Khloé’s ‘Revenge Body’ inspires viewers to shed excess weight

‘This is what you need to get healthy. If you are sad about your boyfriend breaking up with you, let me teach you tools on how to deal with that.’

In a past column I featured how Khloé Kardashian bounced off a failed relationship by focusing on herself and revamping her lifestyle to emerge with a svelte figure that she has managed to maintain. She takes the role of a transformation icon further by creating and hosting a show on E! called Revenge Body.

While the show premiered last January 2017, I just chanced upon it now while here in Dubai. In each episode, two people are featured. Khloé presents their story through an interview to reveal the motivation for their weight loss. They are then matched with a celebrity personal trainer. After 12 weeks of training, they are given a makeover and then presented in a grand reveal party with close friends and relatives.

“I am so happy to have the opportunity to help people who are determined to make a change by allowing us to share in their personal struggles,” host and executive producer Khloé said. “I’m proud to be part of their journey and contribute to each one of them gaining more strength, stamina, style and swagger.”

The episode I got to watch involved a young man named Kevin. He was in love with his best friend Julie but could not muster the courage to woo her because he had such a low esteem and a heavy 250+ pounds frame.

“Basically, I just want to have more confidence. I want to feel cool and I want the girls to like me,” Kevin revealed to Khloe on their first meeting.

“I’m 20 years old, but I’ve never had a girlfriend and I’ve never kissed a girl. I’ve been bullied since third grade. All the way towards the end of high school,” Kevin shared. “This kid came up to me and grabbed my man boob and then lifted it up and threw it back down, kind of like it was a basketball. Everyone in the class laughed.”

The other participant was Shayla who was coping with the new knowledge that the father she grew up with was not her biological dad. She over ate to ease the pain but gaining so much weight made her feel worse. In the process of losing 28 pounds, she also gained confidence and self esteem. She decided to forgive and love her mother back. Shayla hoped to do this during the great reveal but her mother chose not to attend her party. She got a pleasant surprise though when her boyfriend gave her an engagement ring plus a marriage proposal.

What is captivating is how the reason for being overweight is presented and the process by which the participants lose their excess baggage — not only physically but emotionally and mentally. It is admirable that the fitness coaches not only help them shed pounds but also help them renew self-love.

Khloé Kardashian pointed out to Cosmopolitan in an interview why her reality show is unique and special. 

Revenge Body does not isolate the participants from their home, family and routine.  “If I put someone in a mansion with a private chef and trainer for 30 days, anyone could lose that much weight. That’s not normal. That’s not realistic. You can’t keep that up. I wanted people to stay within their homes and I teach them healthy lifestyles. ‘This is what you need to get healthy. If you are sad about your boyfriend breaking up with you, let me teach you tools on how to deal with that.’”

The show is also Khloé’s revenge on haters. “For me, my revenge is not on a person, my revenge is more on life, what people said I could never do. It is revenge on everyone calling me ‘the fat, ugly sister,’ the this, the that, the stylists that wouldn’t work with me because they didn’t do my size (of) bodies. It’s not on one person, it’s really just on everyone who laughed at me before.”

Finally and maybe most importantly, she doesn’t advocate an ideal body type.

“It’s more about becoming healthier people, not about becoming a size 0, 2 or 4. I don’t believe in weighing myself, I believe in how I feel. There are so many times where people get knocked down and they feel like they need to gorge on a gallon of ice cream and that’s how they get through something. I used to do that, so that’s why I relate. If I’m knocked down now, I go to the gym. I let that be my stress reliever. It’s more about being healthy and finding the strength to get out of that hole. This show, you’re going to see transformations, but you’re not going to see people be, like, 400 pounds, and go down to 110. That’s unrealistic.”

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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.