These Damn Size Zero Documentaries!!!

I watched another of those 'lets not eat for thirty days and try and get to size zero' documentaries last night. I really don't see the point in them any more.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the concept, but I think this was the third one in as many months and they seem to be getting progressively more pointless.

The first one (Mischief: super slim me) was on a few months ago and featured a size 12 woman surviving on 500 cals a day and doing excessive exercise to try and get to an American size zero (UK size 4) in order to show the dangerous extremes some girls are going to to get skinny. Quite well made. Original. Had a good point to make.

Then about a month later, Louise Redknapp (not been on the screen much since the late 90s) decided to cash in on the deal and attempted to go from a practically obese size 8 to a size 4. I can't remember if she accomplished this feat or not but the entire documentary seemed pointless as the subject had already been covered reasonably well in the previously mentioned documentary. This one was quite poorly made and I see no reason why Louise Redknapp decided to do this (££?)

Then last night came the second rip off of the concept and featured to unknown women competing to get to size zero in 30 days. This one seemed to have completely lost the plot. They seemed to try a different fad diet every week (watercress soup, liquid diet) and I think they both lost about a stone (one did make it to size zero). For those of you that didn't see it the one who went the furthest was ecstatic when she fitted into a pair of 8yr old girl's jeans in front of all her friends. One woman actually seemed to develop a mild eating disorder and was reluctant to put the weight back on, whilst the other one went on a two week binge to get her weight back up. I see no reason for these two unknowns to do this. I think people understand that eating virtually nothing and exercising excessively pushes your body to the limit and makes your life miserable. Why did these two nobodies feel the need to strave themselves for thirty days and show the nation? Are they merely trying to milk the mild success of the first documentary, shown on BBC3.

The lady in the first docu (Dawn I think) was quite level headed and seemed to have the right idea about why she was doing it. The last two women actually seemed to quite enjoy it. So far BBC3, ITV1 and Ch4 have made a docu on the subject. Am I the only one who doesn't see the point in churning out endless 'race to size zero' documentaries? I think we get it. I think everyone understands the dangers of anorexia. Perhaps these are just helping to show that anyone can fast for thirty days and become super skinny, possibly prompting a select few vulnerable young girls to imitate?

Does anyone agree? Would like to hear views.

Reply 1

*Katie*

I didn't see the last two (heard a lot about the Rednapp one), but I thought the first one was pretty disastrous. I think she created a ridiculous picture of what being really thin does to you - just like in the third documentary you mentioned, Dawn tried a new fad diet every week, and didn't seem to do anything besides drink maple syrup and moan about how depressed she was.
I was quite annoyed about how a lot of my friends were going on about how anyone under a size 8 was going to stop menstruating, and just be a bag of bones - and its partly because all these documentaries go on about the dangers of being thin, and NOT about the dangers of fad diets!

Really annoys me that thin people get so much stick - if you so much as miss a few meals then if you're thin everyone justfies their own sizes by saying "she's just anorexic". Bloody stupid. And its just so they can tuck into a portion of fish and chips and not feel guilty.

I honestly think that a few unhealthily thin girls walking around is nothing compared to the numbers of obese people in this country, especially teens. Let's get some perspective.

Reply 2

student1700

I only saw the second two you mentioned. The documentary that aired last night was a joke. One of the journalists seemed to be so obsessed with the size zero idea and was so relunctant to put weight back on whearas the other journalist didn't seem 2 lose sight that she was just undertaking an experiment for a month and did resume to normal eating habits after. These documentaries are ridiculous and I actually think at times they cast 'being size zero' in a good light! Also I think they can be so misleading; for instance the two journalists weighed over 9st to begin with. And lost a stone or so in a month. I personally think a lot of young impressionable girls would have actually felt they almost looked better at the end. Friends of one of the journalists were shown commenting on her weight loss in a good way. These documentaries are unhealthy and the people undertaking them are simply cashing in!!

Reply 3

Hayley_2k4

the one last night was a load of crap. At the end they said one had gone from a size 12 to 00 (UK size 2). There was no way she was that tiny. She lost just over a stone, you don't drop 5 sizes with just a stone.

Reply 4

miss_world

I watched the last one the other night and have to agree- I was astounded at the utter pointlessness of it! I mean what exactly did they want to prove? That crash dieting and losing too much weight too quickly was detrimental to our health? Erm, yeah, we already know that. I thought it was irresponsible programming too, or maybe it was irresponsible of the 2 girls involved. I mean the taller girl, with shorter hair ended up being damaged, psychologically by the end of it. She almost ended up getting an eating disorder.

Oh and one other thing I didn't understand. So the shorter girl, with long hair ended up becoming a size 4 in the end and lost about a stone of weight, weighing about 8st in the end but I weigh about 8st and there is NO WAY that I could fit into a pair of size 4 jeans, in fact I'm about size 10 and can barely squeeze into a size 8 so, erm WTF?

Reply 5

silken1987

Hayley_2k4

I agree! I didn't see how she was a size 00. These programmes are beginning to get on my nerves. Most people know the consequences of loosing so much weight, why must they keep bringing it to our attention? Is there nothing more interesting that they could put on T.V.

Reply 6

tbm

Im getting fed up of them now too, to be honest I think they could actually be doing more harm than good, for example that programme that was on the other night actually gave tips on how to lose weight and go without eating, which to someone whos already suffering from an eating disorder or on the verge of one, just gives them the encouragement they need to do it

Reply 7

Sorani

I don't like them, I think the whole size 0 thing is just pumped up by the media who seem to think that every woman is desperate to be that. To be honest all the girls I've known who'd wanted to lose weight always put their dream size at an 8 or a 10, I haven't actually known anyone aiming to be smaller than that.
There are a lot of models that are very very small and possibly are that size yes and that's all I tend to hear people say but firstly, models are meant to be clothes hangers and it works better with skinny girls and secondly, who honestly looks up to models as a sign of fantastic beauty? The industry itself admits that they pick girls who aren't at all normal looking or particularly pretty. I've never known people admire models for the way they look, they tend to look to actresses who despite what the media say are generally not that small, usually a size 6/8 I'd reckon which is natural for a lot of girls to be fair.

and NOT about the dangers of fad diets!

I agree, I loathe fad diets, when did the stop-eating-so-much-junk-and-exercise-more diet stop working?

Reply 8

princessx

i thought it was quite funny how they called louise redknapp a "curvy size 8"
i would call a size 8 quite slim to be honest.

Reply 9

Sorani

i thought it was quite funny how they called louise redknapp a "curvy size 8"
i would call a size 8 quite slim to be honest.

It was weird, maybe because they didn't want to call her thin because it'd seem pointless that she was trying to lose weight when she was already thin?

Reply 10

Hev456

I actually thought the Louise Rednapp one was interesting, but I'm not going to watch any of the copycat ones that are on because it just seems to be glorifying it now.

It seems like they're going 'this is how easy it is' and 'do it in 30 days, etc.'. These programmes are just giving tips to young girls now.

Reply 11

xXMessedUpXx

i admit i havent seen any of the docs but i've read articles about them etc. I think the porblem with a good documentary is that you need to do it on something that 1)the auidence will be interested by, and 2)has some originality to it. You can't just churn out the sane old thing. I think its an interesting idea as mnay women out there may aspire to be a size 0 but have no idea what eactly goes into being that size, documentaries like this show in *fairly* real terms what you would have to do to achieve that result. At the same time its sounds like the filmakers were pretty irresponsible if they let one participant get to the point where she was obsessing over the task in had (they should really have had full psych evals before, during and after) and it should have been stopped.

Mixed feelings i guess

Reply 12

LadyEnglish

I think all these documentaries do is give girls ideas about how to lose weight quickly, no matter how unhealthy it is. What they don't seem to realise is anorexic girls or girls who aspire to be a 0 want to look horrendously skinny and 1 TV programme won't deal with the psychological problems behind this. I just see them as filling up space on TV and getting Z list celebrities a bit of Telly time and some cash :rolleyes: