Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb Weigh Themselves on Live TV Before Starting Intermittent Fasting https://t.co/Jczci6NE1Q
— People (@people) November 18, 2019
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush host the last hour of Today. I haven’t watched their co-hosting segments yet, but I hope Jenna is a good replacement for Kathie Lee Gifford. I imagine she does fine because Hoda elevates everyone. The pair told their audience that they were going to try the intermittent fasting diet that is gaining popularity in celebrity circles these days. Before they started their fasting, though, they agreed to be weighed on air. As Hoda said, they were quite stressed prior to getting on the scales.
Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb stepped on a scale in front of millions of viewers on Monday to launch their experiment with intermittent fasting.
Kotb, 55, introduced the Today with Hoda and Jenna segment by mentioning they’d been “stressing out” over the concept, but the cohosts showed solidarity with one another as they weighed themselves — not before removing their shoes for a more accurate reading.
“Okay, I haven’t done this in a long time,” Bush Hager, 37, said leading up to the moment of truth. “It’ll be fine.”
The pair held hands and told each other not to look down — “It’s like jumping off a cliff,” Bush Hager joked — before finally standing on the scale after some uncertainty and a false start.
They even switched scales to be sure one wasn’t inaccurate. For Kotb, the scale read 158 lbs., and for Bush Hager, 171 lbs.
“This is why I don’t really weigh myself,” Bush Hager said, shocked that her number was some 40 lbs. more than the weight logged on her Fitbit.
She jokingly added: “I think I weigh twice as much as my sister. Like, two Barbaras could fit in me.”
The People link has the video of them weighing themselves. I felt bad for them because they both seemed honestly upset after they got off the scale. I do understand that feeling, though. I still loosely follow the Weight Watchers approach to weight loss and maintain my own weekly weigh in. Sometimes, an extra pound or two will blow my whole day. So if the numbers were larger than they were expecting, I understand their reaction. But as far as their numbers are concerned – Hoda is 5’9” so she’s well within the ‘normal’ weight range for her height. Jenna is 5’8” and gave birth to her third child three and half months ago – I hope she takes that into account.
They had Dr. Natalie Azar on to discuss intermittent fasting. Jenna made a joke about Dr. Azar’s grimace when their numbers were announced. Dr. Azar insisted it was because she couldn’t, “believe you did that on national tv. I could never have done that.” Whereas weight fluctuations can bum me out, I have no problem telling people my weight. I guess I figure that if someone is looking at me, they’ve already formed their thoughts on how I look so the actual number won’t mean anything to them. I’m not saying Dr. Azar needs to get on a scale on television, I do understand the reluctance to be weighed publicly. I just wish a doctor wouldn’t publicly reinforce the societal notion that we should all be ashamed of our weight.
CB and Kaiser have discussed the intermittent fasting diet several times. I don’t feel one way or the other about it. As Dr. Azar said, it’s not really a diet so much as a way of eating. Studies suggest it is as effective as other diets and, if you eat sensibly when you do eat, it is nutritionally sound. It is not any more effective than any other diet a person sticks to. So if it works for you – great! I’d love to hear how it’s benefitted you. But it I doubt it would work for me because the minute someone tells me I can’t have or something, that is all I want.
Photo credit: WENN Photos
I’m always curious to know the schedules people choose. I couldn’t find that Hoda or Jenna said when their fast would be. For me, it seems easier to put off starting to eat until lunch, but I can’t imagine doing that if my job had me at work as early as the Today Show is.
Mine is from noon to 8pm. I get up at five but you actually get used to not eating until 12, I don’t think I could skip dinner! For me it wasn’ t so much about losing weight but keeping my weight because: menopause.
If I were only allowed to eat between 11am and 5pm I think I could do it. I’d need coffee and tea at night. But I could go without food. Problem is it would ruin my time with my husband. Sitting down and having dinner together while the kids are otherwise occupied is our best time together. It’d be a hard thing to give up.
Yes! Eating in the morning makes me feel queasy. I’d happily save every bite of food until an hour before bed. Which is frowned upon.
Same! I eat generally at 2 or 3 pm (small meal) and then eat the majority of my food at 9 or so. I don’t get to bed till later though. I just skew late. I’ve eaten like this for years though, before I knew that it was a thing.
Me too! I work evenings, and i could easily just not eat all day till i get hone at 10:30. I try to force myself to eat while at work cuz i think eating so late affects my sleep, but im just not hungry!
When i fasting and ive been doing long before the fad, I skip dinner instead. From 2pm Till 5-6am. i sleep a lot better when I skip dinner. It helps my asthma and I don’t wake up as “inflamed” as would previously when I would late.
Ugh this kind of makes me mad. They would never make men do this for a bit on TV. Jenna should not feel bad about her weight 12 weeks after having a baby. I’m sure they could have said no, but I bet they didn’t really have a choice.
Weight on a scale should be private unless you WANT to share.
Im coming at this from a place where I weigh more than I want, and I’m working really hard to lose it. Careful eating and a lot of boot camp exercise. But it’s taking a long time to lose weight. So I’m kind of sensitive about that.
They both look GREAT! And I would have guessed both as much lower than their revealed weights. That’s probably the result of constant weight expectations and constant discussions of “good numbers” to be or “ideal numbers.” I don’t know how to say this eloquently, but I’m a little mad that I was surprised by the numbers because again- they look honestly good and fine where they are! So I’m mad that I’ve subconsciously bought into false numbers. I know I have my own personal frustrations and goals.
Agree with all of this.
I was especially surprised at Jenna’s number. But you know what, I realized, why? Because I”ve been trained to believe that women should weight 100 pounds, so if they are not ultra ultra skinny I assume 120. This is all bs of course. ANyway, I think both ladies look really good, not even overweight, and this is a lesson about numbers being meaningless. I think in both weight and age.
Were they made to do this? Seems like they chose to do it. A very ill advised choice but a choice all the same.
a thousand times this. these women aren’t doing anyone any favors. men don’t weigh themselves on tv, not if they wanted to be taken seriously. and if this isn’t a serious show, then please do something genuinely entertaining. this is just….designed to make women feel bad about their appearance (or worse, some dumb number on a scale) and buy into some program. #feminismdies
I don’t think it should’ve been done as part of a weight loss experiment. But honestly hearing their weights made me feel better. It shouldn’t make any difference to me, I know, but I wouldn’t have guessed either weighed more than 145 pounds.
As women we have a tendency to shave pounds off when we discuss our weight, that seems more harmful than sharing our actual weight with one another. Obviously we’re not sharing our weight with them, but I think it was brave and admirable. They shouldn’t feel bad, they both look fantastic and I’m guessing that’s the feedback they got from viewers.
Jenna shouldn’t feel bad about her weight, period.
I lost 10 lbs before my wedding. Obsessive calorie counting, working out 3-4x a week. That’s what it took for me to move the scale under 195lbs. I’m now 215. I’m eating way too much and don’t exercise. If I want to lose a few pounds, I need to eat less. But there’s no way in heck I have the time to do what I did in 2011.
Agreed. This is anti-female, toxic diet culture. Disgusting. If you want to do IF, fine-but don’t do it out of self hate and desperation.
Isn’t it fasting when you go to sleep at night lmk
Meh it’s just a number. Are you eating well (with the occasional treat :)) and exercising, being healthy? then who cares what the scale says.
That’s a horrible thing to do on tv! Omg… but at least it makes them relatable in a way.
Just a warning to women in particular. I lost some weight by dieting and exercising and then I amped up my weight loss by introducing intermittent fasting. Well, I started having right side abdomen pain and the whole sha-bang. I had to have my gallbladder removed last week. Apparently fasting slows down the release of bile and cholesterol in the gallbladder, which makes it more likely for stones to form. I’m also on birth control and the estrogen in it makes it two-fold more likely to happen.
Another warning to women in particular, it can mess with your hormones more than it does men’s. I did intermittent fasting for about six months last year. It did help with weight loss, but I also lost my entire sex drive. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, but after doing research I discovered it was possibly from the intermittent. When I started eating throughout the day again, the problem got a lot better (although I still feel like it hasn’t gotten all the way back to normal yet).
IF is the new Keto ya’ll. Still at the end of the day it is always and will always be CINO, calories in and out. If these two gave up their wine instead, that would be more effective for weight loss.
Well, no. I am in the middle of replacing food with wine, and that’s how it’s going to be. Life is a struggle.
Yes, it’s really not that hard. Calories in and calories out. More out than in? Congratulations, you have lost weight.
I once asked my doctor for a diet and he said “No white, No wheat”! That’s as succinct as I’ve ever seen next to calories in and calories out.
I wish it were that simple. I have a graduate degree in Nutrition and it’s much more complicated. True the calorie exchange is even, but which metabolic pathways are initiated is determine by the type of nutrients you are consuming. For example, alcohol ha a different pathway and produces different substrates than say, protein. If you eat too many carbohydrates in one setting, the over production of those substrates will initiate de novo lipogenesis, as will many other things. It is truly a matter of what you eat/drink and how much you eat/drink.
I have too much fruit and no meat protein to be on a strict keto diet but the only food I gave up as part of an IF regime is oatmeal for breakfast — and still managed to lose more than 20 pounds. When you eat is absolutely as vital for burning fat as what since you can only burn stored body fat while in the fasted state, and you can only store fat in the fed state.
I gained back the weight I lost and it’s so frustrating
Me too, maintaining a weight loss is harder than losing it imo.
Me, too, although I lost it from not eating from shock when my mom died. So- once I started eating again, even though it wasn’t even much, it piled on fast. Really crappy.
I’m sorry,Kristina-go easy on yourself.
Yeah, this is really inspiring. Let’s weigh ourselves on national television, then complain about the number on the scale all to try out a fad diet. Just adding to the problem that women need to be a certain weight. They both looked great, and I really hope no other national news programs jump on this too.
I feel bad for them. I know Intermittent Fasting is the rage (double entendre intended), but, as women in this culture, we have to deal w so much aggression — literally, legally, emotionally — toward our bodies on so many levels. And there’s just so much money in the whole diet/food/medical industries pushing this particular form of it.
I dream of a time when we can all love our bodies for the miracle of all they do for us all day long, that we can treat our bodies w kindness and love, and use food to nourish not just our bodies but also our souls, and shed — literally and figuratively — the weight of the male gaze. My prayer for today…
To help btw, I started meditating a few months ago and realized I was eating too much too fast from stress, some of that being the male gaze. Letting go of that has really surprisingly led to a v natural shedding of the extra weight I’d been carrying, and the new found joy of that being not for how others see me, but for how I feel.
‘I’m not saying Dr. Azar needs to get on a scale on television, I do understand the reluctance to be weighed publicly. I just wish a doctor wouldn’t publicly reinforce the societal notion that we should all be ashamed of our weight.’
But bill Maher says fat shaming needs to come back, dont you realize the good that comes from hating yourself?
Hecate, what you mention here about being told you cannot have something, then immediately wanting it, actually has some psychological basis. It is based on the idea of “Scarcity of Resources”, and it drives a lot of our behaviors. If we perceive that resources are scarce, or will become scarce in the near future, we do all we can to shore up those resources. It’s what you see when people storm the grocery stores and buy up all the cases of water before a big storm, or why we overeat before going to a party where we aren’t sure of the food being served. Some people are more prone to it than others (I know I am, and that’s why this diet would never work for me), but knowing you have those tendencies is really important in terms of ones relationship to food.
I hope women have more substantive things to do on a morning show than worry about losing weight.
But, since they decided to make their fasting a story, I also think getting on the scale on live tv was very brave — probably one of the bravest things they could do, given the way society expects all women to be thin and physically beautiful in order to be respected. Bad story, but brave women.
I feel like they kept the shoes on and everything to make the numbers seem higher so the “loss” will be more dramatic at their next weigh in – even though they will probably have their shoes off that time anyway.
I feel like they kept the shoes on and everything to make the numbers seem higher so the “loss” will be more dramatic at their next weigh in – even though they will probably have their shoes off that time anyway.
I like that they made their weight public. I think that they both look fantastic, and there IS this perception that anyone over 120 is overweight. I remember in the 90s all the female tennis players had their weight listed as 135, even if they were 6 foot 2 and super muscled.
Good Lord.
I know several people – mostly men – who have done the Keto and Paleo diet and one who is doing the fasting thing.
He eats, “Whatever I want”, for 6-8 hours per day and says he goes to bed hungry and can’t sleep well and can’t poop.
No sh*t and all the Keto and Paleo people have gained back all their weight PLUS some.
Women often go with Nutri-System and such but those don’t teach you to make food choices when you are buying prepackaged foods and I’ve heard most of the foods suck.
If I needed to lose weight fast I might try that for a month but otherwise…nah and you could do that on your own. Lean Cuisine is a lot cheaper and probably better tasting.
WW is hard. Counting? Counting is hard. 😉
I do agree with cutting out a lot of crap like sugar, flour, white rice, alcohol, real sodas and so on; empty calories.
One of my favorite memories: My young cousin joined the Marines.
He was a bit of a chubby bunny when he left but came back lean and ripped and I overheard a couple of older ladies say to him, “My goodness! Look at YOU! How did you lose all that weight?”
“I ran everyday ’til I dropped while people screamed at me.”
There you go. 🙂
A commenter above said what I want to say – we are conditioned to think the numbers should be 100 or 125 when that’s practically a life-threatening level for most of us. At 5-2 and 62 yrs old, I weigh ~190 and even at my doctor’s office they do a double take when the see the number. “You carry it well,” one said. Yeah, it’s too high, but my ideal weight [IMO] is around 160, not 120. Once I got down under 130 [in my 20s] because I had a boyfriend who literally mocked me any time I ate a cookie. My family was convinced I had cancer and wasn’t telling them. [BTW I have a BF who LOVES my curves, which is a gift.]
My mom is about 5 foot 3 inches and got down to 90 lbs while she was on chemo. She looked anorexic and they were going to start her on a feeding tube if she couldn’t gain a few lbs. 100 lbs is just ridiculous and underweight for most women.
I’ve been doing IF unintentionally for decades. I just can’t eat early in the day. And I never lost weight, actually I slowly gained a lot over the years. I’ve been Keto since February and it’s the only diet I’ve ever been able to stick to. I’ve lost 25 pounds and still losing. It’s been slow for me but it feels fairly easy at this point. Getting back into clothes that didn’t fit has really boosted my morale. The fact that I can eat cheese and dairy on Keto has helped immensely. It was always the hardest thing to moderate on other diets.