“Ruby” is literally the biggest thing that the Style Network has ever seen.
At one point, series star Ruby Gettinger tipped the scales at 716 pounds. When she was picked to star in an inspirational reality series which chronicled her journey to lose weight. She weighed in at 500 pounds
When “Ruby” debuted last fall, it brought the network its highest-rated premiere for an original series, largely due to the southern belle’s genial nature and honest-to-goodness struggle to get healthy and recover her missing childhood memories.
Season two picked up last week with Gettinger, 46, an astonishing 100 pounds lighter. For the first time in her adult life, she’d slimmed down to 350 pounds.
“I’ve lost over 80 inches in my body, over 30 inches in my waist,” Gettinger proudly says.
“That’s a whole girl size. I was sitting there one day with my best friend on the show and I looked at her and said, ‘Georgia, what’s your waist size? How much do you weigh? Oh my god, I’ve lost you!’ Since I was 716 pounds, I’ve lost three people. That’s amazing to me, that’s what I was carrying around.”
Gettinger scrutinized her calories — she carries a nutrition guide everywhere she goes — and putting her palate through “rehab” so that she’s started craving healthy foods instead of junk. She also obsessively chronicles everything she eats in a food journal.
“I don’t care if you’re not on a diet, write down everything you eat because you’ll be shocked at how many calories you’re taking in,” she says.
Thanks to her weight-loss, Gettinger will explore whole new aspects of the life she missed out on during “Ruby”‘s 10-episode run.
“I’m able to ride a bicycle — I’m so loving it — and I go kayaking,” she says. “I’m driving my roommate and best friend Jeff’s old convertible car, so I’m able to fit behind steering wheels of some cars, but not all cars.”
She also visits a gynecologist for the first time in over a decade.
Gettinger decided to film the visit because “I never knew that women with obesity could get cancer faster than normal-sized women. So many women don’t go because it’s so uncomfortable, especially when you’re overweight, but I wanted to show everybody else that if I can do it if I can get on the table, then so can you.”
But “Ruby” is not all about empowerment, though.
Her father passed away at the beginning of production, leading her to neglect her diet and exercise routine while she grieved.
There’s also the shocking discovery she makes when, as part of her quest to uncover her blocked childhood memories — she can’t remember anything about her life before she was 13 — she tracks down her old school records.
“I come from a loving family, so I have no idea what it could be that I’ve chosen to forget,” she says. “I became a private investigator because nobody can give me a straight answer.”
With all this drama in her personal life, Gettinger always manages to remain positive, buoyed along by all the e-mails and letters she gets from fans.
“They say that ‘you’re an inspiration,’ but whenever I hear y’all’s story, y’all keep me strong, y’all keep me going,” she says.
“I get chills, I get so excited, because I just want us all to win and beat this [obesity epidemic]. Everybody says we can’t and all the odds are against us and I want us all to prove you wrong.”
RUBY
Sunday, 8 p.m., Style Network