Maybe I'm just a skeptic....

[emily_in_nc]

I've watched several episodes of Heavy. I like it far better than TBL. It follows two people per episode, and you really get some insight into their lives. They spend the first month of their journey at a facilty where they work with personal trainers, dieticians and therapists. The workouts look hard, but they do seem to more geared to their size and conditions. After that month, they are sent home, where they continue to work with a trainer. If they struggle at home (and many do), they return to the facility. At the end of six months, they graduate witha final weigh in. There have been some extraordinary results. The show really focuses more on the emotional aspects of their journey. What led them to be obese in the first place, what issues they need to confront to recover, and what changes need to be made in their family dynamic to be successful. Many of them have obsese partners, children and extended families. I think the show tries not to be as exploitave as TBL, but it IS still reality tv.

+1 -- I think "Heavy" is far more realistic, thoughtful, and "deep" than TBL. Instead of it being all about competition and a "game", it seems to be about people making real changes in their lives, in more than just diet and exercise. It's well done and often very touching and/or heart-wrenching.

Monday nights at 10pm (EST) on A&E, for any who are interested.

[indysteel]

+1 -- I think "Heavy" is far more realistic, thoughtful, and "deep" than TBL. Instead of it being all about competition and a "game", it seems to be about people making real changes in their lives, in more than just diet and exercise. It's well done and often very touching and/or heart-wrenching.

Monday nights at 10pm (EST) on A&E, for any who are interested.

The last one I saw really got me. The woman who shaved her head was just so brave in my book. I loved her. I cheered for her when she finally realized that she was worth putting first for a change. I hope she's still doing well; she looked fantastic.

[zoom-zoom]

I agree they were not running 12 mph. Maybe 12 min miles. No possible way it was 12 mph.

12mph is top speed on many treadmills. I know quite a few age group and small race award-winners who struggle to run that pace for more than a few miles--and these are super-fit individuals. I call major BS. This is what it looks like:
YouTube

[malkin]

Huh?

You lost me here

She sounds like she has chronically abused her voice, which despite the popular appeal of hoarse vocal quality as 'sexy' it really isn't healthy. Vocal abuse can lead to vocal nodules or in some cases laryngeal cancer. It isn't pretty.

[Tri Girl]

AMC ooops- I meant A&E. I do that ALL the time.
I will record Heavy tomorrow and watch it. I've been intrigued. I think dealing with the emotions is FAR more important than just creating new habits because if you don't deal with that- you're not going to be able to sustain any permanent changes and it's too easy to fall back into old habits IMO (says the woman who went to therapy and didn't like uncovering things so stopped going ).

[malkin]

I re-read the earlier threads just now and see that you are a speech pathologist.

How does one abuse their voice? Practicing the 'command' voice where they lose their voice, then get it back in a deeper, and scratchier, version of what they used to have?

It can lead to cancer? OMG!

Yes.
On all counts.

The cancer connection is not well established, especially in comparison to the big obvious cancer risks like tobacco use.

Cancer aside, imagine Jillian as a trainer in a noisy gym---but aphonic, that is, completely unable to make a sound from her voice! Bummer!

But straining pitch up or down, or pushing volume or simple over use can cause damage. It really isn't surprising when you remember that the vocal folds are really pretty tiny little bits of tissue performing a remarkable function.

More info here: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/voice.htm

[indysteel]

I'm in the middle of the latest episode of Heavy (I can get it on demand), and the format is slightly different. Different facility; different trainers, and they're spending an extended period at the facility. I have to say I don't like it as well. I think the longer they're "quarantined, the harder it will be to extend these changes to their real life. Plus, I think it just makes viewers feel like "well, I can't afford that; it's not realistic.".

Maybe it's just a one-off. I'll have to see what next week's show is like. It's not that the changes ruin the show; I just don't like it as well.

[malkin]

I always wonder what the people eat and what else they do.

We see them for about an hour each week, and they work out and eat fiber cereal and processed turkey, but it doesn't seem any more real than an episode of the Brady Bunch.

I'd love to go and spend six weeks at "the ranch," wouldn't you? Maybe a bunch of us could go; we'd ride bikes and swim and work out and go for hikes and ignore the trainers and make great food and have a ton of fun. (We might have to smuggle in the beer.)

I'd even weigh in with the rest of 'em, and I'd be sad when I had to go home, but only because it was fun there.

[channlluv]

I'd love to spend six weeks at that ranch, but I wouldn't want to have people shouting at me to run faster. The rest of it's like a spa or summer camp.

And hey, 12mph is my average speed on the bike. Ha!

Maybe Jillian meant crank the effort up to 12, like Spinal Tap cranks it to 11.

Roxy

[Susan]

I'd love to go and spend six weeks at "the ranch," wouldn't you? Maybe a bunch of us could go; we'd ride bikes and swim and work out and go for hikes and ignore the trainers and make great food and have a ton of fun. (We might have to smuggle in the beer.)

I'd even weigh in with the rest of 'em, and I'd be sad when I had to go home, but only because it was fun there.

I would love to do that maybe we should ask
My husband and I are always so envious of the great training facilities they have on TBL. (I would even take the trainers.)

To be honest, I always love to watch the show. I know it's just reality TV, not realistic and sometimes stupid. Still I love to see the "Last chance workout", sweating contestants, screaming trainers while I work out at home.
It has been motivating for me when I first started out to see that you can get moving no matter how heavy you are. Of course I was never nearly as heavy as the contestants and I see that it's dubious if someone so heavy should be working out that hard. Also, it takes me about a year to lose the weight some of the contestants seem to lose in one week.
But we are all grown up and know that it's "just TV and not real"

[Zenn]

I have never watched an entire season of BL but there is one that stands out in my head. It was the first episode where the contestants had to play for their place. It was all couples. They were all put on exercise bikes and had to pedal 42 miles. Both bikes (per couple) contributed to the distance - so not 42 miles per person, it was 42 miles per couple. But even still!!! That is a flipping long way for the mobidly obese! Ask me i know!

I am obese and am trying flipping hard to lose it. This month i have completed two 65km cycle races and it was HARD GOING but i did it. But i have been cycling for 8 months and i spin 4x per week. And Jillian thinks its ok to put people of that size onto bikes and pedal 42 miles? It is absurd. And downright dangerous as far as i am concerned.

Jillian is a complete fraud. She now has shakes and diet pills out there on the market. Various other supplements too. Whilst i may be morbidly obese myself (260lbs), there is NO quick fix nor is there a replacement for good exercise and good food. Yet she comes out with all this quick fix stuff? Whatever is the woman thinking? She is starting to do more harm than good as far as i am concerned.

Eat clean, exercise and stay off the pills and crap should be the message she sends out, not all this other gungho rubbish.

Grrrrrrrrr......

[Susan]

The sad thing about the TBL trainers is that they absolutely know what they are talking about, and when you look at things contestants are eating they seem to learn how to eat clean and healthy. Then there are those product placements that promote products that aren't clean AT ALL and sell them to overweight people watching the show.
Jillians weight loss book Master you Metabolism makes complete sense to me and IS about eating clean and working out etc. She seems to take this really serious. And still she sells that crap you described.

I know it's about the money. But there is a huge conflict of interests between promoting a clean healthy lifestyle and selling shakes and diet pills and the advertisement of breakfast cereals, fastfood and chewing gum etc.

[zoom-zoom]

Don't forget about that guy who ran the marathon and cheated, either. BL had him hop into a van and skip several miles of the course, dumping him out close to the finish. I've never watched the show, but that story pretty much killed any degree of validity they ever hoped to have, IMO.

[emily_in_nc]

The last one I saw really got me. The woman who shaved her head was just so brave in my book. I loved her. I cheered for her when she finally realized that she was worth putting first for a change. I hope she's still doing well; she looked fantastic.

She was awesome! She brought tears to my eyes. That's what I like about this show. It's not strategy and alliances, as TBL can be at times, it's stories of human beings trying to improve themselves in a variety of ways, along with their bodies. Even though I am very fortunate that I am not overweight, I still find this show inspiring, as we all have areas of our lives that need work.

[TsPoet]

haven't seen the show - but are you sure it isn't 12 min miles? = 5 mph? That's my trot on a treadmill speed. that is also the units my treadmill reads.