Biggest Loser - WTF?!

[wigglewhiz]

Like probably every single individual in the world who 1. Owns a TV and 2. Has a few pounds to shed, I watch The Biggest Loser. (And no, I don't eat ice cream while watching it). Not, like, religiously or anything, but I catch it if it's on. I'm rather ambivalent about the effect of this programme on us chubby folks, and here's why:

It's Voyeuristic

How many people do you think watch in the hopes of seeing some fat people suffer and cry? And how many of us on the portly side of things are watching that suffering thinking: "Shee-it. I'm not putting myself through that!" Counter-productive, no?


It's Hypocritical

Oh come ON. "Hey fat people! Here's this challenge where you need to eat EVERYTHING under these random silver servers in the hope of finding a golden ticket! Munch until you barf!" Sorry, that's teaching them to eat better/value themselves? Also: voyeuristic, see above.


It's BULLSHIT

For me, as an unhappy person who's packed on 30kg in the last couple of years (and who knows EXACTLY what it's like to be sans those kilos and would like to be back there RIGHT NAOW), watching the super-condensed version of a condensed challenge where all these people train 4-6 hours a day with their personal trainers, have nutrition classes and have food provided without those irritating distractions of daily life? You bet your ass I'm jellus of their lickety-split conversions to hawtness.

Is this setting any kind of reasonable expectation? Are we conditioning ourselves to hand yet MORE money into the hands of those nasty little "LOSE WEIGHT INSTANTLY WITH BATSHIT EXTRACT AND FOOFOO BERRIES" ads cropping up all over the place? Because we can't lose weight being sensible and just eating less and exercising. Noooooo, 1-2lbs per week is slow! And boring! And FAIL! We have to be shedding 140lbs in three months to CHANGE YOUR WHOLE LIFE, OMFG.

Come on, people.

And that's aside from accusations of massive fluid loss to cheat the scales... (more on that below!)


It's Unsustainable

I am SO. THRILLED. for those people on The Biggest Loser. Seriously, when I see them at the end of the show and they look like completely different people and the happiness is shining out of their little faces? I am so happy for them. But I'm also damn suspicious of what the hell happens to them when they go home and suddenly don't have their personal trainers? When they need to go back to work at their dead-end job that caused them to stress/emotional eat in the first place? When they have to look after children or parents or partners or... all that other shit that we call Life. Can they POSSIBLY sustain that kind of loss?

So I turned to that ultimate fact-finder, so revered that kids are being taught how to use it like it was an academic subject itself (using iPads at Primary School, but that's a whole other rant for another day) - Google. And I found this: http://www.diet-blog.com/07/the_biggest_loser_where_are_they_now.php Read the comments, both for and agin - they're very interesting.


Personally, I've lost a lot of weight before - half of it through the sensible eating (Weightwatchers) kind of way, and the second half of it due to an unanticipated Heartbreak Diet. The second half was unreasonably speedy weight loss (not eating will do that to you), and yes, I gained it all back... that AND the sensible-eating loss. And yes, the regain was because I stuffed my face with all sorts of crap - I'm not going to give any excuses about water or god knows what else.

Losing weight is hard. Being overweight is hard. I don't believe ANYONE who is overweight is "happy" in themselves, and I don't think we need any more pressure to feel even more unhappy. What, if we're pushed and made more and more and MORE unhappy eventually we'll just HAVE to do something about our unsightly fat selves and therefore the pressure has done us some kind of favour? Suuuuure. That might work. While you're at it, pressure black people into lightening up, white people into tanning, skinny girls into eating a cheeseburger, short girls into wearing platforms, tall girls into cowering.... oh wait, we already do all those things too.

I'm filing shows like The Biggest Loser in with all the other horrifying voyeuristic reality shows: toxic pap that serves to amplify our shortcomings or puff up our sense of superiority. Both intents are ugly, and I'm washing my hands of the whole thing. Fuck you, TV! I'm giving up being force-fed (and also vowing to do something about what I am chosing to feed myself. BUT NOT BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME TO, DAMMIT!)

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