Weight Loss on The Office

Author: Tommy Leung | 09/27/2008 | Fat Loss

The first episode of the fifth season of The Office was about weight loss. Corporate proposed a weight loss competition amongst all the branches and the winner would receive extra time off. I’m a fan of the show and I’m sure they were making fun of a lot of the crazy things people try to do to lose weight.

What that episode showed is probably not too far from some of the things people really do. I sure hope no one is swallowing tape worms–I’m not sure the return is worth the investment. It did make a good observation that most people go about weight loss by doing the wrong things with not eating at the top of the list.

A character on the show, Kelly, went on a “liquid” diet but, it was more of a starvation diet. She used some sort of mix of honey and water to replace three square meals. Drinking liquid meals with practically no nutritional value is a recipe for disaster. I believe in liquid diets but, the liquid replacement has to have nutritional value. It needs to replace the nutritional and remove the excess. You don’t want to replace something with nothing.

Parties are a frequent occurrence on The Office and on this episode they decided to have a birthday party with no cake. Instead, it was a fruit and water party. I love fruits and water but, you need to give yourself a cheat meal–or two, I’m living on the edge!–in order to stay consistent the rest of the time.

If you are going to party, party hard. You’ll be back on your diet the next day. Otherwise, you put the entire well being of your diet at risk. Life should not be lived in a state of torture and when you crack due to the extreme diet restrictions, you’ll throw the whole diet out the window and not revisit it again. It will be a net loss in the long run.

None of the characters seemed to have put an exercise routine into their weight loss strategies. It is a good idea to have one. You will lose weight exponentially faster if you are burning more calories when you are resting. Building muscle will do that for  you.

For a comedic guide on how not to diet, check out the Weight Loss episode of The Office.

By Tommy Leung