In 5 years, Angela’s fiancé, Bruce, has never seen her naked because she is so self-conscious about her size. Bruce wants a beach wedding in the tropics, but right now there’s no way Angela will wear a bathing suit.
As a top local radio announcer, Nicolle seems confident. In reality, she is so self-conscious she shies away from making public appearances. Bouts of depression and toxic relationships made her put on weight, but now that life is good it is time to get healthy.
After the show ended, Angela continued to lose weight. She’s taken her weight-loss slowly, and says it hasn’t been easy – but, to date, she has lost around 75 pounds. “I’ve gone beyond the goal I’d set on the show and so I set another one. I’d still like to lose another 20 pounds, and continue with the athleticism part of it. It’s coming along, but it’s tough!” she says. (At the start of her journey, Angela weighed 223.5 pounds.)
Angela says that being part of X-Weighted was life changing. “I really wasn’t aware of how big I’d become until Nicolle said “Let’s go audition for the show”. I mean there were certainly things I wanted to change, but I thought I had, as a human, reached my potential, which I really hadn’t, because there were so many aspects of my life that I was unhappy with,” she says.
Once she lost the weight, Angela realized that she hadn’t been putting enough value on herself and that she had been settling in many areas of her life. “When you aren’t taking care of yourself, you don’t have a lot of self-worth,” she explains.
She knew that Bruce, who she was engaged to on the show, was not the guy for her and ended their relationship a few years back. Angela has now met “a wonderful man who is very supportive” and recently got engaged to him.
Staying fit is really important to Angela. She competes in 10k runs with friends, and makes it to the gym pretty much every day because she says that keeping the weight off is hard work. “It’s a constant battle,” she says, “but I do enjoy working my butt off at the gym and the running. Although I complain the whole time I’m doing it, I love how I feel afterwards.”
Whenever people do recognize Angela, (which happens often) they always want to ask if Paul is like he seems on TV, due to the obvious friction between them on the show. “He really is that bad,” says Angela, “he makes no apologies or bones about it, which is fair, but he is exactly as he appears.”
The next thing people ask is how she did it. “They want to hear that there is some secret, but it is unfortunately true that losing weight is 80% about food and 20% about exercise. I thought if I worked out more I could eat more, but unfortunately it just doesn’t work that way,” she says.
September, 2009
This binge-eating mother of 3 has got bigger with each of her children, but dreams of being a “yummy mummy”. Her husband says that she is lazy and his unsupportive comments drive her to binge in private.
Soon after X-Weighted finished filming, Kendra split from her husband and moved with her kids to a small town outside of Calgary. She says that her life is going really well. “I’m very happy, I don’t have to answer to anybody,” she says.
Unfortunately, Kendra wasn’t able to keep off the weight she lost in her journey. Although she did start making life changes on the show, Kendra feels that there are emotional factors that continue to affect her weight. “I believe that there is something inside of me that wants to keep the weight on, and until I deal with those issues I don’t think my weight will come off,” she says, “I will always struggle with my weight and that’s a shame.”
Kendra says that she learned a lot from being on X-Weighted. “It was a real eye-opener,” she says, “and although a lot of things were hard to look at, I really learned a lot about myself and my relationships.” Kendra regrets not delving deeper into the emotional aspects of her eating, and would really like to explore them some more in the future.
Kendra gets approached by fans of X-Weighted on a regular basis. “I’m a waitress in this small town, and I have people all the time saying “I recognize you from somewhere, have you ever been on TV?. I even went on holiday to the Dominican Republic, and as soon as I got off the plane there was somebody there that recognized me,” she says, “it’s crazy how many people felt a connection with me on the show.”
Kendra says that her kids are doing awesome. Marco, her youngest is about to start school, so soon she will have afternoons to herself all week, and her goal is to start using that time to exercise. Despite being so busy, Kendra is very happy and looking forward to being able to start getting healthier again soon.
September 2009
Over the years Heather’s weight has gone up and down repeatedly. She wants to find out why and break the pattern in order to be a good role model for her daughter. She has a successful career and a beautiful family - the only thing holding her back in life is her weight.
Once so skinny that people thought she was anorexic, Jocelyn now turns to food whenever she hits a set-back . She feels old before her time, and suffers from illnesses exacerbated by her weight.
Life is going great for Jocelyn and Vance. They are now living in Edmonton after Vance scored his dream job doing sound design for EA games. “His company moved us out here three years ago and we just love living in Alberta,” says Jocelyn. Following her dreams too, Jocelyn is starting journalism school this fall.
Unfortunately, the couple still hasn’t gone on the honeymoon they dreamed of while on the show. “We’re just too busy or every time we think about going something happens like the car breaks down or another big expense,” Jocelyn says, “but we do go on a regular date night now and celebrated our fifteen year anniversary in September.”
Jocelyn has managed keep the weight that she lost on X-Weighted off, and even lost more weight after the show finished. “I lost another 20lb so I was 50lb down, but that 20lb keeps coming back, it is haunting me. I keep losing it again, then gaining back,” she says, adding that she started getting back on track a few weeks ago and is determined to lose that 20lb for good this time.
Being on the show changed Jocelyn’s mind about fitness. While on the show, she really concentrated on her food intake and didn’t take the fitness aspect of her journey too seriously. However, now Jocelyn embraces fitness as part of her life and gets a real kick out of the sense of achievement she feels from physically exerting herself.
“Oddly enough I ended up becoming a big fan of the spin class,” she says, “they are super challenging but very fun. After you finish you know you have had a huge workout, and you’d never do that much work on your own.”
September 2009
Naomi excels in her work and studies, but struggles desperately with her weight, unlike her pencil-thin sister Sula. Naomi believes that her weight has damaged her self-esteem so much that it is stopping her from meeting a partner.
In the 4 years since her X-Weighted experience, Naomi has maintained her weight loss and stays super active, hitting the gym 4 to 5 days a week and spending her weekends camping, swimming and hanging out with friends. She is still single and lives with her sister Sula, but is dating and trying to meet “the right guy”.
Naomi got her bachelors degree in social work in May of this year, and is very happy that after 6 years of hard studying, she landed a terrific job as a mental health social worker with Nova Scotia's largest provider of health services. She still works as a residential counselor too, so even though her studies are over, life is just as busy.
As someone who was already relatively fit and had a good knowledge of healthy eating before she went on X-Weighted, Naomi feels that she would have made the changes to get healthier anyway at that point in her life, but the pressure of being on the show kept her on track and enabled her to meet her goals. “I know I’m an emotional eater and that I take on too much stress, and that I deal better with those things when I exercise,” she says, “but I already knew those things before.
Naomi quite enjoys that people recognize her from X-Weighted, and that friends from all over the world have emailed her to say that they saw her episode. “It’s kind of interesting being a mini-celebrity,” she says.
September 2009
This flamboyant film-industry caterer loves cheeseburgers so much he has one tattooed on his arm. Jeremy plays the clown but is really concerned about how he looks, his health, and the example he is setting for his daughter.
The last thing Jill wants is to be fat and 50, especially since a close friend recently died of a sudden heart attack. She doesn’t know how to incorporate exercise into her life, or eat properly on the run.
She has always been overweight, but since losing her best friend in a tragic accident, Sarah has put on so much weight that it scares her. She knows that losing weight is a matter of life and death at this point, especially since being diagnosed with breast cancer.
A myriad of weight-related health problems, including fibromyalgia, have put Jannette at the tipping point. She is convinced that her excess weight is stopping her from finding love, and says that missing sex is a great motivator to get slim.
Soon after filming, Jannette went on the trip of a lifetime, travelling through South and Central America then across the Atlantic to Greece and Turkey. She had an incredible time hiking volcanoes, going down canopy zip-lines and got her scuba diving certification along the way.
Unfortunately, despite bursts of activity, a lot of her time travelling was spent in transit on buses, trains and planes, which is one of the reasons Jannette thinks she regained some of the weight she’d lost on her X-Weighted journey. “Also, in South and Central America, the diet was lots of potatoes, white rice and fried chicken, and finding a salad was seriously challenging,” she says. Eight months after the show Jannette had put 20 pounds back on, and since then another ten pounds has crept back too.
Putting weight back on has meant that Jannette’s fibromyalgia is getting worse (it was better when she was more active and not so heavy). “Because of that I’m getting started again right now,” she says, “It’s annoying for me that I’ve done this to myself, but what’s really annoying is that Paul gets to be right about me putting some of the weight back on.”
Jannette is forming a weight-loss support group with friends in the hope that it will motivate her. “Doing it on my own just doesn’t work for me. I’m externally motivated, that’s why I did the show – there’s nothing like being on national television for keeping a girl on track!” she says.
When strangers recognize Jannette from the show, which even happened when she was in Honduras and Guatemala, she says that they always ask the same two questions. “First they ask is Paul really such a jerk, and the second is, what happened with Chris?” she says, “well right after that date with Chris that you saw on the show, we had quite a long talk about the age difference and what that translated to, and he was a very sweet guy but it just wasn’t going to work, although we are still good friends.” Jannette is still dating and looking for love.
September 2009
As sole breadwinner, with a stressful family life, Michelle hasn’t taken care of herself for a long time. She is obese and borderline diabetic. If she doesn’t get healthy, there’s a good chance her autistic son may need to be institutionalized, and Michelle will do anything to stop that from happening.
Right after the show finished, life got pretty difficult for Michelle as she adjusted to Connor going to live in a group home. “Paul’s prediction that after Connor left home I wasn’t going to care about anything was pretty accurate and I went back up to 250 pounds,” she says.
However, now Connor is doing really well and Michelle has been able to get her weight back on track, she is now ten pounds lighter than when she finished her weight-loss journey on X-Weighted. She still indulges in junk food occasionally, and says this is why she hasn’t lost more weight, but is much more likely to choose sushi than a burger when eating out with her daughters. “I can’t say that my eating is perfect but it’s certainly better than when I first met Paul,” she says.
Michelle stays active, and recently completed a 30-day hot yoga challenge. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, because if you miss a day you have to do a double session and I ended up missing three days because of my knee problems,” she says, “although it’s really difficult, I do enjoy it. Hot Yoga is my new thing.”
Michelle says that she learned a lot from being on the show and that her family makes healthier choices overall thanks to being on X-Weighted. “The biggest thing I got out of doing the show was knowing that I could do it. I was right at the bottom and had no idea of how to get control of anything, how to stop eating and start exercising, and the show gave me that. If anyone has the opportunity to go on X-Weighted they should do it,” she says.
Michelle says that the support she got from Paul was key to her success. “I adore Paul. When I met him, I asked him why people thought he was so awful because I found him really pleasant. He said, “You don’t have a problem with me Michelle because you’re not a whiner.” My attitude when I did the show was that I signed on for this, and if I don’t like it, then it’s not his fault. Nobody was kidnapped and forced to come on the show,” she says.
Due to the way things were exploding at home, Michelle never got to renew her wedding vows at the end of her journey, but is happy to say that her and Dennis did it last year. “All the kids were there and it was really fun,” she says.
Connor is really happy with where he is living, and has become quite athletic himself. “My son is in a good place and that makes it easy for everyone. He is in the best program in British Columbia,” she says.
Her daughters are also doing well - her eldest just graduated high-school, got her first job and wants to be an actress. Dennis is also doing great, enjoying being back at work and recently got a big promotion. Michelle is heading back to school this fall to finish her degree in visual arts. Life is really good for the whole family, and a lot less stressful than when they were on the show.
September 2009
This stay-at-home mom was abused as a child and used her weight to shield herself from attention. Now she is fighting a myriad of health problems and is desperate to slim down. The last thing Amy wants to do is pass her issues with food on to her daughters.
A lot of really positive changes have happened in Amy’s life since the end of her X-Weighted journey. A month after filming wrapped up, Amy found out she was pregnant, with twins, and now has four daughters (aged 6, 5 and the twins are now 3). Amy is proud to say that even throughout her pregnancy, she was able to maintain her weight loss and is now 15 pounds lighter than when the show ended.
Last year, Amy and her family moved from Calgary to buy their dream house in the Annapolis Valley (where Amy is from originally) and credits the show with helping her be able to make that move. “I had a lot of demons here and I wasn’t ready to come back. Although I didn’t necessarily lose a lot of weight on X-Weighted, what it did do was kick me in to high gear as far as figuring out all the emotional skeletons I had in my closet. Since the show I feel like I’m really healed from the whole thing, and I was ready to go home,” she says.
Any issues that there were between Amy and her husband have been resolved and they have never been happier. “Oh my gosh, we are so completely happy that we are like newlyweds,” says Amy, “the issues we did have were due to the barrier I built around myself because of the abuse issues in my childhood.”
Amy says that when she started on X-Weighted, she was at the lowest point in her life. “I thought the show was going to totally fix me, and when it didn’t I got so frustrated,” she says, “but then I realized that I was holding on to every excuse that I had to stay fat. It was time for me to just start dealing with stuff and get over it.”
Amy is still trying to lose more weight, and maintains an active lifestyle. “It’s a slow progression, I try to lose about a pound a week,” she says. Life is busy, Amy works full-time outside the home and runs a home-based business, but she still makes time for exercise and sees a trainer regularly.
Amy says that going on the show was “the best experience I think to date in my whole life.” She laughs about how resistant she was to everything on the show, and the fact that she thought Paul was “just right out to lunch.” She says that it wasn’t until after filming that everything just snapped together for her.
“It was like Holy Cow, it's time for me to get over this. I’ve got to deal with what ails me as opposed to what I’m putting in my mouth, that’s just a symptom, and if you don’t fix the problem you’ll have symptoms for the rest of your life,” she says. Amy has spent the past three years dealing with her issues, and says that she has never felt better or fitter.
September 2009
This fitness instructor has been battling with her weight for a long time. She is positive that her size is what stops her from attaining her dream of meeting a man and having children. Her biological clock is ticking: it is time to lose the weight and get the life she so desperately wants.
Since the show, Diane’s life has changed completely. She has a two-year-old son, has moved to a different town and is in a happy relationship.
While filming X-Weighted, Diane dated and broke up with Ken. After filming the pair reconciled and started a life together. They had a baby, Aaron, and moved to Elkford, BC, which is the small town that Diane grew up in (and where a lot of her family lives). “Ken works in the mines and I’m a stay-at-home mom, I’m living my dream,” she says.
On the show, Diane went to see a matchmaker who basically told her that there was no chance she would meet a man and have babies. “That matchmaker was an old cow, she was just so unrealistic,” says Diane.
Since the show, Diane has had a few health issues, including a recent diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, and was put on various medications that affected her weight. “I put on 27 pounds, but now my medications are sorted out I’ve started losing the weight. I’ve already dropped 24 pounds, through not pigging out and teaching boot-camp classes,” she says.
When Diane moved home to Elkford, she says that everybody had seen the show and wanted to talk to her about it. Diane says that going on the show was a really fun experience, “it's a fun story to tell everybody,” she says.
September 2009
Surrounded by size 0 friends, Angela desperately wants to be slimmer but can’t stop eating when she is bored or sad. She has always been athletic and disciplined in every other aspect of her life. It’s time to take control of her weight.
Angela says that being on X-Weighted was a really great experience. “I worked my butt off so I was really happy with the outcome,” she says. Angela has kept in shape, “I’m still a lot leaner and I’m happy with how I look right now,” she says. Since the show, Angela has had a really exciting work life. She finished her degree in marketing and is now vice-president of public relations and marketing at a real estate investment firm. “My life is going really great,” she says.
In terms of keeping in shape, Angela does a similar routine at the gym to the one that she was doing on X-Weighted, but does it 3 days a week instead of 5. She also does lots of fitness activities such as roller-blading, skiing and has taken up golfing too. “I bought a treadmill for my house and watch all my junky reality TV shows while I’m on there,” she says.
Angela does get recognized by viewers. She says that one of the things people always want to know is whether she is still friends with Carolyn, who was pretty unsupportive and sometimes rude about Angela’s efforts to slim down. “I am absolutely, she is still a close friend of mine. She is over it and wants to be on X-Weighted now,” says Angela.
Although Angela still hangs out with the same core group of friends she had during filming, she has developed another group of friends that share her athletic interests. “Being fit just wasn’t their thing, but by also having friends that are more athletically minded, I stay more motivated,” she says.
Check out Angela's Follow Up Photos in the Photo Gallery. You can also find Angela on Twitter (follow @angelamjoyce), through her blog or Facebook page.
September 2009