I missed this show, but was able to catch it through On Demand on my cable (Comcast). I only watched the first episode (jodi's), but I think I'll watch future episodes as well. It did seem more realistic than TBL, especially since we got to follow the people home and see that they had real lives, real issues, and had to balance it all just like the rest of us.

Jodi--Thanks so much for sharing! I loved watching that little bit of your journey (though I realize it was highly edited!). Yes, they did show lots of tears, but also lots of your strong personality, determination, and love of your family came through. I know you can keep it going. It won't always be easy, but keep putting the effort into it. You are worth it! I hope you won't be a stranger to these boards. I'd love to keep tabs on your progress and support one another on our journeys. :)

@Annie Drews
I can see your point, but the way I see it is that they choose to be on these shows to be an inspiration to people who are in the same situation as they are.
I've been watching Heavy. Much more realistic and inspiring than Biggest Loser. I watch BL sometimes, but not my favorite show. It was exciting at first, but now I don't feel it's so realistic because the contestant have it a lot easier than people who don't live at that ranch. They don't see fast food restaurants, they don't have family events where a lot of bad food is served, etc. Heavy does have a certain time where the individuals are at this fitness center place, but they also show their life after they leave that place.

Originally Posted by tytbody:
Welcome back Jodi. We need you. I just weighed myself and see now weight changes.

did you have weeks when you ate what you were suppose to, been in the gym and still not lose anything?

is the 1200 calorie a lot less then you used to eat?

How did they determine 1200 was a good number for you?

Considering the pint of Haagen Dasz ice cream, I so frequently LOVED to indulge in has about 2300 calories in it, Id say yeah, 1200 is WAY more than I was used to taking in! lol

PLEASE know, that there have been MANY times I have stepped on that scale and wanted to literally kick it to the moon, crawl into my bed and die there! I have had weeks when I know I have eaten as little as 700 calories a day, worked out 3 hours a day for a straight week and lost 1 lb!!!!!!!!

The hardest part, is learning that the scale does NOT dictate your own personal happiness and growth! I lost WAY more inches than pounds, and quite frankly, Im really happy about that!

Its hard. It hurts. You WILL suffer. You WILL still feel hungry. You WILL still want to binge on sugar and other crap you know you dont need. But it is NOT impossible! I will say it till Im blue in the face, If youre not fighting for it, it isnt worth having!!!
There is NO greater feeling in this world than going to put on a pair of jeans, that 3 months prior, you had to pull the zipper up with a pair of pliers, just to get them on, and have them literally fall off your waiste!!!

Ok, Ill get off my soap box now...sorry to ramble ladies, I was just on a roll! LOL:carrot:

That was a good roll and a roll we NEED to hear. I do appreciate the honesty. Where else are we going to get it. They have it painted everywhere that your pants will fall off in 6 weeks and it ain't so.

Thats why the addiction of 'screw it' comes in because our pants don't drop off, the scale doesn't move to a lower digit and we feel we sacrifice so much good to get some results that don't happen.

This reminds me of people who get out of jail try to make it in the regular stream and the world does not want to give them a job for a mistake.

The person says, 'screw it' how am I suppose to eat. Therefore they go back to then fast money of drugs.

Yes this is a fight . All I can say is God help me be stay on the right path and know it will bring good results.

Originally Posted by tytbody:
That was a good roll and a roll we NEED to hear. I do appreciate the honesty. Where else are we going to get it. They have it painted everywhere that your pants will fall off in 6 weeks and it ain't so.

Thats why the addiction of 'screw it' comes in because our pants don't drop off, the scale doesn't move to a lower digit and we feel we sacrifice so much good to get some results that don't happen.

This reminds me of people who get out of jail try to make it in the regular stream and the world does not want to give them a job for a mistake.

The person says, 'screw it' how am I suppose to eat. Therefore they go back to then fast money of drugs.

Yes this is a fight . All I can say is God help me be stay on the right path and know it will bring good results.

SO much truth in everything you said. I too, have suffered with the "screw it" mentality for years. Even as recent as a few months ago.
I had many issues letting go of bitterness. Feeling bitter toward people who can eat whatever the **** they want and never gain an ounce, meanwhile I can smell something fattening and gain! lol
I just really had to understand that everybody's body is different, AND that the longer it takes to get it off, the longer it takes to put back on!
NO person should be losing 8 lbs every week. It simply is NOT healthy, nor is it typical.
My trainer is extatic with 5 lbs a month! I, of course, am usually devastated when that happens, and for all the reasons we listed previously.

It all goes back to the whole idea of "if youre not ready to change your mind, your body will never change". Its so true. ONce you free your mind, the body naturally begins to follow. This was the hardest part of all of this for me.
I can do the work outs, the sweating, the puking, the sore feet and muscles, but the mental...now THATS the hard work.
I simply didnt love myself enough to do it for the right reasons. Well, now, I am learning to do just that.
IN fact, I bought myself a shirt recently that says I love My Booty. lolol
I have decided to embrace what I will apparently always have! LOL

Hello Jodi!:D

Does the show give you the opportunity to come back and do a "Where are they Now?" type episode once you've lost at or near goal? The reason I ask, is because that could also serve as motivation to continue. I try to motivation where I can find it...sometimes it hides under my bed though!:p

Originally Posted by joyfulloser:
Hello Jodi!:D

Does the show give you the opportunity to come back and do a "Where are they Now?" type episode once you've lost at or near goal? The reason I ask, is because that could also serve as motivation to continue. I try to motivation where I can find it...sometimes it hides under my bed though!:p

Im sure they will do something of the sort, but we wont know until it creeps up on us, like always. lol
As it is, those of who had better results, or well, surgery to create better results, got a lot more media attention, as you will see.

Hi Jodi :) Welcome back. I'm surprised some of the people had surgery... I thought that would go against the grain of the show :( I'm kind of dissapointed in it now.

Regarding your statment "weeks when I know I have eaten as little as 700 calories a day, worked out 3 hours a day for a straight week and lost 1 lb!!!!!!!!". The reason you only lost 1 pound is probably because you ate so few calories! When we don't eat enough our bodies go into starvation mode and actually try to conserve fat :( I think we are probably all guilty of doing this at some point, please try to stick to a healthy diet.

Do you still see Tom? What happened with him and that girl? I know, I know... I'm terrible!!!!

Jodi: I just wanted to say that both things came across (to me) equally: your fun personality and your emotional intensity. I really envy you that happy disposition. (I have enough emotional intensity of my own, lol--sometimes just the workout and pushing my body brings it out!). You did so well and I was so inspired by you! :D


I love the show as a whole: a much kinder, gentler version of BL and no (or not very much so far) yelling.

I am loving this show. I was surprised that that woman had surgery after losing only 50 pounds. Your body still has so many changes to go through, although I can see wanting to get rid of that excess fat.

They do tend to like the crying shots, but over all I like the show.

I know, that's not cool. they are really hurting.

Editing sucks!!!!
 

The worst part of all of this is, nobody got to see how much FUN we had while at that resort for the 30 days!
Editors were so busy trying to focus on me being emotional, that they missed out on WHY I was so emotional most of the time. I, as well as some of the others, was completely overwhelmed with everything in the first week we were there. I was using muscles that hadnt been used in over 20 years!!!! I had to get used to it all before it got better, and it so did! I learned to totally enjoy working out!!! And my relationship with Britny was only rocky in the first few days, we are extremely close now and talk every day!
It really makes me sad as I continue to watch each week, everyone else's episode. I realy feel a bit betrayed in a lot of ways by how I was shown. I have no regrest, and completely own all of my baggage and leave NO room for denial at all.
I certainly never wouldve agreed to have my shiney hiney on national tv in some busted up polka dotted panties if I wasnt seriously ready to commit to change! LOL
Sorry...rantin on a roll again!!!:mad:

Jodi,

For what it's worth, you did shine through the drama-tacular editing. Anyone who wonders why people cry when they push themselves that hard, well...it's like wondering why they sweat. It's natural to suffer some system shock, I should think! Lord knows I cry on my "hamster wheel" some days, and I wasn't being pushed nearly as hard as you were. (It alarms my husband so much; I don't think he'll ever get used to it. :D)

It did actually look like fun there, and I'm glad you (mostly) enjoyed it in addition to taking away so very much good from it.

You are spectacular, girl! Keep on keepin' on, and I'm really glad you're here. :)

I had the same question as Aunty Jam - with all that working out (even without it!) 700 calories is not enough. You WON'T lose if you eat that little. I've heard you should never go under 1100 cals. a day and don't forget if you are heavier you burn even more calories a day as a baseline. Can you have some metabolic testing done, to find out how many calories you burn in an average day? To lose 1 lb. a week eat 500 less, to lose 2 lbs. eat 1000 less. But you probably already know that.

I've been catching these on our Comcast On Demand service. Really like the show! And how exciting that one of the people is right here in our little forum. :)

Jodi, I think you came across as a really funny person...a dry sense of humor, very witty. I was so glad to see you back to singing with the band by the end of the episode. Hope that keeps up, and all is going smooth (considering) with your mom and husband. :) Oh, and you looked soooo different by the end, really fantastic!!! When watching, we were so surprised at how much healthier/happier the participants start to look right away - even before the huge loses. Must be all that working out gets the blood circulating? Everyone just started to get a really healthy glow part of the way through...

The show is definitely inspiring me and my fiancee to get more serious about our healthy living plans...he's been watching the episodes with me. Thank you!

I like this show too. I watch both Biggest Loser and Heavy for the sole reason of connecting with others who are trying to do what I am doing. I still find it inspirational that people who once would have been given up on are given a chance to change their life around.

I think Heavy deals more directly with how life issues make losing weight harder and at the same time easier to fall back on the old ways of coping.

I wish you the best and I hope to see you someday out there rockin it to the rest of the world!

i love this show!! i too would like to see a 'where are they now'. i like how the show gives a more realistic view of what it's like to try to lose, get back into exercise when you either have never done that or in a long time. i really like how they have concise episodes for each person. i think they talk too much about the emotional things because not every person is overweight due to emotions. or maybe they just picked certain contestants who they thought would fit that mold.

I haven't been a fan of the physician in this show...
Maybe it is the way he is edited, but he seems so apathetic to the patients' situations.

I agree about the editing. I was on a TV show in 2004 and the editing they did was ridiculous. If I had known the way they would hack the show apart, I would have never done it.

Everything now is for audience entertainment and real life is quite boring. They have to do something to spice it up or no one would watch.

At first I was a little "meh" about it. A&E shows are heavily edited (those lame Intervention commericals...'Will he save himself'? Come on) but I watched it and liked it. It definitely seems...different from other weight loss tv shows that I've seen and it's definitely on more of the extreme side. I wish they did more of a check-up though, like a half a year later or something longer than they do already. But other than that I like it.

I AGREE ^^! I love A&E's Heavy and MTV's I used to be FAT! I'm kinda diggin MTV's show a little better because they seem to follow the people closer to goal weight. Heavy just gives their contestants their start, but doesn't seem to follow them (at least to healthy BMI). No follow up, which leaves me wondering if they will really stick with it without all the cameras and lights on them....I sure hope they do...watching them sweat it out and persevere in very inspiring...(***warning***major run-on sentence alert***):D

Every time the doc tells them that they have to lose weight... I feel like throwing my chair at him.

Way to go Quail!
I am a Hoarders junkie and just happened to catch Heavy after Intervention. I love it. It definately does not glamorize the process like a game show or so called reality show. You really get a look at all the pieces that feed into obesity and the behaviors that go with it.

Originally Posted by joyfulloser:
I AGREE ^^! I love A&E's Heavy and MTV's I used to be FAT! I'm kinda diggin MTV's show a little better because they seem to follow the people closer to goal weight. Heavy just gives their contestants their start, but doesn't seem to follow them (at least to healthy BMI). No follow up, which leaves me wondering if they will really stick with it without all the cameras and lights on them....I sure hope they do...watching them sweat it out and persevere in very inspiring...(***warning***major run-on sentence alert***):D

You know, I completely agree with this right down to the warning. :rofl: Just kidding. ;) This is why I'm hoping they do a follow up to heavy. I want to see them succeed all the way to goal. The MTV show doesn't always bring them to goal, but they do a three month follow up at the end and sometimes they're at goal at that point.

I loved the most recent episode with Kirsten...her dad was awesome! (I Used To Be Fat episode)

Originally Posted by The Chubster:
Every time the doc tells them that they have to lose weight... I feel like throwing my chair at him.

Ditto! Does he truly think that they don't know that?? They have all just signed up to do one the hardest things in their lives, and to do it on international television at that - what a doofus.

he may have to keep saying it because there is a denial stage or time or whatever. They hear it from family, and maybe the doc saying it will really bring it home. You see how they eat at the table sometimes, it's difficult to say no when the family is eating pancakes and and syrup.

They need the reinforcement of those words cause they don't get it at home.

Originally Posted by tytbody:
he may have to keep saying it because there is a denial stage or time or whatever. They hear it from family, and maybe the doc saying it will really bring it home. You see how they eat at the table sometimes, it's difficult to say no when the family is eating pancakes and and syrup.

They need the reinforcement of those words cause they don't get it at home.

I can't imagine not accommodating someone in my household if they needed to change their diet in some way. I just feel like it's so cruel for families to just say "well, that's YOUR problem" and go on their merry way. If I had an alcoholic in my household I most certainly would not buy alcohol or have a few drinks with dinner. It's a family affair.

I like the show but hate it at the same time because it makes it look impossible to lose weight unless you have 8 to 13 hours a day to work out, and a personal trainer. If I hadnt already lost 73 pounds in just 4 months on just eating healthy that show would have for sure made me feel even more that it was impossible to lose weight. You dont need to puke and nearly die of exhaustion to lose weight. Ive lost this much this fast on basing my weight loss on healthy eating alone not working out. I just do little exercise (not even daily) and mostly just daily activities. I actually wrote a blog entry about all this and the show.

Originally Posted by The Chubster:
Every time the doc tells them that they have to lose weight... I feel like throwing my chair at him.

I feel exactly the same way. Everyone needs a reality check as well as compassion - but this guy seems totally disinterested. Really, was he the best they could find?

Jodi, simply put - you rock.

I really enjoyed the show, well still am enjoying it. I find it very inspiring.

I disagree about the doctor. I like him. He has a frank, even manner that isn't accusatory but is still very firm about what needs to be done. If more doctors were like him maybe less people would be overweight or obese. It's such a touchy issue and one that a lot of doctors don't discuss. I'm a medical professional and have been seeing the same primary medical doctor for over 5 years and she has never once mentioned my weight and the possible health ramifications.
Maybe it's because I don't have diabetes or hypertension or any other obesity-related disease. But why wait until then to mention it? Because people are sensitive about their weight.
It is a measurement like anything else. A doctor should be no more hesitant to say someone needs to lose weight than to say your blood sugar needs to come down or your blood pressure needs to be in a healthy range. If I wasn't shielded for so long maybe I wouldn't have such a skewed body image (I still don't think I'm *that* big, but who am I kidding? I'm obese!).

I love the show but I don't like the editing and I especially don't like the way the females bare their midsections with disgust in the beginning. Some of it is, well, exploitative. I just watched last week's episode today. I have to say: Flor is my hero!

I'm loving this show, I just wish some of the contestants weren't quite so heavy. I want to see someone start at my weight is what I want to see! haha

is the show still on? I stopped watching it. I didn't like the two camps or the new trainers. lost interest .