ABC 20/20 Losing It: The Big Fat Trap - Full Episode - The Greatest Scams Goin'!

Pamela R Davis Bariatric Program Director of the Centennial Center for the Treatment of Obesity writes 

"I am completely disappointed, irritated and flat out disgusted at the so called "journalism" that went into this ABC 20/20 episode. They completely and totally missed the opportunity to focus on legitimate, successful medically [and surgically] appropriate treatment for obesity and severe obesity. Instead I felt like I was watching a rogue episode of Entertainment Tonight.

When I first heard they were pulling the segment with Dr. Robin Blackstone and Melting Mama, I thought it was so they could dedicate an entire episode to bariatric and metabolic surgery and how it is a life saving treatment for so many. Instead we got a 60 minute long sensationalistic expose on practices those of us who are healthcare professionals working diligently to help those with obesity and severe obesity would never support!

Not good ABC, not good-shame on you."

the full episode '20/20 5/11: Losing It: The Big Fat Trap' from ABC's 20/20
abc.go.com

Thank-you Pamela, you echo my feelings that I was not able to accurately share last night, and surely not before I saw the episode.

I watched it, I did.

This is what I got out of it... and I am full of the snark right now.  (I just started a new anti-seizure medication with a big fat black box warning, so hey!)

I learned a few things from the 20/20 episode!  

• It's important to have cute boobs.  NUMBER ONE.
• And Charles Barkley's Vegabuls! 
• If you want to make some fast cash, get famous, really really famous?  Gain weight on purpose to get sponsored by a diet or supplement company.  Celebrity, Inc.: How Famous People Make Money
• This works better if you are Jessica Simpson and have a beautiful frame to start with, because selling diet plans is about selling the IDEA THAT A DESPERATE DIETER MIGHT BE ABLE TO LOOK LIKE JESSICA SIMPSON *WILL LOOK LIKE IN ABOUT 9-12 MONTHS FROM THIS PHOTO-

• It does not work if you are a short balding man celebrity.  *See cute boobs.
• If you want to crash diet for $150 a day, get a NG tube and look super-sexy at work.  Then you can plan to regain and rebuy the diet.
• Diet pills are wicked awesome!  Take them!  Except they don't help you lose weight.  You are buying the idea.  You hope for a Kardashian badonkandonk, but there's about 0.0% chance you can actually do it.
• And, for the quickest weight loss, try the death method a la 1-800-Get-Thin, but they don't care, cause they be RICHER THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE.

And, when you are finished messing around with all of these weight loss methods and you are more desperate than you've ever been AND morbidly obese?

Come talk to me, talk to all of us, because then?  

...You will have a safe and effective weight loss procedure with a Reputable Bariatric Surgeon.

Don't say I didn't tell you so.