Unrealistic goals on TV shows...

[berryblondeboys]

Funny you should say that about the gall bladder. A friend of mine lost about 100 pounds in less than a year. She then had gall stones (and they though cancer) and had to have the 'old fashioned' gall bladder removal surgery. Six months later, she is still regaining strength and stamina from that surgery!

[xHannahxBux]

That's a crazy amount to lose & to me sounds a bit unhealthy-she must have been pushing herself hard. She shouldn't be crying bc she's already accomplished SO MUCH! 135lbs lost! She should be estatic, but you never know what was running through her head.

[bargoo]

I thought there was something creepy about that trainer. I wouldn't want to be around him. I thought the bungee jump was her punisment for not reaching the goal that He had set.

[Coondocks]

Originally Posted by Gigi33

Also, I was surprised that at one of the check-ins she had only lost 3 pounds. This is when she mentioned the 4+ hour a day workouts. So either there's a major medical problem or she'd eating way too much.

She said it was all nutrition. She went shopping, portioned what she needed, then when supply ran low she ate what was there - what was convenient.
That was an eye opener for me, it really is all about the food, more so than even I realized.

Other wise, it's just like any other show of its kind. Take it with a grain of salt, learn what you can and rememer its just TV, another show to 'entertain'

[fatferretfanatic]

I have mixed feelings about this show. One one hand, I like seeing a person losing weight and how they did it, how they felt about it, etc. On the other hand, the feelings about not losing more or faster, etc seem disordered to me. That's an amazing goal to hit. I mean, absolutely amazing. Why the tears? We all make mistakes, hiccups, etc. She lost 3 pounds her last three months, but only after a rapid, rapid weight loss. That is a success. Stalls are to be expected, and that's just life. She did amazingly. Also, I don't think there is any need to be in so much pain while exercising that you have to cry. To me, that would be a sign to dial things back.

[Beck]

I watched, but was not impressed with the content of the show. I agree that Rachel looked great, but I thought her attitude at the beginning to be pretty pathetic. She said something along the lines of, "Now I have a future" after learning that she was chosen for the program.

It makes me angry that largely obese people watching the show might get the impression that only participating in The Biggest Loser or Extreme Makeover body edition will get them to their goals. We here are 3FC know that we create our own future, and with strength, determination, and motivation we can lose the weight on our own.

I wished the show talked more about amount of calories, how much carbs, protein, fat allowed, what sort of exercise regimen she was on, etc. If the point of the show is to inspire people to do this on their own, then there needs to be more content; I feel the same with TBL (not enough food information, too much exercise focus). I'd also like them to list not just starting weight, but height and BMI as well.

I was also a little disappointed in how the dessert moment was handled by Rachel. She was forcing the dessert on her brother because she didn't want to restaurant to be offended by the fact that she wasn't going to eat hers. That's not a healthy attitude to take, as I'm sure she's had food encouraged on her in her life. It's never okay to try to guilt someone into eating something they don't want to eat, and that's exactly what she tried to do (it looked like the brother was stronger than that!)

I'm hoping that the show improves as the episodes go on.

[Nola Celeste]

I wanted to like the show more than I did. I was enthusiastic about the concept--following a person for a whole year rather than just a crash-dieting, frantically exercising 3 to 6 months--only to find that it's the same tired stuff served up in an extended-play club mix.

Seriously, is there ever going to be a weight loss show that doesn't follow the format of:

- Show fat person crying about how fat she is
- Skip to meet-the-obnoxious-trainer portion
- Embarrassing weigh-in moment of truth
- Exercising
- Crying
-Exercising
- Crying
- Exercising
- Trainer being a ****-head and saying "You aren't trying hard enough!"
- Setback
- Crying
- Showing "bad" foods being thrown away
- The Big Reveal (after this word from our sponsors)

The only show that hasn't followed that formula to the letter was "Heavy," and that was only during the first portion of its run when it followed the folks at the Austin center. They at least had one month at the resort and five months to deal with real life; with these other shows, these folks have been living in a vacuum and focused solely on this one goal. It's unrealistic to how any of the rest of us can live.

When I watched this latest iteration of "You're Fat and We Can Help By Yelling at You" or whatever this sub-species is called, I couldn't help wondering how her finances handled the year's sabbatical she apparently took from teaching.

I can't say I didn't learn anything from it, though. I found it telling that she lost three pounds in three months despite working her butt off (or trying to) for hours every day because she did what 99.98% of us would do if we were exhausted from working out for hours every day and ate what was available instead of carefully pre-planned, prepared meals. Abs (and guts and thick thighs) are made in the kitchen, not the gym.

[ANOther]

Originally Posted by kaplods

Although I have to admit, even the Extreme Makeover Home Edition has always bugged me. So often they create homes that are unmaintainable on the salaries of the homeowner. The people can't afford to fix their home, so EM comes in and creates a mansion for them - then the utilities and taxes are so high that the family has to sell the mansion they've fallen in love with in order to afford a home they can actually live in. Of course the viewing audience never sees that, so who cares?

I love EMHE, but at least for a while you had a point, they were building 5,000 sq ft mc-mansions for families that were just barely out of the housing project. I've heard that with the recession they've kind of scaled down on the sizes of their homes, and I understand it if they're building a house for someone with a disability or special medical needs that requires a little more room. I do wish TV shows would kind of scale-back on dream-house or dream-wedding or dream-anything and focus on "anythings" that are nice but more affordable

[uwfan27]

It’s really interesting to read everyone’s comments and thoughts on the show. I hadn’t read this thread before watching it and went in blindly. I found it be pretty inspirational, albeit pretty unrealistic for many when we are trying to balance weight loss with our everyday lives and families. They mentioned that she worked out 4-5 HOURS a day! She had been an elementary P.E. teacher but I’m curious if she kept her job during the 12 months of weight loss – they never really said. 4-5 hours of exercise a day is not even remotely a possibility for me. I feel good just fitting in 30 minutes to an hour 6x a week!!!

But… it does let us know that weight loss IS possible if we just work hard at it. The trainer pushed her hard (maybe too hard?) but sometimes that’s what we need – a good kick in the booty to stay motivated. I wonder if they had a doctor monitoring her as she progressed to ensure she was losing weight safely. They didn’t mention that either. It will be interesting to watch the next episode and see if any of these types of things are brought up.

[caryesings]

I would suspect she did keep her job. She's a young woman living at home and I remember hearing family complain about working out early. So if she worked out an hour before work, then walked on her lunch hour and put in 2 hours in the evening, it could be done around the job.

I wouldn't want to do it, but when I wasn't in a relationship, I could have.