Show chronicles Savannah woman's quest to slim down

Ruby Gettinger is a sweet, rambunctious Savannah gal with a big support system of friends and family.

Not long ago, she was also tipping the scales at 477 pounds.

The Style Network decided to train cameras on Gettinger this year and chronicle her personal "Biggest Loser"-style journey.

"I want to fix the problem; I want to find a cure," Gettinger said earlier this week over lunch at McCormick & Schmick's at CNN Center where she nibbled at a low-carb meal of sockeye salmon with mixed vegetables and a mixed green salad. "Is it mental, physical or emotional? Or is it all three? I'm learning eating for me is like an addiction, like alcoholism."

Last Sunday's first episode of "Ruby" introduced the world to Gettinger and her efforts to change her life as she begins work with a dietician, a fitness trainer and a psychiatrist. The show drew 565,000 viewers, the biggest debut for an original series in Style Network's nine-year history.

"I was shocked how big I was," Gettinger said after watching herself on TV. "I look in the mirror and see myself as big but not that big. I didn't know when I walk, I wobble. What is that?"

"Ruby" is a departure from the network's more standard fare such as "Clean House" and "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane."

But Sarah Weidman, executive producer of development at Style, said "Ruby" fits the network's theme of "transformation."

"It's a big makeover show," she said. "Instead of doing it in one show, this is a much deeper experience over multiple episodes." (The first season has nine episodes.)

And unlike documentaries Weidman has seen about super-obese folks, "Ruby" features a woman who projects light, not darkness. She's social, she's faithful and she's uplifting, Weidman notes.

"I consider her a motivator," she said. "Many women lose and gain weight in 10-pound increments. She does it in hundreds. She's an extreme situation, but she's very relatable."

A military brat who eventually settled in Savannah, Gettinger said she began gaining weight at age 10. "I never ate meals," she said. "I ate snacks. Pop Tarts for breakfast. Sweet rolls. Milky Ways. Love Milky Ways!"

Gettinger, who won't reveal her age, said that as an adult, her weight fluctuated over the years between 350 and 716 pounds. Whenever she dropped to about 350, she said, she'd "sabotage" and spiral upward again.

In the mid-1990s, she met a fitness trainer and fell in love. They moved to Los Angeles. She lost 150 pounds. But that wasn't enough. She'd feel self-conscious when people would say, "How in the world did you get him? He's got to be your brother!"

In the end, he ultimately couldn't marry her, she said, because of her weight.

About that time, she saw an "Oprah" episode on fat women and decided to do a documentary about herself. "I told my friends to follow me around with a videocamera," she said. The idea never quite congealed.

She moved back to Savannah around 2001. Thorugh the years, she worked as a pharmacy technician and helped burn victims with stocking fittings. But a couple of years ago she had heart issues and had to go on disability.