TV Show: Super Skinny Me

One of the health channels had a show Super Skinny Me in which they took normal BMI Size 12 women and had them diet until they were a size 0.  The interesting thing about the show was the women tried all kinds of fad diets, colonics, etc.  To lose weight.  In the end however, one diet worked the best: 2 protein shakes and 1 high protein meal per day at 850 calories    PLUS 2 hours of excercise per day Interestingly, the woman trying that diet lasted for 3 weeks I think and lost something like 7 pounds per week.  This is when people could not stay on things like the Raw Food Diet and Watercress Soup diet.  Although we can't really think of post surgery life as a diet...there might be something worthwhile in adopting a "High Protein and active lifestyle"

Never in my mind have I had a desire to be a size 0 - is that a HEALTHY weight for her?  It's an honest question. There must be balance in all things - I'm just glad I know where I'm going and what I need to do to get there.   Everyone else is welcome to make their own decisions on what is right for them - and I whole heartedly encourage you to do it! Nikki The Pirate Queen

From what you say about the show it seems rather disturbing. Im sure her diet of extremely limited calories and no carbs plus all the exercise did work - but I would like to see that woman in a few months - can she keep that weight off? How could anybody stick to only drinking shakes and eating 1 meal? The high protein and active lifestyle are definately a good thing... just wish this show would have presented it better to the public.

Here's the story it was on GMA back in November They were just on The View I think last week.  Robin .

Nov. 30,2007

A new BBC America documentary looks at the cost of extreme weight loss, that "supermodel thin" look that too many women think they want.

In the film, called "Super Skinny Me," two average-size British journalists, Louise Burke and Kate Spicer, agree to a radical experiment -- drop five dress sizes in just five weeks. The goal was to show the drastic and sometimes deadly lengths women will go to just to be thin.

Burke, 29, weighed 129 pounds, and had never before tried to lose weight. She turned to magazines for the latest fad diets. One week she drank only protein shakes, another week she ate no carbs -- a week Burke painfully recalled.

"I was just eating watercress soup all day, every day," Burke said.

"My breath smells like soup according to my boyfriend," she said in the movie.

Weighing in at just under 144 pounds, 37-year-old Spicer said she wanted to understand why women go to such extremes to lose weight.

"I believe in journalism," Spicer said. "The best ways to understand something is to become it.''

Spicer followed a radical diet of lemonade with maple syrup and cayenne pepper. She stayed away from solid foods and ran for an hour a day.

Meanwhile, Burke, who began working out with a trainer two hours a day, tried another extreme weight loss tactic.

"Apparently if you swim in freezing cold water it speeds up your metabolism," she said.

 

Depression, Bingeing and Purging

In just one week, though, both women saw dramatic results. But the experiment began to take a drastic physical toll.

In the film, Burke described how she had "pins and needles sensation" while lying in bed and how her fingernails turned blue.

She also said she became less productive at work and stopped spending time with her boyfriend.

"My physical appearance, I mean, my ribs. My dad when he hugged me once, he was like, 'Oh my God! I can feel your hip bone and your rib cage,''' Burke said.

Spicer, too, spiraled downward. A dinner out with friends led to bingeing.

"I can't stop eating," Spicer said in the movie. "I don't know if all that hunger has made me eat all of this food in a strange anxious way but it's not right.''

And as she became more obsessed with weight loss, Spicer's binges gave way to purging. Her doctor tells her she will become bulimic if she continues that way.

Spicer was advised to drop out of the experiment a week early, but only after losing a frightening 17 pounds. By the end, she went from a healthy size 12 to a scary size 6.

''Basically I proved that not eating enough makes you go mental," Spicer said.

Burke also said losing that much weight so quickly "sent me into depression really, and I've never been like that before, ever!"

Burke lost 14 pounds over five weeks. Her family and friends were shocked when she could fit into a 6-year-old girl's size zero jeans.

But she was ready to get back to eating real food.

"My boyfriend bought me a massive chocolate cake and I was like, scooping it, clawing it off the tray," she said.

Both women have sworn off dieting and obsessive exercise. Spicer is still working toward finding a healthy balance, and Burke is back to eating everything in moderation.

Asked if she would take part in the weight loss experiment again, Burke said, "No, never! I would never recommend extreme diets again.''

 

     

I'd be happy to be where they started.  I'm glad they did this.  I don't think it was encouraging dieting.  The goal was to show how stupid it is.

I read an article like that a few weeks ago, not sure if it's the same women, but i think they said both women gained back weight (nbot sure how much) almost immediately after returning to their normal diets.

I wasn't surprised that they gained back the weight when they went back to "normal"  In fact, the idea that you can diet and then just "go back to normal" is why diets fail.  I often run into people with the same thinking about WLS:  they want to have the surgery, lose the weight, and then get back to normal.  The problem in this thinking is that you need to BECOME normal, not return to normal. I also found it fascinating that the woman that lost all of her weight developed a clear case of "bariatric shoulders"  I think some folks may know exactly what I mean by that.

I watched it also (British reporters, correct?).  They also talked about their mental states and had to attend psychological counseling.  One of the women had mentioned that she was beginning to feel obsessed about weight loss and eating and that she felt that she could see how easy it is to have an eating disorder. Very interersting.