If you think you've already seen the biggest losers, just wait.
ABC is teaming with "Biggest Loser" executive producer J.D. Roth for a new show, tentatively titled "Obese," on which extremely overweight individuals shed hundreds of pounds over the course of a year.
Yeah, way to go, ABC, othering fat people with that title for a show about them. You really care about fat peoples' health too, don't you. It's just so safe for someone to lose hundreds of pounds in a year (since most doctors will tell you when you're dieting not to lose more than 1 - 2 pound a week, which doesn't come anywhere near 100 pounds in a year, let alone hundreds of pounds).
But it's not about health, is it? It's about making those ugly fat people go away (by making them thin) and who cares how much harm is done to them in the meantime? Because everyone knows that fat people can't have a happy, fulfilling life unless/until they get thin.
"We want to witness the most important year of a human being's life, and that's the one where they get their life back," Roth said. "We can help somebody lose 50 percent of their body fat, and you'll get to see that entire 365-day journey in one hour."
Excuse me!?!?! I happen to be DEATHFATZ (almost 400 lbs) and I never lost my life to begin with. I've always had my life, always been able to do the things I needed to do, and most of the things I wanted to do (and the things I couldn't do, well, I figured out how to adapt to not being able to do them, or how to work around it). Hell, I even fell in love and got married while being fat.
So this bullshit of not being able to have a life just because a person is fat, is just that - BULLSHIT!!!!!!
"This is a unique story that hasn't been told yet," said Roth, who will serve as the ABC show's executive producer. "There's something great and transformative when you take the game element out of it and just focus on one man or woman over the course of a year and there's no prize at the end. The finish is their entry into the life they've always wanted."
This is a story that hasn't been told yet? More bullshit. It's told every day on those cable shows when they tell the stories about the half-ton woman/man who just had to have WLS in order to keep on living (and ends up dying). It's told every day by people on "Biggest Loser". It's told every day by people who join Weight Watchers (or whatever other diet-of-the-day) and lose weight (only to gain it back again).
What isn't told every day is what happens to all those people who lose fucktons of weight in very short periods of time. No one hears about the complications, side effects, and weight regain. No one hears about the loss of self-esteem when weight is regained, because for most fat people, loss of massive amounts of weight is not permanent (and anyone who says that anyone can lose massive amounts of weight and keep it off permanently, well, I'm sorry, but, they're lying at worst, mythinformed at best).
Oh Roth is involved... nuff said. That alone shows that it will not in anyway be considerate to the people involved. I really wonder if JD and Meme are related... they both seem to be doing as much damage to peoples health as the other is.
ReplyDeleteI wondered the same thing - JD and Screaming MeMe make a pair, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteSo, where do we write people and tell them exactly what a bad idea this is, and why?
ReplyDeleteTaking out the game element... focusing on the individual... is it just me or is this TV-speak for 'It'll be the cheapest damn reality TV show on the decade - we won't pay them, or give them prizes, or anything, in exchange for making a complete fool of them on telly!"
ReplyDeleteUrk. Makes me sick.
Uh, 1-2lbs per week and 52 weeks in a year is ... not compatible with what you said. Just thought you'd like to know.
ReplyDeleteMigiziNse-ikwe - I would imagine writing to ABC, since they're the ones who are backing the show, but I don't know to whom at ABC we would send the letters.
ReplyDeletewomanonhold - yeah, that's another side of it I hadn't considered.
SC = 1 lb a week is 52 lbs and 2 lbs a week is 104 in a year, and anyone who has dieted can tell you that weight loss is never that steady. You hit plateaus where you don't lose anything at all, you might gain a couple of pounds back, then you might start losing again, but very seldom will you be able to lose 1 - 2 lbs every week of 52 weeks' of dieting.
To lose hundreds of pounds in a years, these people are going to have to starve themselves and working out is going to be a full-time job for them (6 - 8 hours a day at least). The sad thing is, this isn't going to be maintainable for them, and ABC doesn't care, it's all about the ratings and bringing in the audience to watch the train wreck.
Just the title alone is a big, fat lie. If they truly showed someone who is "obese" (according to the bmi fuckchart) then they would be doing a show about the average American citizen! There would be no GASP...because those people would look like everyone you see on the street. The BMI fuckchart is so messed up that people have no freekin clue what obese truly looks like. People my size (close to 400lbs) are the rare exception..not the rule.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a one hour show depicting a full year's worth of starvation, over-exercising, injury, plateaus, immense hunger pangs, sleep disturbances, and all the other REALITIES of that much weight loss during a 365 day timeframe....I don't think so....it wouldn't get the ratings. This show will oversimplify the extremely difficult undertaking of that much weight loss and downplay the truth....just like they always do. Imaginary quote from the show: "See how easy it is? You can do it too!"
blech
You are freaking nuts! You dont have your life and you are angry because of it! It's not unhealthy to lose 100 lbs in a year or even more that 100...1-2 lbs a week is for someone not too overweightis healthy but giant fat people can lose a whole lot more! I'm fat and I want my life back! Maybe you havent experienced being thin to know what life you are missing! It's not about what people see it's about how you feel! Being fat is a handicap! this world has a fat illness..they are trying to help it not make fun of it! And weight loss can be perminant if you make a life change! CHANGE for LIFE>>.eat healthy, exercise, take care of you body! You have issues man! Seriously! This is a load of crap! get real...stop being so defensive and stop lieing to yourself and everyone else..and this goes to all of you who left the dumb comments...wake up and realize you need help!!! You know you hate being fat..you know you wish you could lose the weight and be haelthy! You arent kidding me! I have 130# to lose and it affects me in many ways as it does you...educate yourselves before you make half assed comments...
ReplyDeleteIsland Girl - There is no reasoning with rabid dieters like you, been there done that, got the t-shirt, hat, and keychain.
ReplyDeleteIf you can lose 130 # and keep it off forever, good for you. But I know from my own personal experience that making life changes doesn't make me lose weight. How do I know this? Well, I eat the same diet as my husband does to control his blood glucose (he has type 2 diabetes). I've been eating that diet for 3 years and my weight hasn't varied more than 18 pounds in either direction (and I can lose/gain 10 lbs between one day and the next, depending on what time of day I weigh myself).
And no, I have never been thin, but I have been 200 lbs lighter than I am now, which is much thinner by comparison (and yeah, 175 lbs at 5' 8" is still considered obese, but I wore a size 14 back then and people thought I only weighed 135 lbs, so was I thin or fat?). Would I like to weigh 175 lbs again? Hell yes. But it ain't gonna happen since I'm done with dieting - all that's ever done is make me fatter in the end.
And as far as being healthy, my blood pressure is in the normal range again, my cholesterol is normal, and my blood sugar is normal. My arteries are clear as a bell, I don't have any heart problems, no breathing problems. But I'm not healthy just because I'm fat, right? You need a better definition of health, IG. Yes, I have arthritis, but I'd have that even if I was thin (my step-grandfather was tall and thin and he had arthritis), arthritis runs in our family, my mother had it, her mother had it, my dad has it, his dad had it, his mother had it, his brother had it, my mother's brothers have it (genetics, anyone?).
I recently got to look at a lot of the women on my dad's side of the family (his mother's side back a couple of generations), and most of them started out average-sized until they had kids. Once they had kids, no more average size for them, then it was "overweight" or "obese". And guess how old most of them lived to be? Well into their 70's and 80's. Not bad for women who were born in the 1800's and early 1900's when life expectancy for women was not nearly that long. Did I mention that most of those women were also taller than average for women of their era? Well, they were, most of them were between 5' 5" and 5' 8".
So who needs to be educated? I don't think I'm the one who needs the education.