put them on a 10 week healthy eating plan and we see how much they've lost in 10 weeks.
It's not very scientific, there's a lot of repetition after the ad-breaks (I don't normally watch commercial TV, but I guess this is common on C4 progs, as it seems to be on Embarrassing Bodies) and they dwell more on the fatty eating habits than providing help and ideas on finding the right balanced diet that suits a person's needs. And they don't mention exercise at all!
Having said that, it was entertaining in a freakishly voyeuristic kind of way and I'll probably plus the rest of the series and watch at leisure.
The premise of the show, hosted by Anna Richardson, is each week they look at the eating habits of people who are overweight and piling on the lbs despite their insistence that they are not over-eating. They have their subjects keep food diaries for a week, then they put cameras in their houses and have private investigators follow the subjects day and night for 5 days and then afterwards they have a big reveal and show them just what they've been eating.
No surprise then to find that when they thought they were only eating 2000 Calories, they were actually chowing down on 3000+.
They then put them on a 10 week healthy eating plan and we see how much they've lost in 10 weeks.
It's not very scientific, there's a lot of repetition after the ad-breaks (I don't normally watch commercial TV, but I guess this is common on C4 progs, as it seems to be on Embarrassing Bodies) and they dwell more on the fatty eating habits than providing help and ideas on finding the right balanced diet that suits a person's needs. And they don't mention exercise at all!
Having said that, it was entertaining in a freakishly voyeuristic kind of way and I'll probably plus the rest of the series and watch at leisure.
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It was crap IMO, jus told us what we already kinda guessed. If they weren't secretly eating then they wouldn't be on the show!
I also wouldn't call it secret eating as the were happy to be filmed and ate on the sofa where they ate rest of their meals
Although like most channel 4 shows it has made me feel better about myself0 -
Ah sweet more trash tv on itv at half ten..."my dad is a woman"0
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Yes, I enjoyed the programme, but it did feel set up and repetitive. It was obvious from the beginning that the people were going to be eating secretly or else there wouldn't have been a programme! I wasn't sure that their eating was typical. I can imagine that many of us might forget to record something like tasting food while we're cooking (grated cheese, how you tempt me!), but it would be difficult not to notice that you'd had a takeaway or a cooked breakfast. Maybe the people had kept their food diaries during the week, and then been filmed at weekends, which was when they consumed more calories.
At one point they shared a triple burger, but the calories for the whole meal were added to the man's total, even though they'd made a big deal about his sister sharing his food! Apparently one burger managed to be eaten twice! At one point, the girl was supposedly eating a huge fried breakfast, but I could only see mushrooms and bread on her plate (although perhaps she had already eaten the rest).
I'd have found it more helpful to have seen people who weren't so obviously overeating (a lot of takeaways, fried breakfasts, alcohol, etc.) and see where the "secret" calories were coming from. I know it's accepted that people tend to underestimate what they eat, but for myself, I'd like to get more of an idea of where that comes from. I'd suspect that for some of us, it's not missing out whole meals, but underestimating portion sizes, little bites and tastes of things, etc.0 -
The programme was obviously edited for shock effect. It'd not have been much of a programme had they all been saints only eating like birds and looking slim and attractive.
I think it they were both particularly naive insofar as to the extent to which they were eating, especially if they knew they were prone to late-night eating.
I also think, most of the pinching the sister did was from her boyfriend's portions rather than her brother's. The brother even admitted that the burger leftovers couldn't have been his as he'd eaten all of his burger. But the cooked breakfast appeared to include two bangers, bacon, black pudding, egg, mushrooms, possibly fried bread and/or toast, so that would be a mega-meal for anybody not doing the exercise to burn off some of those Calories.
I know for a fact that most people who have never counted calories before, has little or no concept of portion size or the calorie content of certain food stuffs. I was a serial dieter before MFP and during my first week of keeping a food diary I was shocked at how much I was actually eating in terms of portion size and the calorie content of certain foods, e.g. pasta and bread.
It's amazing how little 100g can be in reality and then there are foods which give the calorie content of their dry contents but once cooked are very different indeed. But of course, we all know that now.
So if this slightly tacky TV prog even educates just a few fatties on the error of their ways, then maybe it will actually do some good.0 -
I just watched the programme on 4OD (and found it funny that one of the adverts was for a bar of galaxy chocolate followed by a weight-loss one, lol). it was interesting in a way but it was more edited for shock then information I think. It would of been more interesting to see what healthy balanced diets they were eating now instead of just a brief mention of them.
I couldn't believe how many calories they were 'not realising' they were eating with all those take-aways and alcoholic drinks. Just wow.0 -
Obviously being c4 and called secret eaters it was pretty over- sensationalised and definitely not a balanced approach but I did think that it chimed in well with the way I used to think about what I was eating and the way I bet a lot of people think. I used to eat a cup a soup for lunch then get a take away and think oh well iv eaten nothing else so if I eat this it's fine. Or picking at stuff in tw fridge an thinking "that doesn't really count" and not working out how much oil and grates cheese I was putting in when I made food (I dread to think what my lasagne was like I used half a brick of cheddar most times).
I thought that aspect of overeating by not really thinking about it was good but would have been more interesting to go into why that was etc.0 -
This is on now!0
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I am currently watching it! Never knew that about the portion sizes, what they were, So I will take that info on! Also my family I think are realising and recognising some traits. All n all I like it.
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I'll watch it later, when I can zap through it in 30mins cutting out ads and Anna Richardson's annoying recaps every 10mins.:grumble:0
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I like this programme, particularly because people like me before I came onto MFP, I honestly didn't realise how many calories I was eating. I knew I ate crap but never thought it was as bad as it was. Although yes it's repetitive and a bit boring for people like us who already no to log everything we eat, I do hope it will open the eyes of people who are not familiar with the whole counting calories lifestyle. Great that they showed alcohol this week... So many people think I'm stupid for not drinking anymore but it is really bad for you!!!
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hi!
i just watched this show last weekend on youtube and i know it's COMPLETE crap telly but i can't help and agree that it's "entertaining in a freakishly voyeuristic kind of way" as the OP described it.
I did think it was pretty cute watching some of the couples get drunk at home and dance around giddy, or be genuinely shocked and laugh at themselves and their luxurious eating habits. especially the way they basically all went off the rails the minute they thought the cameras couldn't see them when they were at work or in their car.
it was an entertaining show to lazily watch as i organized and backed up all my digital comic books. (plus on youtube all the commercials were cut out and some parts were edited down i think so it was a bit more streamilined.)0 -
I agree that getting a take away isn't exactly something they wouldn't have noticed. I felt slightly sorry for the woman who thought she could eat all the salad she wants, but didn't realise that a third of a jar of mayo doesn't count as salad. Eeps.0
