Biggest Looser - motivating or not?

olDave

Not.

UKMarjie

I watch the show off an on, but have watched a lot this season. Typically, I don't find it motivational, or the opposite, I just think it's interesting. That being said, I had a lot of issues with the last episode (I think this is why I generally watch the beginning of the season and not the end), where they were back home. All of them seemed stressed out of their minds when put in a real life situation like eating out at a restaurant. One of the contestants literally said "this is the hardest moment of my life". Ordering dinner is the hardest moment of your life? Failure. When I saw that, all the contestants acting like they couldn't function while eating out, I was pretty disappointed. If they are not going to teach these people how to exist in the real world, of course they aren't going to be successful long term. If you can't comfortably sit down in a restaurant and order a meal, you're not living in reality, so I guess reality TV here is a misnomer here. That aspect of last weeks show just really bugged me, because I've generally enjoyed the show this season. I get that these people have been on deeply calorie restricted diets since being on the ranch (a term I hate using because it makes the contestants sound like they're farm animals), but that isn't going to last forever, nor should it. If the show isn't going to teach them how to realistically live beyond it's very sheltered environment, then it's basically wasting their time. Which, if you believe what people say about the contestants putting all their weight back on, is fairly accurate.

That is generally what I was feeling too. Especially Jeff out with the boys - he LITERALLY looked like a panicked animal. There were shots of him with his eyes rolling while looking at food he was watching everyone else eat. It was also quite side-showish in the way that it was shot. Foreground: pizza/ background contestant with desperate look on their face.

UKMarjie

http://www.bodylovewellness.com/2010/06/09/kai-hibbard-biggest-loser-finalist-part-1-of-3/
http://www.bodylovewellness.com/2010/06/16/kai-hibbard-biggest-loser-finalist-part-2-of-3/
http://www.bodylovewellness.com/2010/06/23/kai-hibbard-biggest-loser-finalist-part-3-of-3/



Read the above interviews from a former finalist and I promise you won't feel "sh**y" anymore.

Thanks. Had a look before (Someone else posted it) It kind of put the nail in the coffin - drawing back the curtain on some of the statements that made me go Hmmmm - like the kid from Utah talking on and on about sodium and water retention...

UKMarjie

I do like biggest loser, but I do wonder whether they manage to keep it off though once they go back to normal lives?

some of them have, some of them have gained a lot of it back actually...

I wish they would give us more of the nutrition advice that they give the contestants, Yeah they exercise for hours at the ranch, but are highly supervised with doctors and other trainers as well, if you ask me a lot of the weight loss is water, but when you see Joe's twin brother losing that much at home it is inspiring that you don't need to go to the ranch to get healthier... that's just my feeling.. I watch it weekly though, it HAS helped me in getting started in my journey but it's not that big of a motivation to me.. I get enough of that from my MFP friends :happy:

That is the part that makes me sceptical - I don't know what kind of advice they could give the public based on the numbers they loose each week. If the average recommended weightloss that is transparent is based on 2lbs per week then these are not 'healthy' numbers unless closely supervised.

jade2112

I've never seen it. I can't watch people get screamed at like that. I have seen the commercials though.