Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

I watched the (first?) episode of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition the other night and was struck by a few initial thoughts. The show follows one person per episode on a one-year dramatic transformation from “super obese” to normal-sized person. It follows a similar format to other weight loss shows, except that it goes into more detail within the subject’s life, and also allows them to live at home and develop the skills to maintain the weight loss instead of shipping them off to a resort somewhere and then having them crash diet and exercise for a special event.

My first thought was that the subject/victim, Rachel, had an amazing attitude. The poor girl had to be weighed on a freight scale because the regular scales wouldn’t hold her. At that devastating moment, instead of breaking down into self-hatred like I probably would have done, she just calmly says, “This is my body. It’s all the mistakes I have made and all the things I have done to myself. I know that I am never going to stand right here, in this moment, ever again, and see that number.” And that was it.

When confronted with the most difficult workout she had ever faced, and at nearly 370 pounds, she somehow pushed hard enough to make even the trainer, Chris Powell, cry… Sobbing, she says to him “I’ll do it my freaking self!” and finishes the exercise with pure brute force and determination.

Later on in the show, having dropped about enough weight to form a whole separate person, she is confronted with the prospect of bungee jumping for the first time. “I want to do it because it scares me,” she says, and bounds through a strenuous hike and bungee jumps off a bridge without hesitation. Way to go, girl.

Her attitude alone is extraordinary, but when you add Chris Powell to the mix, it gets even better. I have never heard of Chris Powell before this show, and I have no idea what his background or claim to fame is, but from what I could tell from the show, this man is an incredible trainer. He laughs and cries with her, ransacks her family’s kitchen when they refuse to support her, and even moves in with her for three months to make sure she understands and develops healthy eating and exercise habits. He seems extremely devoted to her success and personally, emotionally involved with it. Sitting on my bed at home in my pajamas, I was moved and motivated just watching the dynamic between him and Rachel.

But the show is not perfect. I know that, for a 45 minute mainstream television show, it can’t get much more in detail than it already did. That said, I would have liked more emphasis on her daily home life and practical weight loss approaches instead of the “goal” days where the mood was either “yay, you did it!” or “oh no, you didn’t make it this time.” I think, in terms of motivating heavy people to lose weight in the middle of what everyone keeps insisting is an “obesity epidemic,” shows like Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition are fantastic at motivation but very light on actual help. Of course, I know that ratings would not be very high if a show was devoted to her personalized weight loss plan details and her daily struggles instead of the emotional rush at the end, but it would be nice to at least throw some figures out there, such as her daily calorie intake, the types of exercises she did, etc. It would take less than 30 seconds to say in the show, and would give other obese and overweight people some idea of what it would take to lose weight.

I firmly believe that a lot of our current problems with obesity stem at least in part from ignorance about fitness, nutrition, and health. Shows like this that are popular because of the hope and the emotional responses that they deliver would be even more valuable if they could both motivate people to lose weight while educating them at the same time. Without that, shows like this remain “fluff.” Entertaining fluff, but fluff nonetheless. If I were an obese person watching this show, and I had never opened a diet book or spent the hours researching and studying for my own personal trainer certification that I have spent, I might be motivated just enough to try a diet. I might either have no idea where to start and get so overwhelmed that I never end up doing anything, or I might do myself even more harm by jumping into a crash diet or another unhealthy practice.

If shows like Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition and all of the others out there that generate a huge interest base and reach millions of people could take the few seconds to state that (purely as an example) “This person, for the first phase, will be on an 1800 calorie daily diet to slowly let the metabolism adjust to a reduced calorie intake. After that, she will move to…” etc., the people who are interested and paying attention will have gained a small amount of insight into a healthy, personal-trainer recommended weight loss plan, and those who are not interested can tune out and stare at the subject’s fat rolls, as I’m sure a large portion of the viewers watch these shows at least partly for that reason.

Also, while a one-year transformation makes for a hugely dramatic metamorphosis from “fat outcast” into “attractive woman,” it skims over the reality of what this girl went through. She lost an insane amount of weight and went from miserably unhealthy to an exercise fiend, but somehow the effort she put into it seems trivialized because it was all packed into a 45 minute show, much of which was spent on teasers about how pretty she looks at the end.

Losing just 60 pounds has probably been one of the top two or three most emotionally liberating events in my life, because it was filled with so much struggle along the way that the success just tastes that much sweeter. I’m sure it was nice for her to be dolled up at the end and admired by her friends and family, but at the same time, her blood, sweat, and tears were glossed over for the sake of TV ratings.

She expressed so much gratitude toward Chris Powell for helping her change her life, and yet the emphasis was by far on matters like “OMG, you have virtually no backfat anymore!” I guess, when compared to the rest of the struggles and triumphs I know she went through that focusing on just the physical aspect (seriously, she had to have drastically improved her health and her mental state as well) seemed hollow.

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