The Restaurant That Burns Calories Sparks Surge In Calls To Eating Disorder Helpline

Eating disorder charity Beat has said its helpline received three times as many calls as usual following the first episode of the divisive new show The Restaurant That Burns Calories.

The first episode of the BBC Two series – fronted by First Dates star Fred Sirieix and This Morning medic Dr Zoe Williams – saw 20 diners presented with a menu, where each item was accompanied by the amount of exercise that would be required to burn it off.

In addition to this, the restaurant had an adjoining gym, where fitness fanatics on exercise bikes had to work out harder for everything the diners ordered.

Before it even aired on Monday night, the show was met with criticism, with many on social media questioning whether it promoted an unhealthy relationship with food, and could be triggering for anyone who has an existing eating disorder.

Dr Zoe Williams and Fred Sirieix in The Restaurant That Burns Calories

Beat’s Director of Services has now told Metro that calls to the charity’s helpline tripled after the hour-long show debuted.

“We have today on the helpline seen three times the amount of people that would normally have contacted our helpline by this point in the day…and the majority of those contacts are referring to the programme that ran last night,” she said.

“So it has had an impact, it’s not just a few people on Twitter that were upset.”

She continued: “We deliver about 150 support sessions in a day. Yesterday we did over 300. Double the amount of people needed our support.

“Three hours in [after the helpline opened today], we’ve had three times the amount of people that we would at this point in the day so I can only assume that trend is going to mean that today we could end up supporting 450 people rather than the 150 that we would normally.”

A BBC rep told HuffPost UK on Tuesday: “The intention of the programme was to give viewers information about the latest research into the science of calories, about why our bodies need them and how our bodies use them.

“In particular, it looked at recent studies by academics in both the US and the UK, which suggest that diners may make healthier choices when presented with information about how much activity is required to burn off the calorie content of dishes.

“The voiceover is clear throughout that there are government guidelines for the recommended number of calories needed for the average man or woman to remain healthy.”

READ MORE:

They added: “The programme never endorses or suggests restricting calories below these levels.”

The BBC had no additional comment when contacted by HuffPost UK following the new statistics from Beat.

Beat previously condemned The Restaurant That Burns Calories on their Twitter page, only to be rebuked by its presenter Fred Sirieix, who accused them of “jumping on a bandwagon”.

After saying they were “appalled” by the format, they wrote: “We’ve are keeping our Direct message service and online peer support group open until 11pm tonight (usually closes at 8pm) to support anyone triggered by this content. We are encouraging people not to watch it if they think it will trigger them.” 

Fred then responded: “You seem very quick to judge and jump on an inexistant band wagon. Remember you represent a charity when you tweet.”

HuffPost UK contacted Fred’s management for additional comment on Tuesday, and is awaiting a response.

Useful websites and helplines: