Heavy on A&E, Episode 1, Tom/Jodi (Texas)

Heavy is a reality show that airs on A&E about people who are extremely overweight and are on the verge of death trying to regain their life. They are followed over a six month period to lose as much weight as possible. For the first month they leave to a camp and are under complete supervision, then they are sent home for the remaining five months provided they continue to lose weight on their own. They are provided with a certified personal trainer for the entire time. Some make it, some don’t, and they are sent back to the camp. Let’s watch and see how well they all do, and let’s use this as motivation to put a “Death to the Yo-Yo Life”!

Episode 1: Tom/Jodi in Texas:

Tom’s Story
Tom is a big man, and a big eater. I mean, this a man who eats six junior bacon cheese burgers and three orders of nuggets for lunch. Because of how extremely heavy he is, it’s hard for him to handle his weight. So at dinner time he would lay on his bed with a grill at the edge, he would watch TV as he cooked his steaks, and then he’d eat while lying on his gigantic belly. You could tell just by looking at the screen that he had to be killing himself, his organs must have been squeezing into nothing. In his own words he says, “I’m Lucky to still even be alive, because of all this weight. Life is more than eating. I feel like I wasted my life.”

Tom had a growth on his leg due to the excessive fat on his body. He wasn’t allowed to swim because of the leaking from his leg. He was promised surgery to remove the growth only if he lost enough weight. That became one of his positive reinforcements to lose weight along with the fact that he was on the brink of death. Tom’s starting weight was 638 pounds and by the end of 6 months he lost 155 pounds, bringing him to a weight of 483 pounds. That is truly amazing.

Jodi’s Story
Jodi is a beautiful woman who is a former singer that has lost her drive because of her weight. She is a mother of two and has marital issues due to her athletic husband who is no longer willing to accept her after the weight gain. Jodi has already had a minor stroke at her young age. After hearing the bad news of how terrible her health has become she says “I don’t have a choice, it’s either do it or die, change or die. I want to fix it. I just want to just fix it.”

At the camp Jodi started off mentally weak and unprepared. As time went on she faced the chance of losing her husband which would destroy her family. She used that as her motivation to get in gear and lose the weight. Jodi’s starting weight was 367 pounds and by the end of 6 months she lost 77 pounds, bringing her to a weight of 290 pounds. That amount of weight loss has improved her health all around and she says she is ready to continue on her journey.

My Opinion
In my opinion this is starting out to be a great show for weight loss. The characters are very real people and it is easy to see that none of the show is scripted. The trainers are very compassionate and they seem to know what they’re doing. With that said, I still feel that they do not show enough detail on the food and nutritional aspect of weight loss. It seems that Heavy (like many other weight loss TV show) has downplayed the importance of healthy eating. I believe it would be a much better show if they spent more time focusing on the food. Other than that, I love the show and I look forward to writing a review for the next episode.