Every Saturday morning when I’m hoping to catch re-runs of “How I Met Your Mother” on FX or a useless reality show on Bravo (except for Top Chef), there he is. Promising amazing results in just 60 days, Shaun T is always on the TV with an infomercial that is pretty ridiculous. I remember when infomercials were done in front of a live audience and captivating.  Ron Popeil made me believe garlic would always make me sleep well (but alone). He was so persuasive that I too wanted to save over $200 by buying the Showtime.  Instead, Shaun T relies on cheap graphics and gratuitous shots of his hip-hop abs.

While I don’t enjoy his infomercial, his life-story seems to be aligned with most other fitness gurus. Man gains weight, hates the way he looks in the mirror, and decides to do something. However, seeing him tell the story, illustrates something more psychological. As I wrote about Oprah, body dysmorphic disorder (previously known as dysmorphophobia) describes a preoccupation with bodily shape or appearance with the belief that one is disfigured in some way. BDD is under the spectrum of somatoform disorders, conditions that cannot be explained by a medical condition and not better diagnosed as part of a depressive or anxiety disorder. Most patients who suffer BDD are those that undergo multiple plastic surgeries, preoccupied with their nose or wanting dimples, for example.

For Shaun T, his weight was an issue. I’d be curious if Shaun T ever had any eating disorders (anorexia or bulimia nervosa), which are also very common to those with BDD.  Regardless, it’s impressive to hear his transformation and those customers on his infomercial. I guess life-stories are persuasive (except Tanya, who just annoys me for no apparent reason). But it would have been more persuasive if Ron Popeil were selling the Insanity DVDs.