The TCL Channel went too far!!

Recently there was a show on TLC titled "I eat 33,000 calories a day" or something like that which was about 4 super obese individuals who were basically portrayed as freaks. Granted i'll grant you they are extremely rare, but all they seemed to focus on was how much food they consumed and offered no hope or conclusion other than them eating themselves to death. I may be a bit sensative but Discovery channels only seem to focus on the negetivity and hopelessness of being obese instead of offering any solutions. The show reairs on March 7th and 8th but it prompted me to write the letter below to them. If I hear from them i'll let you know.

http://tlc.discovery.com/tvlistings/episode.jsp?episode=2&cpi=55746&gid=0&channel=TLC

apparently I fit your demographic because every time you have a program regarding obesity I seem to watch it. However I'd like to offer a challenge, on a recent show "A man who ate 33,000 calories" you pushed me over the edge, and I had to contact you.

I too am a "super obese" man, however I have hope, something which very few of your shows regarding obesity seem to have. I made the decision to make a change after going to the hospital to weigh-in and discovering I weighed a massive 568.10 lbs. However unlike your shows instead of gorging myself with fattening foods I decided to change and have stopped eating the sugary high fat foods you so brilliantly displayed in your show, and traded them in for much healthier lean meat/vegetable choices. What is so frustrating is you constantly seem to enjoy portraying how much food we (since I too am super obese) eat, instead of showing how people can break the chains of addiction to change their lives. It takes a commitment of one meal at a time/one day at a time, but I have lost 52 lbs and am on my way to getting to a much healthier lean weight and will succeed. My challenge to you is this why don't you film someone like myself and document the change instead of constantly showing problems with no solutions. There are no quick fixes and although the only time you seem to show success is if someone has bariatric surgery I feel that is not the answer for everyone. I personally know of dozens of people who have lost 100, 200, in excess of 300 lbs, without surgery, so why don’t you show some stories of success instead of only portraying a miserable existence of people waiting to die.

I would be happy to take with you, and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Stephen West