Claire Sweeney’s Big Fat Diet ~ Review
When I saw this show advertised, I figured it was another Supersize Me type show and expected it to be somewhat preachy and prattle on about health and wellbeing and how we should all just live on aduki beans and go to the gym for 12 hours a day…
However, it actually wasn’t like that at all and was in fact fascinating and for me, it’s motivated me to shift the pounds that I’ve been too lazy for several weeks to do anything about. It was startling to see just how quickly weight goes on.
The show opened with a round up of Claire’s state of health before she undertook the Big Fat Diet and she was in peak condition.
At 9st 13lbs, 5ft 8ins, with a BMI of 21.3 and a waist 27ins, she ticked all the right boxes in terms of her general health and how she looked.
We then heard how Claire didn’t intend to binge or anything like that; she was just going to eat what she fancied without ‘putting the brakes on’.
She then went to do a grocery shop for her BFD and bought items she’d never normally buy such as full fat milk, cakes and white chocolate.
In a restaurant, she looked at the menu whereas normally she wouldn’t in order to avoid temptation.
Claire then went on a trip to Majorca to see old friends, one of whom was Mandy who’d been dieting for quite some time. She said that it was quite odd to watch Claire indulging in whatever she wanted to eat because ordinarily, it would be Claire who encouraged Mandy not to eat certain things and would set a good example by being disciplined herself.
Another of her friends, Dion, was astonished to see Claire squeezed unflatteringly into a size 10 dress that a couple of weeks before had fitted her perfectly and flattered her flawless figure. Just that short time later, having been indulging in what she wanted to eat for that time, Claire did in fact look pregnant in the dress and it hugged in a very unflattering way.
After three weeks, Claire had put on nearly a stone, her BMI had gone up, she’d gained 5½ inches on her stomach and her exercise tolerance had dropped.
On a trip to LA, Claire met with Pamela Shae, a Hollywood casting director, who told her that if she wanted roles there, she’d have to drop at least two dress sizes.
Claire then went to visit her old friend and TV presenter Ross King who took a fair while to drag his eyes away from her enlarged and very visible breasts. However, when he did, he and Claire talked about how her weight gain was affecting her and it became clear that she was feeling very conscious of it and it was negatively impacting on her psyche.
Within five weeks, she’d put on 1½ stone and after six weeks, Claire weighed 11st 12½ lbs and had a body fat level of 33% and had gained 10 inches on her waist. Her blood pressure had rocketed and she was now at a point where she was at much greater risk for cardio vascular disorders as well as diabetes.
Now the fact is, none of us really need to be told that it’s bad for us to be fat. We know. But what made this programme unique was that it showed how very dramatically different people could look and feel depending upon their diet. We really are what we eat.
Ordinarily with slimming and dieting type shows, we see the before and after the other way round – we start out seeing a big person who becomes a slimmer person but in this case, we saw the dramatic effects the weight gain had on Claire, and it was an eye opener.
Unlike shows of the ilk of the film Supersize Me, which examined the health effects of living off McDonalds, this show didn’t involve Claire binging on anything specific, she just ate what she felt like eating, which is how the majority of us live.
It’s hard work being self-disciplined and controlled and many of us – myself included – simply don’t do it, which is why there’s an obesity epidemic in the UK and America.
I must say I found this programme fascinating, and I have to applaud Claire for doing it. For someone whose livelihood depends on her looking slim and trim, she risked a lot for this programme and I really was astounded to see what a difference just six weeks of self indulgence could make. I wonder if there were times when she lay awake at night wondering if she’d be able to get rid of the weight after the show?
I suppose one of the best things about it for me was that I’ve always had this assumption that women who are very slim – as Claire was before doing the show – had a propensity to be so; they were just slim by nature, however it’s clear that’s simply not the case.
Claire was as slim and healthy as she was before doing the BFD because she worked hard at it and was self-disciplined. It exploded a comfortable myth that I’d got about very slim women, and I have to now admit it was one that was convenient for me to have as a good excuse as to why my own weight has gone up.
Well done Claire for taking what must have been a scary assignment for you on board and for showing very graphically just how much of a difference it makes to be indulgent!
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I wonder if there is anywhere we could see say a typical two or three days worth of food for clare during this experiment?
She says she didn’t gorge or anything, but I think it would be interesting to kind of tally up the average calories she was eating maybe or the kind of food that had this effect on her so dramatically.
I thought it was an interesting programme which was a real eye opener.
Bravo to Clare for doing it.
Great programme. Showed dramatically what can happen if people eat what they want to with no exercise. Like Clare I also have to eat healthily and do plenty of execise to aim to be slim, so it shows that rarely people are ‘born slim’ and that most people have to put effort in to be so. So well done Clare for showing us what can happen, and often does like after christmas and I certainly am motivated to keep on going to the gym and have a healthy diet. Thanks
Iv seen a similar show to this about a year ago, think it was
someone out of a soap doing it. but it showed someone who didnt
drink alcohol that much and then for 4 weeks she had to drink daily..OMG!
she looked awful after aweek, and after the 3rd week she had to stop, cos her health got so bad. Spose its the same with food..when
your used to eating healthy, and then go on a binge quick like that, its bound to cause your body harm. Wish I could live healthly,Oh well everthing in moderation I say
I just want to say that I totally agree with you. I think that it was so brave for Claire to do this programme. As a person who has struggled to control my weight for all my 42 years I know exactly the constant daily battle to discipline myself and not to over indulge (well at least not constantly) I think that the blood pressure issue was brilliantly highlighted as was the body fat and bmi.
I would so like to get a message to Claire to say congratulations, I hope that she is feeling better now and to say that this issue is one that should be explored further. I think that there are so many women out there that can’t afford personal trainers, or gym membership (let alone the time to go to them) but really need to exercise and help with eating healthily but cheaply. Where can those ladies get that help and information from?
I saw the programme and thought it was excellent. I was shocked at the results of how Claire looked after 6 weeks and even more so when I saw the concern on Dr Rosemary’s face after Claire’s increase in weight of just 2 stone.
I am just over 5 foot tall and weigh nearly 16 stone – after seeing the programme I cried. Simply because I realised (AT LAST) how I had let myself go, and that my health was in serious danger.
Today I start life looking at food in a different way – no diet just restraint and sensible eating!!!
I will remember the programme for sometime – thank you Claire, you have probably saved me from eating myself to death!
Interesting programme and I agree that she was very brave to do this in the public eye (I woinder of she did it for nothing???)Some figures…
She put on 2 stone (28lbs in 6 weeks)
There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat x 28lbs = 98000 calories gained in 42 days. Thats 2333 excess calories that she consumed every day(i.e more than her body needed). Assuming a minimum of 1500 calories per day just to sustain her bodily functions, she would have to have been eating on average 4000 calories per day. And she said that she wasn’t “gorging”
Unfortunately the 6 week diet seems to be a reflection of the way the majority of the population lives all of the time
If it provokes some examination of what we put in our mouths every day that has to be a good thing.
I think the programme was not so much about “what will happen to you if you dont diet” it more about what happens to you if you have every kind of junk food out there without ever saying no, like from one extreme of never letting herself have anything, to having everything she’s ever said no to previously. I think if i did the same thing i would initially be like right, bring on the takeaways/chocolate/crisps etc but after a while I think I would get fed up of it, feeling bloated 24 hours a day isn’t much fun and Claire also said towards the end she had had enough too, that she felt like she needed a good clear out, so you wouldn’t neccessarily carry on eating like that after a while.
To me it always seems to come back to the old sayings of “everything in moderation” and “a little of what you fancy does you good” these sayings have been around for some considerable time and they are so right i dont know why we all are still trying to figure this whole food thing out. I suppose its partly because that there is such an abundance of fast food out there like never before that its very hard to avoid it all. There needs to be happy medium somehwere between “diet” food and “junk” food. No-one wants to live on lettuce leaves their entire life nor do they want to eat chese burgers on a daily basis, but somewhere in between with a dose of activity thrown in every now and again lies the answer, works for me anyway.
Can anyone help me out? I’m trying to find out where Claire got her lovely white/silver sparkle dress on the recent documentary big fat diet programme?
Many thanks
J x