Extreme Weight Loss (ABC)

I'm coming in very late to the Trina discussion--saw it online last night. I agree with all that unless Trina gets those toxic elements out of her life, she's going to fail sooner or later.

I felt disappointed by this episode. If Trina gained 30 lbs in three weeks that late in the game, she hadn't "transformed," and even Chris said he felt like he'd wasted nine months.

Also, and I've never suspected this before, but...does anyone else think Trina looked more than 146 lbs at the final weigh-in? I would have said mid-150s at least, but probably more. I saw on Facebook that her surgery is scheduled for mid-September. If she'd made her goal, why wasn't it done right away? They already know she's at risk for regaining when she's home alone.

Oh, and in response to a previous comment: I agree that the producers knocking Weight Watchers early in Trina's episode was totally uncalled for. WW is the only thing that's truly worked for me--granted, at a glacial pace, and with plenty of setbacks--but I'm still down about half the weight I wanted to lose and feel confident I'll reach my goal. More importantly, the meetings really get me recharged for the next week. It's certainly not the best program for everyone, but for someone like Trina, who needs lots and lots of gentle, consistent support, I think it would be ideal. My guess is that she put her family first, per usual, and skipped meetings and/or didn't do the work the program requires. Those are the weeks that I gain, and my family isn't nearly as needy as hers!

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Originally Posted by lizardcat

I'm coming in very late to the Trina discussion--saw it online last night. I agree with all that unless Trina gets those toxic elements out of her life, she's going to fail sooner or later.

I felt disappointed by this episode. If Trina gained 30 lbs in three weeks that late in the game, she hadn't "transformed," and even Chris said he felt like he'd wasted nine months.

Also, and I've never suspected this before, but...does anyone else think Trina looked more than 146 lbs at the final weigh-in? I would have said mid-150s at least, but probably more. I saw on Facebook that her surgery is scheduled for mid-September. If she'd made her goal, why wasn't it done right away? They already know she's at risk for regaining when she's home alone.

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I couldn't begin to guess someone's weight in person, much less on TV, especially not when it's a ten pound difference and when I don't know how tall they are. :shrug

I must have missed the part about the show knocking Weight Watchers, but it's really bizarre to do that. That coming from a tv show that recommends the contestant lose almost 100 pounds in 90 days is really laughable. Weight Watchers is a respected and realistic plan, not the hair brain stuff on this program, IMO. You can't argue with success, but I still think the techniques of shows like this that are designed for drama are questionable. And in my mind, I don't see the primary goal as the health of the contestant, but the success of the tv show. That's just my take on it.

They had Trina talk about "another program" that uses points. She showed a bag of candy on which she'd labeled the points, which WW advises clients to do. Both her husband and the producer basically smirked "and how did that work for you?"

But as you pointed out, there's not much drama with Weight Watchers. They advise losing from half a pound to 2 pounds per week, max.

August 20, 2013 - Ashley

As a kid told her younger sister to go home ( she was following Ashley as little sister do ) and on her way home got run over by a school bus. Her sister survived but she felt so guilty over almost killing her that she started to overeat.Ashley married her high school sweetheart and had two kids. Her second child, a daughter, died a few hours after she was born and Ashley felt or was told that it would be hard to carry a pregnancy at her weight and blames herself for her daughters death. Ashley is about 200 lbs overweight and her husband, Jason, has also gained about a 100 lbs.

What I liked about this episode is that Ashley's husband fully supported her in this process and never gave up and seemed to do better than she did. Ashley had several up and down problems and when she felt overwhelmed she just shut down and didn't do anything. Because Jason was so supportive of his wife Chris offered to take him to see the skin surgeon and he too got some skin loss surgery. Altogether they lost 334 lbs. It was really affirmative to see the couple support each like they did.

Ashley's stats: 26 yrs old - 5'2" Ht - 325 lbs Wt – says is 200 lbs overweight

Phase	start wt	Goal wt	Goal lbs	Actual wt	lbs lost	total lbs lost
1 - 3 months	325	245	80	242	83	83
2 - 6 months	242	192	50	214	28	111
3 - 9 months	214	175	39	174	40	151
4 - 12 months	174	NA	NA	161	13	162

Phase 1 - 3 months -13 weeks - lost an average of 6.4 lbs per week or 25.8 lbs per month

Phase 2 - 6 months - 13 weeks - actual lbs lost - 28 - an average of 2.15 lbs per week or 8.61 lbs per month

Phase 3 - 9 months - 13 weeks - actual lbs lost - 40 - an average of 3.07 lbs per week or 12.3 lbs per month

Phase 4 - 12 months - 13 weeks - actual lbs lost - 13 - and average of 1.0 lbs per week or 4 lbs per month

Jason - 398 lbs – 28 yrs old – very tall

Phase	start wt	Goal wt	Goal lbs	Actual wt	lbs lost	total lbs lost
1 - 3 months	398	318	80	345	53	53
2 - 6 months	345	295	50	293	52	105
3 - 9 months	293	259	34	259	34	139
4 - 12 months	259	NA	NA	228	31	170

Phase 1 - 3 months -13 weeks - lost an average of 4.07 lbs per week or 16.3 lbs per month

Phase 2 - 6 months - 13 weeks - lost an average of 4 lbs per week or 16 lbs per month

Phase 3 - 9 months - 13 weeks - lost an average of 2.61 lbs per week or 10.46 lbs per month

Phase 4 - 12 months - 13 weeks - lost an average of 2.38 lbs per week or 9.5 lbs per month

It's more realistic for her to weigh herself every day. Maybe that's what all of the contestants do. Chris is stronger than he looks. He easily pulled all 248 pounds of her into the raft. I called the worst of my former high school guidance counselors years after I graduated from high school, and told her what I thought of her. (This episode was about a high school guidance counselor).

Ha! I can barely remember my guidance counselor in high school--totally ineffective. I imagine a good one can have a great impact on a kid's life, however.

Cassandra was strong! I was impressed by her work ethic, though I was surprised she seemed so clueless (maybe deliberately so?) about the nutrition. In any case, she looked really healthy at the end.

I remember all of the details of what all of my guidance counselors from high school told me. After I graduated from high school I ran into someone I had gone to high school with... and all that my former classmate did was complain about her guidance counselor. And, the guidance counselor my former classmate was complaining about was the same "worst" guidance counselor that I wrote about in my previous post! That guidance counselor from my high school was as unaware of how to be a guidance counselor as Cassandra was about nutrition.