With Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, it is not a house being made over, but a human being. A trainer starts with an obese person and hopes to end up with a healthy weight one.

Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition

Thanks for your views of this show. It sounds like it needs to be revamped.

Thanks for the review. It is a shame when shows like this seem to have so much potential but don't quite deliver. I agree that there needs to be a lot of changes. It's to Tony's credit that he did so well, but I do feel badly for his former fiance.

Well, and to be fair, I imagine Extreme Makeover (the house version) doesn't give a lot of carpenter advice either. I've never seen it, but maybe it's more about the "human drama" and less about the "how to make over your own home". So maybe the same thing is here, that it's more about the drama and less about helping viewers learn the skills they need to do this themselves.

So it's a good thing, to have a variety of shows of a variety of styles, all approaching weight loss from different angles. That way a person who doesn't relate to one show can still relate to another.

Still, even with all of that being said, if they WERE going to focus on the drama I think they should have more of "and here is how we fix it" incorporated. Instead, they destroyed the ex-fiance's life and then showcased her as a fool on national TV. When really she was just a troubled individual, just like Tony was, and she wasn't quite in a place on her journey yet where she was capable of changing like that. She could have had all sorts of issues in her life which were holding her back, and if she'd just gotten some help, she could have thrived too. Instead the man she said she loved and adored, and would wait to return to her, ran off with another woman.

I would have been devastated.

I tried to ignore that part, since it was Tony's story that I wanted to focus on. The ex-fiance stuff was just uncomfortable.

I appreciated greatly the REAL no excuses scenario that was presented. In a lot of this program's episodes the people at home drop the ball after the 90 days are up. Chris seems to have a lot of trouble getting these folks to call him back, and sometimes they gain weight in phase two.

Tony - while being homeless, losing a son, looking for work in a new career and dealing with relationship fallout - STILL managed to work very, very hard to change himself. In parking lots, even! Sleeping in a car!

He makes the ridiculous No Excuses Biggest Loser season look like the dismal failure it was. If anyone had real excuses to fall off the wagon, Tony did. No one would have blamed him, IMO.

It really shows me how its where you are inside yourself that makes the difference for personal change.

We just watched the Jacqui episode since one of our Facebook members knew the family. I liked that one much better. After the Tony episode I was half expecting Chris to somehow cause their marriage to fail too, which would have made me quite unhappy.

Still, I am discouraged that they don't say pretty much ANYTHING about the food side of it. Yes, people can work out. Yes, exercise is important! But even vigorous exercise cannot make up for diet issues. If you go out hiking for a full hour you burn maybe 450 calories. You could EASILY ingest those 450 calories in a few seconds.

One White Castle chocolate shake is 1680 calories.

So absolutely I believe in exercise. But a healthy diet is critical, and they say next to nothing about the diet side of this thing.

Also I have a huge, huge issue with the way he makes the person feel depressed at the scale. They already face so much negativity in life. He is supposed to be their one true champion. And then she's there before her husband and family desperately wanting her trip - and he makes a SAD FACE. Why?? For ratings??? It made me incredibly upset. Why would he torture a woman who was struggling and doing her best? WHYYYYY?????

OK yes I felt strongly about that

In the case of Tony's fiance, I would have been devastated as well.

In the Jacqui episode, I agree...there should be a little more sensitivity to people who are having difficulty despite trying their best.

Is this show to help or to hurt people?

I am a little disappointed, Lisa. You're awfully negative about these shows. I'm just glad there are some shows that are trying to present weight loss in a manner palatable for the masses. I don't blame Chris for anything. I think he's amazing.

Dear Jilly -

I apologize if my reviews upset you. I always try to review every thing I watch as objectively as possible! I won't always agree with what other people think about a show, and that is fine.

With all the millions of hours of video now available, I think it's important for people to optimize their video watching time to focus on the best of the best. Life is too short to spend it stagnant in front of a screen for something less than spectacular.