My Big Fat Fabulous Life 2016 Season

[rydersmama 804]

@ Inner Surfer Girl

I'm taping today's show and will watch it when I get home from work...but the fact she's never paid for her car (or probably her rent I'm guessing too) doesn't surprise me.

She's getting more and more pathetic as this season goes on.

I truly hope she ends up taking control of her life at some point.

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[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

@ Inner Surfer Girl

I'm taping today's show and will watch it when I get home from work...but the fact she's never paid for her car (or probably her rent I'm guessing too) doesn't surprise me.

She's getting more and more pathetic as this season goes on.

I truly hope she ends up taking control of her life at some point.

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I missed the show last week, so this fun fact was on the "super sized" repeat of last week's episode.

[theantichick 2,204]

I agree. Also, based on observation and some things she has said, it sounds like a lot of her weight gain is due to alcohol and other liquid calories.

Right.. which is why I was so surprised because from the beginning of her show she touted PCOS as the reason why she has gained so much weight. Now I see its a combo platter of reasons including her eating habits.

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It's like I was explaining to my kiddo who wanted to know if her birth control was making her fat... statistically, birth control puts 10-15 lbs on a person, not 50. PCOS makes it easy to gain and hard to lose, but generally is not the only - or even the primary - culprit if you're pushing 400 lbs.

Whitney doesn't eat for most of the day, a hold-over from her disordered eating days. She doesn't feel that she deserves to eat since she's so big. So when she does finally eat, she's starving, she eats until she's satisfied, and her choices leave something to be desired. The eating disorder has likely completely wrecked her metabolism, and she's doing it a further disservice by eating only once or twice in a day.

That's why I've fought so hard against giving my kiddo (she's 19 now) the idea that she needs to "diet". She's currently about 40 lbs overweight, but is active and fighting several chronic conditions... so anytime she starts talking about how she's "fat" or needs to diet, I try to talk to her about staying active and making healthy food choices instead of "dieting". I don't want her to get to where I'm at, but I also don't want her developing disordered eating habits.

I don't hate Whitney, I think she's a very interesting person. I just hope that her mounting health problems give her the motivation to make some real changes in her lifestyle, whether it's surgery or not. She needs to stop smoking, and start eating healthy. Her trainer has been trying to hammer that into her, maybe it'll take this time.

[mngreeneyes 674]

@@theantichick

You are such an awesome mom. Your approach to your kiddo is amazing and I wish I had had someone like you in my life when I was younger, instead I had a mom who was a dieter and encouraged me to diet. My family used to ask me if I really wanted/needed to eat what I put on my plate.

pam

[theantichick 2,204]

@@theantichick

You are such an awesome mom. Your approach to your kiddo is amazing and I wish I had had someone like you in my life when I was younger, instead I had a mom who was a dieter and encouraged me to diet. My family used to ask me if I really wanted/needed to eat what I put on my plate.

pam

LOL. I tell my kiddo that as parents we are determined not to screw our kids up the way our parents screwed us up. Instead, we find new and inventive ways to screw our kids up. We should all just start putting money away in both a therapy fund and a college fund when they're born.

Though she and I joke about writing a book "Motherly advice from the ER". When I was working ER, I would come home with motherly advice like "if you're going to do drugs, stay away from stuff cooked up in bathtubs by people who failed high school chemstry", and "if you're going to do drugs, don't do them with a-holes that will dump your non-breathing body in the parking lot of the hospital instead of at least bringing you to the ER entrance". LOL.

[Sophie74656 1,572]

I think it's great that she has such amazing self esteem. That is such a difficult thing. But I think I would habve more respect for her if she was trying harder to be healthy and eating bettter. I know that is very hard. But i know some people including her say that you can be healthy and overweight but I don't believe in that. You may not have high blood pressure or diabetes but being significantly overweight is still a tremendous strain on your body....as I'm sure we all know.

Yes she is a lot more physically active than I am but i wish she talked more about trying to become more healthy than just saying it's ok to be fat

[mngreeneyes 674]

Though she and I joke about writing a book "Motherly advice from the ER". When I was working ER, I would come home with motherly advice like "if you're going to do drugs, stay away from stuff cooked up in bathtubs by people who failed high school chemstry", and "if you're going to do drugs, don't do them with a-holes that will dump your non-breathing body in the parking lot of the hospital instead of at least bringing you to the ER entrance". LOL.

That is awesome advice. I was an English teacher and it blew my mind that my nieces and nephews would rather fail English than ask me for help! Silly kids!

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

I think it's great that she has such amazing self esteem. That is such a difficult thing. But I think I would habve more respect for her if she was trying harder to be healthy and eating bettter. I know that is very hard. But i know some people including her say that you can be healthy and overweight but I don't believe in that. You may not have high blood pressure or diabetes but being significantly overweight is still a tremendous strain on your body....as I'm sure we all know.

Yes she is a lot more physically active than I am but i wish she talked more about trying to become more healthy than just saying it's ok to be fat

I don't think she has any self-esteem at all. I think she is trying very hard to build a self-protective shell while also craving attention. I see a lot of my old behavior (when my obesity disease was raging). She is trying very hard to control everything and everyone around her so she can practice her food addiction. When things don't go her way or she has to experience any discomfort or pain she lashes out at everyone around her.

This week's encounter with the comedian appeared to be completely engineered by the production.

Do I agree with 100% of the message and the way the comedian handled the conflict? No.

Do I think Whitney handled the situation well? Absolutely not.

Instead of trying to fix other people and "lead" a movement, I think her energy would be better spent with some self-healing.

She is powerless over food and her life is unmanageable.

She is not even willing to be willing to accept help.

Her life: still not fabulous.

I waver back and forth between feeling very sorry for her and completely aggravated and annoyed with her and her behavior.

But, I can't look away. I think maybe I need to see how bad it can be to go back to the food.

[gowalking 10,790]

I was wondering if anyone was going to post about this episode with the comic. I agree, the producers coached this whole thing, but those words out of the comic's mouth belonged to someone who knows Whitney very well. Everything was on target about how she's kidding herself that she's OK with her body and her life right now. She's not. I recognize also so much in her behaviors that mimicked my own. She needs to talk to someone who's been where she is and is now truly in a better place weight wise. She can't avoid us like she did the 'skinny b***h'. I too am appalled that I watch this show. It is the worst kind of dehumanizing show and here I am watching...

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

The comedian had some pretty good advice buried under the condescension.

Whitney has a basically positive message buried under all of her self delusion and denial.

If they actually had a conversation without resorting to attacks and defensiveness, the audience might have had some interesting ideas to think about.

As soon as she mentioned "No Body Shame" specifically, I knew that the comedian (sorry, can't remember her name) had one objective: to confront Whitney.

[The Candidate 3,215]

I still love Whitney. I love her heart and her determination. I love the spirit of what she is trying to achieve. She does things with her life now that I never could have done myself. I agreed whole heartedly with the core message of the No Body Shame campaign. She puts a human face on the cruelty that continues to be directed at people of size, and challenges the haters to look at her not as a "thing" but as a person, just like them, who is equally entitled to a little respect and common decency.

I listen to her audible book all the time and there's really only one aspect of it that I find hard to connect with - it's the first words she speaks too. "Life got better when I got fat." I truly do think though that she believes that, or is trying to anyway. Quite frankly, it's easier to do when you're that young. She hasn't gotten to the point yet where she'll have to face the reality that comes with age, when your body turns traitor on you full force. The aches, the pains, that accumulate as you age. The realization might come even sooner for her though, given the health crises she's been dealing with this season. She's not perfect, but then who is?

I'm a year out and at goal, and yet I find myself drawn to stories like hers. I spend a lot of time on YouTube as well, listening to others, so many of them too. I cry with them. I cheer for them. I subscribe and give them the "thumbs up" they so rightly deserve. I want them to know that I'm listening and I understand exactly what they're going through. I'm one of them and I will always be one of them. I relate to their stories as I replay my own stories in my head. I hurt for them, because I was hurt too.

I cling to the faith that one day no one has to feel less worthy than anyone else, simply because they're fat. I also rejoice that whatever it is, this decay in the heart of some who feel the need to treat others like dirt doesn't reside in my heart. Whitney is a living symbol of this hope I have and I applaud her efforts.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

It doesn't matter one whit what she says. Or writes. Or acts.

What matters is whether the life she is leading would work for you or for me.

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

Well, that was a train wreck. The season is finally over and it seems like Whitney is deeper in denial than ever. For her sake, I really hope this show isn't renewed for another season.

[melbell2222 244]

Well she's not in our life besides being on tv. One day I'm sure she will wake up but she's not the only one out there who says getting fat has better their lives. Iv seen ppl eat to gain purposely. But they were skinny in the first place to maybe it's like a new identity. Just like us getting surgery minority were never small but probably in kindergarten. So we are searching for a new identity. Must be a mental thing in our brains lol

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[gowalking 10,790]

The 'hook' is that the audience knows that she is supposedly in denial and everyone is waiting for her to admit she is unhealthy and her issues are weight related. This show is not about Whitley's attempt to teach people that body shaming is something she will not allow in her attempts to lead a normal and ordinary life. This show is all about shaming Whitley. The show sets her up for humiliation every step of the way. Losing weight and getting healthy is not what people want to see. If/when she does finally decide to take her issues in hand, there is no more show. She is worth much more to TLC by remaining morbidly obese than by really taking her health issues in hand and doing something positive like losing the weight. Once I realized what this show was really about, I stopped watching. I refuse to be part of the exploitation even if Whitley is OK with, and aware of it.