Disturbing Biggest Loser article
kwirky112
Posts: 46 Member
Replies
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That is awful!0
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I can't say I am surprised. It's good that it's being talked about, though.0
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I would like to think that some of it is exaggerated however I also read a similar article from the Australian Biggest Loser.0
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Plus, people use the show as justification for their nasty attitudes. "There's no excuse for anyone to be fat, those people on the show lose all that weight in just a few weeks! It's just lazy to go slow!" It also leads to the crazy expectations of people on here, the ones who can't understand why they're not losing 20 pounds a week....0
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I think one of the worst things is that the German version is sponsored by my gym. They broadcast episodes in front of the treadmills every now and then with their logo appearing here and there. I tried watching it once while on the treadmill, to see what it was about. I had to quit after 10 minutes... I completely and utterly despise that show.0
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Reading the article makes me want to cry. Weight loss is never supposed to be that way.0
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Ugh but thats what America thinks... I need to eat 400 calories and workout so hard every day then I can do it too ... Just ugh0
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Absolutely horrible and the opposite of what we should be doing. Small sustainable changes that fit in with your lifestyle and lead to gradual weight loss.0
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Sounds like another place full of volunteers....Boot Camp. Not really feeling the outrage, to be honest.
And some of the negative quotes in the article are utter nonsense. At the level of fitness these people are coming in at, 5 hours of "workout" isn't even on the same planet as running a marathon.-3 -
Literally starving themselves thin. Not sustainable atall0
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As a trainer, I really hate how portrayal of how to lose weight this way is acceptable. While impressive, what the show doesn't show are the 90% of contestants who gained back a SIGNIFICANT amount of weight (season 3 winner Erik Chopin was the exception and where is he now again?). The only contestants they show are those that kept it off (which is about 10% of them). Even Ali Vincent regained up to a weight of 170lbs (she's 5'5") after winning it at 122lbs.
The reality is that that type of training regimen is never used even in weight loss clinics. Training people to complete exhaustion doesn't get them to keep doing it consistently. And while it's a competition, the network puts it out like this is THE WAY, that people should approach weight loss in real life.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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You know this is very sad, but they have the choice to leave.0
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I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.0
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I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.
That's what I was thinking. I mean, no, I don't approve of the methods, personally. However, it's a reality show and anyone who's even seen the show once will know it's all about the drama, ridiculously fat weight loss, grueling workouts and so on.
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Also, this: cracked.com/article_21137_5-details-they-cut-from-my-season-the-biggest-loser.html
Shows like this go beyond 'irresponsible' and cross the line to downright dangerous. I'm not a big fan of the over-litigious culture of the US, but it frankly surprises me that no parent of a teenager with an eating disorder has brought a lawsuit against the show yet.0 -
I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.
That's what I was thinking. I mean, no, I don't approve of the methods, personally. However, it's a reality show and anyone who's even seen the show once will know it's all about the drama, ridiculously fat weight loss, grueling workouts and so on.
It's sad the contestants allow the BL staff to treat them so badly.0 -
True, but leaving means quitting and on national TV, you'll be reminded of that the rest of your life. Even though people will never experience how difficult it is to train that extreme with that much weight, their opinion will be that a person that leaves, wimps out.Liftng4Lis wrote: »You know this is very sad, but they have the choice to leave.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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People want to be on TV. Jerry Springer is on its 24th(!!!) season.0
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I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.
The problem is that not only is the show abusing the contestants in the name of "good TV" or profit, but that the show influences millions of other people -- adults, teens, children, you name it. Not only does it promote fat-shaming and mistreatment of overweight people, but it promotes unhealthy ideas about how to lose weight.
Heck, anyone who hangs around MFP long enough sees twenty people a day (often teens) coming to the forum expecting to lose weight as fast as the contestants do on the Biggest Loser, and willing to resort to extreme and unhealthy means to do it.
Biggest Loser didn't create any of these problems. But it's had a tremendous influence in perpetuating them.0 -
I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.
That's what I was thinking. I mean, no, I don't approve of the methods, personally. However, it's a reality show and anyone who's even seen the show once will know it's all about the drama, ridiculously fat weight loss, grueling workouts and so on.
It's sad the contestants allow the BL staff to treat them so badly.
Well, they have to. They're under contract. But they DO sign that contract...and again...if they've ever seen the show (and I'd for sure be watching a show before I went on it), I think a lot of this must be covered, or there'd be lawsuits galore, I would imagine.
That's not to say ANYONE should ever be allowed to treat anyone badly...but it's a sensationalist show, a "reality" show, and these are notorious for being at least semi-scripted and for monkey wrenches being thrown in for viewability. If there were no gasps and groans and "Oh my GODs" from the audience, there would be no show. I think most reasonable people realize this. And of course, a lot of those gasps of "shock" wouldn't come if anything were to be leaked in advance, hence the policed phone calls and so on.
Once again. Not saying I enjoy seeing anyone being treated badly. I do feel for the people on the show, whether they realized what they were in for or not. Perhaps the draw of being able to finally lose gigantic amounts of weight convinced them that somehow it would all be okay. I do understand that kind of desperation.
I have watched The Biggest Loser exactly once, and personally, that was more than enough for me.
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Most of these contestants either gain all the weight back or have eating disorders. I stopped watching that show a long time ago!!0
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Wow how sad. Wonder what else is going on that she didn't mention. Never really watched much of that show at all..0
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I just read that. I'm not surprised but i am shocked nobody died on that show. it's complete trash and anyone with a professional license involved should lose it be it the doctors or the trainers.0
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I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand it's cruel, but these are adults and they agree to go through with it. Nobody is forcing them.
That's what I was thinking. I mean, no, I don't approve of the methods, personally. However, it's a reality show and anyone who's even seen the show once will know it's all about the drama, ridiculously fat weight loss, grueling workouts and so on.
It's sad the contestants allow the BL staff to treat them so badly.
Well, they have to. They're under contract. But they DO sign that contract...and again...if they've ever seen the show (and I'd for sure be watching a show before I went on it), I think a lot of this must be covered, or there'd be lawsuits galore, I would imagine.
That's not to say ANYONE should ever be allowed to treat anyone badly...but it's a sensationalist show, a "reality" show, and these are notorious for being at least semi-scripted and for monkey wrenches being thrown in for viewability. If there were no gasps and groans and "Oh my GODs" from the audience, there would be no show. I think most reasonable people realize this. And of course, a lot of those gasps of "shock" wouldn't come if anything were to be leaked in advance, hence the policed phone calls and so on.
Once again. Not saying I enjoy seeing anyone being treated badly. I do feel for the people on the show, whether they realized what they were in for or not. Perhaps the draw of being able to finally lose gigantic amounts of weight convinced them that somehow it would all be okay. I do understand that kind of desperation.
I have watched The Biggest Loser exactly once, and personally, that was more than enough for me.
The Biggest Loser is a popular program, and it's clear that extreme methods are used to obtain weight loss. For someone to sign a contract that they will even participate in such extreme methods speaks volumes about a person's desperation. This raises red flags as to self esteem.
The article is not about scripted drama, but about the shaming and weight loss techniques behind the scenes.
Anybody can break a contract, even though there would be ramifications, so, no, a person does not have to stay. It's a choice.0 -
Heck, anyone who hangs around MFP long enough sees twenty people a day (often teens) coming to the forum expecting to lose weight as fast as the contestants do on the Biggest Loser, and willing to resort to extreme and unhealthy means to do it.
I've never seen that on MFP. All kinds of people wanting to lose weight fast, a bunch willing to eat very low cal, but I have yet to see an MFPer committing to VLC and extremely high levels of exercise.
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I remember someone on celebrity boot camp or whatever the vh1 BL spinoff had to be given oxygen during a challenge because they were taking those crappy weightloss pills.0
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I'm so torn on this. It's horrid, but they weren't prisoners who were forced to do these things. They could just walk away.
I wonder if NBC hired shrinks to check these people out. If so, the shrinks would've been able to spot the weak and stupid and say, "This one has self-esteem issues." No matter how cocky or "Yeah! I'm on top of this!" they behaved, it would've been caught.
If NBC used that info to select people and purposely choose the weak and/or stupid ones, that's another story. If that's the case, I blame NBC.
After a run one day, I told my friend that I really thought I was going to puke that time. I pushed too hard, I knew it even while I was doing it, "I should stop," but I really wanted to do it. I said that next time, I'd stop, it's not worth all that. "No!" she exclaims, "That's good! That's how they do it on the Biggest Loser! You're supposed to do that!" Supposed to or not, I'm not doing it again. That's crazy and stupid and I shouldn't have done it at all.
This show is teaching people that you're supposed to push yourself beyond good sense, though. That's what I got from my short, "You're supposed to do that!" conversation.
I never watched the show because it looked stupid. Now I'm glad.
I bet this drives the ratings up, if anything, though.-1 -
Whoa, they won't stop or pay serious attention to this until someone actually dies on camera. This entire "fierce, ruthless competition" thing is disgusting and the way they treat the competitors is just so wrong. I watched a few episodes and it made me want to cry, it's like those people don't know what compassion or empathy is.0
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