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Samantha Clowe, a 34-year-old woman who embarked on a fad crash diet to lose weight before her wedding, collapsed and died in her home in the UK, possibly because of her 500-calorie-a-day diet. Clowe went on LighterLife, a diet program that involves eating “food packs” supplied by the company that includes soups and cereal bars. The program Clowe was on limits calorie intake to 500 calories a day, a little more than half of the US recommended daily calorie intake. Before LighterLife lets clients embark on the VLCD (very low calorie diet) that Clowe was on, they need to have their doctor fill out a health questionnaire, which Clowe’s doctor apparently filled out and let her go on the crash diet. Clowe originally weighed 244 pounds when she got engaged to her boyfriend, Andrew Smith, but lost 42 pounds over 11 weeks on the LighterLife program. Clowe told her mother that she wanted to go on the diet to lose weight before her wedding and because she “wanted respect at work.” While doctors have said that there is really no way to determine if the diet was the cause of or merely contributed to Clowe’s death, her family and friends seem to think that if it wasn’t for her shame in being on the larger side she would still be with us today.
It is heartbreaking to think that a diet could have killed Clowe, especially since she seemed to link thinness with beauty and respect (a common association, often called “thin privilege,” that we have touched on before). The idea of losing weight before your wedding is so commonplace it is difficult to term it a “trend:” gyms offer “bridal bootcamp” workouts, diet programs specially market their programs to brides-to-be, and wedding magazines are filled with weight-loss tips. And it isn’t like this is just the brain-dead masses that are embarking on pre-wedding weight loss: some of most intelligent and attractive feminists I know have gone on crash diets before their wedding day, including women who have bemoaned body image issues in Western culture and have loudly proclaimed that diets were for chumps. They can usually give you some pretty reasonable explanations as to why they are suddenly embarking on a crash diet: 1. they are going to be wearing a white dress that costs more than your car, it better look nice and 2. they are going to be standing in front of a group of people who are all going to be interested in how beautiful the bride is going to be. The wedding industrial complex doesn’t exist for no reason: “beautiful” and “bride” almost seem married in our minds. Aren’t brides supposed to look nice on their wedding day?
The problem is that people always associate “thin” with “pretty.” If a woman is overweight she is almost expected to feel less attractive than other, thinner women. Since it is assumed you are supposed to look conventionally pretty on your wedding day, it is also assumed that the bride will also be thin. So, brides-to-be ruthlessly engage on crash diets that put a lot of stress on their health. Do we know for sure that LighterLife was the cause of Clowe’s death? No, but do we think that she was destined to die at the age of 34, without any other preexisting health conditions that we know of, all just because she was obese? Not only can crash diets be unhealthy when you initially embark on them, they perpetuate a cycle of unhealthiness: you lose weight, go off the diet, gain weight again, go back on crash diet, lose weight, etc. All that stress on your body isn’t exactly healthy.
What is really troublesome about Clowe’s death is that her mother said that another contributing factor to her diet was because Clowe wanted respect at work. Do we naturally respect thin people more? Or at least think less of fatter people? We all know that girl at the office who feels the need to give unsolicited weight-loss tips to her bigger co-workers because she is “concerned” for their “health.” When we look at someone who is bigger do we just see them for their weight, and not their personality? And, when we look at someone like this, and consciously live in a society where we equate thin with beauty and respect, are we pushing women to unhealthy diets and maybe even death?
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While I understand that brides want to look good on their wedding days, I think her family is fucking ridiculous to blame everybody else for what she did.
There are very few people in this world that are fat through no actions of their own. Most people who are fat know why they’re fat. It’s usually because they don’t eat right or exercise.
Anybody who decides to go on a 500 calorie a day diet instead of taking the traditional, and always effective, course of eating right and exercising is lazy. I’m not saying she deserved to die for her laziness, but it certainly isn’t society’s fault for “shaming her.”
The only person who bears any responsibility for this, aside from the woman who died, is her doctor. If it can be proved that this diet was responsible for her death I would attempt to have the doctor punished. Do doctors in Britain take the “do no harm” oath?
A company that provides a service that mandates their clients to go on such a diet is also at least part to blame.
But it’s not a mandate. Nobody forces anybody to be on this diet. They shouldn’t be allowed to operate a dangerous company, and the doctor shouldn’t be allowed to give the ok for something so reckless, but personal responsibility has to factor heavily here.
The article doesn’t even quote the family as blaming the company or the doctor, but instead declares that it’s society’s fault for “shaming” her into going on a crash diet.
Do you really think it’s the “easy” way to live in 500 calories a day? Being constantly hungry and having to go through a work day without any energy?
I don’t think that’s the easy way. Now, I also don’t think it’s the right way but easy? No.
Anyway, I don’t think she died because of the diet. People have lived on less food for a longer time. It’s unhealthy but it takes time for your internal organs to start failing, not just 11 weeks – unless she stopped drinking water too, which obviously wouldn’t make sense.
As for the pressure of society – I think it’s EXPECTED of women to lose weight for their wedding. It’s like a tradition. I myself lost quite a lot of weight before my wedding – but not only for the wedding I have to add. Also because it gives people a goal, which makes weight loss much easier.
Oh and I lost weight the healthy way, eating between 1200-1700 calories a day and working out up to five days a week and I was hungry almost every night when going to bed. In fact, I was hungry most of the time (despite eating a lot of protein). I could not possibly imagine living on only 500 calories a day.
I didn’t say easy. I said lazy. It’s much lazier to go for the quick fix than it is to change your lifestyle in a healthy way.
Exactly. It was her fault for doing it and her doctor’s fault for letting her. It’s not anyone else’s fault for pointing out that she’s unhealthy or for looking better in white dresses. Society SHOULDN’T go around saying obesity is beautiful, because it flat out is not. I mean, we’re just starting to get away from ‘anorexic is pretty,’ why do we immediately need to tell obese women ‘no no, it’s okay to be 100 or more pounds overweight, it’s BEAUTIFUL to be disgustingly unhealthy?’ We are told we lean too far to one extreme, but the only solution I ever see is to go to the other extreme, which is killing people ten times more than eating disorders. Society tells her that it’s bad for her to be that fat, and society is right. That doesn’t mean she needs to eat 500 calories a day. There are perfectly healthy ways to stop being obese, she chose (and was allowed to go on) the diet that did more harm than good.
“There are very few people in this world that are fat through no actions of their own. Most people who are fat know why they’re fat. It’s usually because they don’t eat right or exercise.”
That is over simplifying the issue to the point of being offensive.
There are piles and piles of reasons why people are overweight, and it is insensitive and naive to ignore the contribution of other factors in weight gain.
It’s true for 99% of fat people. There are very few people who truly can’t lose weight e.g. if you are on medication that causes weight gain but also physically unable to exercise. There are factors that make it harder for some people but not impossible. I’m overweight despite eating a very healthy diet most of the time and doing a reasonable amount of exercise because I have PCOS which makes my body very reluctant to release excess weight. I know if I eat a maximum of 1000 calories a day, cut out all refined carbs (not whole grains, just the white stuff), and work out a minimum of 2 hours a day I can get my weight in to a healthy range but that’s now exactly sustainable. Still, I know why I’m fat and I know how to fix it.
It’s kind of irritating that most people can eat a lot more than me. I know women who stuff themselves with junk like cake, grilled cheese, fried chicken, and all kind of nonsense all day long yet they’re no fatter than me and I eat mostly whole grains, veggies, beans, and lean proteins. No reason to give up and just eat junk though, if I ate the sort of diet that most people expect a fat chick to eat I’d be truly repulsive.
Dude, I’ve been fat for the past 7 years. I know how I got this way. I know how to lose weight. Very few people are fat because of an unavoidable medical condition.
I got very depressed after the death of a friend and used food to fill the void. That was my doing. It wasn’t unavoidable.
I know (and love) many fat people. I also know how they got fat and why they haven’t lost the weight.
It’s not an oversimplification. It’s accurate. I’m sorry if it stings to hear a truth you don’t like. But it is true that most people who are fat are fat due to their diets and not an unavoidable medical condition.
I don’t for a minute buy into the notion that people are genetically fat. In most cases where there are a family of fat people it’s because the kids learn unhealthy eating and exercise habits from their parents and pass them on.
This is the complications I was speaking of.
Yes, people can lose weight through diet and exercise. But the reasons they don’t actively pursue this are immense and complex. One cannot simply place blame on an individual without knowing the circumstances behind their lack of motivation.
Depression (resulting from a multitude of reasons, and then only further fuelled by being overweight), for example, or in your case, the death of a friend. Even the social circumstances surrounding an individual can play a role (Americans are just saturated with fast foods, while other people eat healthier without even trying because it’s ingrained in their culture).
To simply assume all fat people are lazy and leave it at that is offensive. Anyone who claims such a thing has clearly never taken the time to think about what goes into the psyche of any individual besides themselves.
I never even said that all fat people are lazy.
I just said almost nobody gets fat without having had a hand in it. I stand behind that statement. Very few people are overweight due to unavoidable medical conditions.
I don’t think that people who get fat due to depression are any less culpable than people who become drug addicts due to depression.
I count myself among the fat people who had options and chose food instead of therapy.
My point was, and is, that people are responsible for their own actions. It’s not the fault of society or anybody else.
I think blaming “society”, or any other manner of not taking responsibility for yourself, is dangerous. When you fail to take responsibility for yourself you’ve essentially given up control of your fate.
When you do that you lock yourself into your own life with no possibility for growth or change.
Until you realize that you have choices and that your own choices led you to the place you are, there’s no chance at all that you’ll do anything to change your life in any meaningful way.
I did not say that it is society’s fault that people are fat, or that they possess no blame in their own weight.
However there is more to weight loss than just blaming your inactivity and then immediately living a healthier lifestyle. It is more complicated than that. One would have to consider their entire environment, their established behaviours, their influences, and the triggers that make them eat.
It is sort of rest a kin to saying if a drug addict wants to stops doing drugs, then they should just stop doing drugs? People have reasons for their faults, and often those barriers have to be overcome in order to progress to the point of dealing with the actual problem.
Often the reason that diets fail is because people alter their behaviours without altering their environments, which causes a cycle of self blame. Yes, it is your job to overcome your circumstances, but that doesn’t mean all circumstances are self caused.
she was an adult who willingly chose to do something very foolish and dangerous, and unfortunately it killed her. nobody forced her to do it. if she was concerned about her weight why didn’t she try to lose some before she got engaged? if she had done it the healthy way she might still be alive. i have to agree with alzaetia on this one – most fat people -not all, but most- are fat due to poor lifestyle choices. like many people in this image-centric society, she picked the quick fix and paid dearly for it. it’s sad, but not anyone’s fault.
I’m not overweight, but I won’t deny that I’m feeling the pressure about looking perfect for my wedding in a little less than a year. It can be really tough, especially when you see pictures of perfect brides in magazines and think “I’m never going to look like that”. My issue isn’t my weight–it’s my skin (damn you to hell, acne!), but I can somewhat relate to the feeling that you absolutelky NEED to do something to fix the problem RIGHT NOW. Of course, crash diets and such are really dangerous, and I know I personally wouldn’t try one, but I can’t say I wouldn’t be a little tempted if some miracle skin product came out that promised to give me a perfect complexion. I’m sure lots of other people feel the same way about soemthing–weight, skin, hair, teeth, whatever.
*absolutely
*something
*I hate typos
The perfect brides in the magazines don’t look like that either- it’s called “photoshop.”
Well, logically I know that the models are airbrushed. But that doesn’t really make me feel any better.
sydney – i sometimes feel like crap after looking through a fashion magazine, even though i also realize they are airbrushed to death… why is that? why do our (meaning women) emotions and insecurities override our logic and intelligence when it comes to models? grrrrrrr.
Uhh . . . 500 calories is not ‘a little more than half of the US recommended daily calorie intake’. Usually they say about 2000 calories, which makes 500 calories per day about a quarter of recommended daily calorie intake.
Exactly! I was wondering if any one else noticed that. No offense to Maria-Mercedes, but that’s a crazy big mistake to make when writing about diets and weight issues.
1000 is the recommended minimum when dieting, I assumed she was referring to that. In either case, poorly written.
yeah, I came here to say that too.
The root of this obesity thing IMO is insulin addiction and depression. Sugar temporarily alleviates depression. It’s a mental illness not a character flaw.
So we’re fat because we’re crazy rather than fat because we’re lazy? That makes me feel so much better…
Your brain is controlled by the same hormones that control your weight. If you have a hormonal imbalance it can cause you to be depressed and have insulin resistance. Educate yourself and stop making excuses.
If you bothered to read the other posts in this thread you’d know I am educated, unlike yourself. I know I have insulin resistance. I know I’m not depressed. I know that my weight is lower when I avoid all dairy (to shrink my ovarian cysts) and refined carbohydrates. I eat very little extra sugar. Last night I was making cupcakes for my son’s preschool and I ate about 2-3 teaspoons of frosting while working. Total sugar high, couldn’t get to sleep for hours. You don’t get that if you’re self-medicating with sugar. Assuming that all people are overweight because they’re depressed and eat too much sugar is ridiculous and offensive.
Why so Angry? You sound like a very unhappy person.
Don’t flatter yourself honey, it takes a lot more that a little ignorance to get me angry. Kudos on the psychological analysis though, that gave me a laugh.
Maybe if you got off the computer and got some exercise you wouldn’t be so fat and angry. Just sayin’
So are you one of those people who is bitchy on the internet but nice in real life or one of those people who is bitchy on the internet because they’re bitchy in real life and don’t have any friends to talk to? Either way you should try a little common decency and manners. When you treat people with respect they do the same back to you and then you can actually have a proper discussion with them instead of petty name calling. It’s really much more rewarding than sniping.
Um, Rhonda, practice what you preach. You were the one who went all bitchy accusing me of being “uneducated” for stating exactly what my family doctor had to say on the matter. So are you one of those know-it-all obnoxious liberal internet posters who insists on being argumentative in order to prove some sort of superiority which only exists in your own fantasy world? If you’re so brilliant why don’t you go cure cancer or something?
Has no one here ever gotten married? I’m talking white dress, everyone staring at your, planned for months “married?” Would this woman have considered dieting like this for anything else? I remember the utterly fucked up months before my wedding–not only did I feel constant pressure to maintain a certain “perfect” weight for my dress, but I worried about my tan, my skin, my jewelry, my freaking FINGERNAILS! Maybe the issue is not necessarily whether she was fat or lazy or crazy, but that the whole idea of “THE Wedding” made her believe she absolutely HAD to be a certain way. By the way, I never did reach my “perfect” weight for my wedding, but in my pictures we both look so happy that no one noticed.
I planned for years because we got engaged right at the start of our second year of college and married the week of graduation. Didn’t feel pressure to look perfect. I just made my dress to suit me rather that trying to alter my body to fit my dress. Yeah there were a lot of people looking at me, 100 or so guests plus various tourists and gawkers since we got married outdoors in a touristy location. Really though, I couldn’t care less what any of them thought of my physical appearance. It’s so not important.
Which is still no reason to kill yourself. I’m sick of this ‘let’s blame magazines and societal expectations for people’s dumb decisions’ attitude. We ALL go through pressure to look good. But we’re not all doing something idiotic. It is one thing to say ‘gosh, I’m a fatty mc fat fat, time to cut down on the cheeseburgers and get on the treadmill,’ it’s another to say ‘time to live on saltines and water for three months.’ There are healthy ways of loosing weight, she obviously was capable of loosing weight, she should have gone to other options.
500 is NOT “a little more than half” of the FDA’s normally recommended 2000 calories a day.
No, but it is half of the recommended 1000 calories a day dieters are supposed to stick to.
Why separate us into categories: brain-dead masses vs. Feminists? Any use of “masses”except as ironic self-reference is always a mistake.
The problem as i see it is not whether crash or fad diets are good or bad. As in life some things are good and some things are bad. It is all about giving people real quantifiable information that is accurate and true. then letting them make their own judgments. If someone wants to just lose a few pounds quickly for a special occasion then there are safe ways to do that. If someone wants to lose a substantial amount of weght there are also safe ways to do that reasonably quickly. It’s all about them having the right information on what they want, how to do it and the possible effects.