23/08/2025
Watching Fit for TV made me think of some of our own shows here in Ireland.
Take Operation Transformation. It was billed as being about 'health,' but just like The Biggest Loser, it boiled everything down to one number on the scale. I’ve heard people describe the pressure and shame of those weigh-ins - feelings that echo exactly what the American contestants spoke about.
Even in other formats like Ireland’s Fittest Family, there’s still that underlying message that your body’s worth is in how hard it can push, how much pain it can endure. We may not have seen dramatic collapses, but viewers were still taught to see 'success' only in visible change - not in joy, mental health, or food freedom.
Programmes like these show just how desperate people can feel when society insists their bodies aren’t good enough as they are.
And here’s the thread through all of it - the emotional toll never makes it on screen. Anxiety, binge-restrict cycles, the loneliness afterwards… they’re invisible to the cameras, but painfully real to those who live with it.
In Ireland, slimming clubs and weigh-in culture already fuel disordered eating. When national TV reinforces it, the shame only gets louder.
Whether it’s Fit for TV in the US or Operation Transformation here at home, the message has been the same: thinner = better. As a psychologist, I see every day how untrue - and how damaging - that is.
💡 True healing isn’t about chasing numbers or punishing your body. It’s about finding peace with food, moving in ways that bring joy, and feeling at home in yourself.
✨ At Eat At Ease, we believe health is built on kindness, patience, and freedom - not pressure and shame. Every body deserves that gentler path.
