10 Reasons The Biggest Loser Bugs Weetabix
I’ve never watched The Biggest Loser, but I really enjoyed our own Weetabix’s post at Elastic Waist all about why she hates it. It’s a top ten list, and you know how we all love lists.
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.
Wow, this has never actually occurred to me, yet somehow has always subconsciously bothered me. It’s one of the reasons I’ve never been able to bring myself to tune in. The whole thing just seems so punishing and negative and unrealistic and I’m afraid I’ll somehow get suckered into hating myself at the end of it.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Biggest Loser, Exercise, TV, Weight Loss
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You’re not missing anything Mo. I don’t mind that the people on the show exercise and eat healthy, but it’s just silly all around. To imply that anyone could have the results of the contestants is terrible! They are on a ranch doing nothing but working out and eating chicken and brocolli! I’d love to see what happens when they come back home! And yeah, I don’t understand the whole sports bra thing. I guess everyone looks worse in a sportsbra instead of cute clothes. And the producers don’t want these girls looking cute…until their magical REVEAL! :)
I can’t watch the show. First of all, I hate it when people lose. Maybe it’s the American in me, but why can’t we all be winners?
I’d like to watch a show where we take skinny people and shove pasta down their throats. Let’s carbo-load them & shit and see how much weight they gain.
“I’d love to see what happens when they come back home!”
You know what happened. Ryan, the winner from the first season, gained all his weight back.
It’s the environment, people.
Even Hillary Swank and Keanu “Neo” Reeves had to work out something like 6 hours a day.
What I REALLY hate — OK, I will try desperately not to get on a roll here — is when putrid trolls who watch say “it just takes some people a little more effort than others, is all.” THIS is the kind of thing they mean.
These are people who haven’t really thought it through, but would rather see fat(ter) people locked away 8 hours a day abusing themselves to the point of stress fractures and torn cartilage than to have to subject their delicate eyeballs to them on the streets. Oh noes!!1!
Maybe they should be the ones locked away in cage, so they know what it’s like to be targeted and hated on.
Maybe someone should log their IP addresses and the moment they start to foam at the mouth about how they “can’t stand to see fatties” the FBI or the NSA or someone should swoop in and lock them all in a cage together, so they can vent their hate by fighting amongst themselves.
I’m well aware I’m on the verge of turning into a caricature about what I despise but I. Just. Can’t. Stand. Much. More. The hate is animalistic and brutal and I just thought we’d all be living in a more civilized world by now. Isn’t this, like, the 21st century or something?
(Clearly I need to go grapple with the 100-lb resistance springs on the Pilates machines. I am all worked up.)
Um…it’s just a tv show that, lest we forget, these people volunteered to be on. It’s not as if the producers went around to Wal-Marts and herded them on a trailer and forced them to do this because no one wants to “subject their delicate eyeballs to them on the streets”. They don’t want to be sued, I’m pretty sure they give these people stress tests and make them sign waivers, and clarify for them what they are getting themselves into.
For the record I dvr this show and drink beer while I watch it. (I don’t like gummi bears, sorry weetabix.)
Not gummi bears, Muscat Gummy! Totally different thing, although you probably wouldn’t know it unless you’ve ever tasted one. You can usually only find them in Japanese markets, but I find mine at World Market. I recommend that everyone try them because they smell like flowers, taste like wine and make your mouth happy. For the record, I don’t like gummi bears either.
I don’t mind that the people on the show exercise and eat healthy, but it’s just silly all around.
Given the extremely rapid rate of weight loss on these shows, I doubt very much that the contestants are engaging in healthy eating and excercise behaviours. “Healthy eating” and “Eating to induce the maximum possible weight loss” are not at all, at all the same things.
Um…it’s just a tv show that, lest we forget, people volunteered to be on.
Right. And the fact that they volunteered to be on has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we live in an incredibly fatphobic culture, right? The fact is, shows like this contribute to the fatphobic culture in our society. Which means they affect all fat people, not just those who agreed to be on the show.
I’ve only sent bits and pieces of the show, but anyone who loses weight that quickly can’t possibly develop healthy eating patterns.
I agree, give ’em a shirt or something. those extra ounces of fabric won’t make that much of a deal.
I’d like to watch a show where we take skinny people and shove pasta down their throats. Let’s carbo-load them & shit and see how much weight they gain.
Heh. And see how long they keep it on.
Actually the weigh in uniform has multiple purposes.
At the start of the ‘game’ the men are in shirts and the women are in the tiny tank tops. The men remove their shirts for the weigh in. PURPOSE: Humiliation and shame as motivation tools.
Later in the ‘game’ after all contestants have lost vast amounts of weight, they are all presented withy ‘special t-shirts’ which both men and women wear for the weigh ins. By being good shrinking fatties they have earned the right to be clothed.
PURPOSE: Reward extreme weight loss.
But the consequence of losing a large amount of weight is excess sagging skin which will probably need to be removed by surgery. Since this doesn’t fit the weightloss dream (perfect body, perfect life) the new reward t-shirts also cover up literally and figurately what the producers don’t want us to see. PURPOSE: Concealment of the less-than-perfect bodies following extreme weightloss
Let’s carbo-load them & shit and see how much weight they gain.
Except that no one would propose such a show, and no one would agree to participate, and if somehow they did, the show would be denounced and the network forced to shut it down. Because that would be UNHEALTHY!. And IRRESPONSIBLE! And it might HARM those people.
I’ve watched it a few times. Once when Mia was on and this current year. I find the humiliation aspect disturbing so it never really stuck with me.
I don’t like this show for a lot of the same reasons that Weetabix mentioned. Also, I don’t find it that entertaining to watch people lose weight?
I can’t stand the show. I don’t think weightloss should be something where you are pitted against other people. And then vote them off the island or whatever it is that they do – because people need to feel worse than they do while working out 8 hours a day and eating straw. Ugh.
And as a trainer I cannot tell you how irritating it is when people then come to me and demand to know why THEY can’t lose 32 lbs in one week. I’m NOT kidding. Not everyone sees it as “just a TV show”. *sigh*
Wow Becky. Um…ok. Pardon me. Wasn’t aware EVERYTHING had to be about fatphobia. I was just addressing the comments about how they are treated on the show because I felt it made them sound like unwilling victims in some evil government plot to kidnap overweight people and force them to get thin. I was just pointing at that this is not really the case.
Weetabix: I’ll have to find some of those. I think there is a world market somewhere around here!
I love reading this blog, but I really hate it when people take one section of a comment you make and then attack it. I said that the show is ridiculous, unrealistic and that the sport bra rule is lame. Isn’t that what this post was about? I’m a HAES activist so I’m certainly not trying to ruffle any feathers on this site. I enjoy coming here.
I don’t like this show and avoid it like the plague. I don’t know why all the women stand around ahead of time in just bras, but I do know why the men remove their shirts before weighing. I know this because I used to do the ritual before my WW weigh-ins (when I was going) of removing every extraneous piece of clothing and jewelry before stepping on the scale. This is typical weigh-in behavior.
As to what happens to them when they get home…the same as most people who diet. 95% regain their lost weight in 5 years.
All fat/fatphobic talk aside, let’s just think of that scale. That aggitating beeping scale. Oh god how I hate it. I have never watched the show, but one day I was in my room and I hear this awful beeping. I thought it was the microwave from someone heating food so I ignored it. A few minutes later more beeping. I searched the kitchen and no appliances were on. Over the next few hours beeping beeping beeping. Finally I went to the living room and found someone left the tv on and it was a Biggest Loser marathon. Oh man I’ve never been more tempted to throw the tv out in my life. It makes me love my crappy old silent scale with all of my being.
Cassy I hate the scale too. I hate the really annoying montages more – *cue crying “I miss my baby so much it hurts me yadda yadda *cue sad sad music, insert montage of special moments of baby and parents in slow motion…etc etc.
I refuse to watch that show. I know people who like it, but I just can’t stand to see people humiliated because of what they look like on national TV.
I prefer the Muscat hard candies with the slightly fizzy center, but I can’t find them anywhere (probably because you gummi lovers have taken over the candy world).
I get home kind of late, so I usually watch this while eating dinner (and maybe drinking wine). I usually last about 2 minutes before the yelling, crying, and nonstop commercials and endless recapping (by the time the show finishes reviewing what happened before the commercial break, it’s time for the next commercial break) get to me and I switch away. I am morbidly fascinated by the before and after shots and the weigh-ins, I admit. I am not sure why, and it makes me feel vaguely ashamed.
P.S. fatfighter, try Amazon if you don’t have a World Market nearby: http://www.amazon.com/Kasugai-Gummy-Candies-Muscat-Green/dp/B0009R5J1E
Thanks! It doesn’t say if the lecithin is soy based though :/ I’d like to assume it is, but that might be considered candy-profiling.
Sorry Emily, I wasn’t meaning to attack your comment, more nitpicking.
“It’s not as if the producers went around to Wal-Marts and herded them on a trailer”
LOL fatfighter!
I wish they didn’t use the shirt coverups later in the show as they start to lose the serious weight. I want to see what they are hiding so I know what I might look like should I ever lose that amount of weight.
No problem Becky! I was cranky on Monday (which I’m sure didn’t help!) :)
“It’s just a TV show.”
I know a lot of people disagree with me, but I think popular culture is very powerful.
I don’t think it’s just a TV show. I think it’s a meta-message. I think it’s reminding us that real success — monetary, social approval, etc. — only belongs to people who follow the rules. Even if following the rules subordinates everything that *really* matters (family, job, etc.) If you don’t follow the rules, it’s open season on you. You deserve any and all misfortune that befalls you.
Fatfighter IS right. The contestants volunteer. I have seen only one or two episodes, and I’ve wondered why they volunteer for the show. It seems as if contestants are guaranteed to regain so much of the weight, because most folks simply can’t replicate the excessive exercise once they go home.
It seems like all you get is the viewship’s approval — your fat is wrong — and the promise of disappointment in some measure.
Cindy, very interesting take.
I used to watch the show regularly, and I managed to catch most of the episode last week.
I sort of struck me that they’ve really moved away from the whole “healthy lifestyle bootcamp” approach and more towards the “lose the most weight you can so you can win the cash” approach. Basically, the show is about weight loss. Regardless of whether the weight loss is due to fat, water, muscle tissue, snot, a haircut or fingernail trimmings. The trainers weren’t shy about actually TELLING the contestants not to eat anything that would make them retain water before weigh-ins. In the real world, water retention has nothing to do with how well your diet is going or how healthy you are.
I’d be shocked to learn that there’s anybody still out there who is still under the impression that this show is applicable the their life and weight loss plan, unless that person was a boxer, jockey, or anorexic.
I tried to use the link to read the list, but apparently the website is for Self Magazine now.