I used to watch The Biggest Loser … in bed while eating ice cream or chips, and I finally found some motivation in the show to go out and do something before I ran out of clothes (because I refused to buy new, bigger clothes). But watching two hours of people torturing themselves and getting screamed at and playing mind games with each other to win $250,000 instead of to actually get healthy took its toll and I had to sit this season out.
Now, ABC presents another spin-off from the Extreme Makeover franchise, the Weight Loss Edition. This series has a novel approach to the genre (novel, that is, unless you’ve seen Heavy on A&E) in that each episode takes place over a year’s time and only features one subject each week. And instead of competing in challenges to win prizes and cash, each 90 day period for the first 180 days comes with a milestone incentive. Best of all, trainer Chris Powell doesn’t yell at his subjects (at least he didn’t in the first episode), and in fact shed a few tears when the first subject, Rachel, refused to give up during her first day of exercise even after screaming that she could not peddle at 80 MPH. She did, and that earned his respect.
During the course of the episode, Rachel was given a lesson on nutrition and helped cook some amazing looking chicken and dumplings that clocked in at 350 calories … and I’m still trying to find the promised recipe on ABC’s website (UPDATE: the recipe is now live). She also ran into some problems at home as her family said they supported her after Chris made them all walk around a track wearing a suit filled with weights to equal Rachel’s weight — and she started her journey at 369 lbs. — but then they had absolutely no consideration for her at meal time or during her workout sessions. Her mom even came into the room and told them they were making too much noise! Way to be supportive, mom.
What makes this show different from The Biggest Loser in another way is that Chris leaves his subject alone after the first 30 days to deal with their exercise and eating habits on their own. People spend months at the Biggest Loser ranch and are terrified to be without their trainers, so I appreciate that Rachel did not have to rely on Chris to get her to her goals. He gives her a number at each milestone and that’s it, the rest is up to her. But I see a slight problem with this concept in that the person trying to lose weight might need a little more than some exercise and meal plans to achieve their goals. In Rachel’s case, she sees herself as the only overweight person in her family, but her dad had an enormous pot belly and mom was no Twiggy. There are obviously deeper issues that can turn a 21-year-old former Homecoming Queen into a morbidly obese elementary school PE teacher (she couldn’t even do jumping jacks with the kids) and Chris never spends enough time, at least on camera, to address these issues like Bob and Jillian have done on The Biggest Loser.
Another issue, at least for people who may want to get really inspired about their own struggles with weight won’t get much in the way of exercise tips since we rarely saw Rachel exercise. It’s all about getting to the goal and the reward, but we don’t get to see much of the journey. We did get to see Rachel and her brother in Greece, a trip which she won by reaching her first weight loss goal. She only missed her second goal by five pounds but she still got to bungee jump off of a bridge because she was below the weight restriction. Rachel failed miserably on her third goal at 180 days not because she didn’t exercise but because of the food situation at home, which Chris thought he had taken care of by emptying out the fridge, but mom — who was so upset by this that she left the house — was more interested in Taco Night than she was in her daughter’s success (though mom did eventually lose 50 lbs herself).
So, while the show has that patented uplifting feel to it as the home makeover edition of the franchise does, so far it offers too little inspiration to those who really want and need to make a difference in their lives. I started dieting again last week, but if I had been waiting for this show to give me the kick in the pants I needed I’d still be sitting on the couch with a bag of chips. Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition is pleasant enough as a summer diversion, but I hope future episodes will kick things up a notch and really give viewers something to be invested in not only with each episode’s subject but also with their own well-being.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on May 31, 2011 @ 00:54 EST5EDT
I was surprised at what seemed to be a lack of support after Chris left. I would have thought she would have been in contact with him at least via phone weekly. Or, that the show would have given her a local coach or therapist.
3 months with no support is a long time and easy to get off track.
*POST AUTHOR*
Exactly! Three months with no supervision AND a trip to Greece in between is not a good way to successfully reach a goal. This is the biggest problem with this show and The Biggest Loser. On that show, we see them working out for hours but at the end of the day, it’s really about winning challenges and the cash at the end. On this, it’s about reaching a goal with some nifty prizes for motivation. Neither show really does much to instruct the viewer on how to accomplish this stuff on their own, because 99.9% of the viewers will be doing this on their own but will have no clue in how to get started. I think they should offer a little more insight into what each person is doing to lose weight.
I agree wholeheartedly. I was really looking for some in-depth analysis and problem solving for emotional, nutritional and motivational issues. When she was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis I thought that would lead to some alternate workouts or at least the struggle to keep going with medical issues – but it was dropped. I think that Chris Powell is great but the show needs work.
*POST AUTHOR*
There definitely should be more detail into what the person is doing for exercise (we hardly saw Rachel do anything) and more interaction with Chris. One day every three months doesn’t seem very helpful, especially for someone who sustains an injury or is having food issues at home. Weight gain for a lot of people is psychological, and even on The Biggest Loser and that show last summer with Jillian Michaels, they take time to look at the cause of someone’s weight issues and try to address it with the person to get to the root of the problem. With Rachel, she obviously has body image issues when she thinks she’s the only person in her family that’s overweight. Her siblings were fine, but her parents were hardly perfect physical specimens! Hopefully this was the weakest of the episodes and we’ll see some improvement in the weeks to come. The ratings were huge though (most watched show of the night), so unless viewers tune out in the next week or two, they won’t mess with the formula.
I think the main problem is the fact that they cram 12 months into 1 hour, there is not enough time to show resolution to all the issues.
A few things kinda baffled me though:
-The trip, seems like this should’ve been done at the end of the year, not 3 months in while she was still getting into the weight loss routine (plus wouldn’t she have enjoyed it more as a prize for a year of half work? Specially after the surgery!)
-The whole food situation. While it sucks that your mom cooks big fatty foods, if you’re the only one in a house of 5+ that has a problem, I think it should be your responsability too to cook your own meals and maybe that way the rest of your family will get into healthier cooking by watching you. This seems to have been the case towards the end but again, with the time constraint was hard to see what was going on.
-The surgery thing. This seemed to me like a case of, we already paid the doctor so we going through it anyway, plus it looks good on tv. Feels like she will need a 2nd set of surgeries down the road…
*POST AUTHOR*
Agreed about the trip. It seemed odd to give her a trip to Greece in the middle of her program because you know she’s not going to get any exercise during that time. And I have a feeling that the producers had a hand in the “complimentary dessert” to see if she would eat it. Would have been nice if Chris had mentioned that he was proud she didn’t succumb to the temptation.
Also agree on the food sitch. Cook your own food! Don’t force the rest of the family to do something they obviously don’t want to do.
And agreed on the surgery. I understand that it could be motivating for her to have it, but she may need more if she loses more weight. But, this being an Extreme Makeover show, I guess they had to combine the Home version (they redid a room) with the original makeover series (they redid her) for this Weight Loss edition so it would fall under the EM umbrella.
She did buy her own groceries and take care of most her meals. If you had listened, she stated that when she ran out she would eat with the family. And she struggled with them having her favorite junk foods around. If you don’t understand that concept, you must have never dealt with a food addiction or emotional eating problem. Her family offered her absolutely no support in that regard.
Eff anyone who thinks it’s okay to surround someone who is trying to lose massive weight with the foods that got them fat to begin with.
*POST AUTHOR*
Then the food situation is obviously a problem that isn’t addressed because she has no guidance after the first month. Like I pointed out about The Biggest Loser, at least Jillian and Bob play therapist as well as trainer to get to the root of the person’s issues. Rachel, if she goes through all of her food, hasn’t been shown how and when to eat properly. Addressing your comment below, that’s what I mean about the show not being inspiring. Yes, it’s warm and fuzzy to see someone make a huge transformation, but we never really get a sense of her true journey that really allows us to connect emotionally with her to actually be inspired. Trust me, I’ve dieted and succeeded and failed enough times because of one thing … food. If you don’t know what to eat and how to eat you’re going to have problems and there seemed to be no one there to assist Rachel with her food addiction. My complaint isn’t with the people on the show going through the process, my complaint is how the show is produced in that it really doesn’t show you anything as to how you get from point A to point B. I know it’s not an instructional video but they could at least give us some kind of rundown on what Rachel did to get to her goal. And if she was having food issues, why not show that struggle as part of the episode? I know they only have an hour, but it seems like they just glossed over so much that while it was great to see her transformation, it was like eating a snack full of empty calories watching her get there. There are people out there like Rachel who watch these shows and may get inspired to finally take their lives back. This is not a show that will help anyone do that. But, if this is going to be a show under the Extreme Makeover umbrella then we should see more of the makeover instead of a series of montages that show nothing and a trip to Greece that had nothing to do with Rachel’s weight loss program. There is a lot more they can do to make the show really connect with the viewers, be entertaining and inspirational and not just be fluff.
What is NOT inspiring about an out-of-shape, morbidly obese woman losing 80 pounds in 3 months?
You’ve got something wrong with you I that doesn’t inspire you. I this woman can do that, you can shed the 20-30 pounds that the average overweight person has to lose.
This isn’t a fitness show. If you want exercise tips, go buy a workout video.
I for one *have* been inspired! Obviously a 1 hour show is not going to be able to fit in everything that Chris does with his clients. If you watch more episodes you do see that he doesn’t leave them completely alone. He is there to talk to, email and even has video cams set up to monitor them. The fact that all of his clients (except for one so for) have lost a huge amount of weight has inspired me to get off my butt. And in turn has motivated my roommate to eat healthier. You can go to the ABC EM: WLE website and see more takes and also videos on how to make the meals they show on each episode. Plus you can get the recipes from the Health & Longevity Institute website. One episode is not going to “transform” you but take in a few and you really start to feel the motivation needed to get moving and eating better.
*POST AUTHOR*
Melanie, the first episode really was nothing that grabbed me — not that the subject’s journey wasn’t inspiring, but the show itself was a bit bland. However, if you look at my posts from subsequent episodes, particularly the second episode, you’ll see that I have found the production of the show much, much better and the subjects have all been more interesting than Rachel (the CHLI has even left a comment on one of the posts and re-Tweeted a post as well!). Last week’s episode was pretty sad and I didn’t really have much to say without getting on a soapbox, and this week’s episode was okay but now that the show has fallen into a pattern, it’s harder to write about it week after week unless something really major happens. I hope you’ll look for the rest of the posts to see that I am enjoying the show since this first episode.