Confessions of a Reality Show Loser
It's the Discovery health special on the guy from Season 3 Biggest Loser who lost over 200 pounds, won the show, then came home and gained almost all of it back. From 407 to like 179, back to 386.
I wish I had been watching the show (BL) back then because I feel like as I've watched the show, they've added more and more emotional therapy to the whole approach. Jillian is especially talented at pinpointing someone's emotional issues--or maybe she's fed the lines, if you want to be one of those people who is skeptical of the show. Regardless, I feel like BL began to go "it's more than weightloss, it's a lifestyle change."
The show recaps his weight loss journey the first time around, his rise to fame (Milk ads, first class air fare, etc.) and then catches up with him almost back at 400 lbs. His wife is in tears, almost pleading with him not to get on the scale. Honestly, my first thought? Enabler. She comes in and tells him that she's gained 4 pounds that week and it sounds like she's bragging, then she says "well, if I gained that, you must have gained 10 pounds."
I want to take a moment here to say that the last thing you do to someone on a weight loss journey, from 5 to 200 pounds, no matter what that number, is be negative. Just...don't. Do us all a favor and don't. Positivity sheds pounds (proven) while stress and negativity can keep them packed on (true. proven.)
He says he realized that he didn't know what to do after the show, that suddenly cameras weren't on him and he wasn't accountable to the tv show or the big scale. Biggest problem for this biggest loser? He didn't do it for the right reason. It also seems like once he gotten done, he'd so invested himself in weight loss for winning versus weight loss for health that afterwards, he didn't have a purpose (beyond spending his winnings check almost over night and selling his deli because he was busy with his 15 minutes of fame).
Then his wife starts. "You don't want to be bitter about oh I lost all this weight, I was a celebrity and now they don't care about me, but that's really what happened." No, honey. Your husband lost the weight without learning the lesson and now he wants to blame everyone else but himself. Right now, who has been blamed?
- The wife
- The mom
- The new job
- The show
Missing from the list? Him.
So what's he do? Go on Oprah.
And Larry King.
He says that he doesn't know how to maintain nutrition afterwards. I duno, buy a book? He literally says "I don't want to have steamed veggies and a chicken breast. It has to taste good." Oh holy moly. There are only about a billion cookbooks that give you low calorie, low fat, amazingly delicious recipes. I don't think I've had a plain chicken breast and steamed veggies...ever.
More than halfway through the show, he is just now saying (or the show has been edited to say) that he's wondering if he tied the whole thing to fame and when the world moved on, he was angry. News flash: there was a Biggest Loser season 1 and 2 before you and there have been 6 more after you. You aren't Oprah.
Then after all the hating on the biggest loser and how they don't stay in touch...there's the news that that isn't exactly true. They called and invited him to come to a thanksgiving special. But he doesn't know if he wants to go because then he won't be putting biggest loser in the past...okay. So which is it?
I guess what I'm getting at through this whole thing is that we make weight loss very emotional, and it is, but its time for us all to buck up, shut up, and tackle it instead of whining about it.
I will say that he's lost 30 pounds in 2 months as of about 50 minutes into the show and he's decided to go back to the Biggest Loser for their special. Of course, now his wife is on and on about how the show is being mean for putting him on the special. IT WAS HIS CHOICE. Can't we just own up to this? They're quibbling over 25 pounds. HE PUT IT ALLLL BACK ON. She says the show starts out. And his wife goes "YOU ONLY GAINED 75% OF IT BACK" Cry me a river.
For all my bitching, I have to say that I always do feel happy for this guy...who maybe never should have been on the show. Maybe he had to learn it on his own. He's down 40 pounds now, and to be honest, I think if he feels more accomplished about it this time because he did it and it wasn't a miracle of the show, he'll find that he can maintain it. Biggest Loser does showcase nearly impossible weight loss for the generic public. As I've said a trillion times. It happens 2 pounds a week, at max, safely. Yes, men do lose a lot that first week and when you're making drastic changes, you will sometimes have a big number week...but that in no way means that 12 pounds a week, or 5 or 8 or whatever, is common or sustainable. Weight loss isn't an over the night, in a month, sometimes, even in a year, type of thing. It's commitment to yourself and to health.
And...scene.
I'm always amazed (and greatly upset) but people who have wonderful transformations -- they're living their healthiest life ever. They feel great, they're 1/3 of their original size -- how do you put that back on knowing what you're doing to your body and seeing your health decline?
ReplyDeleteI love cookies, beer, cheese and fried things as much as the next person. But how do you sacrifice all the gained health benefits? I just don't get this...