Dr Phil, on a re-run show, aired again this past week, recently featured a lady who had just been named "the World's Heaviest Woman" in the Guiness Book of World Records. She weighs over 700 lbs.
The show was the usual anti obesity show and how this lady, Pauline Potter, was going to die soon and how Dr Phil was going to intervene like the knight in shining armor he feels he is.
The problem with the show was, it was very incorrect in the information given. I understand that reality TV is often not very real but seems that a show like Dr Phil should keep more integrity than that.
Apparently, according to Pauline's own website, she celebrated getting to over 700 lbs and sold videos of her moving around etc on this website. There is no indicator that she's not still selling these!
Also, the show first aired in November 2011 and Pauline and husband claimed they were divorced however, an article in late 2011, mentioned they'd gotten back together again, their love rekindled in L.A. in 2010. Dr Phil had asked on the show if they had problems with intimacy and Pauline said they did not, but in two articles, the ex or now- non ex, admitted that they were afraid to have intercourse because they might break the bed.
Pauline told a couple of reporters she planned to lose 200 lbs in early 2012 because she and her ex - non ex husband wanted to have a child together (she has an older son from another marriage).
And Pauline, who weighed around 643 lbs when she appeared on Dr Phil, weighed over 700 lbs in Jan 2012 so the food Dr Phil had sent her had not appeared to help with her weight loss.
The strangest thing on the show was that Dr Phil introduced a Dr Ted Khalili as a "world renown weight loss expert" and offered Pauline, Dr Khalili's and his office dietician's help in her weight loss. What no one mentioned was that Dr Khalili is a weight loss surgery surgeon in L.A. Pauline did mention in one article that she planned weight loss surgery but this was never mentioned on the Dr Phil show.
And strangest of all, is that the last mention of Pauline I can find is in Feb 2012. Did she die from the weight loss surgery like the poor "Half Ton Mom" did? Did she stay at her present weight or close to it? If anyone has heard where Pauline is recently, do let me know. I very much, hope things went OK for her but having seen so many negative results from weight loss surgery, I cannot help wondering how she is now, especially that I cannot find any recent mention of her on the internet. Also, in the cases of the very obese I've seen, weight loss surgery has not helped them. Often, they ended up gaining a lot of weight back - for example Allen from "Big Medicine" never did get out of his bed or worse yet, the weight loss surgery patients who started out very large, did not live like the "Half Ton Mum" of TLC who died 2 weeks after her gastric bypass.
All this to remind us that TV is for entertainment only - we should really hesitate to believe anything we hear on TV even from a source who seems so reliable, like Dr Phil.
19 comments:
I hate how Dr. Phil protrays the severely obese. He always pictures those who are severe eating addicts and never tells the truth about metabolism nor what is being done to our food supply. I wonder if this lady is still alive too?I was going to look up that doctor's name--I watched the show myself this week, so glad you did. Doctors keep pushing weight loss surgery as my only hope at 500lbs. They even admit I have metabolic problems but seem to see this as the only solution. I do have congestive heart failure and diabetes.
I of course have not gone that route, but I understand why fat people who do take the spin of that roulette wheel due to the severe health crises obesity can bring. The problem is so many lose at the spin of that wheel. Also it worries me that so much research is poured into brutal weight loss surgery and not other things have to do with obesity.
http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2011/02/letter-to-obesity-researchers.html
I tried posting on Dr. Phil's message board, relaying my experience and was censored. He will only put people up there who help the diet industry, instead of getting to truth about severe obesity.
http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/search/label/Obesity%20Conspiracy
That is very odd Sue. I just did a search too, and no matter what I put in, any info on her was from 2011. You got closer to now than I did.
I did a search for both Pauline Potter and Paulee on Dr. Phil's site, and nothing comes up!
I too hope she's still alive. If you find out, don't forget to post it. This is strange.
She appears to have a public Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/paulee.potter
No real mention of weight, but it's been recently updated.
Thanks Beth...she seems to be OK...this is a good thing!!
Well, that's a good thing. I wonder if she is doing the school thing. None of my business! YOu know, you start thinking about someone, hoping they are okay, then suddenly it's like you sort of know them in some obscure way. Glad to hear she's okay.
Sue I did find an article on her from 2012 from sadly enough Dr Oz show where it seems DR Oz was pulling out the same old sensationalist crap he normally does. Glad she is still alive, hope she can find people who care more about her than these two hack doctors who use her to gain ratings.
http://www.drozfans.com/dr-oz-diet/dr-oz-pauline-potter-fattest-woman-in-the-world/
What's interesting to me with these shows is that people watch them, then judge the people harshly for being fat. I have found the lack of respect in our society to be be appalling, and it's open season on fat people.
Makes me sad.
I'm very much over Dr. Phil. He has a very narrow minded view of the world, and treats women and fat people in particular like crap.
Rahul wrote:
Thanks for great information you write it very clean. I am very lucky to get this tips from you.
Sue answers: Thank you Rahul!
Latest news on this lady (July 2012) is that she claims to have lost 100 lbs from having marathon s/ex! Her story is that she heard wild se/x burns 500 calories so she said she decided to try it! :)
I think she's kind of a media bunny but at least she's OK... But she sure didn't look any slimmer than the photo above. :/
LOL, oh my. I'll have to tell that to Larry. hahahah Oh my. There are so many things I want to say, but I will hold my tongue for now. LOL
Something makes me think that she (Pauline Porter), who is regarded by almost everyone as the “World’s heaviest women”, doesn’t exist.
I wrote an article about that in my Blog. The title is: “World's Heaviest Woman - The Story about Pauline Potter - Real or Invented”.
The link to the article is: http://biomechanics.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/worlds-heaviest-woman-the-story-about-pauline-potter-real-or-invented-2/
Luke, interesting blog - there seems a certain amount of mystery surrounding this woman but there was a rather detailed show about her. Not certain what is going on with her...
Luke, I think she actually does exist, as well as the other woman you mentioned. Apparently there were three women who thought they could be the heaviest woman in the world. One began trying to lose weight thought because of health issues.
I'm not sure why Polly wouldn't exist, and don't really care about the world's record.
BTW, she apparently does have a facebook account and doesn't address her endeavors to gain, but in one post she does briefly mention losing a bit of weight.
I'll tell ya, I think she was an emotionally needy person who was enjoying attention in a weird way. She wasn't always consistent, but how human that is to be inconsistent!
Dr Phil is still helping Pauline Potter. He's got her on a diet plan called BistroMD where doctors comprise her meals by diet needs + height/weight and all the meals are delivered daily or weekly. Her and Alex got back together after she went on Dr Phil and hes helping her too. Dont bag on Dr Phil, he does all he can to help people. It's up to the individual to help themselves once they got all the tools. Cant expect him to click his fingers to fix peoples problems
Jessica, we got kind of off the topic. I know Dr Phil helps a lot of folks because I'm one of them - I've read a couple of his books which have been very helpful, I've gone through some of the exercises in "SELF MATTERS" and I've watched his show a lot. What I was objecting to, is advertising the gastric bypass. They were advocating this for Paula but all it does, is cause vitamin deficiencies and may shorten their lives more than if they'd remained overweight. It's like if your car has a flat tire, you don't fix it by breaking something in the engine and yet, breaking something in the engine is exactly what the gastric bypass does! It is NOT the cure or even A CURE for obesity and/or compulsive overeating. It just complicates the situation with making the person sick for lack of vital nutrtents. And that's why I was sad to see Dr Phil advertising it on his show. I'm sure he, like so many others, does not know the long term repercussions since the providers do a good job of obscuring this from prospective buyers. That being said, most providers are doing less and less of the gastric bypss and more of the less invasive procedures.
hey i m tracey from the netherlands. the dr. phill is here on tv now, the show about the world fattest woman paulee potter. All the shows from dr. phill i ve seen...are full of advertisement for the guests who are invited in the show to help people with problems...that centre who us going to help paulee...has got a big advertisement in the show.. they will help paulee..and dr. phill earns his money by advertising for those companys...
It's all about advertising I'm from Holland to. I just watch the show!!!!
Hello I'm from Holland to.
I just watch the show its all about advertising!!!!
But I love watching docter Phil :-)
Post a Comment