Dr. Siegal Offers Up to $50K to Donna Simpson for Weight Loss

Posted on Apr 2nd 2010 12:00PM by Kristen Seymour

Remember Donna Simpson, the woman who is trying to weigh 1,000 pounds? Well, there's an interesting development in the story. Dr. Sanford Siegal (yes, the one behind Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet) has offered to pay Simpson up to $50,000 out of his own pocket to start losing weight. We heard from Siegal on Wednesday, and Simpson has not yet responded.

The rules are simple. Should she accept, she would receive $10,000 to immediately stop trying to gain weight and agree not to resume doing so in the future. She would then have to begin a weight-loss diet of her choice under a doctor's supervision. The rest of the money will be paid in stages: $10,000 for every 100 pounds lost until she reaches 200 pounds, at which point she will have received a total of $50,000.

And that's not all. Siegal's son (and the CEO of CookieDiet.com), Matthew, contacted Simpson on Tuesday to request a face-to-face meeting. The younger Siegal plans to match his father's offer, bringing the grand total to $100,000. And, as Dr. Siegal told That's Fit, "If $100,000 and the prospect of a longer, healthier life aren't enough motivation then there may be no hope for her."

We were curious as to why Siegal chose to become involved in this case. He doesn't intend to act as her physician "That would be difficult since I practice in Florida and she lives in New Jersey," he said.

The rules also don't state that she follow Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet. "Whether or not she chooses Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet is up to her as long as she's under a doctor's care while she is losing weight," he said.

"I didn't make my offer to Ms. Simpson in order to 'reward' her," Siegal explained. "I made it in order to try to reverse the dangerous message that her actions have sent via the media. If my intervention helps save her life then that's great, but my main focus is the public at large."

So how will Siegal handle the inevitable pleas from morbidly obese people who desperately want to lose weight and think an extra $50K in their pocket will give them just the motivation they need? "By declining them," he said, adding, "Obviously, I can't pay every overweight person to lose weight. I made the offer to Donna Simpson because she has managed to generate a lot of publicity that I think sends a bad message about obesity, especially to impressionable teenagers. I made it clear in my letter that one of my chief motives in making the offer was to counter the bad message her story had delivered to the world with a positive one."

We certainly hope Siegal (or anyone, really) is able to change Simpson's mind. Whoever is successful in getting her to stop this crazy venture is going to receive some tremendous publicity. Now that's motivation!

Dr. Siegal was in the news for another issue recently, too. See which celebrity he was in a legal battle with at the end of last year.

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Tags: 1000 pound woman, cookie diet, donna simpson, dr siegal, dr siegals cookie diet, weight-loss

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Joyce 4-02-2010 @ 4:50PM

I have lost a total of 115 lbs at the age of 60. I am a member of TOPS, i did low and moderate carb diets and exercised. I think weekly support and accountabality are very important. And an actvity you enjoy doing. Maitance has been hard before this time till i had a cancr scare it has been easier. Ate too much comfort foods and put back on 5 now am taking them off again.

gentlespirit 4-04-2010 @ 6:44AM

I think the state court should take charge over this woman. This is clearly suicidal and she needs immediate help. If this is a scam then she should be charged but for society to sit back and allow this is a failure on our part to help those who can't help themselves. This is not a fat versus thin conflict, this is a woman so far out there in pounds that wanting to gain weight in light of known disease super obese cause themselves needs to be helped.

j 4-04-2010 @ 7:35AM

This is wrong on so many levels. If this woman is 'allowed' to gain this weight on purpose -- and has stated so -- no assistance whatsoever should be granted. She will be bed ridden and require care costing taxpayers money to care for her. If she is currently working, she will be unable to continue -- and if she isn't -- WHY is this blatent abuse being tolerated. There are many starving in this world -- she should be ashamed of this 'goal'. To reward this behavior is just not right. Helping her mentally and physically is. The money should be donated to starving children.

r 4-04-2010 @ 10:11AM

if your a danger to yourself or others you can be commited against your will, its law. who in there right mind wants to be like that? she wont survive long,

Lynn 4-04-2010 @ 2:39PM

She really should be committed to a psychiatric hospital.There is something terribly worng with her. She needs help.

leon 4-04-2010 @ 2:47PM

Let her die.

Frankling 4-04-2010 @ 3:17PM

Doesn't anyone get it? This is just another "reality" based promotion, from the time this woman announced her goal of weight gain. Apparently, this doctor's diet isn't as popular as the other diet scams available these days so they've arranged a reality-style circus to get some attention. You know what? It will probably work because a large enough portion of the global population has no BS detector at all, and still believe everything they see in the media, particularly if they find it on the internet, which is never wrong, right?

FRAN 4-04-2010 @ 6:48AM

Sorry Pat, I can't see putting a chemical in your body and you ONLY lost 30 pounds in 4 months? I lost 60 pounds in 5 months. Came out of school in May (I'd lost about 20 pounds and no one had noticed. When I went back to school the first week of September, my friends went screaming down the hall...have you seen FRAN? Only half of her came back to school! My Mom never had a weight problem. It was a tablespoon of everything at the table. And never seconds. She would say, tomorrow is another day, you know!

Judy 4-04-2010 @ 8:31AM

Pity the poor hospital aides and nurses who will be expected to wash and change this huge woman's sheets when she is admitted for all the medical ailments her weight will cause her.

Dani 4-04-2010 @ 2:35PM

My sister is already in the bedridden stage. (close to 5oo pounds) Her leg just snapped when she was walking. Six surgeries and 15 months later she is still stuck in bed. When you are this heavy rehab is close to impossible. She is only 52. The nightmare for my family has been with us for years. We have left no idea unexplored to help her and we have never met with success. The gate to change only opens from the inside and that is tough to accept when you love someone. The expense attached to this mess is difficult in every direction, financially, emotionally, you name it. This is about serious Mental Illness not food. You could easily substitute drugs or alcohol as the form of self destruction. Dealing with this is the most painful experience of my life. This woman may have loved ones trying to assist her too, but the ultimate decision in any of our lives is up to the individual. Good luck to everyone who is still in the game of trying to protect their health.

KB in NYC 4-04-2010 @ 8:23AM

It is repulsive that anyone should offer this woman money to lose weight. She is clearly either seriously delusional or just another moron seeking fame through possibily the dumbest means possible. If she wants to eat herself to death, let her. It may actually prove useful to people who aren't trying to gain weight, but aren't doing anything about trying to lose their unhealthy extra weight either - when they see how horrid her death will be, maybe they'll get a wake-up call.

But giving her money??? It's rewarding her for being stupid in the first place - it's like giving a scholarship to the kid who deliberately got D's in his classes, to encourage him not to do that. No one should be rewarded for deliberately doing the most assinine thing they can think of... it's bad enough when Reality TV does it...

rainmom1117 4-04-2010 @ 8:33AM

She is absolutely disgusting!

Janice 4-04-2010 @ 10:14AM

my thoughts exactly!!!

Brink 4-04-2010 @ 8:32AM

Gee whiz, I remember when I lost 125 pounds and still maintain weight for four years. The only motivation was needed were the basic crippling facts of diabetic complications. Often I feel like throwing in the towel, but like drug addiction I will NEVER be a two time obese/user. I have a feeling her weight is motivating her to try and get some cash. But if that is what it takes to get healthy so be it.

I need 50,000! 4-04-2010 @ 8:37AM

Hello Dr. Seigal! I weigh 300 and have tried in vain to lose even a pound so far this year. Why? Crippling depression and the fact that there is NO support from anyone in my life. Money is a great motivator, epecially to those of us who don't even make $50,00.00 in a year, much less $100,000.00! Call me or I'll go on tv and threaten to become 1,000 pounds... not! Being 300 is painful enough.

cindi 4-04-2010 @ 9:34AM

i have been trying to 25lbs. since i got out of the hosptial in sept.09, i have copd, from smoking and have since quit, i am on oxgen 16hrs. a day, had my dr put me on a diet and lost only 1 lb in 8 week's, i just started a plan on my own, seeing i had blood work and a heart ck.,i got this acai cleanse and detox from the vitain shoppe,a ab lounge sport chair and spent $110. on scetcher's sneaker's and i have been walkin my butt off and still can't loose any thing, what the hell's wrong!!!

cindi 4-04-2010 @ 9:52AM

refer: to richie c, i see that you are a very angry mean person.

kat 4-04-2010 @ 10:05AM

Joe, you hit that nail on the head! jeeze only in America would such crazy mess even make the news, can you imagine the FUNCK that is all around this Beast? I love people and try not to judge,but this is so kid like and insane! We the tax payers are paying this hogs food bill,and her DR. (if she can go).That stupid husband of hers needs to be put in a crazy hospital,they are going to kill the children by way of example or eating them! She should be taken away,put in a fatfarm and fed about 900 cal. per day,and not be allowed to lay still,always useing weights,peddeling,ets..untill a couple hundred dropp off,then the real stuff,getting her a-s up walking swimming,this should all backfire in her face or lose her kids(idiot)

goatroper 4-04-2010 @ 10:13AM

Re: Cindi Possibly Richie J was a bit harsh. I feel that the overweight (obese) that become so because of their own doing, should be required to will their obese bodies to their local rendering companies.That will in turn add help to our fuel consumption. That of course would have to be weighed against the cost of rendering.