THEY arrived as early as 6am on Aug 1 and stood in line for several hours, some leaning against the wall, others standing around and making conversation with those around them.

More people streamed in throughout the day as the doors to a Fitness First gym in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, opened to hundreds of reality TV show hopefuls.

Most were overweight, some obese and several were just trying out for the heck of it, but they were all there for one purpose – a chance to be on the Asian edition of the popular reality TV show The Biggest Loser.

Many reality shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race or Project Runway challenge people to do whatever it takes to win. However, the impetus for someone to join a competition like The Biggest Loser goes beyond just emerging victorious.

For some of the participants, there are major health issues to be addressed, and really, when you think about it, anyone who loses weight in a show like this – whether or not this person wins – is already a winner.

For many years, being overweight or suffering from obesity was just something people learned to live with. Taking aside the stigma attached to it, many people are starting to realise that they need to lose weight to avoid serious health issues. Two young adults, Joel Deva (Jaydee) and Fara Azeyan were not at the auditions, but reached a turning point in their lives where they knew they had to do something about their weight.

“I was depressed at first, but got accustomed to my new size, hiding in bigger clothes, which didn’t work very well,” says Jaydee. “Riding in small cars was a problem, even going to amusement park rides where I usually had to sit around and wait for people. I was always ‘assigned’ to carry stuff for others, too.”

Fara, on the other hand, has always been overweight and didn’t feel the need to lose weight as she was constantly surrounded by family members who were dealing with weight issues as well and enjoyed indulging in rich food.

Thanks in part to encouragement from his friends, Joel Deva (right) drove himself to lose 31kg in a year.

Her size gave her a “bully” status in school, as her fellow students were afraid of her, but in the end, it was close friends who encouraged her to consider losing weight for health benefits.

“Caring friends have sat me down and told me my life has to change. They are concerned for my health and say that they will help me lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle any way they can,” says Fara, who weighs around 70kg and is 160cm tall.

“At first, I was a bit offended but I didn’t show it, and realised later that they were right. My weight has finally started becoming an emotional burden and I’m ready for a change.”

Jaydee has lost 31kg since he made up his mind to shed his extra kilos, while Fara has yet to start, but in the stories they both share about themselves, they talk about the problems they face while being overweight and the consequences of the condition.

The biggest issue, of course, is that the two youths are not alone. The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2006 (a survey that is conducted every 10 years) revealed that some 29% of adult Malaysians are overweight and 14% obese. This means that 43%, or two in five, adult Malaysians are overweight. This is a significant rise from when the survey was previously conducted in 1996, which found that 16.6% of Malaysian adults were overweight, while 4.4% were obese.

The numbers are troubling as Malaysians get fatter, and young people – aged 18 to 29 – make up a significant number. The 2006 study showed that 26.7% of people in the age group are obese.

R.AGE shares with you Jaydee and Fara’s stories about just what it is like being overweight and how they are dealing with the issue now.

JOEL DEVA
Teacher
I have not always been overweight. As a teenager I was scrawny, but when I left school I fell in love with rugby and decided to build my body through weightlifting and steroids. It worked – I went from being a scrawny 184cm-tall 60kg guy to one who weighed 120kg in one-and-a-half years.

I was pretty buffed up then and my cholesterol level was low, but eventually, due to multiple injuries suffered from contact games and accidents, I stopped working out.

There were lots of constraints and movement restrictions, so I had to forego my fitness routine, and that’s when it all started going downhill.

A year ago I weighed 115kg; I had been overweight for 15 years by then.

This was because after I stopped working out, I lived an unhealthy lifestyle for so long. Even though I played games frequently, I had a big appetite and used to indulge in late night snacks, and that’s what turned me into a large person.

I was depressed at first, but got accustomed to my new size.

Hopeful applicants waiting in line to audition for Asia's edition of The Biggest Loser.

As I got more and more depressed, I decided to shed away the extra weight by all means necessary, resorting to a mild form of starvation for four months. I ate only a single meal a day and drank 1.2 litres of water daily. I also tried out diet pills, but only for a short while.

My health was another issue, as I began experiencing heart palpitations and chest crams. My cholesterol level was too high, and that’s when I seriously started to change my lifestyle.

I don’t eat or drink after 9pm, I’ve brought my meals down to two a day, and I’ve reduced my alcohol intake drastically. I am now 84kg and I plan to reach my target of 77kg by the end of the year.

It was music, clothes and friends that motivated me to lose weight drastically. I had tough times buying clothes, at least, the ones that I liked the most.

When my pants went down from size 40 to 35, my friends bought me a pair of skinny jeans, as a way to celebrate. When I got to size 33.5, they bought me another pair to go with the grey ones.

I feel much better and healthier than I did two years ago. I have more stamina and flexibility when I play games and I don’t get tired as easily as I used to.

It hasn’t been that difficult, but I need to buck up on my discipline and continue my regime till I reach my targeted weight line. Temptations are everywhere, but I got to keep my heavy demons at bay.

FARA AZEYAN
Research assistant/student
I’m the sort of person who doesn’t like to walk much, so most of the time I circle parking lots several times just to get a spot near the door. I get tired easily, and I weigh more than 70kg (I’m not really sure, haven’t checked the scale in ages), and I’m about 160cm in height.

It is mostly the attention that bothers me most about my weight – no matter where I go, or who I hang out with, people always stare, and sometimes scrunch up their eyebrows for some reason, and look away.

If you ask me why I haven’t lost weight, I would tell you that it’s because I’m constantly around people who are overweight. My dad, sisters and cousins all have bulging bellies. My mum is the only skinny one, even though she indulges in the rich food we all eat. There’s no pressure to lose weight, and my family loves and accepts me the way I am. As a kid, no one really dared to bully me about my weight, because I was the biggest in my class.

When I got older and my classmates grew up, they didn’t fear me anymore; instead, they developed an indifference towards me. Eventually, I realised that while many of them had been chubby too, they had all lost weight as the years went by, thanks to diets and exercise.

I must admit, I was quite defiant. I refused to give in to what society deems is “normal”, and I told myself I would live life how I wanted, whether people around me liked it or not.

In university, I started to feel how I was different from my coursemates. It was little things like bumping into things and squeezing myself through the lab to get to my table or making people wait forever behind me while I squeezed into my seat in the bus.

I have been on dates, but only with guys my size or bigger, but they have never amounted to anything. I think it was mostly because I was so nervous I couldn’t be myself at the time.

I would wear a lot of makeup and low plunging necklines to distract my dates but I sometimes wonder if that made it better or worse.

Lately, caring friends have sat me down and told me my life has to change. They are concerned for my health and say that they will help me lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle any way they can.

I was a bit offended but I didn’t show it, and realised later that they are right. Also, I watched The Biggest Loser on TV and it has sort of inspired me to go for walks in the park near my house, as a start.

I still haven’t checked how much I weigh, and maybe when I have extra money I will enrol in a gym. My weight has finally started becoming an emotional burden and I’m ready for a change.