My feelings exactly

I've always been the person who gets angry when they hear about celebrity weight loss. I mean how difficult can it be to drop five or 10 pounds when you have a personal trainer, trained chef and top-of-the-line gym equipment at your beck and call?? I was not surprised when Heidi Klum dropped her baby weight in what seemed like hours after birth. Renee Zellweger's post-Bridget Jones weight loss seemed effortless to me, and I was glad to know that someone else shares my frustration.

A recent article in the New York Times discussed viewer's reactions to NBC's "The Biggest Loser." Obese people compete on the show to see who can lose the most weight by the finale. These 18 people work out with a trainer and compete in challenges very different from the workouts of the average dieter.

People watching at home are at first inspired by the contestant's weight loss but quickly become discouraged when they see someone lose 31 pounds in one week. The reality of this reality show is that most people are not going to have the same weight loss experiences as the "normal people" on the show.

If I lose one or two pounds in a week when I'm dieting and making the effort to exercise, I feel accomplished and motivated to lose more next week, so I can't even imagine the sense of achievement the people on "The Biggest Loser" have.

I wish every overweight person in America could have all the necessary resources to lose the weight they want to get rid of, but the reality is that most people don't. Therefore Americans need to stop thinking that weight loss for themselves is going to be just as easy as weight loss for celebrities. Because it's not.