Fat March?

Pat said:

Did anybody watch Fat March on TV last night? I got in on the end of it
where they were telling everyone how much weight was lost in "Phase 1" but I
never did know how many days were in a phase. I felt sorry for the guy who
weighed 500 pounds and hurt both his feet. That's a lot of weight down there
hitting those feet with every step. Some of the contestants could barely
walk and yet were out there going 13 miles a day. That takes guts!

Pat in TX

You can go to ABC.com and watch the whole episode there. I think they
walked 8 days before the weigh-in, but I'm not positive about that.

Myra

::: Did anybody watch Fat March on TV last night? I got in on the end
::: of it where they were telling everyone how much weight was lost in
::: "Phase 1" but I never did know how many days were in a phase. I
::: felt sorry for the guy who weighed 500 pounds and hurt both his
::: feet. That's a lot of weight down there hitting those feet with
::: every step. Some of the contestants could barely walk and yet were
::: out there going 13 miles a day. That takes guts!

Back when I was 300+ I once hurt my feet really bad walking on hard
pavement. Talk about a good way to kill an exercise program...and screw up
progress. Stationary bike!

Pat said:

Did anybody watch Fat March on TV last night? I got in on the end of
it where they were telling everyone how much weight was lost in
"Phase 1" but I never did know how many days were in a phase. I felt
sorry for the guy who weighed 500 pounds and hurt both his
feet. That's a lot of weight down there hitting those feet with
every step. Some of the contestants could barely walk and yet were
out there going 13 miles a day. That takes guts!

Or stupidity, if you injure yourself and have to go back to being
sedentary. The 500 pound guy should have gone with swimming or a
bicycle, maybe. (A really well-built bicycle.) I didn't see the
show, though, so I'm not sure what the point was.

--
Aaron -- 285/254/200 -- aaron.baugher.biz

Aaron Baugher wrote:
:: "Pat" <[email hidden]> writes:
::
::: Did anybody watch Fat March on TV last night? I got in on the end of
::: it where they were telling everyone how much weight was lost in
::: "Phase 1" but I never did know how many days were in a phase. I felt
::: sorry for the guy who weighed 500 pounds and hurt both his
::: feet. That's a lot of weight down there hitting those feet with
::: every step. Some of the contestants could barely walk and yet were
::: out there going 13 miles a day. That takes guts!
::
:: Or stupidity, if you injure yourself and have to go back to being
:: sedentary. The 500 pound guy should have gone with swimming or a
:: bicycle, maybe. (A really well-built bicycle.) I didn't see the
:: show, though, so I'm not sure what the point was.

At that weight, a stationary bike is the way to go.

Pat said:

Did anybody watch Fat March on TV last night? I got in on the end of it
where they were telling everyone how much weight was lost in "Phase 1" but I
never did know how many days were in a phase. I felt sorry for the guy who
weighed 500 pounds and hurt both his feet. That's a lot of weight down there
hitting those feet with every step. Some of the contestants could barely
walk and yet were out there going 13 miles a day. That takes guts!

They went 8 days.
Day one, they did 5.5 miles.
Day two, 8 miles.
I get fuzzy from there, but apparently, they got them up to 13 miles
by day 8.
Considering they are doing 500 miles, 13 is not large change.

I found a couple things interesting. No one there seems to be in it
for the money.
If anyone had been there for the money, they wouldn't have let the
former rap diva
hang all the way at the back, left to the motivational predations of a
guy who looks
like he could be an Aryan Ideal cover model (it's not his fault he's
blond and muscular,
but the Nazi ideal thing just struck me).

Also, they probably would have accepted torturing poor Shane (I'm glad
he's gone, but
I'm a jerk) and marching 13 miles that they already walked. Forcing
Shane into the reality
TV version of the Bataan Death March is $10K in everybody's pocket. 8
days in and their
maximum expected payout is dropped by 20%. I know someone is gonna
cross the
finish line (they showed a clip of people cheering them on here in
DC), but I don't think they're
gonna collect more than 50K a person. Granted, I'd walk 500 miles for
$50K if I could get
the time off work and had the weight to lose. But you'd think you'd
act to maximize your
payoff.

Last thing, before anyone says I'm an a-hole for wanting to force
march poor 500 lbs of Shane,
if I'm on the show, I've maybe known Shane for 2 weeks. In two months,
I won't remember his
eye color, and in a month beyond that, I will probably not recall his
hair or much about his face.
Gimme a year and Shane is like Adam to me, some guy on the street. The
other way, he's $10K
in my pocket (minus taxes).

Real last thing, I would have made the argument that quitting should
be Shane's choice. I wasn't
gonna take the call out of his hands.

"Pat" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Did anybody watch Fat March on TV last night? I got in on the end of it
where they were telling everyone how much weight was lost in "Phase 1" but
I never did know how many days were in a phase. I felt sorry for the guy
who weighed 500 pounds and hurt both his feet. That's a lot of weight down
there hitting those feet with every step. Some of the contestants could
barely walk and yet were out there going 13 miles a day. That takes guts!

Pat in TX

i didn't see this but it reminds me of the Stephen King short story "The
Long Walk" - adds an new twist LOL anyone remember that story? (ok, i'm
twisted - sorry!)

I think one reason some of them voted Shane off was that they didn't want to
go back and re-walk the 13 miles that he had missed. I am thinking that is
short-sighted of them. After all, if walking is the reason they are losing
weight, then they should have gladly added 13 more miles. I, too, would not
have voted him off. I figure it's up to him to know when the time comes that
he can't stand the pain any more. After all, that other guy dropped out and
then came back and made up the missed miles, so maybe Shane could have done
so as well.

Some of this is their problem with attitude, of course. I went out yesterday
to ride my bike, only to hit with a strong headwind. At that point, I could
either quit or continue. So, I chose to continue, tellling myself that the
headwind actually was to my benefit because fighting it was making me
stronger (and making me use more calories). I find that the right attitude
will carry a person a long way...not making excuses to quit.

Pat in TX

Pat said:

I think one reason some of them voted Shane off was that they didn't want to
go back and re-walk the 13 miles that he had missed. I am thinking that is
short-sighted of them. After all, if walking is the reason they are losing
weight, then they should have gladly added 13 more miles. I, too, would not
have voted him off. I figure it's up to him to know when the time comes that
he can't stand the pain any more. After all, that other guy dropped out and
then came back and made up the missed miles, so maybe Shane could have done
so as well.

Some of this is their problem with attitude, of course. I went out yesterday
to ride my bike, only to hit with a strong headwind. At that point, I could
either quit or continue. So, I chose to continue, tellling myself that the
headwind actually was to my benefit because fighting it was making me
stronger (and making me use more calories). I find that the right attitude
will carry a person a long way...not making excuses to quit.

So, it comes down to incentives. A TV show makes money like this:
A studio pays a production company money to make it. The studio sells
it to a
network (perhaps the same company, but different divisions). That
yields a price,
which dictates how much money goes into production. The network, in
turn, makes
it's money on advertising sales. Each group makes some money on
ancillary revenues,
depending on the stream.

When you have a show with a prize package, that's paid from the
production share, and
maybe their insurer (I recall Who Wants to Be A Millionaire's
insurance company
complaining and perhaps suing because the million, which they paid
half of, was easier
than the British version would have led them to expect. Of course, one
million pounds is
worth a good bit more {70-100%} than a million dollars, so, maybe they
should have factored
that... I digress). At any rate, somewhere out there, they had
budgeted $1.2 Million in prizes,
and each person who drops is a cost savings that returns either wholly
or partially to the
producers, the folks who have the most direct control on the show.
When the rap diva dropped,
someone essentially made $210K. When Shane got booted, that's $190K.
By my understanding
of the rules, if less than 3 people make it to DC, they get their
weightloss and their warhol minutes
and that's it. Maybe they get an appearance fee.

I have a suspicion that they are gonna change the rules and pay anyone
who finishes at least $50K.
It's not a good story (and therefore renewable next year) if no
contestant gets money.

Aaron Baugher said:

Or stupidity, if you injure yourself and have to go back to being
sedentary. The 500 pound guy should have gone with swimming or a
bicycle, maybe. (A really well-built bicycle.) I didn't see the
show, though, so I'm not sure what the point was.

The "personal trainers" who are walking with the contestants let one of the guys
pass out from "low blood sugar and dehydration" and be taken to the ER. Really,
any personal trainer who would take a 400+lb man on the SAD, feed him high carb,
low fat, low calorie breakfast and then have him walk until he passes out from
low blood sugar and dehydration is an idiot, IMO. He had obvious symptoms and it
should have been expected that at least one person in that group had abnormal
blood sugar responses.

Man though, the next day he had to make up the mileage he missed (13 miles total
that day) and he really did well. Based on his appearance on the 2 different
days I'd guess they were giving him more snacks/water and just kept trucking.

As far as I could tell they were all wearing the same mid-height hiking boots.
There's no way that 14 people all fit in the same pair of boots, and a couple of
people were reporting problems that sounded like poor boot fit to me (abrasion
at the ankles stands out in my mind). I didn't rewind and try to peer at
everyone's feet to verify that, though.

Overall, I wouldn't use one of those trainers.. well.. ok, for $100,000 I might,
but I have some experience modifying boots/socks so that I have a good fit.

Dawn wrote:
:: Aaron Baugher wrote:
::
::: Or stupidity, if you injure yourself and have to go back to being
::: sedentary. The 500 pound guy should have gone with swimming or a
::: bicycle, maybe. (A really well-built bicycle.) I didn't see the
::: show, though, so I'm not sure what the point was.
::
::
:: The "personal trainers" who are walking with the contestants let one
:: of the guys pass out from "low blood sugar and dehydration" and be
:: taken to the ER. Really, any personal trainer who would take a
:: 400+lb man on the SAD, feed him high carb, low fat, low calorie
:: breakfast and then have him walk until he passes out from low blood
:: sugar and dehydration is an idiot, IMO. He had obvious symptoms and
:: it should have been expected that at least one person in that group
:: had abnormal blood sugar responses.

Geez whiz...this is so silly. Why would this kind of thing be allowed to be
aired on TV? Obviously, the PT is clueless and if you ask me, the entire
notion of this show is downright stupid.

I had set it up for TIVO, but I think I might delete just to keep my stress
level under control. 🙂

::
:: Man though, the next day he had to make up the mileage he missed (13
:: miles total that day) and he really did well. Based on his
:: appearance on the 2 different days I'd guess they were giving him
:: more snacks/water and just kept trucking.
::
:: As far as I could tell they were all wearing the same mid-height
:: hiking boots. There's no way that 14 people all fit in the same pair
:: of boots, and a couple of people were reporting problems that
:: sounded like poor boot fit to me (abrasion at the ankles stands out
:: in my mind). I didn't rewind and try to peer at everyone's feet to
:: verify that, though.
::
:: Overall, I wouldn't use one of those trainers.. well.. ok, for
:: $100,000 I might, but I have some experience modifying boots/socks
:: so that I have a good fit.

Quoted message said:

::
:: The "personal trainers" who are walking with the contestants let one
:: of the guys pass out from "low blood sugar and dehydration" and be
:: taken to the ER. Really, any personal trainer who would take a
:: 400+lb man on the SAD, feed him high carb, low fat, low calorie
:: breakfast and then have him walk until he passes out from low blood
:: sugar and dehydration is an idiot, IMO. He had obvious symptoms and
:: it should have been expected that at least one person in that group
:: had abnormal blood sugar responses.

Geez whiz...this is so silly. Why would this kind of thing be allowed to
be aired on TV? Obviously, the PT is clueless and if you ask me, the
entire notion of this show is downright stupid.

I don't know what they had to eat, so I can't comment on that, but I think
this is on TV for the human interest of seeing people struggle and conquer a
problem which affects millions of viewers. I think they are feeding the
contestants an average diet so as to make it seem more realistic. After
all, if they were giving the contestants not easily obtainable nutrition,
then the viewers would say, "Well, I could never do this! It's rigged!" and
give up.

One day last week, I was walking into a store and two
overweight-bordering-on-fat women were coming out of the store. I overheard
one say to the other: "Have you seen that show with Shaquille O'Neal trying
to get kids to exercise?" and the other one said she had not seen it. The
first one said, "I watched it with my kids and it really got me to thinking
that I should cut out the snacks and feed them better. They even wanted to
do some of the exercises Shaq was doing." The second one said, "Yeah, I
know my kids don't eat right, so maybe I should watch it, too. I might pick
up some tips."

I was stunned! I have never watched the show, but it is already a success
just because two mothers are thinking about nutrition and exercise for their
kids. So, maybe this Fat March show will encourage other people to just get
up off of their duffs and start a walking program.

Pat in TX

Quoted message said:

I had set it up for TIVO, but I think I might delete just to keep my
stress level under control. 🙂

::
:: Man though, the next day he had to make up the mileage he missed (13
:: miles total that day) and he really did well. Based on his
:: appearance on the 2 different days I'd guess they were giving him
:: more snacks/water and just kept trucking.
::
:: As far as I could tell they were all wearing the same mid-height
:: hiking boots. There's no way that 14 people all fit in the same pair
:: of boots, and a couple of people were reporting problems that
:: sounded like poor boot fit to me (abrasion at the ankles stands out
:: in my mind). I didn't rewind and try to peer at everyone's feet to
:: verify that, though.
::
:: Overall, I wouldn't use one of those trainers.. well.. ok, for
:: $100,000 I might, but I have some experience modifying boots/socks
:: so that I have a good fit.