Biggest Loser thoughts

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  • thekyleo
    thekyleo Posts: 632 Member
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    Read this, then see whatyour opinion of the show is http://www.bodylovewellness.com/2010/06/09/kai-hibbard-biggest-loser-finalist-part-1-of-3/
  • Becoming_A_Butterfly
    Becoming_A_Butterfly Posts: 2,536 Member
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    Also, what is with the disappointment of losing 2 pounds? I know they want to lose it asap, but a loss is a loss. They make people feel like they are failing if they don't have a high loss each week.

    Yes! I was going to bring this up. Losing 2 pounds a week is healthy. Losing more than that is extreme. That's what bothers me. I do like watching the workouts and seeing how hard people push themselves. I wish they would focus more on nutrition since that is the biggest factor in losing weight. I didn't really watch the junk food room part. I did my laundry instead. :-) I also think they should do more with the psychology of it. People are overweight for a reason and you can't change until you figure out why.

    They are disappointed with 2 pound weight losses because they are working out for hours a day. They are not in a typical or normal environment. They are removed from real life to focus on nothing but weight loss. Two pounds a week would upset me if I spent 4+ hours a day exercising and did nothing but focus on losing weight.

    Oh, the psychology! I wish they would cut that stuff. Every few seconds, a contestant is crying about something, and it turns into impromptu therapy. That's when I read or do something else. Maybe I would be more sympathetic if they were not constantly crying about something. I agree weight loss is mental as well as physical, but come on. Sometimes they burn more calories crying than they do working out.
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,022 Member
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    I thought the junk food room was really useless. This is basically how they were already living, and being with temptations isn't really a helpful tactic.

    I think it is. The reality is that if you are living and working with other people who are not following any kind of diet and just eat whatever foods they like, you are going to be surrounded by food that you shouldn't be eating. If you're going to succeed at losing weight and keeping it off, you have to learn how to deal with that. The world is not going to bend to your will and swallow up all unhealthy foods so that you are never tempted to eat them.

    I don't watch the Biggest Loser, but I will say people need to stop taking cues from a television show, with regard to their personal life. You don't have to have a trainer in front of you, yelling at you until you're puking. You don't have to work out 4 hours per day. You don't have to systematically starve yourself. When people say this show is terrible because it promotes all these things, I just want to say "It is a TV SHOW! They aren't trying to convince you to go out and do that stuff, as if it's the only possible way to lose weight!"

    Would it be more beneficial to the public, in health terms, if they documented the contestants' progress over a longer period of time and used only widely sustainable methods, rather than this rapid, extreme weight loss stuff? Sure, it would. But people would lose interest in that kind of show long before they saw meaningful results, the same as people do with their own diet and exercise programs. They do it quickly on the show so they can keep rolling out a new season on a regular basis. Public health is not the goal of network television, nor should it be.
  • shanmackie
    shanmackie Posts: 194 Member
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    The tactics are insane but it seriously does echo some REAL LIFE situations they'll have to deal with. Like company luncheons, etc. Like at work we have snack machines that are only $.05 per snack and there's always free food out. You have to learn to deal with that. And of course they have to make it awesome for TV. But 4.5 hours really isn't that bad compared to my job - I'm there 10 hours a day with all the free food!!
  • derekj222
    derekj222 Posts: 370 Member
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    I try to do my workouts when I watch it. Keeps me motivated. I wanted to throw something at the tv last night though when dude was nearly in tears after a 2lb loss. And none of the trainers stood up and said "2lbs is really a healthy weightloss." Dolvett said "At least you're loosing," but I thought they could have debunked the myth of the 13lb per week weight loss being a rational goal.

    True, but when you workout for 6+ hours a day, have healthy food handed to you, have no outside or bad influences - 2lbs a week is pretty depressing
  • lovemykids58
    lovemykids58 Posts: 195 Member
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    I also just chatted with my roommate about this. She brought up a good point...The challenge was reflective of childhood obesity. and how KIDS sit around with junk food and video games that their PARENTS provide. A 10 year old doesn't grocery shop so he doesn't have say in what he is surrounded by. So he is in the same situation of crap good and comfy couches all the time.
    They should have emphasized that point of it being a KIDS environment.

    Great post
  • ShakeyMD
    ShakeyMD Posts: 59 Member
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    I have a co worker that "tried out" for the show when it came to DC a few years ago. Some previous contestants were there to fill them in on everything and they said that the trainers are only there for 1-2 hours 3 times a week. The rest of the time you are on your own, so you have to be really dedicated. So of course they only show the moments when they are being trained to death.
    Another thing I never thought of - they start out shirtless or sports bras and end in shirts. She said it's because they lose weight so fast they have huge amounts of sagging skin and wear spanks under their clothing so they have to wear shirts as they start losing a lot of weight. After all, America wants to see the fat people looking good, not with flabby skin.
    All of this is second hand information, so I can't testity to the accuracy of it but that's what she claims she was told. Made me look at it a little differently though.
  • MizSaz
    MizSaz Posts: 445 Member
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    I think what people really fail to realize, because it's NOT publicized, is how extreme the Biggest Loser crash diet really is. There is a reason that there are all kinds of fitness professionals, nutritionists, and doctors hanging around the set. If anybody here were to try to embark on this on their own, without this sort of supervision, the results could be absolutely disasterous. Most of the people who have appeared on the show do not experience long term success, and that's really sad.
  • hollyNhollywood
    hollyNhollywood Posts: 426 Member
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    They were specifically told they could not workout while in the room.
    That was the challenge that they lost.. be stuck in the room for that time period, surrounded by food, not working out.
  • nornas42
    nornas42 Posts: 73 Member
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    The only positive thing about that show is that it helps people who want change to change. Otherwise.... it's entertainment at the expense of obese people. The challenges are ludicrous and the workouts insane -- nothing is real world about this.
  • m60kaf
    m60kaf Posts: 421 Member
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    I'm pretty hard faced and think you should call a spade a spade. A bit of straight talking never hurt anyone.

    But, to me this show (the US version) is closer to bullying than helping people find life long fixes to issues.

    It's like the entertainment of a school-room bully
  • masch006
    masch006 Posts: 11 Member
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    I did use part of that 2 hours as motivation to exercise. Stationary bike in front of the tv.
  • AmberLee2012
    AmberLee2012 Posts: 540
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    I know TBL has a lot of downfalls, but I like that they are highlighting childhood obesity. Some of those statistics in the quiz portion of last night's episode shocked me! As parents, if you have struggled with your weight your entire life, wouldn't you want better for your children? As for the kids on the show, how do you let your 11 year old son play video games for 11 hours straight on the weekends?!! What about going for a walk or to the park or something! I don't think video games are the cause of childhood obesity though, it's the parents who are buying the food and not monitoring the child's behavior. Hopefully this opens some parents' eyes who have overweight children.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    The only positive thing about that show is that it helps people who want change to change. Otherwise.... it's entertainment at the expense of obese people. The challenges are ludicrous and the workouts insane -- nothing is real world about this.

    If they wanted to change, why didn't they? Why were they still obese? Laziness?
  • hollyNhollywood
    hollyNhollywood Posts: 426 Member
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    I did use part of that 2 hours as motivation to exercise. Stationary bike in front of the tv.

    Me too! :-) I did some squats, lunges and a one minute plank. I would love a stationary bike (i work from home, so that would be a great place to park it while I work all day). But I'm on the 2nd floor in an apartment. I'm guessing my downstairs neighbor wouldn't appreciate that.
  • bugaha1
    bugaha1 Posts: 602 Member
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    Well last night we had it on and my fiance said "This show is terrible". He said, "They are putting these people with eating disorders in a room filled with junk food for 4 hours to test them. If this show was about alcoholics and they forced them into a room with a fully stocked bar people would be outraged!"

    In the real world this happens to us every day doesn’t it? We could be at home walking by the cupboard that has the food we shouldn’t eat or at work where there are donuts left by a vendor.
  • Thesoundofwolf
    Thesoundofwolf Posts: 378 Member
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    I perfer Super Size vs Super Skinny.
  • cindiva65
    cindiva65 Posts: 335 Member
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    Well last night we had it on and my fiance said "This show is terrible". He said, "They are putting these people with eating disorders in a room filled with junk food for 4 hours to test them. If this show was about alcoholics and they forced them into a room with a fully stocked bar people would be outraged!"

    In the real world this happens to us every day doesn’t it? We could be at home walking by the cupboard that has the food we shouldn’t eat or at work where there are donuts left by a vendor.

    Its happening to me today in fact. Boss brought in homemade chocolate chip cookies which are on the table less than 10 feet away from me!!! Lock down for 8 hrs with chocolate...OH MY...LOL
  • PaulaJPatrick
    PaulaJPatrick Posts: 21 Member
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    Obesity is not the result of laziness and I am surprised to hear that answer in a forum here. There are so many reasons a person is obese that to just say laziness is ignorant and even discriminatory. You don't know another person's journey unless you walk in their shoes you should not just outright like that.
  • PaulaJPatrick
    PaulaJPatrick Posts: 21 Member
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    The only positive thing about that show is that it helps people who want change to change. Otherwise.... it's entertainment at the expense of obese people. The challenges are ludicrous and the workouts insane -- nothing is real world about this.

    If they wanted to change, why didn't they? Why were they still obese? Laziness?


    My response above was to this post.

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