Supersize vs Superskinny

Supersize vs Superskinny
Title card from most recent episode of Series 4
Presented by	Dr Christian Jessen (2008–2014)
Starring	Anna Richardson (2008–2010)
Narrated by	Daisy Donovan Liza Tarbuck (2008–2014)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	63
Production
Executive producers	Colette Foster Oliver Wright
Running time	60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company	Remarkable Television
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	22 January 2008 (2008-01-22) – 6 March 2014 (2014-03-06)

Supersize vs Superskinny is a British television programme on Channel 4 that featured information about dieting and extreme eating lifestyles. One of the main show features was a weekly comparison between an overweight person, and an underweight person. The two were taken to a feeding clinic, and lived together for five days (later on two days), swapping diets while supervised by Dr Christian Jessen.

The overweight person swapped diets with the underweight person. While the underweight person was suddenly given more food than they would usually eat in a few days at one meal, the overweight person was usually given tea, coffee, a small snack, or nothing sometimes. Most of the underweight people were unable to finish their meal, though occasionally the overweight people also refused or struggled to eat their meals, usually after having been in the feeding clinic for a few days. Occasionally both were allowed to leave the feeding clinic for a meal swap, if it was part of both of the participants' diets.

In earlier series, the show featured a food tube for each person. The tube contained what each person ate and drank in the span of one week.

Usually Dr Jessen used shock tactics to demonstrate how poor someone's diet was. Both participants were occasionally shown the extent of their poor diet - for example, through bags of sugar. The "superskinny" would usually be shown pictures of their body and be told about the drastic long-term health effects. In the second series, the "supersizer" was sent to meet a woman named Lisa, whose obesity had meant that she could no longer care for herself and was receiving an operation because of her weight. In later series, the "supersizer" was sent to the United States to visit someone that was heavier than they were. It was used as a shock tactic to show the "supersizer" what they could become if they did not stop their unhealthy lifestyles.

The show also featured Anna Richardson in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd series, who in the first series examined new methods to lose weight by trying diets she found on the Internet, some of which had shocking side effects. For example, Anna attempted Laser lipolysis, which went drastically wrong and resulted in severe bruising. Also, she discovered Diabulimia and spoke to Isabelle Caro, a French actress, renowned for her underweight figure and anorexia campaign. In the second series, Anna recruited a group of "flab-fighters" - women who wanted to lose weight and whose weight was tracked weekly - and she visited Los Angeles to discover ways A-listers would lose weight. The same series also saw a group of four anorexic women attempt to overcome their eating disorder through eating and preparing foods they would usually avoid with the help of a leading eating disorder specialist. In later series, formerly anorexic journalist Emma Woolf interviewed a number of people who had experienced the effects of eating disorders.

The second, third and fourth series also introduced a section whereby a group of people recovering from eating disorders (the second and third series featured people exclusively suffering from anorexia nervosa, while the fourth included a mixture of eating disorders) were overwatched by a specialist psychiatrist and dietician Ursula Philpot who co-presented Supersize vs Superskinny and who worked to challenge their issues with food.

During the first series in 2008, one feature involved Gillian McKeith, who tried to find a way to "ban big bums" in the UK. She tested out different exercises to tone the buttocks of different groups of ladies, and made a leader board for the most effective.

The programme has been the subject of criticism and debate, surrounding its portrayal of eating disorders to a potentially vulnerable audience, and its influence towards public attitudes on eating disorders. Then-chief executive of Norfolk based eating disorder charity Beat, Susan Ringwood, stated in a 2012 The Daily Mail article her belief that Supersize VS Superskinny, along with similar programmes, are "triggering" and "deadly [and] not entertainment" for eating disorder sufferers, adding that "they [Supersize and similar programmes] don’t educate or inform anyone, and they certainly don’t make life any better for someone who has an eating disorder. Eating disorders are complex mental illnesses". Natasha Devon, Director of positive body image campaign Body Gossip, expressed in a 2011 blog post her belief in the "reductive" manner in which eating disorders are portrayed in the programme.^[1]

Clare Stephens, in an opinion piece written for MamaMia in 2022, expressed concern over the body shaming behaviours exhibited by the "Superskinny" subjects of the programme towards their "Supersize" counterparts, along with the behaviours of Christian Jessen, concluding that "at best, the show did a lot to confuse audiences about the relationships between eating and exercise and health and weight. At worst, it put its audience at risk of the vast manifestations of disordered eating that can emerge from distorted beliefs around eating, shape and weight. That impact, unfortunately, is impossible to measure".^[2]

Niamh Langton of The Oxford Blue, speaking of the "subliminal damage" caused by Supersize vs Superskinny among similar programming, stated of the show in 2021: "in its new, easily consumed form, we see the unrelenting shame which makes the show so popular. Shame, humiliation and self-loathing are the active ingredients. Shows like Supersize vs Superskinny presume that weight is something we can totally control, but weight is a characteristic, and not a behaviour. It is too easy to be drawn into such an over-simplification of weight-loss; a narrative that is neither helpful nor accurate. Regardless of what its creators may argue in its defence, Supersize vs Superskinny, as it exists on YouTube, holds no positive, constructive message. In watching each short clip or full episode, we expose ourselves to harmful content. Such viewing habits become a guilty pleasure. You tell yourself – ‘I’m not like her, I could never eat that, I could never let myself get that way.’ Really, you’re indoctrinating yourself with a toxic teaching: ‘don’t eat that or you’ll look like her’ – ‘you’ll be ‘Super’ too’."^[3]

In 2011, a 4-episode children's version titled Supersize vs Superskinny Kids was produced and aired between 21 and 25 March 2011.

• Supersize vs Superskinny on Channel 4
• Supersize vs Superskinny Kids on Channel 4
• Supersize vs Superskinny at IMDb
• Review, Leicester Mercury