Biggest Loser

February 15, 2012

This is some seriously backwards television right here. I understand that the point of the television show is to take dangerously obese people and transform them into slim and slender versions of themselves in an amount of time that is suitable for a television series. I realise that is a serious issue to contend with. With all this understood, however, it can’t be ignored that the way this show promotes all of the old food myths and all of the wrong training ideas and raises them high on a pedestal of truth, using the contestants as proof is simply ridiculous. In addition to promoting the shitty ideals of conventional training and weightloss, it demonises food and eating and at the same time further ingrains into viewers (who are likely to be people wishing to lose weight also) the hopelessly bad nutritional conventional wisdom that does more to hinder than to help.

A prime example of everything that is wrong with the show is a game that I saw a snippet of when I was cooking tomorrow’s lunch earlier. Basically, in what appeared to be a classic immunity challenge, contestants locked in a battle of wills while they were tempted by all manner of delicious foods. At one point, a very small serving of scallops in some sort of nut butter was brought out. It looked delicious. I would’ve eaten the dish without a moments hesitation. But still, delicious, healthy food is demonised and brought to down to being nothing but it’s caloric value (which was approximately 300 - not even half of the average meal). The way that games like this and others bludgeon a psychological aversion to food into the contestants and the viewers via this viewing of food as nothing more than calories is something that I find to be not only stupid but dangerous, as it’s probably one of the fastest ways to work yourself into a burnout or achieve a generally poor level of nutrition. Especially when you turn down what by all accounts appeared to be a delicious serve of fresh scallops. I don’t need to remind on anyone on the nutritional benefits of seafood.

Similarly, in training, they are subjected to the same chronic cardio/ineffective weight programs/buzz word type training that so many well meaning individuals are grinding on without success in commercial gyms nationwide. The difference between the people struggling for results and the people in the program who appear, through sweat, blood and tears (it’s all entertainment!) shed kilograms at rapid rate, is of course workload. They work out for great lengths of time at a great frequency. Anyone will see weightloss results when they are subjected to the conditions the contestants are subjected to. Admittedly, there are times when they do workouts that are going to be very beneficial workouts - but more often than not, it’s the same run off the mill commercial PT style nonsense.

There are some very clever people in fitness, and I am absolutely not one of them (nor am I really “in” fitness). I realise that the point of this show is to get it’s network ratings and turn a profit, not to employ the most effective methods of weightloss and personal development. Never the less, it makes me mad to see programs like this that instil within people the sort of values and ideas that are only going to put them on a road of continual frustration and eventual failure, rather than one of success.

4:54am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqJ3qxGS8F1S

(Notes: 8)