I sometimes think I should be kept away from TV. A few weeks back I saw a bit of a show called Suppersize vs Superskinny and the name itself intrigued me enough to click and watch for a few minutes. I did not really get it but a couple of nights ago I saw that it was on as I was about to fall asleep so I ended up watching the episode.
How does Supersize vs Superskinny work?
The premise behind Supersize vs Superskinny is to have a couple of people that look radically different, one is very over and one is very under, to trade diets for a week. Not only is the whole show interesting, intriguing and fun to watch but it is filmed in Britain so you get accents and strange weights (how heavy is 33 stone 4?) as well as lots of body shapes (actually there are 14 pounds to a stone).
Each pair of people on Supersize vs Superskinny has a look at a tube that contains the total food for the week of the other person and there is a doctor named Dr Christian Jessen that checks out what they are used do doing for eating and how it affects their body. After this the people trade meals for a week while living in a home together
So the episode of Supersize vs Superskinny that I watched went something like this: There was two girls, one was very over and ate big meals, the other was very under and ate almost nothing, something like 6,000 calories per day compared to 1,400 calories per day. As you would expect when the tables were turned their was pain and tears as one person watched the other gorge on food while they starved and the gorger had trouble keeping down the food and number of calories that they had never eaten before.
The second couple that they had on the show was about the same. A woman that did not eat any processed food or meat or flour products who ate about 1300 calories a day and a guy that ate over 6300 calories a day.
My takeaway on Supersize vs Superskinny
In the end it was a really great show to watch as all four of the people on Supersize vs Superskinny did their best to change their diet and I think the extremes that you see and having a doctor counsel each person on the extremes of their diet forced some real thought into what they ate.
One of the things that the show tried to teach was the fact that food is just an energy source and even food that tastes really good is not good in huge protions. We saw a lot of messages about portion control and splitting meals up and even breaking up meals. I was a little surprised but happy when they said on the show that you need more than vegetables and also talked about how fatty red meat is although both are critical to a healthy diet.
Supersize vs Superskinny in Canada is on the Womens TV Network in the US it can not be found on TV for some reason but you can watch episodes on the Channel 4 website from England