Entertainment

Diet-swapping drama in Supersize vs Superskinny

November 20, 2009 Edition 1

A FEW years ago there was a delightfully trashy programme called Footballers' Wives, in which one of the characters died of anorexia, literally starving herself to death.

At the funeral, one of the footballers flippantly pondered why she didn't just eat a sandwich. At the other end of the scale, one has to wonder why and how some people eat themselves into morbid obesity.

I'm not talking about a few extra kilos, but to the point of receiving the dubious honour of being the world's heaviest man. Manuel Uribe of Monterrey, Mexico, had a framed certificate on his wall proclaiming him as such, when he had ballooned to a mind-boggling 560kg. He was the subject of the not very imaginatively titled World's Heaviest Man, which was on Discovery a couple of weeks ago. It caught my attention because it was followed by the sequel, World's Heaviest Man Gets Married, which somehow hinted at a happy ending.

On the one hand, you want to feel sorry for poor Manuel, but the fact is he began life as a very normal three-and-a-half kilo baby, went through childhood and adolescence slightly pudgy and grew to his enormous proportions through simple over-eating. He blamed it on God and the easy access to fast food when he moved to the US, combined with an office job where he sat down all day.

I couldn't help but wonder how he managed to bypass the day he looked in the mirror and thought he should maybe do something about his weight instead of shovelling another pizza down his gullet.

The sight of him was nothing short of horrific. At the time the programme was made, he had not moved - was unable to move - from his bed for five years. Can you even begin to imagine what that must be like? To be in the same room, looking at the same four walls, for five years? Because he was unable to move, his entire life was conducted from there, from washing and eating to toilet functions.

To say the man is enormous is an understatement. Giant folds of fatty flesh have to be manoeuvred for bathing to prevent sores developing. The build-up of lymphatic fluid resulting in tumours on his upper legs mean he sits in a position with both legs extended at right angles to his torso. There have been surgeries - unsuccessful - and physiotherapists come once a week to massage his limbs that he cannot use properly.

Remarkably, not only was Manuel married for 11 years until his wife left him, somewhere between the 360 and 560kg marks, but he had a new girlfriend. Claudia had been married to his best friend from school who died - wait for it - from obesity-related complications.

It's wrong, I suppose, to judge who people love but the psychological issues in this situation are just too much to contemplate.

To his credit, and motivated by his love for Claudia, Manuel decided to go on diet. He did lose nearly 200kg in two years, but mean as it sounds, it was hard to tell. He was still bedridden when they got married, he in a shirt made from 4m of silk, but Manuel and Claudia were confident they could start a family.

And just when you think things can't get any worse, they coyly admitted that they have sex, moving the necessary sheets of flesh around to get to the bits they need.

Everyone has body issues, and being too fat is just as bad as being to thin. These opposites are tackled in a new programme on BBC Lifestyle called Supersize vs Superskinny (Mondays, 9.20pm). Along with a journalist who tries out various fad diets and instant weight loss procedures, and another woman on a mission to trim down the biggest bums in the UK, the main concept is to take an underweight person and an overweight person, put them together in a room for three days and make them swap diets, all under medical supervision.

While the subjects are rather extreme - well, they have to be, to make the point - it's still an eye-opener. Based on an average kilojoule intake, they can be under-eating by two and a half days, and over-eating up to 10 days' worth of food in a week.

There's also a bit of sneakiness because in the beginning they are both (and it's men and women, by the way) shown in ugly beige underwear and the footage has been colour graded to make them look worse.

At the end of the experiment, after they've been sent off with new diet regimens to follow for three months, they return looking all glowing and healthy, in proper colour and nice undies (or clothes for the ones with fuller figures), make-up and hair styled.

In between watching a skinny person facing a day full of fried breakfasts, pizzas topped with chicken, prawns and cockles (the fat person cooks and I think he did that for spite because those vinegary little critters have no place on a pizza), noodles, peanut butter sarmies and several bags of crisps while the porker grumbles about rice cakes, raisins and smoothies, there is the serious side of the adverse effects such eating habits.

It's all very sensible, and encourages balanced, healthy eating but sad at the same time. Right now I would be quite content to live entirely on red velvet cupcakes, but really don't want to end up as the subject of a gross documentary of my own. Damn.

TOMORROW

America's Got Talent (M-Net Series, 7pm): Hot on the heels of our local version, about which I can't think of anything nice to say, comes season three of the US show.

I was asleep at the controls so I missed all but the last few minutes of the first episode last week, but I did see the heartwarming audition of a bloke singing opera, which brought audience and judges to their feet, and a little tear to my eye.

Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff are still on the panel and this week they are in Chicago. Trying their luck will be an Elvis impersonator (surprise), magic and illusionist acts, concrete slab-punching, and some hot dancing cowboys. Grrrrr...

IN THE WEEK

The Ex List (M-Net Series, Monday at 8pm): On the surface, it sounds like the biggest lot of rubbish - "When a woman visits a psychic at her sister's bachelorette party, she discovers that she's already dated the man she is destined to marry. She sets out to find out who it is by looking up past loves. She must marry within a year or she will be single forever" - but I like to give everything at least a five-minute chance, and this one is actually quite funny, although America disagreed - it was cancelled after just four episodes.

You'll recognize Elizabeth Reaser as amnesia patient Ava/ Rebecca Pope in Grey's Anatomy; here she plays Bella, the woman hunting down her husband. In this third episode, Bella runs into another one of her exes, Shane, a former vagabond surf bum. She wonders if he's grown up at all because that's the reason she dumped him.