Weight Loss

it looks totally out of place, weird

This place really IS Byberry's younger brother.

He he he, there is one in the movie "Smokey and the Bandit"! Don't yall' love that trans am? :-)

I saw one of those in a Betty Boop cartoon. Diden't know that they actually exsited.

Vic Tanny Machine we called them, as he always had those in his tv commercials. He was the Jack LaLanne of the era.

Ummm.... priorities!?!

What I mean is that Anna, you're right, it's as incongruous here as a snowball in the desert. You'd think that trying to make fat people thin would be fairly low down the list of 'things that mattered' in a mental institution! In a place where relatively little of the outside world made it through the walls and grilles, it's odd that modern society's obsession with weight loss and thin-ness should present itself even in the darkest corners...

I guess it could have been for the use of the nurses rather than the patients... but either way it looks like some kind of barbaric torture instument!

The health club I went to as a kid had one of these, and I played with it all the time. It was standard equipment at almost any health club back in the early seventies. Granted, there was only a small number of health clubs back then as compared to now.

I remember watching in horror as a very very large man used it once. I still remember watching his whole body jiggle in such an odd way.

Thank you SO much for that visual!

How anyone ever thought these would 'work' is beyond me.

I know of more than a few people who far from being skeeved out, would posively relish that mental image of the jiggly fat guy. Google 'fat admirer' or 'BBW'. My own SO falls under the second classification by the way. Or for a more in-depth examination of corpulence and eroticism, try www.dimensionsmagazine.com, www.abundancemagazine.com or www.bigfatblog.com for a real education...

;-)

OK, I just can't bring myself to go to one of those websites because I am terrified of what I might see, so could you tell me what "BBW" means? Bountiful body weight? Buxom broad women? Bulky brimming wideness? Big beautiful wenches?

Heheh 'Bulky brimming wideness'.. i love that!

Nah, it's a acronym for 'big beautiful woman'. Or in other words, anyone over about 150lbs these days :(

Don't worry, some of the stuff on here is a whole load scarier than any of those! The ones I mentioned are mainly discussion boards, not porn sites - though there's also PLENTY of those on the WWW if that floats your boat :-)

Floats the boat, Hehe!

Don't laugh,my mom had one of those in the TV room

Why, why didn't I listen to the voice in my head that said "This is a bad idea"? Didn't I learn my lesson from the Sitz Bath incident here: http://www.opacity.us/image2939.htm ?

I need booze, some mind bleach, anything! I have no problem with people who are overweight, but damn if your stomach touches your knees you MIGHT have a medical issue! ~shuddershuddershudder~

BBW = big beautiful woman. There are other versions but thats the main one

Did that crap really work? It looks like all it did was give someones fat a massage!

yea is it just me .... or is this just other form of abuse ? to me this in a childrens hospital is just waaay outta line.. !!! i find it hard to believe they even fed these kids enough to need such a thing unfortunatly any comments send to justicedreams24@aol.com

Yes, you are onto something. This is the hideous "Torture Room of Weight Reduction" that we try not to tell outsiders about. Motts busted us by finding this and getting a picture of it. Our dark secret is that we would put overweight people on this machine and hope that by the action of the belt jiggling their fat, they would lose weight. Pretty darned disgusting evil plot, huh? We were on a 60 Minutes expose for this once - someone sneaked in with a hidden camera and caught us asking the folks who were here whether they wanted to use this machine. And you're right - normally we try to starve children, but how could you torture them on a weight machine if they were skinny? So we fed them too much so they would get fat and then we could use this machine. A sick group of asshats, aren't we? :-(

Okay, I know nothing about the way in which these things work, but is there any possibility it could have served some other purpose here, such as a type of muscular stimulation?

This is probably a load of rubbish - Just trying to suggest another alternative to the ridiculous hideous torture theory.
Regards,
Sefty.

once again, spidergirl has something briliant to say!!!!! LOL 8-)

Thanks for making me laugh Lynne, that was great. :)

When was a shaker machine an item for abuse? Gee, Spidergirl, get real! As a teenager I loved playing on my mom's and only abuse I had was an itching fanny, but felt good nontheless! Not everything was abusive. What seems barbaric to us in our time, was probably legit in their time. To truly realize what went on in this place, you would have had to be among them. All we have is heresay and tales of abuse and neglect, and we truly not know if this is fact because even papers and by word of mouth could be intentionally false. Sure, some staff person who was tired and maybe had problems took it out on some patients, but we cannot group all of them together. There are many staff that are good and just trying to do their job the best they know how. I praise them for their efforts.

I heard many bad rumors about the mental facility where I was sent to, and I was scared to death, they had a rap for being abusive and mistreating patients. However, I was amazed how nice the staff were and tried make my transition into institutional life easy as possible. I learned never listen to rumors unless you find out the true facts yourself.

Just my thoughts on this...I know many people think different.

Please excuse my spelling and word order.

That's really not a neccessary object to have in what... a hospital right?

Everyone knows those things don't do anything but move you'r fat around

Shaken Fat Syndrome! Now we know the cause! hee hee hee.......

I think that due to lack of sexual comforts, this machine may have been a god send to some of the older residents? (sorry, in a humorous mood all of a sudden!)

I would cause an earthquake if you put me on that thing, or give myself a black eye! ;-)

It is out of place but then again what about an excercise rooms or something

My goodness, this spidergirl is a real case. Honey, do you read any of the postings from people who know what they are talking about at all? YOu'd think you might wan tto learn something judging by all of your torture and restraint fantasies.... What gives with you? Not only do you sound plainly ignorant and childish, but the more I read of your postings you are also really frightening yourself!

Hey ! I saw "The Three Stooges" use one of those machines in one of their crazy old comedy films.

Now which one was it ?

Moe Howard ?
Curly Howard ?
Shemp Howard ?
Larry Fine ?
Joe Besser ?
or was Curly Joe DeRita?

Oh well, it does not matter.
Those six guys were classics !

Signed: An American Soldier in Germany.

I don't buy SpiderGirl. I mean, I don't think she can be real! Nobody can be so singly minded that she ignores all reason... it's ridiculous, it's not even funny. You, madam, are a FRAUD. An amusing fraud, though :P

I'd like to live in your world for a day, it would be an interesing experience. All of the amusement parks must have creepy rusting clown heads and every single school teacher must be pedophile.

The Stooges Rock!

I saw Lucy use one of these too, think she had some "splain'in" to do...LOL

Lynne you ROCK, had me ROFLMAO :)~

How does that thing even get rid of weight?

Is it somehow burning calories by shaking your fat? :)

Lynne i think something is wrong with Spider girl!!!

Lol, I want one! I can imagine a "sister" on there moving her hips around...lol. Kind of a cruel joke, really. Because the staff would probably just stand and laugh at how stupid the "sister" looks. Crap. I feel bad for sayin all that, sorry, really. :(

Seriously, that comments gonna haunt me....truly, I AM sorry!!! X(

It has made my day to see one of these outside of the movies! Who knew they were actually used!

It was a common misconception at the time that you could shake the fat loose and the body would expel it. In a place like this Patients who were thinner would have been easier to care for.

Gee, Lynne-for being such a suporter of the down-trodden, that was quite a demeaning comment about the BBW's. Pracitce what you preach-NOT!

Geez...I weigh 150 but I am 5'11" and I am good shape. I always cringe when I see people saying 150 is overweight.

I thought those machines were meant to redistribute cellulose, not necessarily to lose weight...

It would be a GREAT paint can shaker! I can remember (as a kid)
seeing these for sale in stores. They weren't as heavy duty as this one though! Even as a youngster, the concept of "jiggling those extra pounds away" made me scratch my head...
Umm SBFD, redistributing "cellulose"?

cel·lu·lose  [sel-yuh-lohs]
an inert carbohydrate, (C 6 H 10 O 5 ) n , the chief constituent of the cell walls of plants and of wood, cotton, hemp, paper, etc.
Just being a Wank! LOL!