Super Slim Me [1] | |
---|---|
Directed by | Lee Phillips |
Written by | Lee Phillips |
Produced by | Lee Phillips |
Starring | Dawn O'Porter |
Cinematography | Lee Phillips |
Edited by | Rick Aplin |
Distributed by | BBC |
Release date |
|
Running time | 60 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Super Slim Me is a TV documentary presented by British writer and television presenter, Dawn O'Porter. It was broadcast in the UK by BBC Three on 25 February 2007. Porter was on a mission to see what it takes to shrink her UK size 12 figure to the much-touted super skinny Hollywood zero.
Surviving on a diet of just 500 calories a day, Porter hunted down the stylists, designers and agencies who are responsible for making skinniness not only appear possible, but the ultimate goal for any dedicated follower of fashion. [2]
The title is based on the American film Super Size Me where the author consumes McDonald's daily for a month.
Over the course of an eight-week period, O’Porter challenged herself to go on a crash diet in order to drop from the nation’s average, UK Size 12, to the mysterious, yet idolised, US Size 0. This aspired image has been formed by alarmingly skinny celebrities over the past decade, who are influencing the attitudes that predominately teenage girls have about their bodies. The images of skinny celebrities in the media also convey the message that being thin is a form of acceptance. However, it was also through this experimental crash diet that O’Porter showed her audience both the physical and psychological effects of this lifestyle. Throughout the eight-week time period, O’Porter’s every move was documented by a BBC film crew as she transformed herself. During this process, O’Porter met with fashion designers, stylists, modeling agencies, as well as medical experts to find out what it would take to drop her dress size to the infamous US Size 0 (UK Size 4). She soon found out that in order for her to succeed, her calorie intake had to decrease from the recommended 2000 calories a day, to a maximum of 500 calories a day—just a fraction of what the body needs to maintain health. Even after finishing just Day One of her experiment, O' Porter’s attitude had changed and she experienced strange obsessive behaviours, as well as mood swings, all as a result of her hunger. By the end of her diet, the psychological effects worsened leading to irritability, insomnia, and lack of energy. [3]
After a gruelling eight weeks of sticking to a strict diet of only 500 calories and constantly working out, Dawn was both physically and mentally exhausted. With this crash diet she was losing sleep, feeling depressed every day and feeling constantly weak. Her results ended up in a 69 cm waist and a weight of 59 kilos leaving her total weight loss at 17 pounds. This resulted in her dropping two dress sizes. Her BMI before she started the diet was 22. She ended the eight-week diet with a BMI of 19. [4]
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients, have been shown to be no more effective than one another. As weight regain is common, diet success is best predicted by long-term adherence. Regardless, the outcome of a diet can vary widely depending on the individual.
Gwendolyn Henley Shamblin Lara was the founder of the Remnant Fellowship Church, founder of the Christian diet program The Weigh Down Workshop, and an American author.
Carol Jean Vorderman, RAFAC HonFIET is a Welsh broadcaster, media personality, and writer. Her media career began when she joined the Channel 4 game show Countdown, appearing with Richard Whiteley from 1982 until his death in 2005, and subsequently with Des Lynam and Des O'Connor, before leaving in 2008.
A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; as such it is often considered a type of pseudoscientific diet. Fad diets are usually not supported by clinical research and their health recommendations are not peer-reviewed, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease.
Body image is a person's thoughts, feelings and perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body. The concept of body image is used in several disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, philosophy, cultural and feminist studies; the media also often uses the term. Across these disciplines, there is no single consensus definition, but broadly speaking, body image consists of the ways people view themselves; their memories, experiences, assumptions, and comparisons about their appearances; and their overall attitudes towards their respective heights, shapes, and weights—all of which are shaped by prevalent social and cultural ideals.
Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003, during which he claimed to consume only McDonald's food, although he later disclosed he was also drinking heavy amounts of alcohol. The film documents the drastic change on Spurlock's physical and psychological health and well-being. It also explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit and gain.
Claire Jane Sweeney is an English actress, singer, and television personality. Known for her portrayal of Lindsey Corkhill on Channel 4's Brookside (1991–2003), she also played Roxie Hart in Chicago and starred in touring productions of Guys and Dolls (2006), Tell Me on a Sunday (2011), Legally Blonde (2011), and Educating Rita (2012). She was a panellist on ITV's Loose Women between 2003 and 2005, and presented 60 Minute Makeover from 2004 to 2006. Her debut album, Claire, reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart in 2002. Sweeney has portrayed Cassie Plummer on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street since 2023. Her other credits include Candy Cabs (2011), Scarborough (2019), and The Good Ship Murder (2023).
Size zero or size 0 is a women's clothing size in the US catalog sizes system. Size 0 and 00 were invented due to increasing body sizes and therefore the changing of clothing sizes over time, which has caused the adoption of lower numbers. For example, a 2011 size 0 is equivalent to a 2001 size 2, and is larger than a 1970 size 6 or 1958 size 8. Modern size 0 clothing, depending on brand and style, fits measurements of chest-stomach-hips from 30-22-32 inches to 33-25-35 inches. Size 00 can be anywhere from 0.5 to 2 inches smaller than size 0. Size zero often refers to thin people, or trends associated with them.
A very-low-calorie diet (VLCD), also known as semistarvation diet and crash diet, is a type of diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption. VLCDs are defined as a diet of 800 kilocalories (3,300 kJ) per day or less. Modern medically supervised VLCDs use total meal replacements, with regulated formulations in Europe and Canada which contain the recommended daily requirements for vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fatty acids, protein and electrolyte balance. Carbohydrates may be entirely absent, or substituted for a portion of the protein; this choice has important metabolic effects. Medically supervised VLCDs have specific therapeutic applications for rapid weight loss, such as in morbid obesity or before a bariatric surgery, using formulated, nutritionally complete liquid meals containing 800 kilocalories or less per day for a maximum of 12 weeks.
Rachel Zoe Rosenzweig is an American fashion designer, businesswoman and author who rose to prominence as a celebrity wardrobe stylist. She has been credited with the creation of "the boho-meets-rock chic look that came to define a new breed of Hollywood ‘it’-girls who were as adept at setting trends as they were at causing trouble" in the mid-2000s. Describing her signature look to Vogue magazine, Zoe said: "It's very 60s to 70s glamour. It's Mod meets Grecian. A lot of gold and a lot of bronze, shimmer and glamour, but relaxed glamour, very unstructured, bold accessories." Zoe's clients as a stylist have included Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, Kate Beckinsale, Debra Messing, Demi Moore, Liv Tyler, Joy Bryant, Molly Sims, Beau Garett, Eva Mendes, Paula Patton, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lawrence, Miley Cyrus, and Pauly Shore.
The first season of the Australian version of the original NBC American reality television series The Biggest Loser premiered at 7pm each week night on Network Ten for 10 weeks from 13 February to 27 April 2006. The eventual winner, as decided by percentage of weight lost, was Adriano "Adro" Sarnelli, who won A$200,000. The host was announced as Ajay Rochester, who had previously gone through weight loss herself. American trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels reprised their roles from the previous American version. Applications closed on 11 November 2005 with over 6,000 Australians having applied to take part. The finale was watched by 2.310 million Australian viewers.
Dawn O'Porter is a Scottish writer, director, and television presenter.
The Biggest Loser: Families is the sixth season of the NBC reality television series The Biggest Loser. The sixth season premiered on September 16, 2008, featuring Alison Sweeney as the host and Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels as the contestants' trainers.
Donna Simpson is a woman who in 2008 expressed a "desire" to become one of the world's heaviest women, in competition with Susanne Eman. She wished to attain a target weight of 800 pounds (360 kg). As of June 2010, Simpson weighed 602 pounds (273 kg), down from her weight of 630 pounds (290 kg) in 2008. Simpson maintained a website where fans paid to watch her eat. In 2010, she won the Guinness World Records for the "Heaviest woman to give birth".
The Dukan Diet is a high-protein low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Pierre Dukan.
Fat Head is a 2009 American documentary film directed by and starring comedian Tom Naughton. The film seeks to refute both the documentary Super Size Me and the lipid hypothesis, a theory of nutrition started in the early 1950s in the United States by Ancel Keys and promoted in much of the Western world.
Sophie Duker is a British stand-up comedian and writer.
The Truth About Size Zero is a TV documentary starring English singer, songwriter, and media personality, Louise Redknapp. Redknapp, concerned about the pressures that women face to be very thin, decided to document what happens when she tries to drop two dress sizes in 30 days. She describes the documentary as her proudest moment away from music. The documentary originally aired on ITV1.
"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is a quote popularized by English model Kate Moss, though she did not originate the phrase. Moss first publicly used the quote in a 2009 interview with Women's Wear Daily where she stated it was one of her mantras. The quote was immediately controversial, and subsequently used for pro-anorexia purposes. It has also been used for product marketing and been the focus of academic study. Moss later expressed regret for using the phrase.