What I Weigh Today

1 | kim

December 9th, 2009 at 9:45 am

I’ve been reading your blog for a while. Thank you for your honesty!
I used to watch it all the time, but I got to where I can’t stand the drama and when Alan said a few weeks ago – “I only lost 5 lbs” and was disappointed, I quit watching it. I watched 10 minutes of it last night – I decided to run instead – then watched the final weigh in.

2 | Tracey @ I'm Not Superhuman

December 9th, 2009 at 11:15 am

I never watched it before, but last night I watched the finale. So, all of this is coming from only watching that episode. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it’s dangerous to lose so much weight so fast. I’ve also read the article that reveal how some contestants lost weight—and those methods are unsafe. I think it does set an unrealistic standard for obese people: That if you work this hard you’ll lose 100 pounds in 7 weeks, too. And I do think it skips over the weight maintenance. That is, long-term maintenance of a healthy weight.

On the other hand, I think it can have a positive affect. The fact is, these people aren’t just a little overweight and need to just love their bodies as they are. They are obese or morbidly obese, and it’s unhealthy and dangerous. At 300 and 400 pounds, the contestants are setting themselves up for type 2 diabetes (and the host of complications that come with it), obstructive sleep apnea, heart attacks, stroke, etc. I’d have a beef with the show if they were showing 180-pound women trying to get down to 110. But the people they pick really do need to lose weight for their health. And that’s a serious issue. So if the show can help other obese (and most contestant’s aren’t just overweight) people get motivated to be active and eat healthy, then I think it’s a good thing. I also don’t think it perpetuates the idea that “you have to be thin to live your best life.” It’s really the idea that, when you’re morbidly obese, you need to lose some weight to *keep* your life.

I do wish they’d add a disclaimer like “talk with your doctor before changing your exercise habits or starting a new exercise plan” because going full-force when you’re that big can spell trouble if you have other health issues.

3 | ElJayBee

December 9th, 2009 at 11:28 am

I love TBL. Mainly for the amazing physical transformations. Yes, the regimen is severe. It has to be in order to achieve the results within a specified time frame. I mean, nobody would want to watch if it took them 2 years to lose 100 pounds like in normal situations.

But I also think it’s a recipe for disaster in terms of weight maintenance. I mean, who has time to work out 6-8 hours a day unless you’re a professional athlete and it’s your job? The successful ones are those who can take what they’ve learned in this extreme boot-camp-like setting and apply it to real life.

What I really HATE about the show, or what I would hate if I was a contestant is the fact that they make the women weigh in with only a sports bra and no shirt. That’s just mean!

And another thing — is Jillian really qualified to be providing mental/emotional counseling the way she does? I wish she’d stick to exercise advice!

4 | Buckeye Betty

December 9th, 2009 at 11:46 am

I started watching the show a few years ago when I started my weight loss journey. It does give me inspiration. There are times when I don’t want to run the extra mile and I think about how people heavier and less fit than me push themselves. It has taken “I can’t” out of my lexicon. If I don’t do something it is because I don’t want to, but not because I cannot do it. I think that has helped my accountability. For the contestants, I look at it more as a life-saver. Continuing on a 6-8 hour a day workout isn’t realistic, but I think most apply lessons learned on the ranch to building a healthier lifestyle. As to Jillian, I think she shows the importance of recognizing that if you don’t address the core pyschological issues, you will not have long-term success. Until a person works through why they lost control, they will not be able to regain it.

5 | Jen on the Edge

December 9th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

I don’t watch the show, primarily because I don’t watch much at all and TBL is simply not on my radar. That said, I have heard the behind-the-scenes stories about it, which has turned me off for good.

6 | laura

December 9th, 2009 at 2:55 pm

hands down, evil empire. did you read the same nyt article i did about the contestant who urinated blood due to dehydration? and how contestants are literally threatened not to speak up about the show’s ethics/”experts”? i already disliked the show, but that really disturbed me.

i agree with you; it gives people totally unrealistic expectations, and in fact, i don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it’s downright discouraging – i can imagine many sedentary people with poor nutrition saying “to be healthy i must lose 100 pounds in 2 months, and to lose 100 pounds in 2 months i must work out 6 hours a day and have a personal chef, so why even bother?”

and furthermore, it just perpetuates the idea of overweight people as some spectacle to be gawked at. a previous commenter addressed this, but why on earth do they have to be practically naked for weigh-ins, if not to make them as vulnerable as possible to the viewing public?

to conclude, i really dislike the show. i think it’s harmful and exploitative, and i’m upset that no one ever seems to question its motives or impact.

7 | Allison

December 9th, 2009 at 8:31 pm

I watched it last night too and was thinking the same thing! Especially for a woman to have the pressures of being weighed in front of the entire country.. they must’ve taken some drastic, unhealthy measures to lose as much weight as possible! It’s great that the show did give them motivation to drop weight and improve their health..but I think it may go a little too far!

8 | Jax

December 10th, 2009 at 7:23 am

In its entire run, I have watched exactly one episode. I believe it was the first season, and one of the earlier episodes where the contestants all came home to their common house and were greeted with a tower of cupcakes and a sign that said something like “Whoever eats a cupcake gets to call home” … you could see the trepidation in the contestants’ eyes … eating just one cupcake to call home would have been fine, but not a one of them got to that size by being able to eat just one.

I remember thinking, “What a horrible, horrible show. Exploiting fat people and making them embarrass themselves like that in front of God-knows-how many people.”

I never watched again, and I probably never will. That show aims to torture fat people. Sure, they are all thinner in the end, but if that had been me, I’d have looked back on those 7 weeks as some of the most awful, degrading, torturous weeks of my life. And then to have the media interviewing them, and watching them for any signs that they might gain the weight back? Its a receipe for disaster, I think. I won’t be surprised if I hear that more than one of them has some form of clinical depression after all of that. I would.

9 | JavaChick

December 10th, 2009 at 12:07 pm

I’ve watched one, maybe two episodes during the entire run of the show. I thought that some of the “stunts” or situations they put these people in didn’t make much sense. It’s not about learning to be healthy, it’s about drama.

I do think it promotes unrealistic expectations, and I think it could give people unhealthy ideas about weight loss.

As far as being part of ‘the evil empire’ I mostly just wish that reality TV would go away. There is just too much of it out there and most of it is not good.