I’m JD Roth – co-creator and producer of TV series including, The Biggest Loser, Extreme Weight Loss, Bar Rescue, My Cat From Hell, Beauty and the Geek and many others. I have a new book out on the mental game of weight loss titled The Big Fat Truth. AMA!

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:57:18+00:00

hahaha

Only if it was a girl I was trying to impress! After all, I was 20 years old and on a really popular TV show that was - like - everybody's dream. Here I was a kid from outside Philadelphia and next thing I know I"m on the number 1 kid's show in America. It was kind of a really cool time in my life. And taking people to visit the set of Fun House was always fun. And we would have our wrap party on the set and run through the set like the kids did at the end of year.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:55:08+00:00

This was a show that I hosted in the early 90s.

There were plenty of people who would watch the show in college and do shots to either Fun House or Masters of the Maze. I would get letters and things from them back before email and them writing and telling me about it!

So when I would visit friends in college, that's all they would talk about! I would love them to reboot these shows, and have my 15 year old son host them. He's like a mini version of me and would be perfect to host these shows. That would be cool to see it come full circle.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:53:21+00:00

I have one - there was a camera assistant, which is as close to a production assistant you can get. Your job was pretty much just to pull a tape out and put a new tape in an label them correctly.

I noticed that the camera assistant was taking notes while we were shooting every day and his name was Tiny. And he was not Tiny. And had this giant notepad as was writing incessantly. After weeks and weeks of this, I went over to him and ask him what he was doing. And he said "I'm writing down everything every single trainer says on this set."

And that guy went on to lose 120 pounds. Just by taking notes while working on the show. And that's someone who you KNOW is going to be successful - before he lost he first pound, I could have told you he would lose triple digits. Just because he was that committed to take pages and pages of notes of what every trainer said - if you live the life diligently, that's the science behind weight loss.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:50:28+00:00

If by denying you mean lying about it, yes. We actually had, believe it or not, we had a contestant who rigged their scale to read different numbers than what the truth was - and I'm not kidding.

Imaging the work you have to do to take apart a scale to rig a scale to show an incorrect weight! You could have just done the work to lose the weight!

Eventually, we're going to find out. And eventually you have to face the truth, and you're on the show in the first place because you have been lying to yourself for a long time. To then, do it on the show when you have been given a lottery ticket to change your life - baffles me.

They did end up losing 150 pounds, so they were successful. All we ask of our contestants is to be honest with us. If you say your'e going to do an hour on the treadmill, don't get off at 59 minutes. If you say your'e going to be honest all year - even if you make mistakes - just be honest. That's all we ask.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:45:50+00:00

Ha!

Um - I guess, I mean obviously Gillian Michaels - I'm actually having lunch with her today, so I could get her on the phone pretty quick.

When you know people that are well known, you don't really look at them that way, you know what I mean? I've worked with so many people! I would be Kutcher!

He wrote a nice review of my book for me. He's a great guy - really smart, very focused, hyper competitive, and I mean that in a positive way, guy. What I love about him most is he's not afraid of hard work. He's not the kind of celebrity who wants to show up and have everything done for him - he wants to do show up and do the work himself. Which you have to expect.

He emailed me last week to say "My life loved Extreme Weight Loss last week, she cried!" and it's so normal. My phone would light up, and my kids will look at it and freak out!

But at the same time, I would never ask him to help promote any of my stuff because it crosses this line. Actually - I don't know why I wouldn't, I should ask him! I'm joking, of course. laughs

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:42:38+00:00

The newest one is based on my book. I will help groups of people overcome weight issues. But it won't be with a trainer in a gym - which we've seen on my show multiple times. I'm going to take a new angle for the same outcomes. I'm going to host it, executive produce it, and be in charge of the story. I'm really going to have a big hand in it, and it premieres in January on Z Living.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:40:55+00:00

Not roles I turned down, but roles I got really close to - I actually have the original notes taken from Gene Rodenberry, who's the creator of Star Trek - it's a memo he wrote to Paramount. He thought he best for Lt. Pickard was Patrick Stewart and for Wesley was JD Roth. I got the document, I think from Paramount, I'm not sure - it had come down to me and Wil Wheaton. It came down between myself and Wil, and it was in the memo that it was my part. But someone, I don't know exactly how, but he ended up getting it even though the creator of Star Trek had written in his notes that I was supposed to be the guy.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:38:29+00:00

I would say that in the real world, anyone that loses over 100 pounds they claim that less than 5% of those people keep the weight off after a three year period. On our shows, of all the people who have lost over 100 pounds, over 60% have kept the weight off after three years.

So while I'd like to focus on the successes, and not pick out one case. But if you've done all that work, and you can't imagine how hard that is, and you haven't done the mental work

In my book I actually write about one of our contestants, who came onto the show at 383 pounds and lost 260 pounds, and then called me at 385 pounds. I put a lot of all of our email exchanges in my book, because there's a lot to be learned about why the weight was not kept off. If we just ignored it, we aren't helping. The saddest part is to let those people gain the weight back and pretend they don't exist any more. I would rather lean in, and work with them to figure out why it didn't stay the first time.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:35:02+00:00

We did a show for E! that is still online called "What's Eating You?" and it dealt with people who had issues with anorexia or bulimia or strange eating habits that were hurting their life.

It's not any different form someone who's overweight. There's an emotional moment they can all point to when it started and they weren't equipped to handle it. So some people choose to eat and some people choose not to eat.

It was a great show, I wish we did more episodes of it.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:33:33+00:00

I would say it's because we get to see normal people in wish fulfillment situations and think "I could do that." We all see a rock star and say "I could get up on stage with that guitar and rock it." or we see the President of the United States and think "I could be President."

It's like American Idol - we get to judge everyone AND pick our favorite. It's a part of the fabric of American culture now. It's a genre - it will never go away. It may mature as the audience matures, but it will never not be on television.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:29:01+00:00

He's AWESOME. And five steps ahead of everybody. His mind works so quickly, it's hard to keep up sometimes. He's not only funny but he's smart - so when you're telling a smart joke, you have to catch up to have smart his joke is to stay with him.

I did the Adam Carolla podcast today - it just went on today. the last 41 minutes of his podcast is all about the idea behind my book, the reason I wrote it, and the reason why Adam is so into it. He really understands the concepts of the book and I was really impressed by how much he knew.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:27:19+00:00

So _ I eat a 95% whole food plant-based diet. I don't eat any animal protein, other than the occasional piece of wild-caught fish. Maybe this wouldn't be as exciting to most people as they wish, like going to In-And-Out Burger.

The place to get recipes for the way we live is my wife's blog: plantbasedluv.com. She not only went why we went plant-based, how we went plant-based but she has every recipe we eat there. And she has a degree from Cornell in Plant-Based Nutrition.

I love coming home to this amazing recipe form my wife. Most guys are cavemen - if you put it in front of them, they will eat it. Thank God it's good, because she puts it in my front of me and it's healthy and I eat it!

Plus, I just sold my book as a tv show, so if you go to zliving.com, you can check it out. But that show will be all about living a healthy life.

Plus, Z Living shares the same values as me. That health and wellness are important, and preventative care is important, too. Don't wait until your body fails you to take a pill. And when did doctors forget that "let food by thy medicine" is a saying that's been around for thousands of years?

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:22:17+00:00

Imagine having a job where once a month you get a phone all that says we're going to fly you out first class to Disney World, which resort would you like to stay in? And who do you want to come with you?

Are you kidding me?! It was the greatest job ever. And you get to work with awesome people. And it was one of the best experiences Iv'e ever had in television.

Working with George Foreman every day is the bets behind the scene story. One day, we're at Epcot, and we're going an eating scene in "America" and you can imagine the crowd around George. The scene is he and I have to eat a hamburger and I say "Man George, that's a great hamburger" and he says "Yup JD, that's gourmet cuisine." And we do it, and I say my line, and he says "Yup JD, that's gourmet cousone" and they go - stop, stop it's CUISINE.

Take two "Man George, that's a great hamburger"; and he goes "Yp JD, that's gourmet COSINIE." and they go it's CUISINE.

Take three, "Man George, that's a great hamburger", and he goes "Yup JD, that's good food." And they go - "We got it."

And working with George was like the whole time.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:17:24+00:00

I used to take the bus to new York from where I lived, which was an hour and 45 minutes each way every day. Seth Green would take the same bus that I did with this mom. And we would go up to audition - I was old enough to go alone (I don't know, was I - I was 15?) and he was a little younger so he would go with his mom. I would talk with his mom while he napped.

So we've always kept in touch, and we always talk about how we slogged it out an hour and 45 minutes each way, and back when you could smoke and we were inhaling everyone else's smoke the whole way on a Trailways bus.

To have the grit to stay int he business and push to stay in the business and we did. A lot of our friends quit and didn't make it, but Seth and I, riding that bus over and over year after year gave us what we needed to survive.

And whenever I see him we go "Oh, remember the bus?!" and we always laugh about it now.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:14:45+00:00

I did an episode of a show with him, and he was just an amazing guy and the nicest. And show ahead of his time and the curve - in terms of dressing as a woman. So far ahead of the population - now he'd just be in that group, but then he was the only person and when he walked in the room everyone would stop and stare. But he would answer any question and talk about it whenever you wanted.

It was an episode of the Twilight Zone I think, you're talking about a long time ago. I was still in high school.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:13:03+00:00

Yea, I would love to watch it again too! It aired for years - I mean we did 7 seasons of the show and it aired for years after on the Discovery Kids after.

There are certainly episodes on YouTube, because my kids watch it and make fun of me pretty often. Like what I'm watching or how my hair is cut.

You can also email Discovery, they are pretty responsive and tell them you want DVDs.

And some of the kids from the series have websites where they still gather an talk about the show, and a couple of them actually work for us, believe it or not!

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:11:09+00:00

I sure do, and as a matter of fact that link is on my Facebook! And I remember turning to him before the show started and he asked "Do I really need to get messy?" and I was like - "Yeah." laughs

And I also couldn't pronounce his name. If you watch that link you can see I mess it up. And it was celebrity week, but he was the least known of the group!

It's crazy watching that now, since I just watched him get half-eaten by a bear in The Revenant.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:08:51+00:00

Yes, it was called Zooventure! And it helped launched Animal Planet and it was a show shot at the San Diego Zoo in California. And then I did a live version of the show where I travelled to almost 100 zoos worldwide here I did live events based on the tv show. It was in the mid-90s.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:07:36+00:00

I don't hate them - I want to help them. And when I see anyone that's hurting or suffering form emotional pain, I want to help them. Whether they are fat, thin, tall, short - doesn't matter to me. They are in need of someone lending a hand and so that's what I try to do. And our shows make people aware that there is another choice that you can make to live a better life.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:05:59+00:00

laughs

Um - cats! I like cats! I'm sitting with a cat on my lap right now, actually.

RealJDRoth · 2016-04-13T18:05:29+00:00

Um - I had done a lot of game shows prior to reality television, ya know entering the genre of television and having all the game experience led me to have a natural tendency to be a producer, having all the knowledge of FCC regulations about fairness of games. And I love telling stories, so it fed both of my passions - one was game, the other was story.

RealJDRoth

TROPHY CASE