For four seasons, viewers watched Ruby Gettinger shed more than 350 pounds from her peak weight of 716 pounds. Her incredible weight-loss journey was documented by the Style Network on the reality show "Ruby" -- but what happened after the show was canceled?
In this video clip from "Oprah: Where Are They Now," Gettinger says the storyline took a turn in the final season. What once was a show documenting one woman’s battle against obesity became more about reporting numbers on a scale, she says.
Feeling the pressure, Gettinger reveals she started to secretly binge eat at fast food restaurants near her home in Savannah, Ga. She says she would fake cell-phone conversations to trick people into thinking she was placing the order for someone else.
"I would binge eat and eat and then go on a three-day fast," Gettinger says in the video. "I was totally messing up my body and didn't even realize it."
When the Style Network canceled "Ruby," Gettinger says she was in shock. "In Hollywood they say don't take it personal," she says. "Well, [my show] wasn't a sitcom. Mine was about my life, and there's no way that I could not have taken that personal."
Two months after the show ended, Gettinger's brother John died, and she says she spiraled into depression. Though she felt herself gaining weight, Gettinger says she just didn't care -- until one day, she had an awakening. "I'm having a conversation with myself, saying, 'Ruby, you are gonna get out of this bed and you are gonna fight. This is not who you are. You are not going back to that 700-pound girl. You are not going back.'"
Now, Gettinger works out every day on her treadmill and exercise bike. At her current 315 pounds, she is now lighter than she was at 16 years old.
"The greatest moment in my life is that I am working out without a camera, without somebody telling me how to do it," Gettinger says. "Today I feel better than I've ever felt. I am smaller than I've ever been."
"Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on OWN.
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