Okay, I've never watched this show, as I've mentioned before, but this season, I'm giving it a fair chance. However, after two episodes, I'm struck by a number of things that have really started to bug the hell out of me.
1. The Voting. Isn't losing massive amounts of poundage enough excitement for the producers? The money shots of fatties sweating it out on treadmills and getting screamed at by Jillian while Bob shakes his head and hates his life, isn't that enough manufactured drama? Why add the voting? Why put these people through that? And the rankings are only based on how you did THIS week, not total percentage of body weight lost, therefore if you've been doing awesome but then hit a plateau one week, you're screwed. Niiiice.
2. The caloric intake montage. The contestants were ushered into a room and watch an interview where they talk about their favorite foods. Then a scary automaton voice tells them how many calories, fat and sugar they consume every year, based on eating their favorite guilty pleasure meals every single day. Come on, folks, an apple a day equals like 8 pounds of sugar in a year. Way to sensationalize those numbers and remind the viewing audience again that the contestants are fat and disgusting. Also, the set up for the contestants, standing in a dark room while surrounded by giant screens and scary voices? Totally A Clockwork Orange.
3. The auf Wiedersehen. Okay, officially the dumbest parting line ever. "I'm sorry, you are not the Biggest Loser." What do you say to that? "Um, thanks"?
4. The weigh-in uniform. Girls wear just a sports bra but the guys get to have some modesty by wearing their Biggest Loser shirts until the moment they step on the scale. I understand the fear of a prolonged span across a crowd of man nipples, but the girls should get to wear a shirt too, damn it.
5. The temptations. So last night, there was a temptation challenge the night before weigh in, where the team that ate the most calories would win $5,000. A woman ate a cup of M&Ms for a total of 210 calories and then, at the next weigh in, gained a pound. Okay, first of all, if you don't expend 3,500 calories, you will gain a pound, so clearly, a few M&Ms wasn't to blame for her weight gain. I'm thinking that girlfriend was about to get her period or something, and yet, they made certain to show lots of guilty expressions and finger pointing for "giving in to temptation." A healthy approach to eating allows you to eat something fun now and then and no one should be crying over 210 calories. No one. Oh yeah, she got voted off, while the guy who "gave in" to 900 calories got to stay. Lesson: guys are forgiven for gluttony, but women must be perfect.
6. The challenges. Okay, we get it. They're fat. But must
everything be ginormous? Giant balloons, giant see-saws made from
industrial steel. Come on, people, they're not elephants.
7. The commericals. Propel, Jenny Craig, Subway, Nabisco (the
people who bring you Oreos and Nutter Butters), my god, make it stop.
Anytime anything interesting is about to happen, they cut to 15
commercials and then we come back and have to rewatch a minute before
finding out how much weight the black team lost. God help anyone who
watches this show without the benefit of TiVo.
8. The unrealistic weight loss. Shock and dismay over only
losing 3 pounds in a week? People are voted off for that? How does that
make the viewer feel when they're losing a healthy one or two pounds a week? Like a damned underachiever, that's what. Why is no one concerned that
the folks on the safe end of the weigh in roster are losing, like a
pound a day?
9. The lack of real information. How many calories are these guys eating a day? What kinds of foods? How many hours are they spending at the gym? What kinds of exercises?
How much water are they drinking? Boy, if the viewer at home were
feeling at all motivated by this show, it would be nice to use a few
minutes to talk about that rather than showing people crying about
missing their kids for ten solid minutes.
10. The lack of smart fitness. You know what I'm most struck by
after watching the Losers sweat and be abused by Jillian and then work
some more? The fact that man, does it look like it sucks! At one point,
a contestant clearly looks like he's in physical distress (um, heart
attacks are not an unlikely outcome when an out-of-shape, unhealthy
person goes from couch potato to marathon workouts in the span of a few
weeks) and the message is that he's just not motivated enough. There is
no on-screen attention to safe, sane workouts. What about the strain on joints?
What about these people with knee injuries? They have those awesome
pools, yet nothing about water resistance training. It's just a weight
loss sweat shop, no pun intended. Also, man, way to impress upon
America that fitness can be torture. Come on, it can be fun too, right?
The see saw looked like fun. Why can't we see these people laughing and
having a good time as they drop the weight? Maybe that would inspire
rather than make us feel like lazy jackasses for not doing enough.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I watched last night's episode while eating a bag of Muscat Gummies. Clearly, I am a slow learner and require Jillian to ride me like a pony around the block until I repent. —Weetabix
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I must confessed that I watched the Biggest Loser last night while on the treadmill at the gym, as were a surprising amount of gym cohorts, but I'm often infuriated by what goes on there. I totally agree that not enough information is given about what the contestants are fed and what their daily workouts consist of. And I ditto your heart attack sentiments. I'm constantly worried about that when I watch the show. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.
On a side note, I am an exercise video junkie, and I own Jillian Michaels' exercise video set. It's awful. She giggles like a twelve year old the whole time and seems like she's just pulling the steps out of her ass as she goes along. Truly unmotivating.
I admit to watching the last half of the show, after my Pilates class. But there was also an article about the show in either Time or Newsweek where contestants talked about the extreme measures they took to lose as much as possible (like taking diuretics, or deliberately dehydrating themselves to avoid water weight). They work out at least 4 hours a day. AND, the winner from the first season has gained back ALL the weight he lost!
That's another thing; all the "winners" on the show have been men, because men tend to drop weight more quickly than women, and they don't have all those pesky hormonal issues!
The first couple of seasons I really liked this show, but now, I see it's just another reality competition show, and there's nothing fit or healthy about it. (Not that there ever was, but it's just a bit more obvious now, I guess.) I'm sure all the contestants have to undergo a physical evaluation to make sure they're not going to just drop dead after hiking a bazillion miles uphill to the complex on the very first day, but I'm really surprised no one has died or suffered a serious injury during this show. Also if my trainer yelled at me or abused me all the time like Jillian does, I'd fire him/her in a heartbeat!
It is my firm belief that a woman will never win that show, unless they do an all-female version...or have the women they pick be as overweight, proportionally speaking, as the men. Seriously. The heaviest chick I saw on there was about 300. The heaviest guys were topping at 400+...and the guys aren't that much taller. Even in percentage terms, the guys have an advantage, and that doesn't even address the biological differences.
I read a lot of stuff on the website, and they tried to say that the people were eating between 1200-1800 calories a day. The water issue was not discussed.
For a while, I found this show very motivating, and I even tried to get cast. Now, I'm sort of glad I didn't.
I have to admit I do occasionally watch this show and the biggest drawback to trying out for it is showing up in that sports bra outfit - eeeek!
If you think this season's hijinks are bad, last season one of the guys drank so much water before the weigh in, he gained 13 pounds! That allowed him to lose a "record amount" of weight the next week, but he didn't get voted off until the very end!
I watched last season, but I've given it up this season. I think working out at the gym for an hour instead of watching the show is a good trade-off.
Yeah, I'd like to see a follow-up show on how all the winners, or almost-winners, are doing now. But I doubt we'll see that because that sort of rapid weight loss rarely (if ever?) works.
I watched this show for about five minutes once and I was horrified by the sloppy, droopy workout gear they wore the whole time and the porn-tastic slow-motion closeups they did when they ate donuts for some kind of contest thing.
But the worst part about this show is that it masquerades as some sort of We’re Trying To Help These People thing when it’s really degrading; making them seem like disgusting freaks with no pride or control for everyone to make fun of them. The one thing I got from the tiny bit I watched was that someone who actually watched this show wasn’t thinking “Good for them!” but thinking “Thank God that’s not me.”
So Bob hates his life, huh? How did you come to that conclusion, exactly?
And how is it that you can complain about not knowing enough about the contestants' eating and workout habits, and then turn around and make the accusation that their workouts aren't sane or healthy?
I just wish you'd be honest about how much of your dislike for the show comes from logical reasoning and how much comes from existing bias on your part.
Regarding the weigh in uniform, it starts out that way (men in shirts which they remove for the weigh in and women in the tiny tank tops). I believe the intent of that is to shame the contestants. But towards the end of the series the girls are suddenly deemed to have earned the right to be clothed and they get t-shirts too. And many of the guys choose to be weighed with shirts on. Could the shirts possibly be to hide the consequences of extreme and rapid weightloss? ie. excess sagging skin that will need to be removed via surgery.
Clinton- losing over 1-2 pounds a week is unrealistic and unhealthy. Maybe after the first week of dieting/exercise it isn't, but constiently. That is alot of weight to lose in a short time and check out this article, it does show what really happens there.
http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2007/07/04/the_biggest_loser_where_are_they_now.php
And it's true that men lose weight faster than women.
Clinton, stating that Bob hated his life was authorial hyperbole and I doubt anyone believes that Bob hates his life. If he does, he can come tell Auntie Weet all about it and she'll make it all better.
My complaints are based on what we are shown and the impression that is given by the editing and producers. Did the white team guy get medical attention when seemingly having distress? I don't know. Are they also using the pool and talking about joint health? I don't know. And THAT'S the problem I have with the show. It takes a prescriptive approach to fitness and weight loss, specifically indicating that they are trying to set an example for a nation, when really the show seems to be more about rubbernecking these trainwrecks and showing as much dimpled cellulite as possible. And that, you're right, I don't like one bit.
I tend to really like this show, and it does motivate me, but I also feel like I'm never doing enough. so I feel you.
Awesome post! I don't know if this tradition is in the US version, but in the Australian one, the contestants gorge themselves on fattening food the night before the weigh-in. Of course this is just a tactic to artificially increase their weight for the next morning's weigh-in, but it is filmed in slo-mo porn style. In the last episode that I watched, viewers were treated to the sight of the contestants vomiting because they had eaten so much.
Didn't watch it after that.
A lot of people are going to cling to the show though, because it offers the hope that they can drop 30 lbs in a week or two. I mean, who wouldn't want that?
I hate the show. I think it's degrading, and horrible - not only for the contestants but for people who are in the same situation. I've been obese, and I didn't need any help feeling bad about myself. Showing these people in this light doesn't help anyone but the tv executives and makes the lives of personal trainers trying to help people adapt healthy long term lifestyles a living hell.
I watched eating a bag of peanut m&ms! I try to remember that it's edited for content and it's meant to be entertaining NOT inspiring. You're right - there is no explanation of what they are eating and how much. For all we know, they could be on a Dr. supervised liquid diet and that combined with the an unrealistic amount of exercise for the average Joe could explain a 13 lb. weight loss in ONE WEEK. It's not realistic for the person watching to think "I am totally motivated. I can do this!".
Just my two cents.
I can across a website that had a link to Ryan from Season 1's myspace page...as long as this is actually him, what he did to get to that final weigh-in is truly disturbing!
http://www.myspace.com/ryancbenson
P.S. Yay for my first comment! I was spurred on by the awesome post you guys put up...I really adore coming here and reading what you guys have to say.
Wow, I disagree with a lot of what you said. One of the great things about this show for me is that here fat people are just people, not the comic relief or the sidekick and that's great. Also this week's episode was really realistic in showing that you can eat right and work out all you want and in some cases still gain a pound. When they showed the yearly total calories that one of the girls ate, it only worked out to about 2600 calories a day - which is about what an average person eats. Sort of helps dispel the myth of the fat person who downs 8000 calories a day, doesn't it?
I do sort of agree that they go for maximum drama and that they film humiliating moments, but it's no worse than a lot of other reality shows and in my opinion, better than most.
You really don't want to start digging online to find out how the winners actually won in past reincarnations of this show. Think of some of the most anorexic and bulemic behaviours you can- then you'll only be scraping the surface. To me, this show is the ultimate in irresponsibility. SHowing massive amounts of weight loss in too short of a time span- and no explanation as to how they have done this and what the long term repercussions will be. Then again- I guess I really wouldn't want all the disgusting and unhealthy activities broadcast for younger viewers to learn from... because sadly, all that matters on this show is losing weight and being the thinnest.
I watched this show religiously up until this most recent completed season. I stopped watching initially because there was a time conflict on my TiVo. However, I don't think I will be going back to watching it with any regularity. My major issue with this show is the unreasonable standard it sets for anyone who wants to lose weight. These people live in a bubble where their diets can be strictly controlled and their only responsibility is losing the weight. They also work out for 4+ hours a day and they walk around with their little calorie counting books. There is an underlying suggestion that if you aren't tracking every single morsel of food you eat and you aren't working out 4+ hours a day then your failure to lose weight is a result of your inability to adequately commit to the weight loss.
I am sorry but if eating 1200 calories a day and working out for hours upon hours is the only way that I can lose weight....then no thanks.
I also think that this show only serves to shift these individuals obsessions with food and their bodies. They are still focused on food and their bodies to an unhealthy extent only now the focus is on losing weight and exercising. Which to me really only seems like the pendulum swinging to the other side of an unhealthy spectrum.
And one more thing.... has anyone else noticed that a great deal of the former contestants end up becoming personal trainers or exercise instructors? I guess that is the only job they can have and still keep up with the outlandish workout schedule required for them to keep the weight off.
I gave up on this show long ago for all the reasons you list.
When I did watch, there were injuries, heart scares, and I believe one asthma attack. Definitely not healthy.
For the first season, they initially posted a food journal online. One woman had jello for lunch. That was all. Most guys ate zero carbs at all. It was alarming.