The Forty-Seventh Biggest Loser
Several readers passed along this article, the moral of which is simple: don’t compare yourself to the contestants on The Biggest Loser.
Kai Hibbard, 29, from Eagle River, Alaska, lost 118 pounds last season. She recently wrote on a blog that in the two weeks before the finale she severely dehydrated herself using asparagus (a diuretic), colonics and six-hour stretches of hopping in and out of a sauna. She lost 19 pounds, which as she joked, rebounded to her rear end “almost immediately.”
Rob Cooper, 39, from Edmonton, Alberta, who dropped to 187 pounds from 475 pounds on his own, said that the show can be counterproductive. According to his logic, if you’re losing two pounds a week and you’re watching “The Biggest Loser,” you probably think your diet is going horribly. If you lose two pounds a week and you’re not watching the show, you probably think your diet is going great.
Mr. Cooper, who is now a motivational coach, lost his weight over three years, first by introducing whole foods to his diet, then adding exercise. In his view, drastic weight loss depends on a deep motivation to take care of oneself, plus a sense of accomplishment as the pounds slip off.
The television show “can actually depress a lot of people,” Mr. Cooper said, especially when their steady weight loss cannot compare to the double-digit zingers on the screen. “That’s the opposite of what you want,” he said.
So if, for whatever reason, you’re out there trying to lose weight, don’t compare yourself to contestants on a reality show with more time, more resources, and cameras pointed at them at all times. Be healthy, be happy, and give yourself a break once in a while, okay?
Posted by mo pie
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I hate Biggest Loser for this reason. They lose weight extremely quickly. They have to really WORK to lose weight, and it’s really not that hard. I’m surprised no one has had major health issues because of it. When you try to lose weight, all the experts agree: around two pounds a week is normal and healthy (after you get going, as it’s quicker at first). Yet on BL, they encourage them to lose as much as possible, and still claim to be healthy. They eat very little and work out very much–it’s just dangerous! And it causes them to lose weight disproportionately and look weird.
I was just telling my boyfriend the other day, while I sat with him long enough to see the results on the episode he was watching, how incredibly unhealthy it was. Not just for the contestants, but for the people at home for whom this may be the only health/weight loss guidance they have.
And how can someone with average resources, a job, a family and a house to take care of possibly compare themselves to people who live in a house with a gym, trainers, food provided for them, and all day with nothing to do by work out? If I ONLY had to worry about exercising, I bet I could accomplish a lot more than when I’m trying to squeeze it in around all the rest of my life.
I wonder where all these Big Losers will be in 5 years, when they’ve gone back to everyday life?
How about:
‘just don’t compare yourself to reality show contestants’
period.
I have a membership with the fitness company that financially sponsors the show. I have worked with a couple of wonderful personal trainers there and even they are horrified that the company supports the show.
Through a friend of a friend situation, I was asked to consider becoming a contestant on BL. I discussed it at length with my trainer. I was at a brief low point during my training cycle and thought a “jump start” like BL would be helpful. Thankfully, my trainer talked me through the low and dissuaded me from participating. He reminded me that I was exercising for my health, not to lose weight and that what they do on that show is anything but healthy -physically or mentally.
I have only watched one episode of this show (1-2 weeks ago). I was so disgusted that I will never watch it again.
Sure, I could lose a shitload of weight if I put myself through the ridiculous amount of training that they do on the show. And then I’d end up in the hospital!
one word.. BRAVO for that post!!!
As an aside, I love your tagline
“We’re bringing chubby back”
because in my head it is followed with
“Them other people don’t know how to act.”
The television show “can actually depress a lot of people.”
I honestly sometimes wonder if that’s what they are trying to do. I guess it boils down to shaming. Because if these people are losing 10lbs in a week and you can’t lose 2lbs in your real life, well gee, how shameful!! I think it’s a way to increase shame and stigma. It makes it look totally “possible,” but it isn’t a reflection of real life in any way, period. And you see these people for a short, short period in their long, long lives.
When will they figure out that stigma and shame are counter-productive, especially in the long-term? Not only is it shown to decrease activity, I’m sure it’s associated with a diminished quality of life in general. I dream of a “biggest loser exposed” national news piece.
The other thing I notice about the Biggers Losers (at least here in the Australian series) is how much the self-hatred is played up and used as a “motivational tool” to keep the contestants “on track” with their grueling and punitive exercise routines and dieting.
For example, early in the season when the Losers are at their heaviest weights, they are paraded into the weigh-ins with the women in skimpy bikini exercise tops and the men shirtless (there’s that shame thing again). But towards the end of the show when they have lost loads of weight they have “earned the right” to cover up their bodieswith t-shirts. Perhaps that’s to avoid having to show the actual results of massive weightloss, ie. excess baggy skin as opposed to the “sleek hot body” that is supposed to be the reward at the end of all the effort and starvation.
Ah, but if people saw that excess baggy skin, they might have second thoughts about trying to lose weight. Because it doesn’t matter how thin you are, if you aren’t toned and taut and tan, you still suck because you haven’t met the “ideal”. I’ve found out that it doesn’t matter what you do, how thin you get, whatever, no one is ever going to meet that ideal, there will ALWAYS be something wrong somewhere, something else to strive for. How else are all these companies going to make money? They’re selling the unattainable in perpetuity. I’m not buying it anymore.
I am so glad someone is talking about this show. BL teaches these people how to lose and gain weight like prize fighters. Whether or not their weight loss is for the long term still remains to be seen.
Also, this show fits into the whole stereotype of fat slobs eating and eating and eating. Using calorie challenges for immunity is sickening. The very fact that they imply that these contestants are fat because they eat too many peanut butter cups is distressing and only skims the surface of the many factors of why people gain, maintain and struggle to lose weight.
Overall, it’s a show set up to promote diet and exercise products. It misrepresents and promotes misunderstanding of why some people are fat and HOW MUCH EFFORT people put into making themselves healthy and not necessarily thin.
Vesta,
I love you.
That is all.
I will teach anyone willing to learn how to keep your health as you age. This is also for those that have not reached the 40 mark.
hello, I didn’t know where to contact you but your web design layout looked off on opera and internet explorer. Anyways, did you see this weeks episode?